Any way to disable font hinting in stock reader?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mistle

Thanks a lot for the advice. I’ll be sure to try out the suggested fonts.

Probably just legacy settings they’ve never thought to change It is subtle, so I doubt it has been a real priority to them. Many in this thread have never noticed, for instance. But I would’ve thought an ereader company would want text on their devices to look as good as possible.

I agree, as I said this problem only applies to certain fonts. ChareInk renders well both with/without hinting (even though I’m not partial to the font itself), as do a few other fonts I tried. But many do not, thus the conceit of the thread.

ChareInk6SP is hinted. I decided since it works find on a Kobo and Kindles prefer hinting that I would add hinting.

You can use ttfautohint to add hinting to fonts that need hinting. It's very easy to use. There are binaries for Windows and Apple.

http://freetype.org/ttfautohint

[Aleron Ives]

Have you made a list of fonts that don't work properly?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Have you made a list of fonts that don't work properly?

My guess is they are not hinted and adding hinting as I suggested will most likely be the answer.

[Colonel Cathcart]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My guess is they are not hinted and adding hinting as I suggested will most likely be the answer.

I have a couple of side-loaded Hebrew fonts that don't render correctly, although, probably not for the reason discussed here: Punctuation marks (NIKUD) render in the wrong place. I attached a couple of screenshots, comparing how Noto Serif correctly renders them and how that other font does not. If anyone can make suggestions, what might be wrong with the font and how I may edit it to try and fix it I'd be grateful.
I reported this to Kobo months ago, I think it was escalated, but so far it wasn't fixed.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

I have a couple of side-loaded Hebrew fonts that don't render correctly, although, probably not for the reason discussed here: Punctuation marks (NIKUD) render in the wrong place.

That's got to be something different and very weird. The dot moves from the vav to the beit? Apologies if I've mixed up names. It's a long while since I did the Aleph Bet, or Hebrew, so I don't know which is wrong. Maybe they only tested on ordinary novels which don't bother with the dots?

How is that even possible? That's like typing Méabh and getting Meábh (though confusingly both of those are used). Or Bán and Bań (which doesn't exist, though ban is also Irish).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

I have a couple of side-loaded Hebrew fonts that don't render correctly, although, probably not for the reason discussed here: Punctuation marks (NIKUD) render in the wrong place. I attached a couple of screenshots, comparing how Noto Serif correctly renders them and how that other font does not. If anyone can make suggestions, what might be wrong with the font and how I may edit it to try and fix it I'd be grateful.
I reported this to Kobo months ago, I think it was escalated, but so far it wasn't fixed.

Try adding hinting to the font. Go back up to the post where I linked ttfautohint and download it and add hinting and then see how it looks.

[Colonel Cathcart]

Originally Posted by Quoth

That's got to be something different and very weird. The dot moves from the vav to the beit? Apologies if I've mixed up names. It's a long while since I did the Aleph Bet, or Hebrew, so I don't know which is wrong. Maybe they only tested on ordinary novels which don't bother with the dots?

How is that even possible? That's like typing Méabh and getting Meábh (though confusingly both of those are used). Or Bán and Bań (which doesn't exist, though ban is also Irish).

Not only that, but also notice how the Patach under the Kuf (ק) in the 1st highlighted word is rendered at the wrong place.
I sent Kobo the font and the book.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Try adding hinting to the font. GO back up to the post where I linked ttfautohint and download it and add hinting and then see how it looks.

I should've added this is an otf font.

[AryaTwirl]

Hi, not sure if you have found your answer, OP, but you can edit the stylesheet by adding it when converting on Calibre. But, instead of kobo-font-hintstyle=0, you put 1 instead. Hinting will be disabled, but unfortunately, it will also disable the font weight adjustment. If you're willing to trade the weight adjustment with the hinting disabled, it is worth trying.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AryaTwirl

Hi, not sure if you have found your answer, OP, but you can edit the stylesheet by adding it when converting on Calibre. But, instead of kobo-font-hintstyle=0, you put 1 instead. Hinting will be disabled, but unfortunately, it will also disable the font weight adjustment. If you're willing to trade the weight adjustment with the hinting disabled, it is worth trying.

If the font is too light, giving up weight management is not going to work.

[lensmann]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

I have a couple of side-loaded Hebrew fonts that don't render correctly, although, probably not for the reason discussed here: Punctuation marks (NIKUD) render in the wrong place.

Sorry to revive an old thread, Colonel Cathcart, but did you ever get an answer from Kobo on this? I'm having a similar-ish problem so if there is a solution that would be excellent.

[Colonel Cathcart]

Originally Posted by lensmann

Sorry to revive an old thread, Colonel Cathcart, but did you ever get an answer from Kobo on this? I'm having a similar-ish problem so if there is a solution that would be excellent.

No problem at all. And no, I got no word back other than acknowledging the issue. If I remember correctly I was told it's being escalated, but so far it hasn't been fixed. I just checked with the latest firmware.
It wouldn't hurt if more people with this or similar issue will report it, maybe then it'll get a bit more attention?
The reference number for my report is 3762075. Mind you, I reported some other issues I found while I was at it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

No problem at all. And no, I got no word back other than acknowledging the issue. If I remember correctly I was told it's being escalated, but so far it hasn't been fixed. I just checked with the latest firmware.
It wouldn't hurt if more people with this or similar issue will report it, maybe then it'll get a bit more attention?
The reference number for my report is 3762075. Mind you, I reported some other issues I found while I was at it.

Thing is, it's not a common issue. I don't have this issue so I have nothing to report.

Thing to try is if the font in question has hinting, remove the hinting. If it doesn't have hinting, add hinting. Maybe one of those suggestions will help the problem.

[Colonel Cathcart]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Thing is, it's not a common issue. I don't have this issue so I have nothing to report.

Thing to try is if the font in question has hinting, remove the hinting. If it doesn't have hinting, add hinting. Maybe one of those suggestions will help the problem.

I didn't mean that all you guys here just bomb Kobo with complaints. I hope those that are affected with this issue or similar ones contact Kobo and let them know about your use case and experience using the product.

Regarding your hinting suggestion, it's definitely worth a try. I think the font I'm using does have hinting. What form does hinting take? is it a flag I should turn off? a table that I need to remove (and possibly some other references to it?). The font that's giving me trouble is an otf font, btw.

[DNSB]

Also remember that these are not fonts supplied by Kobo. Over the years, I've found quite a few fonts that do not work well on ereaders. For Kobo ereaders, most of those fonts did not work well with either the RMSDK renderer or the webkit based renderers. In this case, I suspect the use of RTL languages pretty much manadates the use of the webkit based renderer (better ePub3 support).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

I didn't mean that all you guys here just bomb Kobo with complaints. I hope those that are affected with this issue or similar ones contact Kobo and let them know about your use case and experience using the product.

Regarding your hinting suggestion, it's definitely worth a try. I think the font I'm using does have hinting. What form does hinting take? is it a flag I should turn off? a table that I need to remove (and possibly some other references to it?). The font that's giving me trouble is an otf font, btw.

Have you tried adding or removing hinting from your non-working fonts?