Glo 2.4.0 bugs

[tshering]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Calling something a bug that needs to be fixed that requires a totally non-standard change to the device (setting the locale) seems a bit much.

Would be interesting to see how any of the other allowed locals (Italien, Japanese, ...) influences this behavior. But I am to lazy to test it myself.
Anyway, accepting a value from the conf file that the device cannot correctly handle is also worth being called a bug to my mind.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

Am I mistaken, or was ShellShock claiming Charis SIL was broken even with the locale set to the default en_US?

That is correct. Some fonts, INCLUDING KOBO'S OWN NICKEL FONT, are broken when using any locale, INCLUDING THE DEFAULT en_US. You have to change the font name AND make sure you have a matching locale, for them to work. In my book this makes it a bug.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Calling something a bug that needs to be fixed that requires a totally non-standard change to the device (setting the locale) seems a bit much.

I'd rather see effort go into fixing real issues using the devices as intended by the manufacturer.

But I am. Using Kobo's own Nickel font, and their preferred locale (en_US), with their latest firmware, I cannot get italics to display in epubs. Do you now agree that this is a bug?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

The <em> tag is being shown as bold whereas in 2.1.5 and anywhere else (Sigil, Sony reader, Internet Explorer etc) it is shown in italics. This bug alone is enough to make me go back to 2.1.5.

Does anyone know if kepubs are OK? (At the moment I only use epubs).

This bug alone is enough for me to go back to 2.1.5, which I have done, and I can confirm that 2.1.5 does not have this problem.

Strictly speaking the emphasis tag is not required to use italics. One program I used rendered text within the <em></em> tags as white text on a black background. If the author wants to use italics, either the <i> tag or a <span class="xxxx"> where xxxx is a class defining italics should be used.

Oddly, on my Glo with either of the 2.4.0 firmwares, the <em> tag does render as italic except for the gorched fonts such as Avenir, Gill Sans and Kobo Nickel which show bold instead of italic even when using the <i> tag. Those fonts have been crap for quite a while and you can find quite a few discussions about that issue scattered around the Kobo forum.

Is there a chance that you were using one of those fonts?

Regards,
David

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by lissandro.sosa

This a real bug, its reproducible, and I tested again.

I reinstall the 2.4.0 firmware and i not touch any power setting, and my device not shutdown, is ever on sleep.

the solution to this is add the option NEVER to the drop-down list. it´s be useful.

I shutdown the device wherever i want, not 60 minutes after sleep.

I find it a bit curious that on my Glo with 2.4.0, never is the last item on the drop down list for Sleep and Power --checking my daughter's Touch shows the same choices. And yet you don't see those choices.

Regards,
David

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

But I am. Using Kobo's own Nickel font, and their preferred locale (en_US), with their latest firmware, I cannot get italics to display in epubs. Do you now agree that this is a bug?

Hardly a 2.4.0 bug since that has been the case for quite a while.

Regards,
David

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Hardly a 2.4.0 bug since that has been the case for quite a while.

Ah come on, it is a bug in 2.4.0 that was not in 2.1.5. Just because it was also in a previous firmware (post 2.1.5) doesn't mean we should just ignore it, as Kobo seem to be doing.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

That is correct. Some fonts, INCLUDING KOBO'S OWN NICKEL FONT, are broken when using any locale, INCLUDING THE DEFAULT en_US. You have to change the font name AND make sure you have a matching locale, for them to work. In my book this makes it a bug.

I have Charis SIL on my Glo as my main font since I read quite a few books that are enhanced by it's support for diacriticals. I tried changing from en_CA which is my normal locale to nl_NL, en_GB, en_NZ, fr_CA, fr_FR and ja_JP and I could see no difference in the behaviour of the Charis SIL font using my font tester epub. Strictly speaking, "Charis SIL Modified" as modified by JS Wolf with the font file names changed to the naming convention required by a Kobo reader from his original font file names.

Regards,
David

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Strictly speaking the emphasis tag is not required to use italics. One program I used rendered text within the <em></em> tags as white text on a black background. If the author wants to use italics, either the <i> tag or a <span class="xxxx"> where xxxx is a class defining italics should be used.

Oddly, on my Glo with either of the 2.4.0 firmwares, the <em> tag does render as italic except for the gorched fonts such as Avenir, Gill Sans and Kobo Nickel which show bold instead of italic even when using the <i> tag.
Those fonts have been crap for quite a while and you can find quite a few discussions about that issue scattered around the Kobo forum.

Is there a chance that you were using one of those fonts?

The problem also occurs if you use <i> or a class with font-style: italic. I don't think it is acceptable to just blame the fonts as crap. My favourite font is Charis SIL (because it has a very wide range of glyphs), and I certainly don't consider it a "crap" font, but it also suffers from this bug. By changing the font naming you can workaround the bug.

[DNSB]

[QUOTE=ShellShock;2435650]But I am. Using Kobo's own Nickel font, and their preferred locale (en_US), with their latest firmware, I cannot get italics to display in epubs. Do you now agree that this is a bug?[/QUOTE

But it is not a 2.4.0 bug. It's been there for several versions since Kobo stopped supplying their fonts in a standard ttf version.

Regards,
David

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I have Charis SIL on my Glo as my main font since I read quite a few books that are enhanced by it's support for diacriticals. I tried changing from en_CA which is my normal locale to nl_NL, en_GB, en_NZ, fr_CA, fr_FR and jp_JP and I could see no difference in the behaviour of the Charis SIL font using my font tester epub.

To get it to work I had to use a font editor to change the internal font name (effectively removing any spaces in the font name), and add a "English - United Kingdom" language to the font itself.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

Ah come on, it is a bug in 2.4.0 that was not in 2.1.5. Just because it was also in a previous firmware (post 2.1.5) doesn't mean we should just ignore it, as Kobo seem to be doing.

I don't ignore it. I simply use a font (Charis SIL) which supports the characters I need (fact) and is very readable (personal opinion). If you check the Modified Font sticky, you'll find other fonts. As for the changes in the fonts, I don't know why Kobo changed the font files though I've read one message to the effect that it was a legal requirement to keep people from easily copying copyrighted fonts for use on other devices.

I've attached the file I use for font testing below. If italic, bold, bold-italic do not work and if all the characters do not show up correctly, I regard the font as being unusable and don't use it.

Regards,
David

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

To get it to work I had to use a font editor to change the internal font name (effectively removing any spaces in the font name), and add a "English - United Kingdom" language to the font itself.

Interesting since I use Charis SIL with Charis SIL Modified as the internal font name as my main font. As long as I follow Kobo's naming convention (Charis SIL Modified-Regular.ttf, -Italic, - Bold and -Bold-Italic) I have not seen any font display issues with changing locales including changing to a non-European language (ja_JP) locale.

Regards,
David

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Interesting since I use Charis SIL with Charis SIL Modified as the internal font name as my main font. As long as I follow Kobo's naming convention (Charis SIL Modified-Regular.ttf, -Italic, - Bold and -Bold-Italic) I have not seen any font display issues with changing locales including changing to a non-European language (ja_JP) locale.

JS Wolf's Charis SIL Modified works for me too, but using JS Wolf's original file names, e.g., CharisSILI.ttf. They only have a "English - United States" language in them. The font matching algorithm is a slippery customer!

[bartveld]

@DNSB: Thank you for the font test epub. Very useful. And I'm happy to report that most glyphs work well with my Times New Roman (with spaces) on 2.4.0.