Any formatting options at all for the text in Kindle's instant dictionary popup?

[Bilingual]

I have been preparing an Icelandic dictionary with some success. I got the inflections working, which was my main issue. I did not use the tab2opf.py script, but instead used the boilerplate opf from the mobicon website together with an HTML-file created from a database of words with inflections and translations, I've compiled.

In order to increase usability, I would like to offer simultaneous translation to English in addition to my own language. To that end, I would prefer the output of the instant popup formatted somewhat like this:

dictionary-word
English translation
other translation

I have been tinkering with various HTML-codes, but they all seem to only apply to the full dictionary lookup and not to the instant popup, which always render:

dictionary-word English translation other translation

Now, do any text formatting options actually exist that applies to instant popup?


I have another small problem in that a few of my dictionary lookups adds a number of sequential dictionary entries to the same instant popup, despite no apparent formatting errors and no problems with the entries in the full dictionary lookup. Can't really grok that one.

Any pointers would be most welcome.

[chipf0rk]

I have been tinkering with various HTML-codes, but they all seem to only apply to the full dictionary lookup and not to the instant popup, which always render:

dictionary-word English translation other translation

Now, do any text formatting options actually exist that applies to instant popup?

I'm not sure what device you are using. I have a Paperwhite 2nd generation, and tried fiddling with a sample dictionary (the HTML file) a bit now. What I found out is this:

• <br> and <p> work fine to force line breaks inside one dictionary page. <br> is preferable, because it does not add an indent on the left.
• You have to use <br>, not <br />. <br /> was heavily misinterpreted by my Kindle and broke the entire parent tag.
• You can also define multiple pages for one definition, as seen in dictionaries delivered with the Kindle. Doing this manually is easy: Just copy the <idx:entry> tag and the preceding <mpb:pagebreak> tag, and change the content (everything after <h2>, not <idx:orth> and <idx:key>). This will show up as two separate entries in the "full dictionary".

I have another small problem in that a few of my dictionary lookups adds a number of sequential dictionary entries to the same instant popup, despite no apparent formatting errors and no problems with the entries in the full dictionary lookup. Can't really grok that one.

If I understand "sequential dictionary entries" correctly, this might be related to my last point above: Maybe you erroneously have duplicate keys for the same word, which will show up separated as pages.

Other than that, I'd be really interested in having the Icelandic-English dictionary in its current state myself, or at least a pointer to the source for your database that includes inflections. I only have a rather bad is-en dictionary at the moment which is auto-generated from dict.cc data and does not support any inflections. I'd be incredibly thankful if you could share your work with me here, as I can't find anything like this anywhere online.

DISCLAIMER: This is based on the manual research of an hour, after not being able to find anything on more knowledgeable sources than myself. What I'm saying might not be 100% correct, but it didn't break anything for me.

[sricochet]

For anyone who happens across this old post and is wondering the same, the font cannot be changed.

Phonetic letters are recognized, as well as italics and boldface aspects of fonts.

These features can be created using a dictfile (.df) and creating definitions with html code. This file can then be used as the input file in pyglossary or other scripts that use pyglossary to make a MOBI dictionary.


Instructions for creading a .df file can be found here:

https://pgaskin.net/dictutil/dictgen/#dictfile-format

When the Kindle updates, the font is often changed for the dictionary popups, however the font is updated later to the default font.

[sricochet]

Edit: Adding support for fonts in the dictionary popups would be a great feature request.

[mergen3107]

Dictionaries support css formatting.
You can try adding font-face to see what happens.

css instructions here: https://github.com/koreader/koreader...n-a-dictionary

Step 4

[sricochet]

I tried css and the font weight and font style and font size changed, but the actual font remained the same standard font. perhaps I'm doing something wrong? I made a style.css file with font-face, then referred to the fonts with <font1>...</font1> etc.

I think that the font for the dictionary popup is a standard font, and the fonts in the Open Dictionary option are the standard fonts that Kindle comes with.

I guess the Kindle is not really that great for customizations. I can live with these fonts though, it's no big deal.

[sricochet]

I can confirm that nothing can be done to change the font. External, inlne css makes no difference. The font cannot be changed, or I have no method to change it.