Adding Noto fonts to Kobo. (Sage, but probably doesn't matter)

[ghira]

I'm really not sure if I've done this right.

I have put these files in "fonts" on my kobo:

NotoSansMono-VariableFont_wdth,wght.ttf
NotoSans-Italic-VariableFont_wdth,wght.ttf
NotoSans-VariableFont_wdth,wght.ttf
NotoSansMath-Regular.ttf
NotoSansSymbols-VariableFont_wght.ttf
NotoSansSymbols2-Regular.ttf
NotoSerif-VariableFont_wdth,wght.ttf
NotoSerif-Italic-VariableFont_wdth,wght.ttf

Do I need to rename some of these to remove "wdth,wwght", "VariableFont" and similar? Some threads seem to say the file names have to be very specific things.

Are these even the right files to be using?

Unzipping the .zip files I downloaded originally also produced a bunch of
files in directories called "static" in some cases.

Should I install those instead? As well? Noto Sans and Noto Serif in particular have a LOT of files in the "static" directories. Well, by a lot I mean 72 each.

I tried using noto serif to read a book and _everything_ came out italic, which seems wrong.

[Sirtel]

https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kob...play_Correctly

[ghira]

So... don't use variable fonts at all? Install one or more sets of 4 matching fonts from the "static" directories? I am afraid I am feeling pretty lost. Any number of people/places say "It's easy. Just copy the files into "fonts"." But it seems less easy than that.

Should/do the "variable fonts" work as they are?
If not, should/do they work if renamed? If so, how?
If not, do I need to get rid of them and put some or all of the files from the "static" directories in instead? In THAT case the advice about filenames from your link seems like it should apply. Would I want all 72 files for sans and serif? Possibly with some renaming to fit the patterns in your link.

This all seems way less straightforward than the "It's magic. Just copy the files" advice I have seen in various places.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ghira

So... don't use variable fonts at all? Install one or more sets of 4 matching fonts from the "static" directories? I am afraid I am feeling pretty lost. Any number of people/places say "It's easy. Just copy the files into "fonts"." But it seems less easy than that.

Just install Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic.

[ghira]

Thank you. I have removed all the files with "variable" in the name and copied some stuff from the "static" directories. In some cases not all four versions exist so I now have:

NotoSansMath-Regular.ttf
NotoSansSymbols2-Regular.ttf
NotoSans-Bold.ttf
NotoSans-BoldItalic.ttf
NotoSans-Italic.ttf
NotoSans-Regular.ttf
NotoSansMono-Bold.ttf
NotoSansMono-Regular.ttf
NotoSansSymbols-Bold.ttf
NotoSansSymbols-Regular.ttf
NotoSerif-Regular.ttf
NotoSerif-Bold.ttf
NotoSerif-BoldItalic.ttf
NotoSerif-Italic.ttf

[ghira]

Ok i think I need to add spaces to the filenames.

[ghira]

Trying again with:
Noto Sans Math-Regular.ttf
Noto Sans Symbols 2-Regular.ttf
Noto Sans-Bold.ttf
Noto Sans-BoldItalic.ttf
Noto Sans-Italic.ttf
Noto Sans-Regular.ttf
Noto Sans Mono-Bold.ttf
Noto Sans Mono-Regular.ttf
Noto Sans Symbols-Bold.ttf
Noto Sans Symbols-Regular.ttf
Noto Serif-Regular.ttf
Noto Serif-Bold.ttf
Noto Serif-BoldItalic.ttf
Noto Serif-Italic.ttf

the variable fonts sounded like a good idea...

[ghira]

The kobo-installed Stix fonts in fonts/kobo don't have spaces in their names but maybe the rules are different there.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ghira

The kobo-installed Stix fonts in fonts/kobo don't have spaces in their names but maybe the rules are different there.

Spaces don't matter. What matters is that the external and internal names are the same, as explained in the wiki page I linked. If the internal name has spaces, the external name must have them, and if the internal has no spaces, the external name shouldn't have them either.

[ghira]

There are spaces in the names of the fonts in the drop-down font menus. If that's not the "internal name" then what is? The wiki page you linked to doesn't seem to say what the internal name actually IS.

[ghira]

The stix fonts have spaces in their names in the drop-down menu so i guess the font name in the font menu is not the internal name.

Feeling lost again.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ghira

There are spaces in the names of the fonts in the drop-down font menus. If that's not the "internal name" then what is? The wiki page you linked to doesn't seem to say what the internal name actually IS.

You'll have to open the font file with a font editor, like FontForge. With FontForge, open Element -> Font Info -> PS Names. The very first item (Fontname) is the internal name of the font.

[ghira]

Thanks. Crikey. This is all getting less and less similar to "It's easy. Just copy the files to the fonts directory."

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ghira

Thanks. Crikey. This is all getting less and less similar to "It's easy. Just copy the files to the fonts directory."

Yeah. Kobo is quite fussy about fonts, as I too learned when I bought my first Kobo and didn't understand why some of my sideloaded fonts that had worked fine on my Kindles no longer displayed correctly on my Kobo.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ghira

Thanks. Crikey. This is all getting less and less similar to "It's easy. Just copy the files to the fonts directory."

This goes back to not wanting to introspect the font before using it so Kobo's firmware trusts that for sideloaded fonts, the font name embedded in the font files matches the font name used to name the font file.

Most fonts sets follow that rule but other do not. I had one font I wanted to try where the font file name looked good but the font didn't work. When I opened the font with FontForge, the internal font name was 8 random characters that were different for each font variant. I took the regular, italic, bold and bold-italic variants and changed the internal name to match the font file name and those worked happily.