Font size

[foosion]

The font size looks much smaller on the book I'm reading than all of the previous books I've read on my Kobo. The settings in koboereader.conf have not changed, just how large the words appear on screen. I have to increase the font size setting to make the words look the same size as on other books.

The book is a kepub converted by Calibre from an epub.

How can I fix this? I'd rather not be changing the font settings on my Kobo for different books. I'm guessing I should be editing the book's CSS, but I don't know how to do this.

[Sirtel]

Two possible reasons:

1. The base font size between kepubs and epubs is different; this can be fixed with a patch

2. The smaller size is specified in the book css (a common enough occurrence); this can only be fixed by editing the css. I use the calibre editor for this, some folks use Sigil.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Two possible reasons:

1. The base font size between kepubs and epubs is different; this can be fixed with a patch

2. The smaller size is specified in the book css (a common enough occurrence); this can only be fixed by editing the css. I use the calibre editor for this, some folks use Sigil.

1. I haven't had this issue with any other book, so this does not seem the problem.

2. What do I look for and change in the css? Assume I know nothing about css.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by foosion

2. What do I look for and change in the css?

After you open the book in the editor, you can see the file browser (displaying the files in the book), the code editor and the preview. Open any file with ordinary text (i.e. not the cover or the TOC etc.) and look at the paragraph class in the code editor. You should see something like <p class="indent">, <p class="para-p"> and so on, there are hundreds of variants. Sometimes it's not a p, but a div. In short, look at what code an ordinary paragraph uses. Then open the css file and look for that code there. If you see any font-size smaller than 1em under that paragraph class, delete it (the whole row - like, font-size: 0.8em or font-size: small. You can use Search & Replace to bulk delete all instances of that abnormal size from the css file. You should see the text get larger in the preview window after this. If everything seems ok, save and close the editor.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

After you open the book in the editor, you can see the file browser (displaying the files in the book), the code editor and the preview. Open any file with ordinary text (i.e. not the cover or the TOC etc.) and look at the paragraph class in the code editor. You should see something like <p class="indent">, <p class="para-p"> and so on, there are hundreds of variants. Sometimes it's not a p, but a div. In short, look at what code an ordinary paragraph uses. Then open the css file and look for that code there. If you see any font-size smaller than 1em under that paragraph class, delete it (the whole row - like, font-size: 0.8em or font-size: small. You can use Search & Replace to bulk delete all instances of that abnormal size from the css file. You should see the text get larger in the preview window after this. If everything seems ok, save and close the editor.

The first thing to do to make editing the CSS easier is (in the editor) go Tools > Remove unused CSS rules. Most eBooks have excess CSS. Sometimes it's rather a lot of excess CSS. Then you'll be left with just what's actually used in the CSS.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The first thing to do to make editing the CSS easier is (in the editor) go Tools > Remove unused CSS rules. Most eBooks have excess CSS. Sometimes it's rather a lot of excess CSS. Then you'll be left with just what's actually used in the CSS.

Yes, that too, of course.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

After you open the book in the editor, you can see the file browser (displaying the files in the book), the code editor and the preview. Open any file with ordinary text (i.e. not the cover or the TOC etc.) and look at the paragraph class in the code editor. You should see something like <p class="indent">, <p class="para-p"> and so on, there are hundreds of variants. Sometimes it's not a p, but a div. In short, look at what code an ordinary paragraph uses. Then open the css file and look for that code there. If you see any font-size smaller than 1em under that paragraph class, delete it (the whole row - like, font-size: 0.8em or font-size: small. You can use Search & Replace to bulk delete all instances of that abnormal size from the css file. You should see the text get larger in the preview window after this. If everything seems ok, save and close the editor.

That did it. I removed all smaller than 1em (other than those marked copyright).

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The first thing to do to make editing the CSS easier is (in the editor) go Tools > Remove unused CSS rules. Most eBooks have excess CSS. Sometimes it's rather a lot of excess CSS. Then you'll be left with just what's actually used in the CSS.

Did that too.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, that too, of course.

Of course only if one has a clue.

Any other "of course" moves to be made?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by foosion

Of course only if one has a clue.

Any other "of course" moves to be made?

Yeah, I forgot to put it in my post.

Not that I remember, no (which doesn't mean much, as my memory is obviously not all it should be ). Personally I also delete ads, excerpts from other books and other such pointless stuff before I start editing the code, but YMMV.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, I forgot to put it in my post.

Not that I remember, no (which doesn't mean much, as my memory is obviously not all it should be ). Personally I also delete ads, excerpts from other books and other such pointless stuff before I start editing the code, but YMMV.

Not a bad idea, although it may be easier to skip those things than to edit the file, unless you plan to read the book more than once.

YMMV.

FWIW, I'm listening to an audiobook of Wolf Hall, which mentions that Cromwell had a fantastic memory due to memory training in Italy.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by foosion

Of course only if one has a clue.

Any other "of course" moves to be made?

You could also do a lossless image compression to reduce the size of the images. Also in the Tools menu.

And another thing I do is remove all excess HMTL files such as review blurbs, previews of other books, adverts, HMTL ToC, and other stuff I don't want. And if you do an error check (after the HTML deletes) with error checker (bug on the toolbar), you can see if any images are not being used and delete them. Also do another unused CSS delete after you delete HTML files.

If this is one of those eBooks from Penguin Random House, you could drop some of the embedded fonts as they are only used to an advert that you will already have deleted. Also,, you can delete any other embedded fonts if there are any that you don't want. You will have to edit the CSS to remove the references to the fonts. If there are mebedded fonts you want to keep, you can do a font subset (again int he Tools menu).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by foosion

Not a bad idea, although it may be easier to skip those things than to edit the file, unless you plan to read the book more than once.

Well, deleting the HTML can also delete have images and fonts that also can be deleted which means the eBook will be smaller and take less disk space.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by foosion

Not a bad idea, although it may be easier to skip those things than to edit the file, unless you plan to read the book more than once.

I edit all my ebooks anyway, before reading, so this is just a part of my workflow. But I'm aware most people don't want to spend time on such tinkering (and they're not as fussy )

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by foosion

FWIW, I'm listening to an audiobook of Wolf Hall, which mentions that Cromwell had a fantastic memory due to memory training in Italy.

In those faraway times it was necessary to have a good memory; most folks were illiterate and books were expensive. And of course there was no Google.

(I'm old enough that there was no Google or internet before I was in my mid-twenties, but my memory has drastically worsened since that time... I wonder why?)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by foosion

Not a bad idea, although it may be easier to skip those things than to edit the file, unless you plan to read the book more than once.

One other thing, you're already in the editor checking it the font size is not too small so why not do the other things as it takes very little time to do so