Add Kobo monospace font post

v2/content/posts/2022/monospace-kobo-ereader/index.md

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+title = "Fixing Monospace Text in Kobo eReaders"
+date = 2022-04-10T09:14:50+10:00
+
+# [extra]
+# updated = 2022-01-27T21:07:32+10:00
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+
+After verifying with friends that eBook readers do a decent job of rendering
+technical content I purchased a [Kobo Libra 2] this week. I loaded up some books
+and started reading… but something was off. Sure enough, after verifying the
+[EPUB] with [Calibre] on my computer I confirmed that the Kobo was not rendering
+text with CSS rules like `font-family: monospace` in a monospace font.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+[Skip to Instructions ⮷](#instructions)
+
+I quickly discovered this is a known issue with Kobo readers dating back years:
+for reasons I can't comprehend they do not include a monospace font on the
+device. I read many forum posts about how to add fonts but these were centred
+around adding fonts to the font selector for the body text. Eventually I found
+the solution via a [summary of the release notes for a firmware update in
+2019][fw]:
+
+> Path for monospace font changed to match other fonts and name is "Courier".
+> This should mean that any correctly sideloaded font whose name starts with
+> "Courier" will be used when the monospace font face is specified.
+
+With this knowledge in hand I was able to make it render monospace text in the
+one true monospace font, [PragmataPro]:
+
+{{ figure(image="posts/2022/monospace-kobo-ereader/kobo-monospace.jpg", link="posts/2022/monospace-kobo-ereader/kobo-monospace.jpg", resize_width=600, alt="Kobo Libra 2 rendering monospace text in PragmataPro", caption="Kobo Libra 2 rendering monospace text in PragmataPro.") }}
+
+## Instructions
+
+1. Connect the Kobo to your computer.
+2. Create a folder in the root of the device named `fonts`.
+3. Put your chosen monospace font in the `fonts` folder.
+4. Rename the fonts to follow this naming convention: `Courier <Font Family>-<Font Weight>.ttf`.
+   * The leading `Courier` is required for the eReader to use the font for
+     monospace text in books and not just show the font as an option in the
+     reading settings.
+
+For example I renamed the PragmataPro font files to:
+
+* `Courier PragmataPro Mono-Regular.ttf`
+* `Courier PragmataPro Mono-Bold.ttf`
+* `Courier PragmataPro Mono-Italic.ttf`
+* `Courier PragmataPro Mono-BoldItalic.ttf`
+
+I read in [a forum thread][forum-thread] that it's important that the fonts be
+named like this with the actual font family name and the font weight names for
+them to work. [GNOME Font Viewer][gnome-fonts] in freedesktop.org environments
+or [Font Book] on macOS, or [allsorts-tools] on all platforms can show you the
+font family name for a font.
+
+Happy reading!
+
+[Kobo Libra 2]: https://au.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-libra-2
+[EPUB]: https://www.w3.org/publishing/epub/
+[Calibre]: https://calibre-ebook.com/
+[fw]: https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2019/12/12/new-kobo-firmware-update-4-19-14123-released/
+[PragmataPro]: https://fsd.it/shop/fonts/pragmatapro/
+[forum-thread]: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204363
+[gnome-fonts]: https://apps.gnome.org/en/app/org.gnome.font-viewer/
+[Font Book]: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/font-book/welcome/mac
+[allsorts-tools]: https://github.com/yeslogic/allsorts-tools