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85 lines
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Markdown
85 lines
4 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Fixing Monospace Text in Kobo eReaders"
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date = 2022-04-10T09:14:50+10:00
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[extra]
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updated = 2024-11-14T18:10:31+10:00
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+++
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After verifying with friends that eBook readers do a decent job of rendering
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technical content I purchased a [Kobo Libra 2] this week. I loaded up some books
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and started reading… but something was off. Sure enough, after verifying the
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[EPUB] with [Calibre] on my computer I confirmed that the Kobo was not rendering
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text with CSS rules like `font-family: monospace` in a monospace font.
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<!-- more -->
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**Update Nov 2024:** Oliver Fink wrote in to tell me that the issue is that
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the font now has to have the font family name "Courier", not just have a
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file name of Courier. [Check out their write-up][olifink] for all the details.
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Additionally Roman Frołow wrote in with a tip for a tool that can turn off
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behaviour that overrides the font family in KePub books, which could also
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result in monospace fonts not showing up in books. [Visit this Reddit
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thread][rofrol] for the details.
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[olifink]: https://memos.mountmerlin.com/m/Gy8venDj6xej3vabw2idwx
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[rofrol]: https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/12kgo49/comment/jg4p6gj/
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**Update Aug 2022:** I was told and have confirmed myself that the workaround
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described in this post no longer works with the latest firmware. I tested
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version 4.33.19759. If anyone knows how to restore the behaviour please get in
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touch.
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[Skip to Instructions ⮷](#instructions)
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I quickly discovered this is a known issue with Kobo readers dating back years:
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for reasons I can't comprehend they do not include a monospace font on the
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device. I read many forum posts about how to add fonts but these were centred
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around adding fonts to the font selector for the body text. Eventually I found
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the solution via a [summary of the release notes for a firmware update in
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2019][fw]:
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> Path for monospace font changed to match other fonts and name is "Courier".
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> This should mean that any correctly sideloaded font whose name starts with
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> "Courier" will be used when the monospace font face is specified.
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With this knowledge in hand I was able to make it render monospace text in the
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one true monospace font, [PragmataPro]:
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{{ 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.") }}
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## Instructions
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1. Connect the Kobo to your computer.
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2. Create a folder in the root of the device named `fonts`.
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3. Put your chosen monospace font in the `fonts` folder.
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4. Rename the fonts to follow this naming convention: `Courier <Font Family>-<Font Weight>.ttf`.
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* The leading `Courier` is required for the eReader to use the font for
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monospace text in books and not just show the font as an option in the
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reading settings.
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For example I renamed the PragmataPro font files to:
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* `Courier PragmataPro Mono-Regular.ttf`
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* `Courier PragmataPro Mono-Bold.ttf`
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* `Courier PragmataPro Mono-Italic.ttf`
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* `Courier PragmataPro Mono-BoldItalic.ttf`
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I read in [a forum thread][forum-thread] that it's important that the fonts be
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named like this with the actual font family name and the font weight names for
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them to work. [GNOME Font Viewer][gnome-fonts] in freedesktop.org environments
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or [Font Book] on macOS, or [allsorts-tools] on all platforms can show you the
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font family name for a font.
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Happy reading!
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[Kobo Libra 2]: https://au.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-libra-2
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[EPUB]: https://www.w3.org/publishing/epub/
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[Calibre]: https://calibre-ebook.com/
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[fw]: https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2019/12/12/new-kobo-firmware-update-4-19-14123-released/
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[PragmataPro]: https://fsd.it/shop/fonts/pragmatapro/
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[forum-thread]: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204363
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[gnome-fonts]: https://apps.gnome.org/en/app/org.gnome.font-viewer/
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[Font Book]: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/font-book/welcome/mac
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[allsorts-tools]: https://github.com/yeslogic/allsorts-tools
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