Fonts & Character Sets ⇒ best fonts for an e-reader???

[arma_virumque]

hi all,

I had a question about xetex and the best font for a document that'll be read on a e-reader, the NOOK in this case.

Ideally I would like a utf8 font and scalable if that makes any difference.

Code: Select all

\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{xunicode}
\usepackage{xltxtra}

by the way I am ultra newbie. sorry I apologize.

thanks in advance!

[frabjous]

What Unicode blocks are most important to you?

For freely available fonts, look at:

Deja Vu Fonts

Charis SIL

Linux Libertine/Biolinum

[arma_virumque]

What Unicode blocks are most important to you?

Thanks for replying, mostly extended latin unicode block. But I'd really would like to know how to add them in my tex document. This is what got so far:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[8pt,oneside]{extbook}
\usepackage[paperwidth=88.184mm,paperheight=113.854mm,margin=2mm]{geometry}
\title{Aeneidos}
\author{Vergilius Maron}
\usepackage[latin]{babel}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{xunicode}
\usepackage{xltxtra}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage[tiny,compact]{titlesec}
\usepackage[absolute]{textpos}
\usepackage{titlesec}

\usepackage{tocloft}
\setlength\cftparskip{-5pt}
\setlength\cftbeforechapskip{10pt}
\setlength\cftaftertoctitleskip{2pt}

\renewcommand\chaptername{LIBER}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{\Roman{chapter}}

\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
  {\bfseries\Large}
  {\fileft\MakeUppercase{\chaptertitlename} \Huge\thechapter}
  {4ex}
  {\titlerule
   \vspace{2ex}%
   \filcenter}
  [\vspace{2ex}%
   \titlerule]

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}

All I know is that if I ommit this line \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} my pdf document has an extremely small font on the e-reader NOOK, and the poem text thrashed.

In my system this my DejaVu list of fonts.
fc-list | grep -i deja

Code: Select all

DejaVu Serif,DejaVu Serif Condensed:style=Condensed,Book
DejaVu Serif,DejaVu Serif Condensed:style=Condensed Bold Italic,Bold Italic
DejaVu Serif,DejaVu Serif Condensed:style=Condensed Bold,Bold
DejaVu Sans,DejaVu Sans Condensed:style=Condensed Oblique,Oblique
DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Bold Oblique
DejaVu Serif:style=Bold Italic
DejaVu Sans:style=Bold Oblique
DejaVu Sans:style=Oblique
DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Oblique
DejaVu Sans,DejaVu Sans Condensed:style=Condensed Bold Oblique,Bold Oblique
DejaVu Sans,DejaVu Sans Light:style=ExtraLight
DejaVu Sans,DejaVu Sans Condensed:style=Condensed,Book
DejaVu Sans,DejaVu Sans Condensed:style=Condensed Bold,Bold
DejaVu Sans:style=Bold
DejaVu Sans:style=Book
DejaVu Serif:style=Italic
DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Book
DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Bold
DejaVu Serif:style=Book
DejaVu Serif:style=Bold

The font thingy looks intimidating. With \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} the font size it's alright however they are too thin and the anti-aliasing gets messed up. I would like a font a little bit thicker to match NOOK's native look on its epub's books.

Also another question. The NOOK can change the font of epubs with three fonts: Amasis, Helvetica Neue and Light Classic. But for pdf's the font option is locked into Amasis and grayed out meaning is not possible to change it.

Amasis is a nice font, however only epubs display nicely rendered fonts. How can I tweak this in LaTeX to achieve wordly rendered fonts?

thanks in advanced.

[meho_r]

You'll have to remove \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} when you use XeLaTeX. For font size simply replace 8pt option to documentclass and put 10pt or 12pt. Another way is to even use Scale option when defining font for XeLaTeX to use (note that in this case you may need to enlarge spacing between lines too, using, e.g., setspace package). Here's your code with some modifications and comments:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[11pt,oneside]{extbook}
\usepackage[paperwidth=88.184mm,paperheight=113.854mm,margin=2mm]{geometry}

\title{Aeneidos}
\author{Vergilius Maron}% if you need these two to appear in pdf properties, you should use hyperref for that (take a look at hyperref package below)

\usepackage[latin]{babel}% consider using Polyglossia instead with XeLaTeX

%\usepackage{fontspec}
%\usepackage{xunicode}
\usepackage{xltxtra}% It is enough to call only this package if you don't need any particular options to fontspec and xunicode since xltxtra calls them anyway

\setmainfont{DejaVu Sans}

%\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}% you'll have to remove this for XeLaTeX to use correct font

\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{%
pdftitle={Aeneidos},
pdfauthor={Vergilius Maron}
}

\usepackage[tiny,compact]{titlesec}
\usepackage[absolute]{textpos}
%\usepackage{titlesec}% no need for defining it again

\usepackage{tocloft}
\setlength\cftparskip{-5pt}
\setlength\cftbeforechapskip{10pt}
\setlength\cftaftertoctitleskip{2pt}

\renewcommand\chaptername{LIBER}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{\Roman{chapter}}

\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
  {\bfseries\Large}
  {\fileft\MakeUppercase{\chaptertitlename} \Huge\thechapter}
  {4ex}
  {\titlerule
   \vspace{2ex}%
   \filcenter}
  [\vspace{2ex}%
   \titlerule]

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}

\usepackage{blindtext}% Package for generating some dummy text

\begin{document}
\Blinddocument% Dummy text
\end{document}

As for Amasis font, if you have the font, you may use it in the code above to compile your document instead of DejaVu Sans. BTW, Microsoft fonts are good for reading from screen, particularly Verdana has a good reputation in this regard.

[arma_virumque]

thanks a lot \setmainfont{DejaVu Sans} did the trick. Now, since this is ancient poem computer fonts make it look too cold and lifeless. What's another font that's prettier, non-machine type?

Also to clarify the types, is Sans the machine type and Serif the classical type? I think I am starting to grasp all the Serif and Sans business in typography parlance.

thanks

[frabjous]

Also to clarify the types, is Sans the machine type and Serif the classical type? I think I am starting to grasp all the Serif and Sans business in typography parlance.

Serifs are the little decorative flares on the edges of lines in characters. "Sans" is the French word for "without". So serif fonts like Times or Garamond have them, sans fonts like Helvetica, Century Gothic, etc., don't.

Sans fonts tend to be cleaner, and are perhaps easier to read from a distance, and more modern. Serif fonts are more classical, and some argue the serifs help the eyes flow when reading longer passages of text. I think serif fonts are better for books; sans fonts are good for headlines and signs, and certain screens.

But for ancient Latin, even in an ebook, at least on an e-Ink screen like the Nook, serif fonts will definitely seem more appropriate.

[meho_r]

If you'd like to use free fonts, take a look here. Popular free serif fonts are, among others, Linux Libertine, Gentium, Liberation Serif, OFL Sorts Mill Goudy...

Also, you can use Minion Pro font, which is shipped with Adobe Reader for free (on my system it is located in /opt/Adobe/Reader9/Resource/Font).

If you're ready to buy non-free fonts, there's a lot of good fonts out there (e.g. Adobe Garamond Pro, Sabon Next, Athelas, Karmina, Calluna /Calluna regular is free/...). Check out MyFonts web-page for more.