Kobo Book Description Formatting

[hatuluang]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Those gaps between paragraphs are still very large. Are you happy with it like that?

If not, and you use calibre to transfer your books, this could easily be fixed with a calibre Metadata plugboard. I've attached a screenshot of what my Book Details synopsis looks like when using both patch Custom synopsis details all-in-one (no text-indent used in mine) and a Metadata plugboard for calibre comments.

If you want to pursue the plugboard option let me know.

Sure, the gaps between paragraphs still bother me, I use Calibre to organize and sideload my books, and if you could share a metadata plugboard, that would be very helpful.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by hatuluang

Sure, the gaps between paragraphs still bother me, I use Calibre to organize and sideload my books, and if you could share a metadata plugboard, that would be very helpful.

These instructions assume you don't have any existing metadata plugboards for Kobo:

1. Open calibre Preferences and select [Metadata plugboards] (3rd row)
2. Go to 'Add new plugboard' and work your way left-to-right choosing options from the drop-down menus as per attached screenshot (blue highlights).
   1. The screenshot assumes you're using the KOBOTOUCH calibre driver, but if you're actually using the KoboTouchExtended plugin choose KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED for the column labelled 'Device (choose second)'
   2. For clarity the column labelled 'Source template' contains the following text which you can copy-paste:

      program: re(field('comments'), '\n', '')

3. Once you've finished save by pressing:
   [Save plugboard] (red highlight) followed by [Apply] (green highlight)
4. I can't remember whether it's necessary to Restart calibre before a new plugboard takes effect, so it's safer if you do.

Once that's done, any new book you transfer via calibre's Send-to-device should have all its excess linefeeds removed during the send.

If you also want to correct the synopsis for all the books which are already on the Kobo then open the calibre config screen for whichever driver you're using, KOBOTOUCH or KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED (to match whatever you chose in step 2.1 above), and make sure that on the 3rd Tab ('Metadata, on device & advanced') the top checkbox (labelled 'Update metadata on the device') is CHECKED.

Once all the above is complete, the next time you USB-connect the Kobo to calibre, all the books calibre knows about will automatically have their excess linefeeds removed from the synopsis on the Book Details page.


If anything isn't clear just ask. Good luck.

[hatuluang]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Once that's done, any new book you transfer via calibre's Send-to-device should have all its excess linefeeds removed during the send.

If you also want to correct the synopsis for all the books which are already on the Kobo then open the calibre config screen for whichever driver you're using, KOBOTOUCH or KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED (to match whatever you chose in step 2.1 above), and make sure that on the 3rd Tab ('Metadata, on device & advanced') the top checkbox (labelled 'Update metadata on the device') is CHECKED.

Once all the above is complete, the next time you USB-connect the Kobo to calibre, all the books calibre knows about will automatically have their excess linefeeds removed from the synopsis on the Book Details page.


If anything isn't clear just ask. Good luck.

Thank you for sharing the metadata plugboard and how-to.
I managed to add it on KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED.
It is impressive!

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by hatuluang

Thank you for sharing the metadata plugboard and how-to.
I managed to add it on KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED.
It is impressive!

You're welcome! Yes, that looks much better

[tretneo]

I'm trying to follow the steps outlined in this thread to fix the Synopsis font size and spacing issues I'm having on my Libra 2. I've applied the Custom synopsis details all-in-one patch (code below) and added the suggested plugboard and the font size is improved but the spacing is still terrible.

nickel.yaml

Custom synopsis details all-in-one:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: |
      Customise synopsis body style in Book details,
        including font-size, line-height
      Add style(s) for p tags
  - FindZlib: "body[qApp_deviceIsTrilogy=true] {\n  line-height: 1.45em;" # qss/BookDetails.qss
  - ReplaceZlibGroup:
      Replacements:
        # modify <body> style, customise line-height here
        # Add style(s) for <p> tags
        - Find:    "body {\n  font-family: Georgia;\n  margin: 0px;\n  padding: 0px;\n}"
          Replace: "body {font-family:Georgia; margin:0; padding:0; line-height:1.25em;}\np {margin:0.5em 0 0 0; text-indent:0.0em;}"
        
        # customise font-size by model
        - {Find: "font-size: 34px;", Replace: "font-size:42px;"} # LibraH2O/Libra2 (Storm)

        # remove all per-model line-heights to create space for above code
        # line-height customisation is now done in the 1st Find/Replace
        ### DO NOT CHANGE OR REMOVE THESE LINES ###
        - {Find: "body[qApp_deviceIsTrilogy=true] {\n  line-height: 1.45em;\n}\n", Replace: "\n"}
        - {Find: "body[qApp_deviceIsPhoenix=true] {\n  line-height: 1.4em;\n}\n", Replace: "\n"}
        - {Find: "body[qApp_deviceIsDragon=true] {\n  line-height: 1.35em;\n}\n", Replace: "\n"}
        - {Find: "body[qApp_deviceIsStorm=true] {\n  line-height: 1.35em;\n}\n", Replace: "\n"}
        - {Find: "body[qApp_deviceIsDaylight=true] {\n  line-height: 1.35em;\n}\n", Replace: "\n"}
        
        # create even more space. 
        # If you set your Kobo to one of the following 4 Japanese/Chinese locales,
        # then comment out the line corresponding to this locale
        - {Find: "body[localeName=\"ja\"] {\n  font-family: Sans-SerifJP, sans-serif;\n  font-style: normal;\n}\n",   Replace: "\n"}
        - {Find: "body[localeName=\"zh\"] {\n  font-family: Sans-SerifZH-Simplified, sans-serif;\n  font-style: normal;\n}\n",   Replace: "\n"}
        - {Find: "body[localeName=\"zh-HK\"] {\n  font-family: Sans-SerifZH-Traditional, sans-serif;\n  font-style: normal;\n}\n",   Replace: "\n"}
        - {Find: "body[localeName=\"zh-TW\"] {\n  font-family: Sans-SerifZH-Traditional, sans-serif;\n  font-style: normal;\n}\n",   Replace: "\n"}

Here's a Comments HTML example from calibre

<div>
<p>“An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King’s greatest literary achievement” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series.</p>
<p>A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.</p>
<p>Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” The Gunslinger is “a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center” (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is “brilliant and fresh…and will leave you panting for more” (Booklist). </p></div>

With the above in place I have large spacing before the first paragraph in the Synopsis and between each subsequent paragraph. What am I missing?

[tretneo]

Bump ^^^ any ideas or suggestions, @jackie_w?

Originally Posted by jackie_w

You're welcome! Yes, that looks much better

[m_pluto]

Originally Posted by tretneo

With the above in place I have large spacing before the first paragraph in the Synopsis and between each subsequent paragraph. What am I missing?

So for the workaround for the first space, the best I've been able to come up with that works consistently involves doing a mass search/replace in calibre for editing book data.

1. set search mode to character match
2. Select the search field to comments.
3. copy/paste the following below – for ease, include quotation marks when copying and after pasting delete them [basically what you're typing in is <div> and a paragraph space, which can be copied/pasted from the end of any paragraph]

"<div>
"

4. Set replace to be just plain <div> or leave blank to remove <div> all together, but if you do that, be sure to do a second search/replace with the closing tag </div>


Alternatively:
1. Set search mode to Regular expression
2. select search field to comments
3. type in the following

<div>\n

4. repeat step 4 from above.

I've included some screenshots that show what it should look like with a "test" line showing that the paragraph space is gone. Whichever method you use in the future, I suggest using the "save" button to save it for future searches.

[tretneo]

Originally Posted by m_pluto

So for the workaround for the first space, the best I've been able to come up with that works consistently involves doing a mass search/replace in calibre for editing book data.

1. set search mode to character match
2. Select the search field to comments.
3. copy/paste the following below – for ease, include quotation marks when copying and after pasting delete them [basically what you're typing in is <div> and a paragraph space, which can be copied/pasted from the end of any paragraph]

"<div>
"

4. Set replace to be just plain <div> or leave blank to remove <div> all together, but if you do that, be sure to do a second search/replace with the closing tag </div>


Alternatively:
1. Set search mode to Regular expression
2. select search field to comments
3. type in the following

<div>\n

4. repeat step 4 from above.

I've included some screenshots that show what it should look like with a "test" line showing that the paragraph space is gone. Whichever method you use in the future, I suggest using the "save" button to save it for future searches.

This did the trick. Thank you! Is there any way to automate this via Plugboards or some other mechanism to avoid needing to do this manually all the time?