Smaller font on Palm

[rfox]

I really want to use my Palm to read ebooks and other text documents, but I find reading on the small screen a real chore because the small screen can't display a lot of text, so you're spending all your time scrolling, and I just want to be able to relax and read, not "flipping pages" every 30 seconds. Even the Palm Reader set on the smallest font is still too big.

Is there anyway to get even an even smaller font size on the Palm Reader?
Or maybe another reader is better at doing this?

[Drunkard]

iSilo is a good reader that supports user defined fonts, however I don't think it can open e-books made for the latest version of PalmReader (ones with pictures for example). Or, you could use an application like FontSmoother or FontHackv+YAHM to allow you set a font for the entire Palms interface all the time.

[rfox]

I will give iSilo a try.
I do not want to change the system fonts for the whole Palm interface.

[Dekaritae]

Use Plucker with the Bitstream Vera fonts.

http://code.plkr.org/aa/

[FerdFerd]

I do not want to change the system fonts for the whole Palm interface.
I'm not trying to push it, but FontSmoother will allow you to change the font size on a per-application basis. It does not require that you change it for the entire interface. So it might be worth a look. It's free to try, and you can dump it if you don't like it.

I have no idea how it will work on PalmReader or iSilo, but I'll bet someone around here does.

[Drunkard]

I guess I should've been clear that FontHackV and FontSmoother can be set per application and you don't HAVE to change font system-wide. And Plucker is just about the same as iSilo except it's FREE, though I do prefer iSilo, but it's very little difference really.

[rfox]

Ohh...I like that one screenshot on the Plucker site with the really small font--maybe even too small for comfortable reading, but I like the option to be able to do that.

And I'm all for freeware. I will definitely get Plucker.

Thanks, all!

[_Em]

PalmFiction's great for this sort of thing too... it has a font importer so you can use whatever fonts you want, and it has 3 different kinds of autoscroll (scroll the screen, scroll the reading line on the screen, flip display line by line) to make for easy reading.

The best reading font I've found is Seagull Md BT (I switch between sizes 10, 12, 14 and 18, depending on my mood). Actually, the 72 point Seagull Md BT works great for scrolling messages too ;)

Oh, and PalmFiction fonts are antialiased and kerned, so you don't actually need to use FontHackV or FontSmoother with PF.

One other thing; if you install Dmitry's NetFront Installer, it adds the Sony SmallFonts... a number of programs automatically use those by default if they're available: NetFront and OliveTree BibleReader being two notables.

[pruss]

I really want to use my Palm to read ebooks and other text documents, but I find reading on the small screen a real chore because the small screen can't display a lot of text, so you're spending all your time scrolling, and I just want to be able to relax and read, not "flipping pages" every 30 seconds. Even the Palm Reader set on the smallest font is still too big.

Is there anyway to get even an even smaller font size on the Palm Reader?
Or maybe another reader is better at doing this?

FontSmoother also lets you install custom antialiased fonts in eReader (the successor to Palm Reader) Pro and Mobipocket. These show up in eReader Pro's or Mobipocket's list of fonts.

Or you can use Plucker. It uses an earlier version of the same font engine that is in FontSmoother. (FontSmoother is faster than Plucker's antialiased font support, but on a fast device it doesn't matter.) Plucker fonts are also compatible with PalmBible+. And you can make your own fonts for Plucker (and for FontSmoother) with the free EasyConvert (search for it on palmgear.com).

[rfox]

I'm looking for the most minimal and simplest solution. I'd rather not have to install fonts along with another program. And I'd also rather not have to bother converting documents for use on a single program, but looks like I can't get away from that.

I can't get much information off the PalmFiction site--it's all in Russian. I suppose they come with those foreign fonts--can you not install them with the program (remember I'm looking for a minimal approach here)? What file formats does it read?

Seagull does look like a nice clean font--but I'm certainly not going to buy more fonts.

Speaking of fonts, though, what format are Palm fonts? Can I install TrueType fonts, and then how do I get an application to use a particular font?

[_Em]

1) Font Minimalism - best bet is to get FontSmoother and let it manage ALL your programs.

2) PalmFiction's hard to navigate from the main site...
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105785
That's the sourceforge download page. All you really need are:
PalmFiction-v.0.14j_BG_EN_DE_FR_RU.zip
PalmFictionFontConverter-v2.0.3.zip

The first is the app (with the skins and language files compiled in), the second is exactly what it looks like... a nice UI that lets you select installed TrueType fonts and convert them to kerned antialiased PalmFiction fonts. If you don't do this, PalmFiction still works fine with the system fonts (including the FontSmoother fonts).

If you want to tweak your PF install, there are also extra skins, hyphenation libraries, fonts, and language localisation packs you can install, available at the above link.

PalmFiction reads files in the following formats (it re-flows the text in whatever way you specify, and removes all original formatting (html tags, rtf markup, etc):
Zipped archives (on SD card)
GZipped files (on SD)
MS Word DOC files (on SD)
ASCII Text files (on SD)
HTML files (on SD)
RTF files (on SD)
PalmDoc files (on SD or in RAM)
zTxt (weasel) files (on SD or in RAM)
TCR files (on SD or in RAM) (for more info on TCR format, see http://www.cix.co.uk/~gidds/Software/TCR.html)

PalmFiction can also CONVERT any of those document formats to the PalmDoc and zTxt formats, and save the resulting file to card or RAM. Unfortunately, as of the version I'm still using (i, I think), it doesn't strip out the tags in the converted version. Hopefully they'll add this option soon.

Version J added support for multiple cards.

Here's the PalmFiction page translated to English:
http://www.worldlingo.com/S1790.5/translation?wl_srclang=RU&wl_trglang=en&wl_url=http://palmfiction.sourceforge.net/

[pruss]

Speaking of fonts, though, what format are Palm fonts?

Proprietary bitmap: http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/palmos/PalmOSReference/Font.html

It's a derivative of Mac's NFNT format.

Can I install TrueType fonts,

Not unless the app has a TrueType interpreter of its own.

and then how do I get an application to use a particular font?

Unless the app has multiple font support built-in (and even then the formats will differ between apps), the only way to change fonts is to use a font substitution utility like Fonts4OS5, FontSubst, FontHackV or FontSmoother. The last of these does antialiasing and I think is more stable on newer devices (but then I'm its author).

[dmitrygr]

The last of these [...] is more stable on newer devices.


I second that

[DCBAKER]

If you don't want to "flip the pages" why not just use a reader with autoscroll? Most readers have this feature. With autoscroll you can make the font large enough to read without squinting and not have to "turn the page" at all. You also shouldn't have to install any other fonts or font managing apps unless you just want to.

[goonie]

DCBAKER beat me to the comment I was ready to make. Autoscroll allows for continuous scrolling, and you can adjust the speed to suit your needs. I use it with Plucker all the time (which is my endorsement). I've actually done a little e-reading on gym exercise equipment, and you can even autoscroll with very large fonts, which is good if the exercise bike's book holder is a good distance away.

If you like the idea of autoscrolling, ReadThemAll has a very novel way of handling it, which might be to your liking:

http://palmsource.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&prodid=14149

[rfox]

I think I'll pass on playing with the fonts for now--it's not worth my time to bother.

I hate the autoscrolling. I makes my eyes go buggy trying to follow it and makes me dizzy. It's more relaxing for your eyes to focus on stationary objects/display.

[anand78]

If you like the idea of autoscrolling, ReadThemAll has a very novel way of handling it, which might be to your liking:

http://palmsource.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&prodid=14149

The way ReadThemAll's autoscrolling works is great for me. It doesn't actually scroll the text, but continually changes the text in the parts that you have already read. I can actually concentrate on the text without getting dizzy. Too bad that it doesn't support 320 by 480 and can only read DOC formats. Also, it doesn't seem to work with FontSmoother. Any chance on making it work Pruss, or possibly implementing it into Plucker?

[pruss]

The way ReadThemAll's autoscrolling works is great for me. It doesn't actually scroll the text, but continually changes the text in the parts that you have already read. I can actually concentrate on the text without getting dizzy. Too bad that it doesn't support 320 by 480 and can only read DOC formats. Also, it doesn't seem to work with FontSmoother. Any chance on making it work Pruss,

Can't be done without modifying RTA.

or possibly implementing it into Plucker?

Unlikely, I'm afraid. It's not such a good scrolling method for rich text with some images, multiple sized fonts, etc.

[anand78]

Okay, I understand. Thanks anyway.

Guess it is back to manually changing pages for me.