Dotsies on your Reader

Dotsies is probably the Dvorak of fonts — in a good way, of course. It’s better because it’s more compact; but they are both difficult to learn, very few people can use them well, and there’s no incentive to start learning them other than “they are better”. Though Dotsies is part of The New Aesthetic, so it could thrive. [I’m typing this with a Colmak keyboard layout!]

But, if you’re going to the trouble of learning a new skill, then you’ll want a way to use it in practice. Online, there’s the Dotsies reader and the bookmarklet; but as there are no books published in Dotsies yet, changing the font on some ebooks might be a good start. After all, Dotsies is designed for maximising screen estate.

These instructions are for a Sony PRS-505, though it should work for most Sony Readers, I’m changing fonts book-by-book, so there’s nothing scary like firmware flashing. These instructions use Calibre for the conversions, so you’ll need DRM-free ebooks; I’ve used the file from “A Princess of Mars” that I’ve used previously.

Dotsies on an ebook Reader

If you don’t mind breaching some TOCs, stripping DRM from ebooks is a _solved problem (that means a search engine is your friend)._

First, you’ll need the fonts. A regular and bold are available for download (there’s no italic font as the italic shape for Dotsies hasn’t been decided on yet).

Then place those two fonts into a fonts directory in the internal memory of the Reader (this folder doesn’t normally exist).

Then it’s time to convert the ebook in Calibre. I already had this book in my Library, so I imported a new copy and changed the title in Calibre so it would be a new book, and so I’d know from the title that it was the Dotsied version.

Select the book in Calibre, right click, and select Convert Books » Convert Individually. Then, in Look & Feel paste the following CSS into the Extra CSS box. This will tell the ebook reader to use the Dotsies fonts that were copied across before for the book text.

<code class="block">@font-face {

    font-family: "Dotsies";
    font-weight: normal;
    font-style: normal;
    src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Dotsies.ttf);

}

@font-face {

    font-family: "Dotsies";
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
    src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Dotsies Wide.ttf);

}

body, div, p {

    font-family: "Dotsies", serif;
    widows: 0;
    orphans: 0;

}</code>

If should also display using Dotsies in the Calibre reader if those fonts are installed on your computer.

Finally, copy the new book across to your reader. I didn’t notice any change in page turn time.

See also: code.google.com » prs-plus wiki » InstallGuide The ebook Reader » Sony Font Hack How to Change Fonts on a Sony Reader mobileread forums » VERY detailed guide on changing default Reader fonts