We have explored how the longest name in the world in an ebook about world records did (or did not) wrap on ereaders. Then we explored how a soft-hyphenation character entity could be used to make the word wrap.
This post follows up with how that same character entity can throw a wrench into the works … because, after all, this wouldn’t be ebook production without a solution immediately causing a problem!
Rick Gordon asked me if the soft-hyphenation character entity broke the dictionary and search functions in ereaders. I inserted the entity into the first instance of the word “language” in the introduction:
And here are the results:
| THE ENTITY AND FUNCTIONALITY | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ereader Engine | Dictionary Works | Search Works |
| Adobe RMSDK | ||
| Adobe Digital Editions v2.0 | n/a | YES |
| Nook Color | NO | NO |
| Kindles (EPUB pushed through KP) | ||
| Kindle iPad App | YES | YES |
| Kindle Mac Desktop App | YES | YES |
| Kindle Fire HD | YES | YES |
| Kindle Paperwhite | YES | YES |
| Kindle mobi (in KP) | n/a | n/a |
| Kobos | ||
| Kobo Eink: Aura | YES | YES |
| Kobo App for Android | NO | NO |
| Kobo App for iPad | NO | n/a |
| Web-based Ereaders | ||
| EPUBReader in Firefox | YES | YES |
| Readium in Chrome | YES | YES |
| iBooks | NO | YES |
Does the soft hyphenation character entity work on ereaders? Yes.
Does the entity work with the dictionary function? Depends. Sadly, NookColor and iBooks don’t play nice. iBooks? Wow! Kindles FTW.
Does the entity work with the search function? Depends. That’s fine except for NookColor. This may or may not be a problem for you, depending on your consumer base and/or your ability to predict the future.
Takeaway
If you are producing an ebook intended only for Amazon, you are in luck … as of June 2013.
If you are producing an ebook intended for iBooks, Kobo, or Nook … well, you may or may not care. Use at your discretion.
I think I’ve exhausted this investigation into soft hyphens in ebooks. I thank all for their input.
On that note, does anybody know an iBooks developer to whom I can send these results?
Screenshots
As always, click to make ‘em larger.
Adobe RMSDK-based ereaders
Kindles
Kobos
Web-based Ereaders
Adobe RMSDK-based ereaders
Nook Color
Kindles
Kindle iPad App
Kindle Mac Desktop App
Kindle Fire HD
Kindle Paperwhite
Kobos
Thank you Laura Brady for the screenshots.
Kobo Eink: Aura
Kobo App for Android
Kobo App for iPad
Web-based Ereaders
EPUBReader in Firefox
Readium in Chrome
iBooks
