puzzled by fonts

Question

Level 4

3,118 points

puzzled by fonts

I'm do some preliminary drafting, formatting, layouting etc in iBooks Author, and want to choose a good font or fonts for the book. I'm puzzled that in the drop-down Fonts menu in iBA, I don't see the four new fonts that Apple added to the iBooks app some months ago, namely Athelas, Charter, Iowan and Seravek. I'm equally puzzled that in iBooks, readers are offered only 7 fonts to choose from - the four just named, plus Georgia, Palatino and Times New Roman.

Why this discrepancy? Why are four (new) iBooks fonts not available when authoring a book in iBA? And why don't several of the fonts in iBA's own default templates feature in the list of font choices in iBook? In those iBA templates, the fonts which are used but which don't appear as options in iBooks are as follows: Baskerville, Helvetica, Bradley Hand ITC ITT and American Typewriter.

Any insight/enlightenment gratefully received.

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 5:15 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jul 11, 2012 5:55 AM in response to John Potts

John Potts wrote:

in the drop-down Fonts menu in iBA, I don't see the four new fonts that Apple added to the iBooks app some months ago, namely Athelas, Charter, Iowan and Seravek.

Those fonts have never been added to OS X and thus cannot be used by any app.

I don't think there is really any connection intended between the iBooks user font choices and the fonts you can use in iBA (which is every font available on both OS X and iOS).

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Answer 2

John Potts Author

Level 4

3,118 points

Jul 11, 2012 6:12 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks for your reply, Tom.

I don't think there is really any connection intended between the iBooks user font choices and the fonts you can use in iBA...

My puzzlement remains, nonetheless: if Apple specifically makes those fonts available to the reader of an iBook (and removes other fonts, namely Baskerville, Cochin and Verdana), isn't that some kind of suggestion by Apple that these fonts are particularly good or suitable for the iBook user's reading experience? Otherwise, why make them available (and kill off some of the previous font options)?

And if that's the case, that these fonts are "good for reading iBooks and for iBook readers", why can't iBA create books using those fonts?

Anyway, no big deal - it just seems odd to me.

...the fonts you can use in iBA (which is every font available on both OS X and iOS)

As far as I know, some OS X fonts aren't compatible with the iPad, so should be avoided in iBA. But I may be wrong.

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jul 11, 2012 6:31 AM in response to John Potts

John Potts wrote:

As far as I know, some OS X fonts aren't compatible with the iPad, so should be avoided in iBA. But I may be wrong.

Yes, the font must be available both on OS X and on iOS. Sorry if my earlier phrase was unclear.

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Answer 4

tk0us

Level 2

265 points

Jul 11, 2012 7:43 AM in response to John Potts

the current iOS font list is at:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4980

hope this helps

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Answer 5

gdewolfe

Level 1

0 points

Jul 14, 2012 9:28 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

So, as far as you have said I can now buy Iowan and Seravek, put them on the OS and they will be available to work with in iBooks Author and visible on the iPad. Is that correct?

George

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Answer 6

K T

Level 7

23,877 points

Jul 14, 2012 9:48 AM in response to gdewolfe

No, sorry.

There are schemes for using non-standard fonts with epubs made with other tools, and of course you can add fonts to an app, but iBooks Author users are obligated to use only iOS supported fonts. You can see the list of suppported iOS fonts by using the font menu pulldown in the toolbar....the font options in the main menu are full fonts supported by OS X, not iOS.

The fallback as always, is to use your font in an appropriate editor, capture that part of the screen and then add the resulting image to your book...of course users can search on it like 'normal' text, etc.

Ken

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Answer 7

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jul 14, 2012 10:37 AM in response to K T

K T wrote:

There are schemes for using non-standard fonts

Iowan and Seravek are not totally non-standard, because iBooks lets you select them as reading options, at least for epubs, so they are presumably present somewhere.

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Answer 8

K T

Level 7

23,877 points

Jul 14, 2012 11:21 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Just for reference, since none of is applies w/IBA, of course.

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Answer 9

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Jul 14, 2012 12:46 PM in response to K T

K T wrote:

Just for reference, since none of is applies w/IBA, of course.

But you would never need to embed Iowan in an epub, because you can always select that font in iBooks. The real question is whether an .ibooks doc composed in Iowan would display that font or not in iBooks, since it is not on the official list of iOS fonts. Someone would have to try it I guess...

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