Embedding Fonts in iBooks 1.2

Actually, you've been able to embed fonts since iBooks 1.12, but you needed iOS 4.2 to make it work. I'll go over it anyway, because it's awesome.

First, you need to use OpenType Fonts. They have the .otf extension. It looks like TrueType fonts (with the .ttf extension) and on which OpenType fonts are based, are also OK. Remember that getting a font into your ebook is only a part of the battle. You also have to have the permission to distribute the font with your book. Read the font license carefully.

Once you have a font file that you want to embed for your ebook, there are two steps you have to follow. First, you have to use an @font-face rule at the top of your CSS file.

Something like this:

@font-face {
font-family: "FontName";
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
src: url(../fonts/Fontname.otf);
}

I have not found much correlation between specifying a font-style or font-weight in the @font-face rule and success. That is, sometimes I've found that for an italic font you have to specify font-style: italic and sometimes you have to specify font-style: normal, which makes little sense, but that's the way it goes. It does seem necessary to create an @font-face rule for each and every style of every font you want to embed.

The next step is to use the fonts that you've now embedded in the actual style rules of your document:

p {font-family: "FontName";
font-size: 2em;
...
}

It's important that the font name you use be the official one. Any multi-word names should be enclosed in quotes.

The third step is to place the OTF font files in a fonts folder within your OEBPS folder in your EPUB document. If the actual font files aren't in there, they won't be embedded.

And finally, you have to declare those font files in the manifest of your EPUB:

<item id="fontname" href="fonts/fontname.otf" media-type="application/x-font-otf" />

(You can find more details on the manifest in my EPUB Straight to the Point book.)

You can use any id as long as it's unique. Make sure the path accurately reflects where you plced the OTF file. And be sure and use "application/x-font-otf" for the media-type.

And you're done! Here's a screenshot from one of Apple's new illustrated books with a new font. Note that Apple has used the font, Filosofia Regular, for the body text, even though their Publication guidelines expressly discourage such usage. They use various forms of Caecilia for the notes and inline headers.



And herein lies one of the main problems with the new "illustrated books" in iBooks 1.2. The reader can't change the font, and the reader can't change the font size. The text in this particular book is really hard to read. I'm racking my brain trying to figure out why this is better than a PDF, but I don't get it yet.