The only way to get any control at all over the fonts in your ePUB and Kindle/Mobi eBooks is to embed the fonts you use in your eBooks. Help+Manual can do this in a way that is accepted universally, even by the famously picky Apple iBooks® reader. However, this will increase the size of your eBooks and there are copyright issues. Also, the Kindle apps and devices will not display the fonts you set by default! The user must activate "publisher fonts" in the settings and must know that this is possible. This means that if your layout depends on specific fonts, it will fail initially on Kindle devices and readers.

You may decide that it is better to let the reader control your fonts. Given the current situation, this is probably the only really sane solution.

You must have copyright permission for embedded fonts

Most fonts are copyrighted and you can only embed and distribute them in your eBooks if you have permission from the copyright holders. This can be time-consuming and expensive. We recommend using free OpenType fonts, that eliminate this problem. See below for sources.

Font embedding is required for non-English languages on some readers

Adobe Digital Editions and some other ePUB readers require embedded fonts for all non-English languages requiring special character sets. This does not apply to Apple iBooks® and Kindle readers and apps, but if you are publishing non-English languages for other readers you must embed your fonts for correct character display. As a general rule of thumb, always test your books on all the devices and readers where you expect them to be read before releasing them.

iOS devices only know their own fonts

Apple iBooks® on iOS devices can handle multiple languages very well. However, they only have their own special fonts available, and their names are different from those of most standard fonts. You can target these fonts directly in Help+Manual (see below) but then you may get unexpected font displays on other readers that do not have the same Apple fonts installed. However, there are enough fonts in the Apple list with matching names so that you can get reasonably good cross-platform results without embedding fonts if you are only use these fonts (see below).

Unicode fonts are required

Unicode is an absolute requirement for ePUB so you must use Unicode fonts. Do not try to embed non-Unicode fonts, it will almost certainly not work and can produce disastrous results.

There is no universal solution

At the moment, whatever you do will be a compromise. Basically, you just have to accept that full control over your fonts on all target devices is not possible at the moment, even with font embedding. And if you embed your fonts you need to deal with the problems associated with embedding.

No matter which fonts you decide to use in your eBooks, we urge you to activate and use "Print View" style settings in the projects that you publish to eBooks. This will allow you to set different fonts and other style settings for your eBooks and for your normal electronic help formats like WebHelp and CHM.

These settings are used for eBooks in the same way as for Word and PDF output and they make it possible to target fonts that do not exist on your Windows computer (for example the special fonts that are only installed on Apple iOS devices).

See Multiple style sets for information and instructions.

Apple iOS devices have their own fonts and most of their names will not match the fonts available on your Windows computer. If you want to use your own fonts you must activate font embedding and make sure that you have copyright permission to distribute them or use free OpenType fonts (see below). Or you can target the fonts used on iOS directly or you can just use your own standard Windows fonts and let the iOS device and the user choose the fonts to be displayed.

Option 1: Use standard Windows fonts

This is the simplest solution and it hands over font control to the iOS devices. Set your standard fonts to normal Windows fonts like Arial and Times New Roman and don't turn on font embedding in your ePUB publishing options. Apple iBooks will then use its own fonts and the user will be able to change the fonts as they please. This is generally a good idea for your base font (the font used for the majority of your body text) and it has the added advantage of working on all ePUB readers. You can still target specific iOS fonts for special styles if you like.

Option 2: Target the iOS fonts directly

If you use this option you must use the "Print View" style settings (see above) because it means entering the names of fonts not installed on your Windows machine. Manually enter the names of the iOS fonts (see below for a list) in your style definitions to target them.

Don't turn on font embedding! Targeting iOS fonts directly is not possible if you turn on font embedding. If you do, Help+Manual will automatically embed its own free OpenType Unicode fonts for all fonts that are not found when the ePUB is published.

Option 3: Embed your fonts

Use this option for full control. If you do this all the fonts you use must be available on your Windows machine. Help+Manual will replace any fonts not found with its own OpenType Unicode alternatives.

The fonts you use should either be free fonts or fonts for which you have distribution permission. See below for sources for free OpenType Unicode fonts.

Set your fonts in your "Print View" styles (see above) and activate font embedding in your ePUB publishing settings.

Adobe Digital Editions and similar readers only have the absolute minimum of fonts on board and they do not access the fonts installed on the computer on which they are running. Also, the included fonts only work for English. If you want to use special fonts or display languages other than English (or languages that use the English alphabet) you must embed your fonts when you are targeting these readers.

The fonts you use should either be free fonts or fonts for which you have distribution permission. See below for sources for free OpenType Unicode fonts.

Set your fonts in your "Print View" styles (see above) and activate font embedding in your ePUB publishing settings.

List of iOS fonts

This website lists the fonts currently available on Apple iOS devices and their names. If you want to target these fonts in your Print View style settings you must enter the font names exactly as listed here. For example, "AmericanTypewriter" will work but "American Typewriter" will probably not!

 List of fonts on iOS devices

Sources for free OpenType fonts

The Unifont website is a great resource for locating and downloading free Unicode OpenType fonts that you can use without fear of copyright infringement problems:

 http://www.unifont.org/fontguide/