EPUB export losing spaces between some words

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Hi,

I am new to InDesign and EPUB creation so go easy on me for my lack of foundational knowledge. 

When I export my ebook to EPUB format, I am losing spaces between some words (but not all). For example, "fill it with" comes out as "fillitwith". I am using InDesign version 16.1.0.20 on a Mac. My font is Courier New. I checked the hidden characters and my spaces are shown there, but not in the EPUB conversion. Is my problem with my font selection? 

I tried changing my paragraph and character styles. I tried changing the font to something else that worked - but I would really prefer to keep my existing font. 

Thanks!

[Dan Rodney]

So you're saying the spaces are fine in some fonts, but not Courier New? If so, that certainly sounds like a font issue. Are you embedding the font?

[BobLevine]

What format is the font? Type 1 is unsupported and cannot be embedded. What EPUB reader are you using?

[Callum P]

Hello,

Was this ever solved, I have multiple EPubs breaking in a similar fashion. I'm no EPub tech and the font P22 Mackinac seems to be breaking sparadically with no trend across the books. I cannot share screenshots due to NDAs but any help would be greatly appreciated here I'm at a loose end and it's driving me insane!

[Laura Brady]

I suspect the issue with the original poster was that it was a fixed-layout export and that there was letter spacing in the original that didn't translate well to word-by-word positioning. 

Is this possibly what's going on with your export, Callum? 

[Callum P]

I started messing around with random buttons and the EPub Interactivity Preview, I think I've figured it out! P22 mackinac has Ligatures that connect certain letters together, for example 'Th' and 'ff', if I turn these off the words then are spaced normally! Why doesn't the EPub say it can't work with certain ligatures, or just turn them off by default? 

I'm currently looking into possibly adding a javascript to remove ligatures from an entire book or document rather than editing every single paragraph style!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Yes, other (somewhat newer) topics traced this glitch to ligature issues. IIRC it was font-specific, indicating some variation in the glyph mapping or overall kerning metrics for some fonts.

It's avoidable by not using FXL. 🙂