MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - image blurred with kindlegen, looks great in epub

benbash · 05-13-2014, 01:41 AM

I'm building an e-book for friends. Some have kindle devices, some use iBooks on an iPad.

The e-book is a reference document with a large map (6000 X 4200 pixels) done up in GIMP mostly black and white, with a blue river.
The map is saved as a 465KB .gif file.

I build the epub using pandoc and markdown as follows

Code:

pandoc -S --epub-metadata=metadata.xml -o guide.epub title.txt 01_intro.markdown 02_setting.markdown 03_rules.markdown

The map looks wonderful in epub on iBooks. I can zoom in on details, and pan out, exactly as I want.

For my friends with kindle, I then use
Amazon kindlegen(Linux) V2.9 build 0730-890adc2
like so:

Code:

~/Kindlegen/kindlegen  -c0 -gif  -verbose  -o guide.mobi  guide.epub

(I don't have a kindle yet, so I review the guide.mobi on the Kindle app on the iPad.)

On the Kindle app, the image looks blurred at high zoom. It looks like it has been compressed even though I have set the -c0 option for no compression. Some of the text on the map is unreadable.

I know it is working in the epub format.

Is there a better way to transform a working epub file to kindle format other than kindlegen?
Or do I have the syntax wrong for the creation of the mobi?
Or should I use a different image format, other than gif?

This post
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=203580
implies the gif is over the 127KB max image size,
but this amazon kdp URL
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A1B6GKJ79HC7AN
says
"The Kindle book format supports JPEG and GIF image files up to 5MB. "

Thanks for your suggestions.
Ben Bash

05-13-2014, 01:41 AM	#1
benbash Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Vancouver, Canada Device: none	image blurred with kindlegen, looks great in epub I'm building an e-book for friends. Some have kindle devices, some use iBooks on an iPad. The e-book is a reference document with a large map (6000 X 4200 pixels) done up in GIMP mostly black and white, with a blue river. The map is saved as a 465KB .gif file. I build the epub using pandoc and markdown as follows Code: pandoc -S --epub-metadata=metadata.xml -o guide.epub title.txt 01_intro.markdown 02_setting.markdown 03_rules.markdown The map looks wonderful in epub on iBooks. I can zoom in on details, and pan out, exactly as I want. For my friends with kindle, I then use Amazon kindlegen(Linux) V2.9 build 0730-890adc2 like so: Code: ~/Kindlegen/kindlegen -c0 -gif -verbose -o guide.mobi guide.epub (I don't have a kindle yet, so I review the guide.mobi on the Kindle app on the iPad.) On the Kindle app, the image looks blurred at high zoom. It looks like it has been compressed even though I have set the -c0 option for no compression. Some of the text on the map is unreadable. I know it is working in the epub format. Is there a better way to transform a working epub file to kindle format other than kindlegen? Or do I have the syntax wrong for the creation of the mobi? Or should I use a different image format, other than gif? This post https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=203580 implies the gif is over the 127KB max image size, but this amazon kdp URL https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A1B6GKJ79HC7AN says "The Kindle book format supports JPEG and GIF image files up to 5MB. " Thanks for your suggestions. Ben Bash