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Old 03-03-2012, 09:00 AM   #16
doughayman
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Originally Posted by DiapDealer View Post
Just a bit of clarification. To my knowledge, uploaded mobi/prc files are not further "converted" by the KDP process. Since kindlegen (& Previewer) now produce a file that contains both the old MOBI format and the new KF8 format. Amazon will split the file into it's separate components so that they can deliver the proper format to the proper device (they don't deliver the whole uploaded file) and they strip the source from it (if it exists) before they deliver to customers. But otherwise, they're delivering the exact same mobi you uploaded to them.

EDIT: that's with kindlegen-produced MOBIs. I have no idea what, if anything, happens to calibre-produced mobis.
Diapdealer, thank you for these additional comments. FYI, I haven't enjoyed working with Kindlegen, due to their cryptic errors. Calibre is free (they ask for a donation, which I'm going to give them soon), but it is a Universal format <--> format converter, which has a nice Windows interface, and is quite intuitive. Also, I can build all my book formats for all platforms, from this one platform, which I find useful. Lots of useful 3rd-party add-ons as well. The only thing I don't like about Calibre is their adjunct e-Reader, which doesn't render all that well, but it is certainly better than nothing.
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Old 03-03-2012, 09:48 AM   #17
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Calibre is free (they ask for a donation, which I'm going to give them soon), but it is a Universal format <--> format converter, which has a nice Windows interface, and is quite intuitive.
I use calibre quite a bit myself for personal things. I'm a huge fan. I think it does a fantastic job of translating css-laden ePubs into comparable MOBIs (often times better than kindlegen). However the MOBI format is still proprietary and owned by Amazon. And no matter how thoroughly reverse-engineered the MOBI format seems to be (by calibre developers and others), the anal-retentive, compulsive, perfectionist in me isn't willing to take the chance (when uploading to Amazon) that something will be missed, or that something will change. So when uploading MOBIs to Amazon, I stick to the official Amazon tools for creating MOBIs. Not out of loyalty, but out of paranoia that something else may not get every tiny, internal detail "right."

Often times, I'll use calibre to get a MOBI that looks the way I want it to, then unpack that calibre MOBI and rebuild it with kindlegen, just to be on the safe side.

Last edited by DiapDealer; 03-03-2012 at 09:51 AM.
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Old 03-03-2012, 11:31 AM   #18
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I use calibre quite a bit myself for personal things. I'm a huge fan. I think it does a fantastic job of translating css-laden ePubs into comparable MOBIs (often times better than kindlegen). However the MOBI format is still proprietary and owned by Amazon. And no matter how thoroughly reverse-engineered the MOBI format seems to be (by calibre developers and others), the anal-retentive, compulsive, perfectionist in me isn't willing to take the chance (when uploading to Amazon) that something will be missed, or that something will change. So when uploading MOBIs to Amazon, I stick to the official Amazon tools for creating MOBIs. Not out of loyalty, but out of paranoia that something else may not get every tiny, internal detail "right."

Often times, I'll use calibre to get a MOBI that looks the way I want it to, then unpack that calibre MOBI and rebuild it with kindlegen, just to be on the safe side.
Yes, a real good point. Amazon owns Mobi, so they are the boss for sure. My only issue is that Kindlegen generates all these funky error msgs which are cryptic and very often, not informative. Fortunately, the Kindle Previewer seems pretty good to me, and I am using that as the final arbiter for review (other than the actual physical devices that I own). All a learning process for me - I've only been at this for less than 2 months.
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Old 03-03-2012, 12:11 PM   #19
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My only issue is that Kindlegen generates all these funky error msgs which are cryptic and very often, not informative. Fortunately, the Kindle Previewer seems pretty good to me,
Just so you know, Kindle Previewer uses kindlegen to do its conversion, and produces the same warning/errors in its build log. I totally get it if you just like the gui better, though.
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Old 03-03-2012, 05:50 PM   #20
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OK, sorry to be a pain here. I have inserted my 600x800 cover image into my .doc file, and saved it as a .htm file (Webfile, unfiltered), which I use as input to Calibre. I specify metadata in Calibre, not setting Calibre's cover image to anything, and generate my .mobi, from the .htm. The cover image now renders OK for all devices in Kindle Previewer, and my book's text renders great. I'm making some progress here..........

I still have 2 somewhat minor problems though:

1) On a physical iPhone (actually, an Ipod Touch), this 600x800 cover image only fills up about 80% of the display, height-wise (width is pretty good, with thin margins on either side). This is not the near-100% height that I was hoping for and have seen with other Kindle books. Am I doing something wrong here?

2) On the Kindle App for iPhone (again, Ipod Touch - same thing), the thumbnail cover image displayed for my book on my book list is maybe 60% of BOTH the height and width of other Kindle book thumbnail cover images on my list. If I'm adhering to the 600x800 cover image spec correctly, what am I doing wrong here?

Thanks again to all.


UPDATE: ALL RESOLVED - SEE NEXT POST

Last edited by doughayman; 03-04-2012 at 08:20 AM.
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Old 03-03-2012, 08:53 PM   #21
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Well, not sure if the original poster of this thread is still on-board, but I found out what the issue with Kindle Previewer is. I am having trouble rendering "Kindle" and "Kindle DX" cover images using the Kindle Previewer on my laptop (Windows XP). Well, for fun, I installed the KP on my wife's laptop (Windows 7), and lo and behold, the cover images render perfectly for "Kindle" and "Kindle DX" devices.

There has got to be a bug with any XP-code graphics rendering, or something else funky going on with KP. By the way, I provided Cover Image on this final test via Calibre, which was the original way I desired to due it (yes, I like the GUI better than the command-line stuff).............
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Old 03-05-2012, 11:28 AM   #22
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Hi, not sure if you fixed the cover problem alredy, but Amazon's guideline for the size/ratio of a cover in KDP is 1:1.6, so it would be 500x800 rather than 600x800 - so that would explain the whitespace above and below.
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Old 03-06-2012, 10:31 AM   #23
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Not sure I'm getting the entire gist of this thread but I think the question was why Kindle Previewer was cutting off the cover at the top and bottom of the screen, not displaying properly? If you choose landscape instead of portrait icon on the bar in Kindle Previewer, then everything looks OK to me.
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Old 03-10-2012, 07:01 AM   #24
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A Thirsty Mind
said:
"Not sure I'm getting the entire gist of this thread but I think the question was why Kindle Previewer was cutting off the cover at the top and bottom of the screen, not displaying properly? If you choose landscape instead of portrait icon on the bar in Kindle Previewer, then everything looks OK to me."


Unfortunately I did not find that was the answer. You need to look at your cover carefully. When you change it to landscape, I think you will find another part of it (the bottom) has now been cut.

Also doughayman suggests it is only a problem with Win XP. No, I have used Win 7 all along. I am convinced the problem is in the (downloaded) Kindle Previewer.
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Old 04-13-2012, 05:45 PM   #25
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previewer--please fix!!

The problem is definitely with the previewer. I had a previous version of the previewer, and all my mobis were fine. Then I updated it, and now all my covers (Kindle & Kindle DX) are cropped.

Also, I emailed my latest mobi to my actual Kindle. It was fine on the Kindle, cropped in the previewer.

I'm now trying to find out where I can download an older Previewer.
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Old 04-14-2012, 07:28 PM   #26
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Originally Posted by doughayman View Post
Well, not sure if the original poster of this thread is still on-board, but I found out what the issue with Kindle Previewer is. I am having trouble rendering "Kindle" and "Kindle DX" cover images using the Kindle Previewer on my laptop (Windows XP). Well, for fun, I installed the KP on my wife's laptop (Windows 7), and lo and behold, the cover images render perfectly for "Kindle" and "Kindle DX" devices.

There has got to be a bug with any XP-code graphics rendering, or something else funky going on with KP. By the way, I provided Cover Image on this final test via Calibre, which was the original way I desired to due it (yes, I like the GUI better than the command-line stuff).............
There is definitely an issue with the Previewer and cover images (I'm using XP as well, never thought that could be part of it). In 'Kindle' mode, my cover shows as being too large for the screen.

I checked it out with some of my downloaded mainstream books, and they acted the same way, so it is the Previewer and not the .mobi file. Basically we just need to ignore it, and look at the 'Kindle Fire' mode, etc. I just put my book up on Amazon, and the cover looks great. (I used the 1.6 ratio, and that was really frustrating - like what is the optimal size? But it turned out looking real good.)
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Old 11-22-2012, 12:55 AM   #27
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PRC vs .doc etc.

(I have similar problem of cover image not filling the screen on the kdp provided previewer.)

I used MobiCreator for conversion, and the cover/book both looked fine. I then uploaded MobiCreator's .prc file to kdp. (The book text looks fine in the previewer.)

My question is: Does it matter which type of file I upload to kdp?

Would there be any difference if I uploaded my .doc file directly to kdp and went through the conversion process there?

Or should I save my .doc file to web page filtered?

Or can I stick to prc?

Any advice appreciated.

PS (I don't know how to edit html.)
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