BoB and Kindle

[Gazella]

I bought an ebook from Books on Board about a week ago. I converted it to MOBI to put on my Kindle Paperwhite. I noticed that the book isn't formatted properly on the Kindle. I am aware that their book format (ADOBE ePub) isn't compatible for the Kindle but it is for the Nook and many other ereaders. I've already finished the book but I went back to take a picture of what I'm referring to. As you can see, there are a lot of spacing between each paragraph, nearly the whole book has uneven spacing on the Kindle. Wide margins on one side also but I couldn't recall the location. Is this the same when reading books from BoB on supported ereaders or is the problem just affecting the Kindle?

[HarryT]

It's almost certainly just a case of this particular book bring badly formatted. Do you see the same wide paragraph spacing when you load the original ePub into ADE?

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's almost certainly just a case of this particular book bring badly formatted. Do you see the same wide paragraph spacing when you load the original ePub into ADE?

What's ADE?

[HarryT]

Adobe Digital Editions. Adobe's desktop software for displaying ePub files (among other things). A free download from adobe.com.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Adobe Digital Editions. Adobe's desktop software for displaying ePub files (among other things). A free download from adobe.com.

Oh yes I have ADE. I remember viewing the book with the software but I can't recall if there were spacings. I'm going to have to check again when I'm back home. So if there are spacing when opening the book with ADE, does that mean that the problem is with the book? Or is it the same with all BoB books?

[HarryT]

It means the problem is in the book. This has nothing to do with BoB - that's certain. It's either a problem with the original book (by far the most likely thing), which is the fault of the book's publisher, or it's an artefact of the conversion process (unlikely). But either way it has absolutely nothing to do with the store that you bought it from.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It means the problem is in the book. This has nothing to do with BoB - that's certain. It's either a problem with the original book (by far the most likely thing), which is the fault of the book's publisher, or it's an artefact of the conversion process (unlikely). But either way it has absolutely nothing to do with the store that you bought it from.

That's what I thought as well but I wanted to make sure before buying more books that this isn't the case with all BoB books. I thought that if it looked like that on a Kindle it will certainly not be any different on an ereader supported by BoB.

[HarryT]

You are correct. That's why I advised you to see what the ePub original looked like in ADE.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You are correct. That's why I advised you to see what the ePub original looked like in ADE.

I accessed my BoB account and saw the download to Bluefire Reader next to the purchased book. I thought since I have my iPad with me, I'd download the app via the App Store and open the book. This is how the same page looks on the Bluefire Reader on my iPad. As you can see, the spacing isn't as wide as on the Kindle.

[HarryT]

It's still way too wide. It's definitely a fault in the book.

You can clean it up in Calibre.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You can clean it up in Calibre.

How do I do that?

[veezh]

@Gazella20: You might try opening the epub file in Sigil. A quick way to fix the spacing issue is to find and open the epub's CSS file and add the following code on a new line at the end of the file:

body, div, p, h1, h2, h3, h4 { margin: 0; padding: 0; }

Save the epub, and exit Sigil. You can then re-convert the epub to mobi in calibre and transfer the mobi to your Kindle, hopefully without all the gaps between paragraphs.

[HarryT]

The easy way is to check the "Remove blank lines between paragraphs" box in the conversion options. This may or may not work. If it doesn't, you need to find out what it is that's actually causing the issue (ie look at the book's source code) and then fix that.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by veezh

@Gazella20: You might try opening the epub file in Sigil. A quick way to fix the spacing issue is to find and open the epub's CSS file and add the following code on a new line at the end of the file:

body, div, p, h1, h2, h3, h4 { margin: 0; padding: 0; }

Save the epub, and exit Sigil. You can then re-convert the epub to mobi in calibre and transfer the mobi to your Kindle, hopefully without all the gaps between paragraphs.

Originally Posted by HarryT

The easy way is to check the "Remove blank lines between paragraphs" box in the conversion options. This may or may not work. If it doesn't, you need to find out what it is that's actually causing the issue (ie look at the book's source code) and then fix that.

I'll try your suggestions and see what works best. Thanks.