Kovid, thank you for calibre.
When converting from EPUB (Default Profile) to MOBI (Default Profile), calibre seems to force the color of links to dark blue, even when all color entries are removed from the input EPUB css files & from the html files. The problem is that dark blue links are very hard to see on my readers' black backgrounds. (I read on LCDs and use white text on black background to reduce eye strain, and also decrease the brightness of the screen to save battery power and decrease it even more if ambient light is dim.)
This has happened on multiple books. A very short, free is example is
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/18215 (1,400 words). A longer, free example is
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7707 (24,000 words). (I did of course try to just use smashwords' mobis directly, but unfortunately many have the text color forced to black such that my reader software can't change the display of text to white.)
Things I've tried with the conversion process that haven't worked:
- Removed all color entries from input EPUB css files & checked that the the html files didn't have any.
- Added extra css to calibre " a {color: aqua !important;} "
Things I've tried on the resulting MOBI that haven't worked:
- In my reader software, set the display color of links to a visible color like aqua. (Note this DOES work on many of the epubs & mobis direct from smashwords.)
Results of using Debug in calibre:
- Note: 1st removed all color entries from input EPUB css files & checked that the the html files didn't have any. Nothing was entered in the calibre's extra css box.
- For both book examples, the Structure stage's css file had no color entries.
- For the very short book, the Processed stage's css file had 2 color entries:
.calibre4 {
color: blue;
cursor: pointer;
text-decoration: underline
}
.calibre5 {
color: blue;
cursor: pointer;
font-style: italic;
text-decoration: underline
}
- For the longer book, the Processed stage's css file had 3 color entries:
.calibre3 {
color: inherit;
cursor: default;
text-decoration: inherit
}
.calibre5 {
color: blue;
cursor: pointer;
text-decoration: underline
}
.western6 {
color: blue;
cursor: pointer;
font-weight: bold;
text-decoration: underline
}
Is there something else I can try? If there isn't, and you conclude that calibre is forcing the color of links, please would you modify how calibre does the conversion, either to not force the color, or to give the user a choice of the color?
Thank you very much.
calibre v. 0.7.21 on WinXP