[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Wolfie, Wolfie, Wolfie:

Now, now, let's not be disingenuous. It's true that PRC, and K7-mobi, does not allow for font-embedding, but K8 formatting does. I know I saw you in a discussion somewhere around here as to what to call a K8-formatted book, but, Amazon calls it a "MOBI" file. There's no such thing, from the input side, as an AZW3 file; that's a Calibre output format meant strictly for reading on one's own device (as it cannot be uploaded at the KDP).

K8-formatted books can certainly contain some fonts. It can get very cranky with Type1's (just don't use 'em). Some fonts, particularly Adobe fonts, just won't work, for reasons not quite clear to me. They just don't. I mean, letters "fly" around the page, coming unhinged from whither they should be parked, like something out of a movie. (I think that there's a scene in "Young Sherlock Holmes" which is similar to this, but maybe I'm mis-remembering.) Some letters just don't display. It's a weird thing.

Yes, KF8 can embed fonts. But, there is a problem with that. Unless the eBook has a note in it for the KF8 side to tell the person reading the book to turn on the publisher font, there is a good chance this won't happen. Amazon made a rather stupid (IMHO) mistake by making the publisher font default to off. And as for the Mobipocket side of things, that's just a wash in this case. Any books that require an emebdded font or fonts just won't work for the older devices and it looks like (unless I am wrong) there's no way to upload just a KF8 file.

However, all that being said, he can always try it. The issue will be a) fallbacks for the blackletter for K7 devices, and b) whether or not the font will display correctly. Much of what was attempted in the ePUB won't work in the MOBI, like trying to force words to stay together, etc. I don't remember everything that was discussed on this book; I know something that seemed to work originally was shown to not work by simply enlarging the font...but he can always just take his ePUB and drop it on KP, and see what happens. It's only a minute or two out of his life.

I would expect most of what's needed to work might work. But then the best way to test this is on an actual eInk Kindle that handles KF8. I know KP will maybe work. But then, maybe not.

BUT, again, cannot stress this strongly enough: what will you do for the millions of people who have Kindles, Kindle2's and DX'es, that can't display an embedded font?

And don't forget (I think) the iOS Kindle app. Doesn't that not do KF8 or not do embedded fonts or both? That there could also be an issue if I am correct. I don't know about the Android Kindle app and what if can or cannot do.