[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I cannot say the text 'looks darker' in LM than in other books. It stands to reason that the text is denser on the page because there isn't as much whitespace when hyphenation is in effect. But there's a way to check more precisely: take screen captures, load them into an image/photo editor, and compare pixels. I suppose that letters could be aligned on pixels differently in hyphenated vs non hyphenated modes, altering appearance, but I really would not expect that. I think it is just a 'perception' thing.

The darker fonts are very noticeable in my four recently republished e-books on the Fire HD6 when compared with the way it used to be (before the uploads that began February 14). Other e-books I've checked have crisp fonts, like mine used to. The fonts also appear darker on my Fire HD6 for The Tube Riders v1, which has auto-hyphenation like my books do now.

I just took the screenshots below on my Fire HD6. Both display Bookerly font. I enlarged the pixels in my photo-editing software, and there is a difference. The sample (on the right) is more blurry, and that's probably why it looks darker and less "crisp" on the device.

[image links broken]

Let me explain the screenshots above...

Left screenshot: When an author publishes to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), the file is initially "converted" by their software. The author can then use their online previewer to check that the file's okay. There's also an option to download the "converted" file, which is mobi (with KF8 included). After the author hits the Publish button, KDP does other mysterious things with the file. I think that's where my issues are being introduced.

Anyway...the screenshot on the left is how the file downloaded directly from KDP (after conversion there) looks on my Fire HD6. I submitted an epub file; the downloaded file is mobi (with KF8). It looks exactly the same on that device if I view a Kindlegen-created file that I make at home. The text looks rather pale and blurry in the screenshot, but it looks really nice on the device...sharp and easy to read! This is the way paragraph text in all four of my e-books (in both samples and the three e-books I had purchased) looked on Fire HD6 before I started uploading new versions a week or two ago! There was no auto-hyphenation then, either.

Right screenshot: This screenshot is from the sample obtained from the e-book's Amazon product page this morning. Notice the darker fonts (for both Chapter and paragraphs) and auto-hyphenation (circled). The graphic is also smaller on the Fire HD6 than it was before February 14, so something must've changed with that, too.

I will check on my HD7(2013) which I have at home.

Thanks! That information will help.

Reading software based on Adobe RMSDK has done hyphenation for at least a couple of years now, and I don't seem to hear any complaints from ePub people, nor have I seen options to turn it off in the reading software. There is specific CSS to turn it off in webkit: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/20...ation-and.html
and in epub:
http://www.pagetoscreen.net/journal/...ve_for_hyphens

Don't know if those work here though.

Yes, it does work in KF8. The auto-hyphenation can be turned off with this CSS:

body
{-webkit-hyphens:none;
hyphens:none;}

You can see a screenshot of that in my original post in this thread (labeled Example #3). The Chapter font has since changed, but the paragraphs would look the same if I intentionally turn off auto-hyphenation in CSS.

I may not upload additional changes to the file until the separate problem with book samples disappearing from product pages after publication is solved by KDP. They have assured me that they're working on that issue! If anyone does have suggestions for modifications to my CSS (which you can view in this post), please let me know. I'm keeping a list of changes to try in the future.

I apologize to everyone for the length of this thread! I realize that I am repeating myself sometimes.