Quote:
Originally Posted by DreamWriter
Definitely good advice, especially since I've run out of other ideas to try! Do you suggest I upload a Kindlegen-created mobi or an epub file to KDP?
My brain is fried for today, but that is at the top of my to-do list for tomorrow.  I will upload a file that has NO embedded or called fonts at all—no "font-family" anything.
Actually, that won't be a very difficult task. I have no problem navigating CSS/HTML/OPF/NCX, and I'm used to waiting for five hours between KDP uploads after doing this almost daily for a month. 
After the updated book is available for sale, I'll have Kindle CS push the latest version to my devices. Sometimes I can't be 100% sure if they've actually sent me the very latest version because the changes are subtle, but this one will be very easy to tell!
I'll let you all know what happens!
Edit: Hitch, do you like 1.2em for paragraph indents, as Jon suggested, or is there another em value you prefer? I may experiment with that, too. |
I like 1.2-1.5 em, depending on what font I think will be used, and a variety of other factors. We have many that have a simple 1em indent. 1.5 will generally get you 3-4 characters, give or take a lie or two, on a Kfire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DreamWriter
Do licenses need to be acquired for any of the fonts you mentioned or can those particular fonts be embedded in e-books without that concern?
|
No, no--licensed. I forget the rates for BookAntiqua, Trebuchet, etc., but if I recall correctly, none were spectacularly cheap.
HOWEVER, that being said, if you're diligent, you can usually find very good substitutes that are uber-affordable. I like PTSans, for example, for a nice sans. And honestly, PTSerif isn't bad to match it, if you want serif/sans-serif as the theme. Neuton is a viable body font. Gentium Book can be nice, too.
The trick is, in my opinion, not to just see a font and go nuts for it. Many (far too many) fonts nowadays are just slapped together, because the strokes look nice, with no consideration given to kerning, kerning pairs, the font metrics, etc. I gave an example about this very topic last night on the KDP forums (which of course went straight to mod hell..urghghghghg)...the good ol reliable print font, Garamond, has over 1300 kerning PAIRS, if you look at the three main faces: regular, bold, italic. (The topic at hand was "why can't the reading devices just kern on the fly, no matter what font size is chosen, or font" being complained about, of course, because the person asking understands nothing whatsoever about the complexities of kerning).
So, to get a real feel for it, you actually have to do an entire PRINT page of layout, and an eBook page, and then stare at it. See if anything leaps out at you. Because if you choose the wrong font (for a body), it can actually tire the eyes, strain the reader, bring an unwanted element to the reader's enjoyment of the book. And that, obviously, would be BAD.
This is why I tend to tell folks to stick to TNR and Caecilia, if they are unsure--because no two fonts in the history of humankind have ever been as tested, retested, designed, user-driven, etc., like those two. If nothing else, at least you know that they won't make your reader STOP reading early, because of eyestrain, or some other jiggery-pokery around the eyes that bothers them--even if they don't understand exactly what it is.
See what I mean?
Hitch