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jhowell · 03-31-2021, 09:08 AM

KFX (Enhanced Typesetting) has become the dominant format for delivery of reflowable Kindle books by Amazon. Despite the shift to KFX, two major reading platforms have not supported it up to now: the Look Inside preview and the Kindle Cloud Reader (KCR). These both allow a Kindle book to be read within a web browser and use the same underlying technology.

The lack of KFX support in the Look Inside feature is especially problematic since it presents a view of the book's formatting that can differ significantly from what most readers will experience on an actual Kindle device or app. Extra work is often needed to fix defects in the Look Inside formatting that only become apparent once the book has been published.

The older MOBI7 and KF8 formats are also still needed to support older Kindle devices. However the last Kindle model to not support KFX came out in 2012, almost ten years ago. The number of those devices still in use must be relatively small by now.

There has been a recent discussion in another thread about new features seen in some English language Kindle books recently published in India. These books are only available to customers in KFX format and use a new hardened DRM scheme.

Besides that they also use a new Look Inside format that is based on KFX and so shows the preview with formatting that more closely matches what readers will actually see in the purchased book. While those books are not currently being made available in the Cloud Reader, possibly due to DRM concerns, it turns out that the new Look Inside is actually using the KCR platform to render the preview. It seems likely that Enhanced Typesetting support will be coming to the Cloud Reader sometime soon.

Although the option to publish books with those features appears to only be available to select publishers in one market right now, it seems likely to me that this reflects Amazon's long term strategy for the Kindle platform. Once both Look Inside and KCR support KFX there will be much less incentive for Amazon to continue support for MOBI7 and KF8, at least for newly published books.

03-31-2021, 09:08 AM	#1
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,102 Karma: 92190113 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Charlottesville, VA Device: Kindles	Signs of a further shift toward KFX KFX (Enhanced Typesetting) has become the dominant format for delivery of reflowable Kindle books by Amazon. Despite the shift to KFX, two major reading platforms have not supported it up to now: the Look Inside preview and the Kindle Cloud Reader (KCR). These both allow a Kindle book to be read within a web browser and use the same underlying technology. The lack of KFX support in the Look Inside feature is especially problematic since it presents a view of the book's formatting that can differ significantly from what most readers will experience on an actual Kindle device or app. Extra work is often needed to fix defects in the Look Inside formatting that only become apparent once the book has been published. The older MOBI7 and KF8 formats are also still needed to support older Kindle devices. However the last Kindle model to not support KFX came out in 2012, almost ten years ago. The number of those devices still in use must be relatively small by now. There has been a recent discussion in another thread about new features seen in some English language Kindle books recently published in India. These books are only available to customers in KFX format and use a new hardened DRM scheme. Besides that they also use a new Look Inside format that is based on KFX and so shows the preview with formatting that more closely matches what readers will actually see in the purchased book. While those books are not currently being made available in the Cloud Reader, possibly due to DRM concerns, it turns out that the new Look Inside is actually using the KCR platform to render the preview. It seems likely that Enhanced Typesetting support will be coming to the Cloud Reader sometime soon. Although the option to publish books with those features appears to only be available to select publishers in one market right now, it seems likely to me that this reflects Amazon's long term strategy for the Kindle platform. Once both Look Inside and KCR support KFX there will be much less incentive for Amazon to continue support for MOBI7 and KF8, at least for newly published books.