Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
Only Amazon can properly supply KFX.
Actually most people won't notice the difference. Amazon could update the KF8 renderer in the ereaders and apps. But KFX is really about DRM.
IMO as an epub2 is often used to generate KFX, the KF8 files could be rendered identically.
Smashwords don't know what sort of kindle you have, and for some it's not the model, but firmware level. Amazon does know, so can deliver KF7, KF8 or KFX. Actually they have a few other format too.
There is no sensible way for Smashwords or anyone else to do KFX other than by offering TWO Kindle download options, a dual KF7-KF8 and a KF8. That would be confusing as most people have no idea what Kindle formats their ereader or app does.
The dual Mobi will work on anything that does KFX and look nearly as good.
Also as Smashwords doesn't even make as good Mobi or epub from the default doc upload as people can from a GOOD docx (which is why they offer Direct upload for mobi & epub), I can't see them supporting KFX.
KFX and kepub are both nasty formats with small visual enhancements to distract from the fact that they are about DRM. Any KF8 renderer could easily be updated for the Enhanced Typesetting. It's the SAME source ebooks!
The Kobos could have an epub renderer that adds the features of kepub, except kepub actually gets some CSS wrong!
KFX is an example of the Big Publishers being obsessed by DRM and letting Amazon call the shots and a symptom of lack of regulation of big USA corporations.
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Yes, dear, but my point really was....when ET first showed up, I confess to being a bit dismissive. Right? "meh, so what, stop inconveniencing me, Amazon, with all this drivel about tables forcing ET to not work, yadda."
BUT....I realized, after a very short period of time, that when I was then reading some PD stuff, near-direct from Gutenberg, that I really MISSED ET. (ET, Phone home!). I found it distracting to read the gappy, rivered, no-hyphens, etc. stuff. I suffered through one Philo Vance, and then promptly gave up and produced them again, for myself, using this, that and the hyphenation plugin over at Calibre. (Yes. yes, yes, I touched Calibre!)
It was
very noticeable to me. And I don't mean in my professional life. I mean in my "as a reader" life. The place where I turn off my editorial, proofreading, bookmaker-brain and just try to enjoy. And it was vexatious to me. I couldn't ignore that this particular set of PD books was simply not "as nice" to read as (gasp), the post-ET eBooks.
{shrug}
That's it. That's all I'm saying. It's hard to ignore, once you see it. I do not concur with your opinion that most won't notice it.
I agree with what you say--there's no
good way for SW to emulate what Amazon has done nad I agree that KFX is, definitely, absolutely, surely about DRM, more than layout--but
nonetheless, layout matters.
Hitch