[Hitch]

Originally Posted by zebideedoodah

Hi

First time posting on here - if there's a better forum for this, please point me towards it.

I'm trying to create a Kindle file for an ebook of short stories. I have a lot of experince with InDesign, so I built a print version as a Book file in CS6, then produced an epub from that. It looked good, so I the converted that to mobi in Calibre. I then mailed the file to my Kindle address for both the Kindle itself and the phone app.

(Didn't you post about this on the KDP forums? Didn't I answer you about this before?)

Well, you've screwed yourself 6 ways from Sunday in your process. Firstly, "mobi" from Calibre is the old KF7 format, not KF8 and certainly not KFX/Enhanced Typesetting, so it will ignore most CSS. That's the first thing.

Secondly, mailing an ebook to your devices can also be problematic and if you mean an iPhone, you really screwed yourself, because a KF7 MOBI on an iPhone will look hideous. There's a different format for that (AZK) which you make using Kindle Previewer 3 and a rather tortured method for getting it into the Kindle app on the iOS device. (Google for it, you need images.)

However, the mobi lost all its spacing, most noticeable the space between the header and the text, and the paragraph spacing. All spacing was originally governed with paragraph tags in InDesign, so I tried various options (separate text frames for header, then producing chapter headers as images and using those as separators) - all guesswork really, but with little result.

You're working in the wrong generation of the format (MOBI from Calibre). Honestly, dude(tte) don't use Calibre for this. Calibre has many lovely qualities and this isn't one of them.

I wanted the header to appear about a third of the way down a new page, then a sizeable space (say = 8 lines of text) before the body text begins. I'd also added a drop cap of three lines in bold. That also disappeared in the mobi, although it retained the bold. The paragraph spacing has completely disappeared.

Firstly, the new chapter has to be in its own HTML file. If you get one big long-ass HTML file, you can't space from the "top of the page" because the top of the page is the beginning of the HTML file. If you create it in its own HTML file (each chapter), you can use a top-margin: setting with ems for spacing. But more on that later.

I also tried producing the file as an AZW3, but can't get my Kindle Fire HD (admittedly a few years old) or my Kindle app for Android (latest version) to read it. It won't even display in either library. It does display in Calibre's reader, though, and looks great. Is there a DRM switch I have to deal with when creating the AZW file? I had a feeling there was, but I couldn't find it referenced in Calibre.

AFAIK, you can't really use the AZW3 file easily. I believe that the Calibre community has some drag-this do that way of getting it onto Kindles, but even if it worked, so what? You can't upload it at KDP any-damned-way. So, stop screwing around with it.

You're somewhat on the right track--trying to see the more-advanced "dual" mobi version, but Calibre's AZW3 can't get there from here for you.

I also have the problem of extra pages at the beginning of the book, duplicating the cover and the title page (which I created as an image for convenience sake). I think I can deal with those, though - both the cover and the title page are images created in Photoshop and placed in the InDesign file. I'm guessing the extra pages are probably caused by the 'page breaks before image' setting. At the moment I'm concentrating on the text, although it's driving me slightly loopy. I feel like I'm missing something really obvious, but can't for the life of me see what it is.

No, it's because you put the cover in the ePUB file as a cover.html file (or whatever name) and that's not the right way to create a cover for a Kindle file. IF you get to the point with an ePUB where it's ready, other than that, you would remove the cover.html file, LEAVE the image named cover.jpg and meta-data'ed as the cover and then when it's uploaded at KDP, it will automatically build correctly. I'm not really sure what is happening with your title page or why it's duping?

I've avoided mentioning CSS so far, simply because as much as I have tried to get to grips with it (and understand it in principle), I just don't understand it when I read it. I also tried to edit the ebook in Sigil but I can't even get it to display. I get error messages referring to .ttf fonts and though I read up on woff fonts, and converted some as a trial, I can't get them to install in the fonts folder on my PC.

If you want fonts to display, inside an eBook, you MUST embed the fonts inside the ePUB. If you have them actively installed on YOUR computer, they'll work when you view the ePUB (on your computer) but that's worthless elsewhere.

You're going to need more on fonts than I can give you here. In short, you will have font declarations (typically at the top of the file) that will either need matching font files placed in the ePUB, or, if you replace them (let's say AGaramond Pro, replaced with a generic Garamond), you'll have to redefine the fonts in the declarations. That takes a bit of knowledge and you're NOT using WOFFS. Don't go to WOFFS, that's the wrong direction.

All the while the epub file looks great and is exactly what I wanted. It hasn't seemed to need a .css file so far - should I have one just for mobi? I am really beginning to feel like an idiot.

If the ePUB file doesn't have/need a CSS file, then something is horribly wrong, no offense. All eBooks, of all kinds, other than the "Hello World" version of an eBook, require CSS. Are you saying that your ePUB file has NO CSS in it? Is this a fixed-layout ePUB, maybe?

CSS is the display lifeblood of eBooks. it's the display lifeblood of Word files, word processing files AND, it's the lifeblood of INDD. All that stuff--paragraph styles, text styles, overrides, character styles--those ARE, in effect, CSS. If you understand paragraph styles, etc. in INDD, you effectively understand CSS.

Question--you DO use religious styles throughout your INDD file, right? You have defined paragraph styles for everything? Heading types, epigrams, (if used, obviously), first-paragraph styles, body styles, etc?

Whatever thoughts you have on this, disparaging as they might be, will be very welcome. I want this to be on Amazon before the end of this month, but I really feel like I've hit a brick wall.

Thanks for reading.

I'm not disparaging you, but you have undertaken a lot. Learning how to make an ebook from a typical INDD print file isn't exactly what I'd recommend as a beginning point for those wanting to learn eBook-making.

If you take your ePUB file and drop it on Kindle Previewer 3, what is the result? (IMPORTANT NOTE: if the ePUB file is fixed-layout, don't do this.)