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Originally Posted by slowsmile
This is a very interesting change. I read this change as saying "As long as you follow the Enhanced Typsetting standard you'll be fine. But if you deviate from that standard then your ebook will fail when you test it on KP3 and will also fail if you upload to Amazon".
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The description of the change is not clearly worded. I read it as having two parts. Preventing books that contain formatting that is disallowed under Enhanced Typesetting from being published and also setting new requirements for the formatting of large tables.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowsmile
The one saving grace from his change is that you can now test your ebook in KP3 and if it fails then you will explicitly be told why it failed in the KP3 log. That's not so bad for techy folks who work with epubs and html. But how are the Word uploaders going to cope with these techy error descriptions?
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Yes, the messages are often quite technical. For example "Embedded Images are not supported in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Please use our suggested alternative found here ( https://www.amazon.com/en_US/guidance/layoutfeatures/svg_base64_url ) to resolve this issue."
Messages like that one also state "You currently have the option to upload this book without making the correction (more details here ( https://www.amazon.com/en_US/guidance/layoutfeatures/gracefull_period_warning )). Please note Enhanced Typesetting will not be enabled without making the correction." The "gracefull_period" (SP) is what will end later this month.
However there appear to be some loopholes. One of the most common error messages produced by the Kindle Previewer is "Kindle conversion has encountered an internal error while enabling Enhanced Typesetting on this book. We apologize for the inconvenience caused. Amazon is actively working to provide books that are free of internal errors. For now, we recommend to upload this book without Enhanced Typesetting." I assume that means the book will still be allowed to be published even though it will not support Enhanced Typesetting.
Another example is "Pseudo selector counter type is not supported in Enhanced Typesetting. Unfortunately, Kindle does not currently support this markup. Amazon is actively working on this error. For now, we recommend to upload this book without Enhanced Typesetting enabled." That message also appears to explicitly give the publisher a pass on that problem.
In the end I think that this change will provide lots of new business for professional e-book formatters like Hitch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowsmile
I hate to say it, but there could also be another good reason why Amazon is now forcing indie authors to follow the Enhanced Typsetting standard. Whenever you create an ebook using Kindle Create you will get a KPF file that will ALWAYS pass the Enhanced Typsetting standard without fail whenever you test or upload. So is Amazon KDP, indirectly and sneakily, now trying to force indie authors to create ebooks using Kindle Create with their new ET policy? Just a thought. Personally, I would always prefer as many upload formatting options as possible.
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I doubt that will be much of a factor in this situation. Any Enhanced Typesetting problem with a Word document that prevents it from being directly published will also prevent Kindle Create from accepting that document since KC performs the same checks during import.