AZW3 vs EPUB capabilities

[ghostdad]

I have a current gen paperwhite and I used to aquire overdrive ebooks in epub format, convert to mobi, and send them to my kindle in Calibre. Then, I read about how azw3 was more advanced than mobi for page layout/etc, so I started getting all my books in azw3/kf8 (being that I can't remove drm from kfx).

However, I later discovered there's a KFX output plugin in Calibre that can convert epub into kfx. Is it true that converting epub to kfx will give you "enhanced typesetting" on the kindle, and that using the original azw3 file won't? Basically, what I'm asking is, is it better downloading EPUB than AZW3? Does the EPUB have more features?

Thank you for your help!

[jhowell]

The Enhanced Typesetting features of Kindle reading apps/devices are only available for books in KFX format, either delivered by Amazon or sideloaded. KFX can be produced using the KFX Output plugin, and AZW3 and EPUB work equally well as the source format if the conversion is done within calibre.

You don't give a location in your profile, but if you are in the US then OverDrive should give you the option of having your loans fulfilled by Amazon as Kindle books. That will give you the best format available for your device without having to perform the ethically questionable (in my opinion) removal of DRM from books that you do not own.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The Enhanced Typesetting features of Kindle reading apps/devices are only available for books in KFX format, either delivered by Amazon or sideloaded. KFX can be produced using the KFX Output plugin, and AZW3 and EPUB work equally well as the source format if the conversion is done within calibre.

You don't give a location in your profile, but if you are in the US then OverDrive should give you the option of having your loans fulfilled by Amazon as Kindle books. That will give you the best format available for your device without having to perform the ethically questionable (in my opinion) removal of DRM from books that you do not own.

I haven't tried the KFX output plugin, but I'm going to give it a go. Professionally, of course, we haven't had any real need for it, but I read a lot of PD books (I'm working my way back through the H Rider Haggards now), and I find that the lack of hyphenation, the rivers, really irk me. I'm going to see if I can use it to fix that issue (assuming I can find it--I don't see it in the plugin list inside of Calibre) for my personal PD reading.

Thanks, JH.

Hitch

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I'm going to see if I can use it to fix that issue (assuming I can find it--I don't see it in the plugin list inside of Calibre)

Here's the Calibre KFX Output plugin link.

Shameless plug: you could also additionally install my Sigil Kindlegen plugin, which uses jhowell's Calibre KFX Output plugin to generate KFX books.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Here's the Calibre KFX Output plugin link.

Shameless plug: you could also additionally install my Sigil Kindlegen plugin, which uses jhowell's Calibre KFX Output plugin to generate KFX books.

Doits:

Ooooh, that would be lovely, thank you! I really dislike the giant gappy text I get from the PG titles. I do some cleanup, but to be honest, I don't slave over them. I know that sounds funny, but when your entire professional life is the making eBooks, doing cleanup on recreational reading titles really isn't what you want to do, you know? But the clean-up that I do, I do in Sigil (OMG, why are SO MANY of these books made with block-style paras, really????), so that would be awesome sauce. Thanks!!!



Hitch

[Notjohn]

One could get rid of the sleepy rivers by re-formatting the book ragged right, couldn't one?

And then one wouldn't be regularly infuriated by KFX's annoying hyp-
henation.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

One could get rid of the sleepy rivers by re-formatting the book ragged right, couldn't one?

And then one wouldn't be regularly infuriated by KFX's annoying hyp-
henation.

Don't make me kill you. Ragged right is NOT a form of justification; it's...torture.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Don't make me kill you. Ragged right is NOT a form of justification; it's...torture.

Hitch

I used to think so, too. But not too long ago I read a thriller from a major series from a major publisher (Daniel Silva? Lee Child? One of those guys) that was delivered ragged right. After my first irritation, I grew accustomed to it, until soon it didn't bother me at all.

Well -- not MUCH, anyhow.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

I used to think so, too. But not too long ago I read a thriller from a major series from a major publisher (Daniel Silva? Lee Child? One of those guys) that was delivered ragged right. After my first irritation, I grew accustomed to it, until soon it didn't bother me at all.

Well -- not MUCH, anyhow.

Sorry, nope. I just had a Philo Vance from PG AUS that was rr, and I could not deal with it. Popped it into Sigil, fixed it, rebuilt it as a mobi with KFX for ET. Nope, nope, nope. To me, that looks like reading a kid's essay from 8th grade.

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Don't make me kill you. Ragged right is NOT a form of justification; it's...torture.

Agreed.

[Notjohn]

Yet if one slavishly obeys Amazon's KDP rules for formatting (I don't!), one's Look Inside sample is going to be ragged right.

Isn't it? Certainly that used to be the case of many if not most self-published Kindle titles.

I suppose everyone's triggers are different, but a ragged-right book bothers me less than Hitch's advice on the KDP forum to make the title page the first page in a print edition. To me, that's really a fingernail screeching across the blackboard!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

Yet if one slavishly obeys Amazon's KDP rules for formatting (I don't!), one's Look Inside sample is going to be ragged right.

Isn't it? Certainly that used to be the case of many if not most self-published Kindle titles.

I suppose everyone's triggers are different, but a ragged-right book bothers me less than Hitch's advice on the KDP forum to make the title page the first page in a print edition. To me, that's really a fingernail screeching across the blackboard!

Firstly, as I said to you, on the KDP forums, if you have a kibitz, say it. Don't play cute and pretend to deploy some Socratic method "wise elder" nonsense.

Secondly, if you were paying attention, CGold and I answered a publisher's question.

Thirdly, in this day and age, a half-title is pretentious twaddle for most books. I mean, speaking of slavishly following! The entire point of a half-title, which has been lost to time, was to protect the then-unbound book. Do you have a lot of those in your garage, NJ?

For crying out loud, the half-title's purpose has been lost in time. It's vestigial, like the stub of the tail at the base of your spine. CMOS can talk about it all they want, but Bringhurst never even MENTIONS a half-title page, for the reasons I've already explained. Nails on a chalkboard, indeed. Aren't you the one that lectures the newbies about NOT padding their eBooks? Then reconcile those two positions.

And while we're at it, am I the only one that's recalling that in POD, you have to pay for every bloody page you print? But sure, hey, let's waste the publisher's money with pretentious twaddle. Come on, really?

You want to be "right," be right, but what you're preaching was needed nearly four hundred years ago, and isn't now. (And while you're at it, define the actual difference between the half-title and the bastard title, too.)

Hitch