Kindle Previewer vs Kindle itself: different results?

[angharad09]

I'm editing an azw3 file in Calibre and looking at the results in Kindle Previewer and Kindle. Sometimes even when something seems to work in Kindle Previewer, it's still problematic in Kindle.

So I'm wondering, should I even be using Kindle Previewer?
or, should I keep fiddling until I get happy results in both?
or is each maybe useful in a different way (and if so, what is each program's strong point?)?

I'm using Kindle Previewer 3 and Kindle 1.25.2 on a Mac.
Both appear to be up to date (I just downloaded Previewer yesterday).

(If it makes a difference, the issue where I noticed the discrepancy is image size. But if that's not relevant to understanding the [apparent] previewer discrepancies, please ignore.)

[jhowell]

There is no one true way that a book will be rendered. Amazon supports multiple Kindle formats (mainly MOBI7, KF8, and KFX) and there are significant differences in how these are rendered. There are also differences between renderers for the same format across different apps and devices.

See the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines for information about what HTML/CSS is supported. Use of unsupported features is more likely to result in a book that renders inconsistently.

If you are producing a book for personal reading on your own devices then I suggest making it look good there and not worrying about how the Kindle Previewer shows it. If you are instead producing a book for sale on Amazon then you are taking a wrong approach by editing an AZW3 file. Amazon does not accept that format from publishers.

Publishers mostly provide either EPUB or DOCX to Amazon and Amazon then produces the various Kindle formats from that. For books with simple formatting the results shown by the Kindle Previewer are pretty close to what readers with newer Kindle devices will see. Professional e-book formatters will also test the book in a variety of formats using multiple devices/apps to get at least an acceptable quality of rendering on all of them.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by angharad09

I'm editing an azw3 file in Calibre and looking at the results in Kindle Previewer and Kindle. Sometimes even when something seems to work in Kindle Previewer, it's still problematic in Kindle.

So I'm wondering, should I even be using Kindle Previewer?
or, should I keep fiddling until I get happy results in both?
or is each maybe useful in a different way (and if so, what is each program's strong point?)?

I'm using Kindle Previewer 3 and Kindle 1.25.2 on a Mac.
Both appear to be up to date (I just downloaded Previewer yesterday).

(If it makes a difference, the issue where I noticed the discrepancy is image size. But if that's not relevant to understanding the [apparent] previewer discrepancies, please ignore.)

IF you are testing your book on a Paperwhite, or PPW family device, like Voyage, Oasis, etc. oh YES INDEEDY, you will see a huge difference in image size.

To this day, the bloody PPW family of devices and the rendering software seems to have a bug. That is, if you have an image that you need to be, let's say, 52% of the width of the screen, you're HOSED. Because the PPW family will render it at 100%. Anything over 50%, is always rendered at 100%, no matter what lies Previewer tells you.

OTHER than that, and line-heights, however (and making it appear that images will be vertically resized, to fit on a "page" or screen, if there's also text that's flowed to that screen, which doesn't happen with real devices), Previewer is reasonably accurate.

Offered FWIW.

Hitch

[angharad09]

Thanks to you both.

I have checked the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines and I'm pretty sure the relevant HTML/CSS is supported (still working my way through the document as a whole, but there doesn't seem to be any unsupported image-related code).

It's not for my own viewing and it's not for sale on Amazon, but I do need to make sure that people who read e-books on a Kindle can read it easily without going to any extra effort. Since you can't edit a .mobi file directly in Calibre, I've been working on the .azw3 file, which was converted from an .epub. If there's a better way to do it, I'm open! (Apparently my Mac cannot open Kindlegen.)

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by angharad09

(Apparently my Mac cannot open Kindlegen.)

I only use linux, but there is an entire thread for kindlegen om macs

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=81644

Certainly read the first post, but post 47 might be of interest to you.

[Quoth]

I only upload ePub to Amazon.
I do check sanity on a DXG, both modes on a Kindle Keyboard and on a PW3.

If we do something different we might do a test purchase of KFX and mobi using two accounts and real kindles.

We upload epub2, dual Kindle (mobi/KF8) and MS Doc to Smashwords. Smashwords doesn't do perfect epub2 or kindle conversions and also doesn't know which Kindle people have.

I only "preview" in Calibre's ebook viewer. Serious checking is done on Android Apps, eInk Kindles, Sony PRS350, and two Kobos but only when we change a style or try a new feature.

[hobnail]

angharad09, I'm confused; when you talk about a Kindle, it's not clear to me whether you're talking about a Kindle ereader, like the Oasis or Paperwhite, or the Kindle app that runs on a PC/Mac. I'm wondering if using the Kindle app is a reliable test for how the ebook will look on a Kindle ereader.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by angharad09

Since you can't edit a .mobi file directly in Calibre, I've been working on the .azw3 file, which was converted from an .epub.

It's my belief (which is to say that I have no idea how true this is) that it's best to do all of your work on the epub. After you convert it to azw3 if it's not how you want, go back and massage the epub, perhaps using media queries. Rinse and repeat. That's assuming that both the epub and the azw3 will be used by others.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by hobnail

It's my belief (which is to say that I have no idea how true this is) that it's best to do all of your work on the epub. After you convert it to azw3 if it's not how you want, go back and massage the epub, perhaps using media queries. Rinse and repeat. That's assuming that both the epub and the azw3 will be used by others.

Yes, basically, that's how we do it, working in html/css/ePUB and when it's done and dusted, we make a copy, (of the final ePUB), optimize the CSS for the Kindleverse (including media queries, yes, yes, I know, we suck) and then build the mobi. If we need to edit, it's back to the ePUB and lather, rinse-repeat.

Hitch