KFX Format

[sammayor]

Indian language books which were launched last year only supports kfx format. This books are not available for older devices. In 'About the Kindle edition' section in webpage Amazon lists supported devices.

[jhowell]

From looking at the latest Kindle Previewer release (3.14) it appears that Arabic language support will be the next big feature coming to KFX. I do not know whether or not these books are already supported in the Amazon ecosystem. If not then they may also be KFX-only.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jhowell

From looking at the latest Kindle Previewer release (3.14) it appears that Arabic language support will be the next big feature coming to KFX. I do not know whether or not these books are already supported in the Amazon ecosystem. If not then they may also be KFX-only.

KF8 certainly supports Arabic.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The cases I have seen are with books that use EPUB features that are not supported by the MOBI and KF8 renderers. Rather than update those renderers to support those features Amazon is instead restricting books with those features to be KFX only.

What features would that be that ePub supports that KF8 does not that would cause the eBook to be KFX only? Given that Amazon can do KFX only if the eBook doesn't support features of KF8, can't Amazon do this for KF8 and forgo Mobi when the eBook uses features of KF8 that Mobi doesn't support?

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by jhowell

... I have noticed that books published with the new Kindle Create program are normally delivered in KFX but fall back to MOBI on devices/apps that do not support it. A KF8 version of those books is unavailable so some formatting may be lost if KFX is avoided ...

Am I understanding correctly that Kindle Create is basically aimed at self-published authors with limited technical skills?

I imagine big publishers and technically adept smaller publishers and self-publishers will continue to create EPUB as source material instead of trying to go directly from a Word Doc to Kindlebook.

Or am I deluding myself and there is reason to believe KF8 is being phased out, forcing people to purchase a KFX-capable device or accept MOBI?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What features would that be that ePub supports that KF8 does not that would cause the eBook to be KFX only?

For some reason the Indic language books are KFX-only. I do not know what it is about those books that prevents them from being made available in KF8/MOBI. It seems that they do not want to support any new capabilities in the older formats.

One possibility is dictionary support. As of now those languages do not have Kindle dictionaries. I have seen indications that dictionaries in KFX format are coming soon with features that are unavailable in the existing MOBI-based dictionaries. Perhaps those books are KFX-only because their dictionaries require features that will only be supported in KFX.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Given that Amazon can do KFX only if the eBook doesn't support features of KF8, can't Amazon do this for KF8 and forgo Mobi when the eBook uses features of KF8 that Mobi doesn't support?

Amazon does not appear to have any interest in phasing out MOBI, in fact as I mentioned previously, books produced using the new Kindle Create tool are available in either KFX or MOBI, but not KF8.

Originally Posted by odamizu

Am I understanding correctly that Kindle Create is basically aimed at self-published authors with limited technical skills?

Yes, it converts Word documents to KFX for publishing.

Originally Posted by odamizu

Or am I deluding myself and there is reason to believe KF8 is being phased out, forcing people to purchase a KFX-capable device or accept MOBI?

I doubt that they are phasing out KF8. I suspect that it was just easier for them to implement MOBI as a fallback for devices that do not support KFX than to produce both MOBI and KF8. MOBI is a safe fallback since every Kindle app/device supports it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I doubt that they are phasing out KF8. I suspect that it was just easier for them to implement MOBI as a fallback for devices that do not support KFX than to produce both MOBI and KF8. MOBI is a safe fallback since every Kindle app/device supports it.

But what happens when someone wants to use a feature in KF8 that you can't do with Mobi? How does that work?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But what happens when someone wants to use a feature in KF8 that you can't do with Mobi? How does that work?

Kindle Create is all about converting Word documents to ebook novels using simple, consistent formatting. It has templates for romance, sci-fi and such. I doubt Amazon will be overly concerned if the formatting doesn’t look quite right in MOBI format as long as the book is readable.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Kindle Create is all about converting Word documents to ebook novels using simple, consistent formatting. It has templates for romance, sci-fi and such. I doubt Amazon will be overly concerned if the formatting doesn’t look quite right in MOBI format as long as the book is readable.

But I find that too many eBook are doing stupid things instead of doing them properly because of Mobi. For example, using graphics for extended characters instead of embedding a font. One eBook I saw recently had a few Russian strings that could have been rendered with an embedded font. Also, instead of a simple table, we get a graphic. These sorts of things are a throwback to Mob. If Mobi was gone or eBooks allowed to be made that did not have a Mobi version, then features that make eBooks better and give the reader a better reading experience could be made. This nonsense even effects ePub because ePub is used as the source in most cases.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by jhowell

... I doubt that they are phasing out KF8. I suspect that it was just easier for them to implement MOBI as a fallback for devices that do not support KFX than to produce both MOBI and KF8. MOBI is a safe fallback since every Kindle app/device supports it.

Thanks for this reassurance.

I don't suppose there's a way to tell if a book was created by Kindle Create prior to purchasing? :/

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I don't suppose there's a way to tell if a book was created by Kindle Create prior to purchasing? :/

No way that I know of.

EDIT: Actually, there is a way, based on Jon's next post, but it is not very practical.

You can request that a free sample of the book be delivered to one of your devices. Then you would need to remove the encryption from the KFX file and decode its metadata. If the file_creator field is set to "KC" then the book was produced using Kindle Create.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I don't suppose there's a way to tell if a book was created by Kindle Create prior to purchasing? :/

You could try looking at the contents of the KFX and see if you can find any text strings that would tell you. But then you could be looking at a lot of KFX to try to find such. And with DRM, I doubt those KFX would show you anything.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You could try looking at the contents of the KFX...

I revised my post above to reflect this approach.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Thanks for this reassurance.

I don't suppose there's a way to tell if a book was created by Kindle Create prior to purchasing? :/

@odamizu:

Out of curiosity, really--may I ask why? We don't use it, and naturally, I cheerfully support ANY idea that professionally-crafted books are BEST, but, what's your thinking? If I may ask?

Hitch

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by jhowell

... You can request that a free sample of the book be delivered to one of your devices. Then you would need to remove the encryption from the KFX file and decode its metadata. If the file_creator field is set to "KC" then the book was produced using Kindle Create.

Oy. Just, oy.

Originally Posted by Hitch

Out of curiosity, really--may I ask why? We don't use it, and naturally, I cheerfully support ANY idea that professionally-crafted books are BEST, but, what's your thinking? If I may ask?

Because I want KF8, and if there's an easy way to tell if a book was created with Kindle Create, which will leave me with KFX and MOBI, I won't buy it from Amazon and will go to Kobo for an epub, instead.