Best format to sideload to Kindle Paperwhite?

[phossler]

Got a new Paperwhite and sideloaded a lot of ebooks in KFX format

I use epub format to edit and re-format (fix-format) and then convert to KFX to sideload

I use the hyphenate plugin on the epub before converting to KFX PDOC format and all the other settings are left at default

From what I've read this enable 'fancy' typographic display

Any suggestions / ideas / thing to watch out for

Thanks

[DNSB]

I find that KFX lacks flexibility in line height and other settings. Since I also edit most ebooks before sending them to an ereader, this negates many of the claimed advantages to KFX.

For those reasons, I still prefer to use azw3/KF8 to send to a Kindle ereader. KF8/azw3 is very similar to ePub in structure. If I am starting with an azw3/KF8 ebook, I use the Kindle Unpack plugin to ePub. I get an output file which inherits the structure from the original whereas using calibre's conversion pipeline basically trashes most of the original structure. Editing the epub and then converting to azw3/KF8 is not much different from editing the ePub and then converting to KFX.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

...whereas using calibre's conversion pipeline basically trashes most of the original structure.

No, it doesn't. I don't know, maybe it did 15 years ago or so, and it sure changes some things in the css, but it doesn't "trash" anything. I use calibre conversion all the time, because it does many useful things - converts inline styles to css, merges identical css classes, simplifies unnecessarily convoluted css and so on. It's an extremely rare occurrence when it "trashes" anything.

Yes, if you want your css to be identical to the original, conversion is not for you. But that's a far cry from trashing.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

No, it doesn't. I don't know, maybe it did 15 years ago or so, and it sure changes some things in the css, but it doesn't "trash" anything. I use calibre conversion all the time, because it does many useful things - converts inline styles to css, merges identical css classes, simplifies unnecessarily convoluted css and so on. It's an extremely rare occurrence when it "trashes" anything.

Yes, if you want your css to be identical to the original, conversion is not for you. But that's a far cry from trashing.

To me, flattening the structure & merging CSS stylesheets can result in the stylesheets being merged in the wrong order. In one recent case, there were three stylesheets. After the merge, the second stylesheet had been merged first and this did rather interesting things to the cascade.

As for converting inline styles to CSS? That is a trivial task and I seldom see inline styles. The only time I worry about merging near identical CSS classes is on those rare occasions when I am converting an omnibus which has separate stylesheets for each book. As for simplifying complex CSS, calibre does a decent job of trying to do that. Again, there are too many failures (IMHO) that require manual correction.

I won't even get into what calibre did to accessibility code though I haven't tested that in a while. Perhaps it has improved.

For me, it is not a rare occasion when calibre does nasties (IMHO) to the structure of an ePub when converting from azw3/KF8 to ePub, it's most ebooks that requires manual touchup to correct issues such as the simplified CSS not centring headers/subheaders that were centred through using multiple wrapped divs. I tend to suspect many of the issues that annoy me would probably not be annoying to most people if they even noticed them.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I won't even get into what calibre did to accessibility code though I haven't tested that in a while. Perhaps it has improved.

As I only convert for myself and use EPUB2 at that (I don't need any EPUB3 features), accessibility code doesn't matter.

For me, it is not a rare occasion when calibre does nasties (IMHO) to the structure of an ePub when converting from azw3/KF8 to ePub, it's most ebooks that requires manual touchup to correct issues such as the simplified CSS not centring headers/subheaders that were centred through using multiple wrapped divs.

This problem doesn't happen when leaving the text justification as original (which I do most of the time). If you set the text to left/justified in the conversion settings, then yes, that can mess things up. But it's pretty easy to center those headers again.

Whatever floats your boat, of course. Sure conversion changes some things. But I've not found it trashes them, at least in most cases. Then again, my needs and wants are pretty simple and the books I read usually have simple layout too - no multimedia, complex inline images or math equations etc.

[DNSB]

Since my preference is for left justified text, that is a showstopper for me.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Since my preference is for left justified text, that is a showstopper for me.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I prefer justified text, so I've only seen the loss of centered headers in those few books that are left-aligned originally.

Somewhat out of topic, but just like any tool, one can use calibre conversion to achieve some pretty ridiculous results. I just finished editing a self-published book which the author had obviously converted to epub with calibre. I don't know what the original format may have been, but in the finished product the font-size on the body level was 1em, on the div level (all divs except for headers) 1.25 em and on the paragraph level (again, all paragraphs except for headers and small text parts) 0.75 em. Jesus wept.

[DNSB]

Or one major publisher which ebook producers love setting the body font size to 1.25 em and then using .813 em for paragraphs. Comes out setting the paragraph font size to 1.02 em. Why not just set both to 1 em? That'd be too much like common sense.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Or one major publisher which ebook producers love setting the body font size to 1.25 em and then using .813 em for paragraphs. Comes out setting the paragraph font size to 1.02 em. Why not just set both to 1 em? That'd be too much like common sense.

We're proud of our sophisticated formatting! Any amateur can just set the font to 1em. We're professionals!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

We're proud of our sophisticated formatting! Any amateur can just set the font to 1em. We're professionals!

<switching to replacement keyboard> Keyboards do not respond well to expelling coffee through the nose. <bill will be sent>