CSS / dropcaps

[HarryT]

That's why we're telling them now .

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's why we're telling them now .

Solution to the problem...

1. Make the eBook in ePub making it how you want it to look.
2. Convert the ePub to Mobipocket using Calibre.
3. If some things don't properly convert, then Mobipocket doesn't supports those features.
4. Learn from this so you won't have to ask why it's not working.
5. It's not working because Mobipocket is an obsolete format.

[WS64]

I disagree that just because float does not work it means there is no solution to it.
There are usually several ways to do things, this one did not work, so what?
Not that I have another solution, but it's still worth trying.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WS64

I disagree that just because float does not work it means there is no solution to it.
There are usually several ways to do things, this one did not work, so what?
Not that I have another solution, but it's still worth trying.

No, it's not worth trying. It's a waste of time because it never has worked, never will work and there is no alternative.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by WS64

I disagree that just because float does not work it means there is no solution to it.
There are usually several ways to do things, this one did not work, so what?
Not that I have another solution, but it's still worth trying.

Certainly it's worth trying, but in all the years that Mobi's been around (which is a good many), nobody's yet come up with a way to do drop caps, so it's a problem that doesn't have an easy solution, if it has a solution at all.

Would an alternate, such as a large initial letter, be practical for you?

[tesseract420]

I thought I'd include this which I found in a book I am reading; it's not perfect but it comes close: (the URL is
http://imgur.com/p58Bg)

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by tesseract420

I thought I'd include this which I found in a book I am reading; it's not perfect but it comes close: (I don't know why image is not showing up, the URL is
http://imgur.com/p58Bg

What device are you reading it on?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

What device are you reading it on?

For the love of heaven, that's simply K8. Not magic. Probably on the Touch or one of the others. Dropcaps work perfectly fine on all K8-supported devices, as we know. If it's not K8, then it's simply a Topaz book. No mysteries here.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

For the love of heaven, that's simply K8. Not magic. Probably on the Touch or one of the others. Dropcaps work perfectly fine on all K8-supported devices, as we know. If it's not K8, then it's simply a Topaz book. No mysteries here.

Hitch

That is not from an eink Kindle. The two eink Kindles that support KF8 have a much larger line-height that cannot be changed. That would have to be a Kindle Fire if it is indeed a Kindle.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That is not from an eink Kindle. The two eink Kindles that support KF8 have a much larger line-height that cannot be changed. That would have to be a Kindle Fire if it is indeed a Kindle.

Wolfie:

I concur, but I was covering the bases; it's possible it's Topaz, although that dropcap is so crappy I think not.

For Tesseract: Dropcaps are easily done in K8 format now; most tweaking is done simply based on fonts, as each tends to be slightly different and requires some line-height adjustment; we use a media-call fallback for the K7 (or, as some call it, the K6) version for the e-ink devices, creating the same type of "Raised Initial" that Calibre creates. This is a pretty easy solution.

I wonder what old ws64 ever came up with? S/he was pretty adamantine about those drops being doable in K7 e-ink. I remember one guy got so desperate he made his so-called "drops" (actually, not) images of letters with floral accompaniment. I thought they looked pretty turgid, myself (yes, I mean swollen), and of course, they wouldn't resize when the text did.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Wolfie:

I concur, but I was covering the bases; it's possible it's Topaz, although that dropcap is so crappy I think not.

For Tesseract: Dropcaps are easily done in K8 format now; most tweaking is done simply based on fonts, as each tends to be slightly different and requires some line-height adjustment; we use a media-call fallback for the K7 (or, as some call it, the K6) version for the e-ink devices, creating the same type of "Raised Initial" that Calibre creates. This is a pretty easy solution.

I forgot about the line-height adjustment. The Kindle firmware versions 4.1 and 5.1 don't respond to line-height. So Drop cap might not actually work properly on the two eink Kindles.

[DiapDealer]

This was also cross-posted in the MOBI forum. Further evidence in that thread clearly indicates a KF8 file, IMO: dropcap in Kindle for Mac ... simple, enlarged, initial first-letter on iPhone.

The whole Fire vs Touch line-height thingy hardly seemed relevant to me in this case, JS, but great job tracking that down if it's true.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This was also cross-posted in the MOBI forum. Further evidence in that thread clearly indicates a KF8 file, IMO: dropcap in Kindle for Mac ... simple, enlarged, initial first-letter on iPhone.

The whole Fire vs Touch line-height thingy hardly seemed relevant to me in this case, JS, but great job tracking that down if it's true.

Yes, it is true. I've seen the line-height bug on the Kindle Touch running 5.1.2. Because of this bug, if the eBook doesn't use any formatting that Mobi cannot handle, just create Mobi and forget KF8/AZW3.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I forgot about the line-height adjustment. The Kindle firmware versions 4.1 and 5.1 don't respond to line-height. So Drop cap might not actually work properly on the two eink Kindles.

One of us is speaking in tongues, Wolfie:

I never said that it would work on an e-ink Kindle. I said it was a K8 styling (Fire, Kindle for Droid, K for iPad, etc.). That's why we use the K7 fallback coding to create the Raised Initial, which doesn't need line-height adjustments. We use media calls for the K7/K8 alternatives.

Did I misspeak somewhere? It's entirely possible...

Hitch

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Did I misspeak somewhere?

If so, I missed it. I just think someone might be a little obsessed with the line-height bug—which might be involved in making dropcaps look better, but certainly has no bearing on whether they're at all possible. Like you initially said ... there is no mystery here. It's a KF8 file (the screen shot). The rest is noise.