Kindle Non-Justified Books Now?

[rcentros]

I just turned my Kindle Basic's (non-touch) WiFi on and it automatically updated a book that I read about six months ago. The old version was justified, the new version is not -- ragged right. I turned my Kindle Touch's WiFi off so it won't update (I like justified) and then I downloaded a prequel in this series (I could borrow it with Kindle Prime) -- and it's also non-justified. I didn't realize Kindle was releasing non-justified books. Is this something new -- or are they using a newer Kindle format that my Kindle Basic no longer supports? If so, that's not going to make me very happy. (I did download a free book, one of the four I get to chose from each month -- none of which had really interested me -- and it is justified.) Is there a way to tell which version of "mobi" (azw?) a particular book is using?

[HarryT]

Whether a book is left- or fully-justified depends on the formatting of the book itself, not on the file format. If you'd prefer a book to be fully-justified and you're comfortable with removing DRM, it's very easy to change the justification using Calibre.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Whether a book is left- or fully-justified depends on the formatting of the book itself, not on the file format. If you'd prefer a book to be fully-justified and you're comfortable with removing DRM, it's very easy to change the justification using Calibre.

Okay, thanks. Currently the Box Set of the first three books (not including the Prequel) are on sale now for 99 cents (both at Amazon and B&N). So I thought -- perhaps -- B&N hadn't gotten the newest version, and bought the set there. It's horribly formatted -- sentences broken in half, tiny font -- so, apparently the author self-publishes and must have rushed out new editions. Hopefully these will be fixed. Since the ragged right margin is better than the awful formatting, I guess I'll return the B&N version. (The first book in this series (Casey Hill series) was formatted professionally -- both on the Nook and Kindle -- I got both because I wanted to compare the two formats. It was offered for free.) Now I see that, originally these books were published by Simon & Schuster, but the new publisher appears to be either "Little Blue Book" or Casey Hill. I guess that explains the drop in quality. Maybe I'll email the author at his (her?) website.

For some reason I thought all Kindle books were justified.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rcentros

For some reason I thought all Kindle books were justified.

If the book doesn't contain any explicit justification commands, then the Kindle will display it fully justified, hence the reason that the overwhelming majority of books are displayed with full justification. But if the book specifically specifies that it should be displayed with left justification, then that's what the Kindle does.

ie the default is full justification, but the book can override that default.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If the book doesn't contain any explicit justification commands, then the Kindle will display it fully justified. But if the book specifically specifies that it should be displayed with left justification, then that's what the Kindle does.

ie the default is full justification, but the book can override that default.

Okay. Thanks again. I've sent an email to -- whomever will read it at the author's website -- letting them know about the issues. Apparently these books have recently been optioned for a movie or TV show -- so I'm guessing things are pretty hectic now. They probably bought themselves out of the Simon & Schuster's contract. (?)

[HarryT]

If you prefer to see the book fully justified, open the book in the Calibre book editor, open the CSS file within the book, and search for a line saying:

text-align: left;

Delete this line, and the book will then be displayed fully justified.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you prefer to see the book fully justified, open the book in the Calibre book editor, open the CSS file within the book, and search for a line saying:

text-align: left;

Delete this line, and the book will then be displayed fully justified.

Thanks. I'll do that and report back tomorrow (I'm using the wrong computer now). I guess those who don't like justified, can do the opposite -- add this line in.

EDIT: I went ahead and bought the box set for the Kindle -- while also keeping it for the Nook. (I want to see if they'll actually fix it and, besides, I just finished a good history book that I downloaded on their "Free Friday" promotion, so feel like I should pay them something, sometime.) Tomorrow I'll try fixing the non-justification issue on the Kindle version -- don't even know where I would start on the Nook version.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Thanks. I'll do that and report back tomorrow (I'm using the wrong computer now). I guess those who don't like justified, can do the opposite -- add this line in.

Yes, exactly . One thing I should add is that if the book is in Mobi format, you'll need to first convert it to AZW3; Calibre's editor doesn't work with Mobi format.

You can either delete the line, or change "left" to "justify"; either should work.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, exactly . One thing I should add is that if the book is in Mobi format, you'll need to first convert it to AZW3; Calibre's editor doesn't work with Mobi format.

You can either delete the line, or change "left" to "justify"; either should work.

Got it. Thanks. The book really was poorly formatted -- it has no Table of Contents now, and it's "chapters" are just the three books. (I only know that by pushing the ring on the 5-way button which normally takes you to the next chapter.) The original Simon & Schuster version had working chapters.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Got it. Thanks. The book really was poorly formatted -- it has no Table of Contents now, and it's "chapters" are just the three books. (I only know that by pushing the ring on the 5-way button which normally takes you to the next chapter.) The original Simon & Schuster version had working chapters.

Unfortunately this kind of thing is all too common with self-published books.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unfortunately this kind of thing is all too common with self-published books.

Just an update. I was able to change the Kindle version (KF8) to Justified Mobi and it looks okay ... still has other issues, like a couple blank pages between some chapters, but much better than it was. I wasn't able to find the "text-align" line, so I just told Calibre to convert it.

I tried converting the Nook version -- but was unable to do anything with the extremely poor formatting. I think this ePub file is riddled with hard returns. So that's the bad news.

The good news is that the Greasemonkey add-on is still letting me download my Nook books and the Alf tool is still letting me add them to my Calibre library.