Isolated unjustified lines in hardware readers

[HarryT]

I don't believe that it can be changed, unfortunately.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by randich

Exactly. Here is another example:

iOS https://goo.gl/photos/dL5dUGq9T4RdHNvX7
Voyage https://goo.gl/photos/FTgXsPrVCYwJcP4b6

Personally, I prefer iOS layout.

I'd very happy if someone knows a way of avoiding the hardware version's behaviour without spending time in Calibre. I've tried all fonts and sizes, and the number of left-aligned lines increase with larger fonts. But they don't disappear absolutely with small fonts.

You cannot avoid this behavior on your Voyage without spending time with Calibre unless the eBook you are reading was purchased from Amazon and it was updated to support enhanced typesetting and you have the latest firmware.

[randich]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You cannot avoid this behavior on your Voyage without spending time with Calibre unless the eBook you are reading was purchased from Amazon and it was updated to support enhanced typesetting and you have the latest firmware.

Hi JSWolf, all of my examples are from ET-enabled books purchased from Amazon, and updated to support enhanced typsetting, and I have the latest firmware.

By now, as HarryT confirmed, I think there is a difference of implementation in the typesetting engine between Kindle for iOS and "eink" Kindle Voyage 5.6.5.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by randich

Hi JSWolf, all of my examples are from ET-enabled books purchased from Amazon, and updated to support enhanced typsetting, and I have the latest firmware.

Did you download direct to the Kindle from Amazon? If not, you won't get the enhanced typesetting. The fact that your screenshot has no hyphens makes me think you didn't download from Amazon direct to the Voyage.

[randich]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Did you download direct to the Kindle from Amazon? If not, you won't get the enhanced typesetting. The fact that your screenshot has no hyphens makes me think you didn't download from Amazon direct to the Voyage.

Yes JSWolf, I purchased various ET-enabled books from Amazon directly from my Kindle (I'm an old AMZN customer and I've owned 8 different Kindles by now )

Here is a screenshot of a an ET-enabled book sample downloaded directly to the Kindle from Amazon, with hyphens and unjustified lines in the same page:

https://goo.gl/photos/EMjUaNRGK3UAUndMA

As I mentioned in Amazon's Customer Discussions forum, the problem is a lot more frequent with font size 5 and above.

[Barty]

Yeah I don't like the way the hardware kindle breaks justification, but it's been this way forever. To me, the ragged margin gives the false impression it is the end of the paragraph.

Amazon touts that the new layout engine handles larger font size better, but the behavior remains the same. I guess they're determined to stick with it.

[randich]

Originally Posted by Barty

Yeah I don't like the way the hardware kindle breaks justification, but it's been this way forever. To me, the ragged margin gives the false impression it is the end of the paragraph.

Amazon touts that the new layout engine handles larger font size better, but the behavior remains the same. I guess they're determined to stick with it.

Barty, I agree with you.

It seems to me that the majority of people is not aware of this glitch. I say this because of the answers I received in Amazon Customer Discussion forum, and in much lesser degree here, asking me to clarify the issue and demonstrate the problem, or simply denying it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by randich

It seems to me that the majority of people is not aware of this glitch.

I really wouldn't call it a glitch. It's clearly intentional, and personally I think it makes the page look better than having large gaps between the words.

[randich]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really wouldn't call it a glitch. It's clearly intentional, and personally I think it makes the page look better than having large gaps between the words.

I've found this (last paragraph is relevant) http://usabilitypost.com/2012/09/07/rags-over-rivers/

Perhaps with future improvements in kerning, ligatures and hyphenation, full justification with large fonts will be a reality.

[Cinisajoy]

Hi. I see that at font 4, the spaces between the words are a bit bigger than at 3.
I don't look at it as a glitch but whether I can see to read.
I accept that larger fonts act differently than smaller fonts.

[randich]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really wouldn't call it a glitch. It's clearly intentional, and personally I think it makes the page look better than having large gaps between the words.

May be it's a question of personal preference, and for that reason a did the following experiment. First link are original Kindle renderings. Second link is an image edition I made to simulate full-justification of those left-justified lines.

https://goo.gl/photos/aXqiNq1uQTGsxt3B9

https://goo.gl/photos/dhrZZGGWYbnnWeh46

I personally feel more comfortable with full justification.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by randich

May be it's a question of personal preference, and for that reason a did the following experiment. First link are original Kindle renderings. Second link is an image edition I made to simulate full-justification of those left-justified lines.

https://goo.gl/photos/aXqiNq1uQTGsxt3B9

https://goo.gl/photos/dhrZZGGWYbnnWeh46

I personally feel more comfortable with full justification.

...and I personally hate the way the pictures in the second link look. It takes me right out of the story when I run into that, and I'm really glad that Amazon fixed it so that huge spacing like that doesn't happen as often anymore.

Different strokes, eh?

Shari

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really wouldn't call it a glitch. It's clearly intentional, and personally I think it makes the page look better than having large gaps between the words.

Me to. I really prefer that since it disturbs the reading less compared to large gaps.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by randich

May be it's a question of personal preference, and for that reason a did the following experiment. First link are original Kindle renderings. Second link is an image edition I made to simulate full-justification of those left-justified lines.

https://goo.gl/photos/aXqiNq1uQTGsxt3B9

https://goo.gl/photos/dhrZZGGWYbnnWeh46

I personally feel more comfortable with full justification.

In the first set of photos, is the book in question one with enhanced typesetting? If it is, there's a bug in rendering. If not, it's just the way it's always been.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by randich

I understand. Perhaps I am asking for an impossible, which is that the hardware Kindle work the same way as the software version of Kindle, which doesn't behaves like that. I was hoping that the latest firmware upgrade would make both versions work the same way.

Please note that, contrary to the behaviour you described, and even using a grotesquely large font, Kindle for iOS, if there are at least two words in a line, will always right-justify:

https://goo.gl/photos/8A7qyw7fQ7PatSEx9

We can call the software Kindle's behaviour a bug, or we can call the hardware version's behaviour a bug. Or we can say simply that they behave different because internally they use different layout engines.

My point is that Amazon publicized the new layout engine as a cross-device uniform improvement, which seems not to be the case, at least in this little issue.

Thanks for you feedback.

Do note that while KFX (Enhanced Typesetting) is a general improvement to current devices, it is applied in the ebook files.
The rendering engines of the various devices are developed by different teams, who at times demonstrate quite clearly that they have no contact with each other. You can't really compare them.

Amazon seems to be okay with reinventing the rendering engine wheel for each device. Things are inconsistent.


As for this Enhanced Typesetting book, was it downloaded to your device as a *.kfx file?
Amazon is not always 100% accurate when listing on the product page if a book has page numbers/enhanced typesetting/whatever.