KFX Format

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I don't give a hoot if there is no soft-hyphens suppossed to be when creating a book. As reader I only care that I can add them and the books will be hyphenated on my Voyage. And that is what the plugin for calibre is supposed to do - not as a book-creation tool.

And that's great, but unless I'm mis-remembering, isn't this thread about KFX, and not the Calibre hyphen tool plugin?????

Hitch

[AaronShep]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I don't give a hoot if there is no soft-hyphens suppossed to be when creating a book. As reader I only care that I can add them and the books will be hyphenated on my Voyage. And that is what the plugin for calibre is supposed to do - not as a book-creation tool.

I'm sorry if I misunderstood the intent. But if that's what you want, I believe there's a much easier way to do it. Just add "-webkit-hyphens: auto;" to a style attribute in the body tag. Hyphenation is already built into Webkit, you just have to turn it on. At least, that works in the Kindle Previewer with the Fire emulation.

[HarryT]

That won't display hyphens on the Kindle Voyage. It certainly doesn't use WebKit.

[DuckieTigger]

It would be interesting if all KFX does is add the hyphen metatag. Now all we need is to find out how to enable ligatures and kerning.

I strongly doubt that KFX uses soft-hyphens unless for special case exceptions maybe. The location of a KFX book and a KF8 book match perfectly (great for syncing without having to turn wifi on). So either there is a lookup table or KFX doesn't change the files inside a KF8 file and justs adds extras via exttra files.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

The location of a KFX book and a KF8 book match perfectly (great for syncing without having to turn wifi on). So either there is a lookup table or KFX doesn't change the files inside a KF8 file and justs adds extras via exttra files.

All this shows is that KFX uses the same "location numbers" that other Kindle formats use to track reading position in a book.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jhowell

All this shows is that KFX uses the same "location numbers" that other Kindle formats use to track reading position in a book.

But location numbers are related to file size, so if the file had become larger through adding additional information to it, one might reasonably expect the number of locations in the book to increase.

[jhowell]

My mistake. Anyway, there is some format-independent position identifier used for whispersync that works for mobi and kf8 and audible and the same thing is likely used for kfx.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

It would be interesting if all KFX does is add the hyphen metatag. Now all we need is to find out how to enable ligatures and kerning.

My head just exploded. When I try to think of how we (as a commercial firm) would deal with that, given that there are still millions of devices that wouldn't show a kerned/ligatured font...oish.

I strongly doubt that KFX uses soft-hyphens unless for special case exceptions maybe. The location of a KFX book and a KF8 book match perfectly (great for syncing without having to turn wifi on). So either there is a lookup table or KFX doesn't change the files inside a KF8 file and justs adds extras via exttra files.

I don't have a clue, I have to admit. I think that Harry's messages on the topic make sense to me.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But location numbers are related to file size, so if the file had become larger through adding additional information to it, one might reasonably expect the number of locations in the book to increase.

Unless locations are only for stuff displayed on screen. In that case, locations would not change for adding more to an eBook as long as it's not added text to be displayed.

[AaronShep]

The -webkit-hyphens CSS is the acknowledged way to turn hyphenation on or off in KFX. Amazon KDP itself told me this, even though they haven't publicly documented it. At present, I'm turning hyphenation OFF in the body tag and then turning it back on for specific paragraph classes. This works perfectly in KFX.

So, Amazon is certainly NOT adding soft hyphens. Given the accuracy I've seen in processed KFX books, it's probably a dictionary lookup.

Kerning and ligatures likewise can probably be controlled by CSS, but I haven't experimented with that. Like hyphenation, these too are Webkit features, not Kindle inventions.

When I said that "-webkit-hyphens" works "at least" in the Kindle Previewer with Fire emulation, I was referrring to hyphenation in KF8, which is the format that people are adding their own soft hyphens in. There's no "at least" about it in KFX. It's ALWAYS the way to do it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Unless locations are only for stuff displayed on screen. In that case, locations would not change for adding more to an eBook as long as it's not added text to be displayed.

I have a vague memory that each location in a Kindle book is 128 bytes in the file, markup included.

[kovidgoyal]

@AaronShep: Are you saying the KFX files do not hyphenate unless you set -webkit-hyphens: auto in the book css?

Because, unless that is what you are saying, -webkit-hyphens cannot be used to deduce that KFX does not have soft hyphens. The default value of -webkit-hyphens is manual, which means the rendering engine will break only at soft hyphens. auto simply means it will break preferentially at soft hyphens and otherwise at calculated locations. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/CSS/hyphens

As for location calculations, it is trivial to simply ignore certain characters when doing the calculation. So again, it does not prove anything one way or another.

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by Hitch

To wit: here's what we all don't know: we all don't yet know if every bloody book out there, that has escaped into the KDP, over the last 7-ish years, will be reprocessed.

Well, I have 25 books published through the DTP/KDP, starting almost exactly eight years ago. (I'm sure I uploaded at least one book in November 2007, because I had earnings by the end of January 2008, though not enough to get paid, there being a $10 minimum payout.) I went through the Amazon store pages yesterday, and 24 of them said Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled. They were variously uploaded as Word docs, html files, and (since 2012) epubs. (It may be that most of them have since been republished as epubs; I can't remember, but I do often update/improve/tweak my books.)

Funnily enough, there's also one of my books on the store in an e-book from HarperCollins, and it says: Enhanced Typesetting: Not Enabled. So it may be affecting self-pubbers more than mainstream publishers.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by AaronShep

When I said that "-webkit-hyphens" works "at least" in the Kindle Previewer with Fire emulation, I was referrring to hyphenation in KF8, which is the format that people are adding their own soft hyphens in. There's no "at least" about it in KFX. It's ALWAYS the way to do it.

This doesn't work with the Kindle for Android/PC apps and eInk Kindles. However, it does work with the Kindle for iOS app, if you specify -webkit-hyphens: auto; in the stylesheet and convert the source files to .azk files with Kindle Previewer. (My test file doesn't contain any soft hyphens.)

Originally Posted by HarryT

That won't display hyphens on the Kindle Voyage. It certainly doesn't use WebKit.

You're most likely wrong about eInk Kindles not using a Webkit based rendering engine, because when I applied the following style to a h3 header, it was rotated by minus 3 degrees on my PW2:

h3 {
    text-align: center;
    -webkit-transform: rotate(-3deg);
}

Therefore, it stands to reason that Kindles have a Webkit based rendering engine.
Can you please test the attached KindleGen generated .azw3 file on your Voyage?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Can you please test the attached KindleGen generated .azw3 file on your Voyage?

A rotated title, but no hyphens.