Embedding font (word)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

You would be much better of to just use the header styles in Word. It doesn't matter how it looks after conversion to the ePUB. The looks can easily enough be changed with some styling in the stylesheet. It is all about structure. An ePUB can be split into two parts, a structured part and a part that defines the layout and looks of the structured part. In your source you want the structured part as correct as possible. The layout and looks part can then easily be adapted to the target format, whatever that may be.

You know, Tox, I started to amend my last post on this, to point out that headings and paragraphs and all that good stuff, are ALL about structure. But for some reason, if you go back and read what this person has repeated, consistently, he's trying to CIRCUMVENT structure, because somewhere, some time, he's got it in his head that using (the proper) structure for his ePUB will somehow make him "subject" to some unknown retailer's FUTURE "intrusive" auto-conversion tools. Honestly, I went back and tried to figure out where on earth he got all this from, especially since he's led us to believe that this is his first ePUB, for training purposes. I've come to think that Kawasaki said something--something that the rest of us would have put in the usual context--but for some reason, this OP has taken it to mean that there's some future conversion issue.

(That, OR, he thinks that the Calibre auto-conversion is somehow representative of what happens at a retailer. Beats me. I think we've all tried to explain this, to no avail.)

I mean...whatever. That's my attitude about it now. He's felt free to tell me that I'm "wrong again," that I have "the wrong end of the stick," etc. on more than one occasion, and has demurred from answering questions I've asked, and my attitude now is, I'm going to conserve my energy by not trying to continue to swim upstream here.

When I asked him what he was talking about, with this automated stuff, he said:

I'm finding the best long-term solution to each problem as I encounter it. Covering my tracks where automated conversion tools might otherwise intrude is an example of this. I like the results and it will save me a lot of work down the road.

Thus, I can only assume that really, he doesn't require our assistance. Back to you:

You road is only giving you more work now and for sure later when corrections are needed. I know of only one 'publisher' that has a automatic conversion that is not that good, and htat is Smashwords. Their process is, aptly named, Meatgrinder.

Yes, and I suspect you're wasting your breath. He seems utterly unwilling to discuss whatever it is he thinks he knows--so what's the point here?

(FWIW: For anyone here that doesn't know it, SW uses the Calibre API for intake to their distribution center. So...Calibre auto-conversion, again.)

This is the third-fourth time that he's talked about "covering his tracks," and trying to circumvent "automated interference" in his book. He originally said that this was a training exercise, but I begin to think that that, too, is obfuscatory misdirection. Not that I, or any of us, care what book he's working on, but...hey.

Really--why can't we discuss what he's talking about? Why can't he explain to us what his forward-thinking-ness is all about? What's the big secret????

Font embedding can be difficult, but usually the hardest part is the font licensing. A license for ePUB (electronic publishing) is usually more expensive than for printing. Subsetting a font may result in lower license costs, but is no way certain. Obfuscation also will not matter, it can easily enough be circumvented. If you want a low-cost solution, try using fonts that have no license costs for electronic publishing. I believe Charis is such a font, but I am not sure at all about that.

What I generally find in font discussions is that when people find out what licensing actually costs, they either a) give it up altogether or b) simply use it w/o licensing. At least, that's what they say that they are doing at the various forums. {shrug}. Don't know, don't care.

I'm increasingly determining that attempting to assist people who don't want it, or who are sure that they know more than we do, is just...self-flagellation. I just went through this with some guy at the KDP forums, and I'm not going to continue to provide help where it's needed but unwanted. That's idiotic. (Shades of that endless car-wreck ePUB format thread...)

Hitch

[DLSieving]

The text of my message to KDP Support:

==========================

Subject: Embedded Fonts are Stripped on my Kindle Fire 5G

The KDP-generated MOBI for my draft eBook:
1. Renders fine in the MacOS Kindle Previewer & Kindle App;
2. Fonts are substituted in Kindle App on iOS but the result is acceptable.
3. Fonts are stripped & user selectable on my Kindle Fire 5G – unacceptable.

I use special fonts to convey source information and the book won't work without them. What steps must I take to make my fonts render the same on a Kindle Fire device as they render in the Kindle Previewer for the same device?

==========================

NOTE: The latest KindleGen guidance indicates that since I'm using the latest Kindle Previewer for conversion, I'm also getting the benefit of KF8 formatting.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

The text of my message to KDP Support:

==========================

Subject: Embedded Fonts are Stripped on my Kindle Fire 5G

The KDP-generated MOBI for my draft eBook:
1. Renders fine in the MacOS Kindle Previewer & Kindle App;
2. Fonts are substituted in Kindle App on iOS but the result is acceptable.
3. Fonts are stripped & user selectable on my Kindle Fire 5G – unacceptable.

I use special fonts to convey source information and the book won't work without them. What steps must I take to make my fonts render the same on a Kindle Fire device as they render in the Kindle Previewer for the same device?

==========================

NOTE: The latest KindleGen guidance indicates that since I'm using the latest Kindle Previewer for conversion, I'm also getting the benefit of KF8 formatting.

The Previewer has created KF8 formatting for some years now. There's nothing new about that.

I think that given you followed everything that Kawasaki told you, you should tweet/email him and ask him to sort it out.

Hitch

[DLSieving]

Originally Posted by Hitch

The Previewer has created KF8 formatting for some years now. There's nothing new about that.

I think that given you followed everything that Kawasaki told you, you should tweet/email him and ask him to sort it out.

Hitch

Hitch,

Thanks for your reply.

The main advice I took from Kawasaki was to use Word styles to impart consistency to my source document. I did not use his sample CSS templates to answer one forum question, rather, I let Word take care of the CSS, as I had long since settled on the layout for my books. The judicious use of a tool in place of manual editing saves a huge amount of work over the course of the numerous production and polishing cycles. Almost by definition, a good software tool is worth many thousands of steps. Aside from the platform-specific converters and previewers, my two main tools are Word and Calibre.

Calibre ingested the result and once I had fleshed out my conversion settings solved every problem I had faced to that point. It just took me a number of iterations to figure out why my special font wasn't getting embedded. During this time I was proofing, editing and basically doting over the content and layout and so let the font embedding question ride for a week. But I've purchased the font now and installed it under ~/Library/Fonts and it is now being embedded by Calibre and the results are now very close to publication quality, all the way through the desktop previewers and readers to both the iOS Kindle App and my Kindle Fire 5G. I know what devices support my content and which ones don't, and have indicated as much in my product descriptions.

My next step after final proofing will be to test the SendToKindle version to see if it looks the same as my side-loaded versions and wrestle some more with Amazon if it doesn't.

Thanks once again for your comments and dialogue!

Dave

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

Hitch,

Thanks for your reply.

The main advice I took from Kawasaki was to use Word styles to impart consistency to my source document. I did not use his sample CSS templates to answer one forum question, rather, I let Word take care of the CSS, as I had long since settled on the layout for my books. The judicious use of a tool in place of manual editing saves a huge amount of work over the course of the numerous production and polishing cycles. Almost by definition, a good software tool is worth many thousands of steps. Aside from the platform-specific converters and previewers, my two main tools are Word and Calibre.

Yes, well, most everyone here knows that. Given that Kawasaki's templates unfortunately use paragraph styles, instead of heading styles, for chapter heads, anyway, you are likely better off not using his.

Calibre ingested the result and once I had fleshed out my conversion settings solved every problem I had faced to that point. It just took me a number of iterations to figure out why my special font wasn't getting embedded. During this time I was proofing, editing and basically doting over the content and layout and so let the font embedding question ride for a week. But I've purchased the font now and installed it under ~/Library/Fonts and it is now being embedded by Calibre and the results are now very close to publication quality, all the way through the desktop previewers and readers to both the iOS Kindle App and my Kindle Fire 5G. I know what devices support my content and which ones don't, and have indicated as much in my product descriptions.

My next step after final proofing will be to test the SendToKindle version to see if it looks the same as my side-loaded versions and wrestle some more with Amazon if it doesn't.

Thanks once again for your comments and dialogue!

Dave

Well, as long as the fonts survive the upload, then you have it solved--right? Is that what you mean, or do you just mean that the mobi that's built on the desktop--not yet uploaded--has fonts in it?

I must be confused. I thought that your problem was that the KDP was stripping your fonts. The location of the font on your computer, or, for that matter, whether it's purchased or not won't affect that result. Also, the SendToKindle won't necessarily give you the same result as loading your test file at the KDP, and previewing that there, for a variety of reasons.

Hitch

[DLSieving]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, as long as the fonts survive the upload, then you have it solved--right? Is that what you mean, or do you just mean that the mobi that's built on the desktop--not yet uploaded--has fonts in it?

The MOBI generated by the desktop Kindle Previewer didn't used to show the embedded fonts. Turns out they had not been embedded. Now they are, and now it does. This round's SendToKindle results TBD. KDP online version of Kindle Previewer showed me a blank screen and I didn't spend any more time with it.

Originally Posted by Hitch

I must be confused. I thought that your problem was that the KDP was stripping your fonts.

KDP may still be stripping my fonts but the results described above open the possibility that the real reason was that I had just not properly embedded them in the first place. It's true that I hadn't embedded them, but that may just have been masking the fact that they would have been stripped anyway; TBD.

In either case, my next argument to KDP will be simpler if my locally-generated MOBI looks right, which it now does.

Originally Posted by Hitch

The location of the font on your computer, or, for that matter, whether it's purchased or not won't affect that result.

Calibre expects to find fonts for embedding in ~/Library/Fonts.

Originally Posted by Hitch

Also, the SendToKindle won't necessarily give you the same result as loading your test file at the KDP, and previewing that there, for a variety of reasons.

This I have discovered as noted above.

• Is there a way to preview on KDP without using their online Kindle Previewer, e.g. by "publishing" the book for author viewing only before really publishing it?
• Will I be able to simulate publication before actually publishing?

My technical progress may seem to be slow but it's not, it's just intermittent, as I've been spending the last few weeks proofreading. One way or another, one publishing platform or another, that has to get done. Almost there.

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hitch

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

The MOBI generated by the desktop Kindle Previewer didn't used to show the embedded fonts. Turns out they had not been embedded. Now they are, and now it does. This round's SendToKindle results TBD. KDP online version of Kindle Previewer showed me a blank screen and I didn't spend any more time with it.

Sorry--something is quite amiss here. The desktop KP has shown fonts for as long as font embedding has been introduced. At least 3 years. Not a day less. It may even be 4-5 years; I'll have to go back and look, but it's not less than 3 years. Not months.

KDP may still be stripping my fonts but the results described above open the possibility that the real reason was that I had just not properly embedded them in the first place. It's true that I hadn't embedded them, but that may just have been masking the fact that they would have been stripped anyway; TBD.

As I don't know anything at all about Calibre, I can't speak to this. MOST Word file conversion mechanisms do NOT embed fonts. This is generally because the Word file does not have the font embedded. Even if you embed the font in the Word file, it would not survive being uploaded to, say, the KDP. The font would be stripped.

GENERALLY, font embedding requires an explicit overt act, putting the font family into the ePUB, and calling it as required in the CSS/HTML.

In either case, my next argument to KDP will be simpler if my locally-generated MOBI looks right, which it now does.

Well, good luck with that.

Calibre expects to find fonts for embedding in ~/Library/Fonts.

To do what? To embed them? Or to display them? Have you tested the MOBI by displaying it somewhere that doesn't have access to your Font Libary (or folder, or whatever you're doing). Isn't the Calibre Library the result of a book being added, or, presumably, the addition of a converted file? Are you sure that the Calibre Library would also be the repository for fonts to be embedded into eBooks that you create? Is that what Kovid and those guys say?

This I have discovered as noted above.

• Is there a way to preview on KDP without using their online Kindle Previewer, e.g. by "publishing" the book for author viewing only before really publishing it?
• Will I be able to simulate publication before actually publishing?

Client? A client author? Yes. You give them the final mobi. If the MOBI file that goes on sale at Amazon is decidedly or even somewhat different than the MOBI file on your computer, you've done something wrong. If naught else, you would simply download the Step7 Preview MOBI from the KDP, and send that to your client. That's the file that will show you, more than anything else, what the for-sale book will look like.

My technical progress may seem to be slow but it's not, it's just intermittent, as I've been spending the last few weeks proofreading. One way or another, one publishing platform or another, that has to get done. Almost there.

Well...your speed is your own concern. I don't think anyone here would really give it a second thought.

Hitch

[BetterRed]

@Hitch, I suspect the OPs reference to ~/Library/Fonts is the standard location for Fonts on Apple OSX, equivalent of Microsoft's %systemdrive%:\Windows\Fonts. AFAIK, by default, calibre looks for fonts in the standard location for the user's OS.

The OP mentioned Word for Mac in his opening post

BR

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@Hitch, I suspect the OPs reference to ~/Library/Fonts is the standard location for Fonts on Apple OSX, equivalent of Microsoft's %systemdrive%:\Windows\Fonts. AFAIK, by default, calibre looks for fonts in the standard location for the user's OS.

The OP mentioned Word for Mac in his opening post

BR

Red:

Yes, I forgot about the Mac dir naming.

And Calibre would look there? And embed fonts from there, in a Calibre-built ePUB?

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Hitch

And Calibre would look there? And embed fonts from there, in a Calibre-built ePUB?

Yep yep, Calibre makes it pretty damn easy to embed the fonts:

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/edi...ferenced-fonts

And I believe it can do the same thing in the Conversion Dialogs as well. Under "Look & Feel" is a little checkbox for "Embed all fonts in document" + "Subset all embedded fonts".

[DLSieving]

Thanks all for your inputs but you're starting to invent and discuss at length problems that I never had.

Since my last post I had solved everything using Calibre and was ready to publish on KDP. Only one more precautionary step remained. Based on a warning from someone in this thread or elsewhere on MobileRead, I did a DRM threat assessment using the tools at apprenticealf.com and found it very easy to strip the DRM protection from most any Kindle or Kobo book, or from any platform that uses Adobe Digital Editions. Only Apple seems to have won the DRM wars, so I've once again abandoned KDP for iBooks.

[PeterT]

And in doing so cut the market for your work to an even smaller number. Do you really think that most people search for a pirated version of an eBook?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

Thanks all for your inputs but you're starting to invent and discuss at length problems that I never had.

Or, problems that you don't yet even know you have.

Since my last post I had solved everything using Calibre and was ready to publish on KDP. Only one more precautionary step remained. Based on a warning from someone in this thread or elsewhere on MobileRead, I did a DRM threat assessment using the tools at apprenticealf.com and found it very easy to strip the DRM protection from most any Kindle or Kobo book, or from any platform that uses Adobe Digital Editions. Only Apple seems to have won the DRM wars, so I've once again abandoned KDP for iBooks.

If you'd asked, anyone here would have told you that in a minute or so. Not that it's not good for you to learn it for yourself, but...<shrug>. It's not a secret.

Without saying anything out of school...I wouldn't count on the idea that Apple's "won" the DRM wars. That's...how shall I say it? Most likely wrong.

I would point out that as of your last post, you didn't know if the font embedding would survive uploading. I assume that's done? After all, most people "lose" their fonts at the KDP, not before.

All I can say about your retailer choice is, THANK HEAVENS that this was just an experiment for you, a learning experience, and not something you intended to use to make money!!

My typical client sells 1,000 eBooks on Amazon for every ONE--yes, ONE--that they sell on iBooks. They sell more books on KOBOBooks than they do on iBooks, and there are far, far FAR (did I say, FAR?) fewer Kobo devices in the world than there are Apple devices. For every 1K that you sell on Amazon, assuming you are a typical author, you'll sell ~110-200-ish on B&N. And some unknown number on Kobo. And ONE on iBooks.

n.b.: it's absolutely true that some books appeal to the iBooks market more than others. How-to, DIY and self-improvement books (you know, the "Aisle 5" kind of books, like "How to Get Over Yourself and Earn Big!" type), along with tomes on New Age spiritual stuff all seem to do better on iBooks than the typical fiction book.

Originally Posted by PeterT

And in doing so cut the market for your work to an even smaller number. Do you really think that most people search for a pirated version of an eBook?

Exactly.

Back to @DLSieving:

My less typical clients? The "big" ones? By which I mean, big names? International bestselling authors, and the like? The selling ratio is even worse--5,000 books on Amazon for one on Apple. The bottom line seems to be that i-Device users buy games; they buy apps; they buy movies and videos. But they don't buy BOOKS. Not in any real quantity. Not in enough of a quantity to make a difference to the publisher's pocketbook, anyway. (n.b.: most of the bestseller clients have gotten to the point that they don't even PUBLISH on iBooks any longer. They say it's more brain-damage than it's worth. I had an Edgar-winner, big name author, who's a Mac person through and through, big Apple-fanatic. She used to have us embed video clips [trailers] in her ePUBs, for Apple. Right? Now she doesn't even PUBLISH there anymore. Take it for what it's worth.).

About Piracy: If your book is worth a damn, it WILL be stolen. If you put it out in print, someone will scan, OCR, and convert it, and put it on the Darknet. They'll retype (yes, it's really done) the file from an iPad. They'll do this, or that. That's actually how you'll REALLY know you're a good writer--you've been pirated. I'm an advocate for stiffer fines for pirates, but some amount of piracy is needed.

The last time I looked, Pirate Bay's "bestselling" pirated eBooks were, in order:

1. Game cheats, of all kinds;
2. Playboy magazines; and
3. Excel macro books.

Which, I think, says everything there is to say, about the demographic that's pirating Books. If your book appeals to 15-17 y.o. boys, sure, it may be stolen. If it doesn't, you are likely safe.

Hitch

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

I did a DRM threat assessment using the tools at apprenticealf.com and found it very easy to strip the DRM protection from most any Kindle or Kobo book, or from any platform that uses Adobe Digital Editions. Only Apple seems to have won the DRM wars, so I've once again abandoned KDP for iBooks.

Apple may have won the DRM wars, but many legitimate ebook buyers simply won't buy any ebooks if they can't remove the DRM and backup their books.
Also many publishers now offer watermarked DRM-free books because they've realized that many of their customers can't be bothered with DRM handling.
It may sound counter-intuitive, but you actually might get more sales, if you offer your book DRM-free via KDP.

[Toxaris]

Apple didn't win the DRM wars, far from it. The point is, iBooks have a too small a share to be interesting for 'pirates'. There are only so much books only released on iBooks. If they want, they could crack the DRM of iBooks in a week easily. They have done it before.
I also refuse to use 'pirates' and DRM removal as similar or equal. I always remove DRM, but I never share my books and I know there are many more like that. The reason is simple and I will give you a small example. I recently bought two original e-books (also having the paper book, but that is besides the point). I quickly realized it was a digitized version of the paper book with bad, bad OCR and post-processing by someone who didn't understand the language or really didn't care. It was to such a point I deemed it unreadable. By removing DRM I was able to correct the errors. I am not exaggerating when I say there were between 2500-3000 errors per book. The publisher didn't care when I pointed it out to them.
Reasons like that is why I remove DRM. DRM costs a lot of money for the publisher and is no protection at all. Social watermarking is a much better solution.