Bolded fonts on personal documents

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Thanks for your advice. No I am not using embedded fonts, and no unfortunately I do not own the ePub files. When I bought the ebooks I only purchased mobi files.

There is one more thing you could try, just as an experiment. Convert one of your mobi files to epub, rename it to txt, send to kindle, see if it works. Might not be a good solution to redo all the books in cloud, but might work hence forth with new books.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

There is one more thing you could try, just as an experiment. Convert one of your mobi files to epub, rename it to txt, send to kindle, see if it works. Might not be a good solution to redo all the books in cloud, but might work hence forth with new books.

Actually that works

No cover but I get an ebook in the Amazon cloud that has the bolding options. It's by far the easiest option i've tried. I will certainly use that going forwards.

[Robmonster]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Actually that works

No cover but I get an ebook in the Amazon cloud that has the bolding options. It's by far the easiest option i've tried. I will certainly use that going forwards.

Does whispersync still work in this way?

[HarryT]

Yes, it does.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Robmonster

Does whispersync still work in this way?

I concur with Harry. I just tested it on my book.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Robmonster

Does whispersync still work in this way?

Yes, this is why I switched to the epub > txt > Send-to-Kindle method over a year ago.

Calibre conversion to dual-mobi didn't always work for me, but converting via KindleGen using the epub > txt > Send-to-Kindle method has never failed to provide me with a KF8 that works with WhisperSync, FONT_RAMP and all the other benefits KF8 provides. Plus it's ridiculously easy!

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Yes, this is why I switched to the epub > txt > Send-to-Kindle method over a year ago.

Calibre conversion to dual-mobi didn't always work for me, but converting via KindleGen using the epub > txt > Send-to-Kindle method has never failed to provide me with a KF8 that works with WhisperSync, FONT_RAMP and all the other benefits KF8 provides. Plus it's ridiculously easy!

I used Calibre to create my ePub btw.

[challe232]

I hate that I care too much about covers, that I'm willing to sacrifice bolding. Its hard, though!

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I used Calibre to create my ePub btw.

I don't think it matters how the epub is created (I use Sigil). As long as it's a valid epub, or an epub with minor errors that KindleGen can overlook, it should be fine.

P.S. I have nothing against Calibre. On the contrary, I think it's an amazing app. Just saying Calibre's conversion of dual-mobis didn't always work for me to get bold, FONT_RAMP and WhisperSync. KindleGen, on the other hand, works consistently with every epub I've thrown at it, and is so easy with the epub>txt>Send-to-Kindle trick.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I don't think it matters how the epub is created (I use Sigil). As long as it's a valid epub, or an epub with minor errors that KindleGen can overlook, it should be fine.

P.S. I have nothing against Calibre. On the contrary, I think it's an amazing app. Just saying Calibre's conversion of dual-mobis didn't always work for me to get bold, FONT_RAMP and WhisperSync. KindleGen, on the other hand, works consistently with every epub I've thrown at it, and is so easy with the epub>txt>Send-to-Kindle trick.

[Quoth]

Calibre warns about dual mobi. It recomends Mobi Old for older Kindles and AZW for newer ones. That works perfectly.

However the Cloud WILL fail. Two big outages on MS this last 10 days. I have an IT background so I wrote a fantasy explaining why stupidity rather than Cyber attacks makes WhisperSync and Cloud a bad idea. Also there are the privacy and copyright issues with Amazon, Google, MS, Dropbox etc as well as security.
Why the "Cloud" and "Whispersync" is a disaster sooner or later. Inevitable.
Kindle Only: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y26M8Z6 I recommend download via PC, you get a different format via whispersync on some Kindles.
Kindle and all other readers: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/716453
No DRM even on Amazon version. You are on your honour not to upload or copy (excepting backups), which also applies to free titles NOT in the Public Domain.

I have phone App, Tablet App and five eReaders of my own I update over USB. Also load eBooks on four other Kindles and one ePub reader via USB from Calibre (100s of books from Gutenberg and now 22 of my own books & updated versions).

Backup any content you buy.

[Quoth]

Also just to clarify on the "Old Mobi" format:
I've used the old Mobi Creator (on Windows XP) from MS Doc format and HTML that Amazon killed when they bought out Mobireader. I've also used Calibre on Windows with Doc. I use Calibre from ODT format on Linux. I "save as" DOC 97 - 2003 Format in LibreOffice Writer (the later MS Docx etc are a little fragile even in Word) and have checked mobi from Amazon and Smashwords.
The old mobi format does support limited Greek letters, San Serif, Serif, Monospace (Courier etc) all in regular, bold, italic and bold italic. It also supports centred, left, right and fully justified text, though that's tricky.
The source document format is important. Stick to paragraph styles. The inline named character styles can be erratic, so if a word or sentence IN a paragraph is bold or italic, I just use direct formatting. Font changes (face or size) must only be paragraph styles.
Centred text is tricky to get right. Make sure it's not done by indents but a centred style based off a header, but then outlining level set to bodytext if it's not a header. I use header level 4 paragraphs for centred text dividers such as * * * in Courier, but set to bodytext in Outline so as they are not indexed.

Unless you need fancy user fonts (only newer Kindles & FW, or some ePub) you only need Mobi Old. Don't use Dual. Use AZW for user fonts.
Also for user fonts to work you must use compatible fonts (oddly some TTF don't work) and ePub for ePub readers that support Publisher fonts, or AZW for supporting Kindles. Some ePub readers only support Publisher fonts if books are in the Adobe Editions folder (even though no DRM!).

You must go to properties and select Embed Fonts and then Save As MS Word Format 97-2003 if uploading. Or Save As PDF with embedded fonts if uploading for POD paper. Do not trust Word Format for that.

In 10+ years I've never had a problem sending people MS Word Format 97-2003 .doc created by Open Office or Libre Office or Word 2002. I stopped using Word entirely two years ago. I edit & archive in odt format. I only use MS Word format to upload (or PDF Format to upload to POD for paper).

I stopped proofing on paper about 5 years ago. I now find the Kobo H2O original best for proof + annotations and export to clipboard via Kobo Utilities on Calibre. My paper & toner savings have more than paid for my three eBook readers I bought new (PaperWhite was given to wife and replaced with a DXG, as I thought it would manage PDFs, it's only good for A5 or smaller PDFs, then I got Kobo H2O and finally a PW3 (gen7) to buy Amazon as I'm going to give away the DXG to a partially sighted person). I got the others S/H to check formatting (Cover Story, now dead, Binatone Readme, Nook Touch, Sony PRS350). I use the 6" phone and/or the PRS350 outside the house. Finding the same place in the book is as easy or easier than muliple paper books between Kobo, Phone and PR350 and Kindle. No need for Whispersync, which won't work even on phone as I don't use Kindle App on it (That was trying to connect all the time).

Just to double check, no one's found a way to use "send to kindle" and have the bolding options, and whispersync, and covers, correct? If I send Calibre's Old Mobi, I get whispersync and covers. If I use Calibre's Both Mobi format, I get whispersync and bold options. If I sideload, I get covers and bold options but not syncing.

Do I have that all right?

[Shad Plante]

Originally Posted by EltaninPub

Just to double check, no one's found a way to use "send to kindle" and have the bolding options, and whispersync, and covers, correct? If I send Calibre's Old Mobi, I get whispersync and covers. If I use Calibre's Both Mobi format, I get whispersync and bold options. If I sideload, I get covers and bold options but not syncing.

Do I have that all right?

That is how I understand the situation as well.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by EltaninPub

Just to double check, no one's found a way to use "send to kindle" and have the bolding options, and whispersync, and covers, correct? If I send Calibre's Old Mobi, I get whispersync and covers. If I use Calibre's Both Mobi format, I get whispersync and bold options. If I sideload, I get covers and bold options but not syncing.

Do I have that all right?

Yep that’s it basically. If you want the new font options (and hyphenation support -> hyphenate epub before renaming to txt) then you will have to rely on the format KF8 which was built to draw its cover from Amazon servers (which it cannot do for lack of identifier in your personal document files). If you want covers you will have to use the older mobi format whose engine has not been updated with the new font options.
In general, I was hoping that Amazon would silently convert all personal documents to kfx before delivery, but it never came to that (a CS rep told me in an email once that they would do that, but alas...) If you want ALL the goods, write emails to Amazon asking for proper modern format support for your personal documents and hope that they will eventually come around. Nothing else to be done.