Custom link colour in .mobi?

[momoha]

Hi,

Is it possible to specify a custom colour for links in a .mobi ebook? In my ePubs I use the following CSS, but it isn’t working when I transfer to mobi. Also, with the latest version of Kindle Previewer, text-decoration: none; also doesn’t work anymore... Any workaround?

a {
	color: #A00000;
	-webkit-text-fill-color: #A00000;
	text-decoration: none;
}

Thanks!

[momoha]

So I found a really weird workaround for the links colour, but still couldn’t solve the text-decoration problem.

For the links colour, the problem happens when I delete my Cover.xhtml. As it is specified in the Amazon guidelines that there shouldn’t be a html page for the cover, I just removed it in the spine, and now the links keep their custom colours.

This text-decoration thing still annoys me quite a lot so if anyone has a solution it would greatly help me...

[jhowell]

To remove the text decoration on links I believe that you have to use:

text-decoration: none !important;

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by momoha

This text-decoration thing still annoys me quite a lot so if anyone has a solution it would greatly help me...

As you know Momoha, Amazon has three ebook formats: .mobi (the older one), .azw3/.kf8 and .kfx (the newest). I'm afraid of you can't disable the text decoration with .mobi and .azw3/.kf8 formats. It could be possible with .kfx but the old Kindle models don't support it, so in those device you only could deal with .mobi and .azw3/.kf8. IMHO you can't do anything to handle that "issue". Maybe Hitch (the specialist in the Amazon's formats in this forum and she knows a lot about Kindle) can tell you something different but in this case I doubt it.

EDIT: I don't think it's a good idea to disable text decoration for links in e-ink devices. There you don't have colours (just shades of gray) and it would be difficult to readers to know where there is a link without underlined words.

[najgori]

for .mobi use custom html tags <mbp:nu>for text without decorations</mbp:nu>

edit: "without decorations" means no underlines as in this case

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by najgori

for .mobi use custom html tags <mbp:nu>for text without decorations</mbp:nu>

edit: "without decorations" means no underlines as in this case

@Najgori:

Are you quite sure that the old Mobipocket tags are still working? Because I seem to vaguely recall that they haven't in some time now. Didn't those start throwing Kindlegen errors some years back?

Hitch

[najgori]

i belive they are still working in mobi7.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

As you know Momoha, Amazon has three ebook formats: .mobi (the older one), .azw3/.kf8 and .kfx (the newest). I'm afraid of you can't disable the text decoration with .mobi and .azw3/.kf8 formats. It could be possible with .kfx but the old Kindle models don't support it, so in those device you only could deal with .mobi and .azw3/.kf8. IMHO you can't do anything to handle that "issue". Maybe Hitch (the specialist in the Amazon's formats in this forum and she knows a lot about Kindle) can tell you something different but in this case I doubt it.

Oh, yes, indeedy, I am All-Knowing.

EDIT: I don't think it's a good idea to disable text decoration for links in e-ink devices. There you don't have colours (just shades of gray) and it would be difficult to readers to know where there is a link without underlined words.

I wanted to second this--in fact, I believe fairly strongly that getting cute with coloration for links is asking for trouble. People are acclimated to seeing links in blue. Not to mention, when you mess with font colors, you can run afoul of things like NightMode, as well.

And yes, in eInks, if you don't have underlining, how the hell would ANYONE know that the text=links? I go through this conversation at least once a day with a client, for the same reasons. Go with what people know and understand. I had a client that INSISTED that her TOC "links" be black, right? I warned her, I tried refusing to do it, but...client is always right, right?

Wanna guess which book we got back, in under 90 days, due to a KQN, over the links being black and not underlined? YUP. Why? Because customers complained that the TOC "wasn't interactive." It was--but they didn't see it that way. They never even tried it, because it was out of context. Not blue, not underlined.

Offered FWIW.

Hitch

[najgori]

it's ok for "external" toc to be black, while html toc gotta be both blue and underlined and god forbid to put html toc at the end of book - "remember the golden rule! whoever has the gold, makes the rules!"

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by najgori

it's ok for "external" toc to be black, while html toc gotta be both blue and underlined and god forbid to put html toc at the end of book - "remember the golden rule! whoever has the gold, makes the rules!"

Well...if you make an external link black, (or any text, for that matter) you're still going to have the same issues--when someone uses Night mode, the text will simply disappear. Any forced text color has this unintended (possible) consequence. Internal or external.

The TOC at the end thing is related to how they calculate pages read, for the KENP. If you put clickbait or the TOC at the back of the book, Jane could buy the book, click to see the TOC, go to the end of the book, and that would trigger "all pages read" for payment to the author. Amazon doesn't want that--it's "cheating" effectively. They want to pay for the pages read, period. That's the reasoning for that now.

The reasoning for it before the KENP was somewhat different, and it's moot now.

Hitch

[najgori]

yup. if someone could come up with something like... let's call it media query
@media night-mode {}
...
<irony off>
i have no horse in this race so as poet once said "whatever's cool with me".

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by najgori

yup. if someone could come up with something like... let's call it media query
@media night-mode {}
...
<irony off>
i have no horse in this race so as poet once said "whatever's cool with me".

lol...the :inherited mq just for that would be great, and I wish like hell it worked. We drag it out and test it frequently.

Spoiler:

(The reason that this is something with which I am acutely aware is that I realized, a while back--quite a while--that one of my bookmakers was making black TOCs. It's a passive-aggressive defiance thing, with this one; s/he was only making NCXes,for the MOBIs, and I said, uh, no, make the toc.html too, and so, then, suddenly, they were black. Using inherited. I had to physically PROVE that the damn things would disappear. {sigh} Yup, bein' the boss is just so cool--not.)

But I can think of so MANY other things I wish I had...mqs that targeted specific devices, like the PPW, Voyage and Oasis, and "publisher font" rather than screen resolutions; mqs for the iOS devices...(sigh).

Hitch