Mobipocket output

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by slayda

I just used Calibre to convert from RTF to Mobipocket for my Kindle 1. I worked but the resulting PRC's font was too small to read and could not be resized. I went back and used Mobipocket Creator and the font is fine. Anyone know why or what happened?

Interesting, open a bug report and attach the RTF file

[JMikeD]

This may be only a problem with the Kindle itself, but I keep getting author sort problems when importing and exporting .prc and .mobi files between the Kindle and Calibre.

The problem I have is that Calibre assumes the author name in the .prc or .mobi metadata is in the form Firstname Lastname, when in fact the correct format (as defined by MobiCreator, and used in this fashion by the Kindle) is Lastname, Firstname. This causes no end of problem for importing books (won't sort correctly in Calibre). If the data is corrected in Calibre to sort correctly there, it won't sort correctly when exported to a device.

Mike

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by JMikeD

If the data is corrected in Calibre to sort correctly there, it won't sort correctly when exported to a device.

Calibre does not sort on the author name field, but on the Author sort field.

The Calibre default algorithm for Author sort is to make it lastname, firstname based on the Author name field being in the order firstname lastname.

[Sydney's Mom]

I'm converting from a PDF, and I have lots of hyphens. Is there something I am doing wrong? Thanks, Debra

[Sydney's Mom]

I'm converting from a PDF, and I have lots of hyphens. Is there something I am doing wrong? Thanks, Debra

[kovidgoyal]

The PDF probably has so called soft-hyphens that are being converted to hard hyphens during the conversion. Open a ticket and attach the PDF

[JMikeD]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Calibre does not sort on the author name field, but on the Author sort field.

The Calibre default algorithm for Author sort is to make it lastname, firstname based on the Author name field being in the order firstname lastname.

I think I didn’t explain my problem well enough.

I have a .mobi/.prc format book on my Kindle. The Kindle shows the author name as "Isaac Asimov." The Kindle will sort correctly by the author's last name. The information in the ebook metadata is "Asimov, Isaac" as seen in a hex editor.

I import this into Calibre. The Calibre author name field says "Asimov, Isaac" and the author sort field says "Isaac, Asimov,". Clearly, this is not desirable.

If I then send the file back to the Kindle, It of course will be fine and sort correctly. If I export to a .mobi file, it will also be fine on the target device.

But the info in the author fields of Calibre is incorrect, and won’t do an author sort properly. It will sort using Isaac instead of Asimov.

[kovidgoyal]

calibre has no way on knowing if the author name from a MOBI book is first, last or last, first

It assumes it is first, last and therefore swaps for the sort field. You can always correct this manually using the metadata edit dialog

[JMikeD]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre has no way on knowing if the author name from a MOBI book is first, last or last, first

It assumes it is first, last and therefore swaps for the sort field. You can always correct this manually using the metadata edit dialog

The standard seems to be last, first. I've seen very few that are first last, and so I consider those to not be the standard.

Sure, I can correct this manually in Caliber, but then when I send the book to the reader, it will not sort correctly there.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre has no way on knowing if the author name from a MOBI book is first, last or last, first

Well, you should be able to do a good guess. If the form is "A, B" then it is "Last, First" and if the for is "A B" then it is "First Last".

[starrigger]

This seems to be an area in which there is no standard in ebooks, though "last name, first name" has long been the standard in regular books and libraries.

From a programming point of view, would it be difficult to allow the user a choice of which they want as a default display of author name? That would let people standardize their own collections, anyway.

What if the metadata edit window had three fields (at least): First name, last name, and optional title (such as Editor). Then the user could click on a choice of preferred display order.

[JMikeD]

Originally Posted by starrigger

This seems to be an area in which there is no standard in ebooks, though "last name, first name" has long been the standard in regular books and libraries.

From a programming point of view, would it be difficult to allow the user a choice of which they want as a default display of author name? That would let people standardize their own collections, anyway.

What if the metadata edit window had three fields (at least): First name, last name, and optional title (such as Editor). Then the user could click on a choice of preferred display order.

In the case of the Kindle, the standard is that the data in the author metadata field is Last, First. As long as the program can recognize that it is connected to a Kindle, then it seems reasonable that Calibre should process the data that way.

Standard in this case is defined by the way books are formatted when purchased from Amazon and other sources and display correctly on the Kindle. Clearly the intent is for the data to be in this form because that is the only way it can be sorted properly on the Kindle. I have no information on the way other devices may use this information, or if they use it at all.

BTW, Jeffrey, I've read a number of your books over the years and enjoyed them all.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by JMikeD

BTW, Jeffrey, I've read a number of your books over the years and enjoyed them all.

Thanks.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by JMikeD

The standard seems to be last, first. I've seen very few that are first last, and so I consider those to not be the standard.

Sure, I can correct this manually in Caliber, but then when I send the book to the reader, it will not sort correctly there.

Yes, it will. The Kindle properly picks up First Last or Last, First and displays and sorts appropriately.

[JMikeD]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

Yes, it will. The Kindle properly picks up First Last or Last, First and displays and sorts appropriately.

I disagree. I've had half a dozen books I purchased for the Kindle that don't sort properly, indexing by the first name instead of the last, and it's always been due to improperly entered author metadata. Some of which I've managed to correct.There have been a number of threads on other forums complaining about this.