kdp / azw3 / calibre / mobi

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by joe 1

Ok, I'm almost there. My tables are now showing up with borders! But now I'm having a problem with fonts.

If I use calibre to generate a MOBI from my original epub, I am seeing monospace fonts where I have used "font-family: monospace". But if I use any of the Amazon tools with my epub, I do not get any monospace fonts.

Is there a trick to specifying monospace fonts in CSS so that it gets set properly by Kindle Create / Previewer?

When you say that you are "seeing monospace fonts," what, exactly, do you mean and on what device(s) or software?

Hitch

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by joe 1

If I use calibre to generate a MOBI from my original epub, I am seeing monospace fonts where I have used "font-family: monospace". But if I use any of the Amazon tools with my epub, I do not get any monospace fonts.

In my testing "font-family: monospace;" works properly in most situations. However there are two cases I have encountered where Kindle software incorrectly displays a proportional font instead of a monospace one. This problem occurs in the Kindle Previewer and Kindle for PC apps for books that support Enhanced Typesetting.

Originally Posted by joe 1

Is there a trick to specifying monospace fonts in CSS so that it gets set properly by Kindle Create / Previewer?

A work around for the Kindle Previewer is to use "font-family: 'Source Code Pro', monospace;" instead. I don't know of any fix for Kindle for PC.

I am not sure how Kindle Create comes into this. Could you explain further?

[Notjohn]

FWIW, I have always used a belt & suspenders approach to monospace, e.g.:

p.block {
font-family: courier, monospace;
text-indent: 1em;
text-align:left;
margin:0em 0em 0em 1em;
}

I don't recall where this originated, but it was the conventional wisdom on the KDP forums some years ago, say 2012.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by Hitch

When you say that you are "seeing monospace fonts," what, exactly, do you mean and on what device(s) or software?

Hitch

When converting from EPUB to MOBI, is there a way to format it so that it only displays something you've added if it's displaying the MOBI7 format? Some sort of debugging thing you can add to verify that you're seeing the MOBI7 format and not the AZW3 format if/when it's a dual MOBI (or whatever might use AZW3). That's assuming you don't have an old Kindle that only handles the old MOBI; if you're on a PC you could use the Mobi Pocket viewer.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by hobnail

When converting from EPUB to MOBI, is there a way to format it so that it only displays something you've added if it's displaying the MOBI7 format? Some sort of debugging thing you can add to verify that you're seeing the MOBI7 format and not the AZW3 format if/when it's a dual MOBI (or whatever might use AZW3). That's assuming you don't have an old Kindle that only handles the old MOBI; if you're on a PC you could use the Mobi Pocket viewer.

You can use kindleunpack -s
to split out the mobi7 and azw3 files and compare how all three look.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hobnail

When converting from EPUB to MOBI, is there a way to format it so that it only displays something you've added if it's displaying the MOBI7 format? Some sort of debugging thing you can add to verify that you're seeing the MOBI7 format and not the AZW3 format if/when it's a dual MOBI (or whatever might use AZW3). That's assuming you don't have an old Kindle that only handles the old MOBI; if you're on a PC you could use the Mobi Pocket viewer.

If you have a dual format eBook and your device supports KF8, that's what you will see. There is no way to make it see the Mobi part. You can load the eBook into Calibre (if it's not already) and use the KindleUnpack plugin to split into Mobi, KF8, and it will generate an ePub (but that ePub needs to be verified with epubcheck and then the errors fixed).

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by hobnail

When converting from EPUB to MOBI, is there a way to format it so that it only displays something you've added if it's displaying the MOBI7 format? Some sort of debugging thing you can add to verify that you're seeing the MOBI7 format and not the AZW3 format if/when it's a dual MOBI (or whatever might use AZW3).

You can use media queries to have CSS that varies by format. Use this to selectively apply the "display" property to text in order to have the content vary by format.

I have attached a sample EPUB that will show which Kindle format is used to display it.

[joe 1]

Originally Posted by Hitch

When you say that you are "seeing monospace fonts," what, exactly, do you mean and on what device(s) or software?

Hitch

Yeah, sorry, I should have clarified. I'm doing testing with the IOS Kindle app. I created a simple epub in calibre, and included the following block of text:
Test
iiii
OOOO
TEST

The second and third lines are formatted as monospace, so it's easy to tell visually if it really is being rendered in a monospace font. I converted my epub to mobi, and emailed it to my Kindle account. The doc looks fine -- I see my monospace fonts where they should be.

Next, I used kindlegen to convert my epub to mobi, and again emailed it to my Kindle acocunt. Now, all the text is the same proportional font -- no monospace anywhere.

I tried opening both mobi files with Kindle Previewer and saw the same result as on my iPhone -- monospace fonts correctly display in the mobi created by calibre, but no monospace fonts in the one created by kindlegen.

This is the css for my monospace section:

.class_s {
    display: block;
    font-family: "Source Code Pro", monospace
    }

Originally Posted by jhowell

A work around for the Kindle Previewer is to use "font-family: 'Source Code Pro', monospace;" instead. I don't know of any fix for Kindle for PC.

I am not sure how Kindle Create comes into this. Could you explain further?

That's exactly the font-family value I'm using..

Whoops, I meant to say kindlegen, not Kindle Create.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by joe 1

I converted my epub to mobi, and emailed it to my Kindle account. The doc looks fine -- I see my monospace fonts where they should be.

Next, I used kindlegen to convert my epub to mobi, and again emailed it to my Kindle acocunt. Now, all the text is the same proportional font -- no monospace anywhere.

You found another failure case that I had not tested. Emailing a MOBI file created by either calibre or kindlegen will result in MOBI7 format being delivered to the Kindle for iOS app since it does not support KF8 format.

The reason for the failure is that in MOBI7 format only the first font family name is retained by kindlegen, "Source Code Pro" in this case. But the MOBI7 renderer does not handle that font name, only "monospace" or "courier". It will work properly if you use "font-family: monospace" alone. (As NotJohn indicated using "font-family: courier, monospace;" also works.)

The reason that calibre conversion works in this case is that, unlike kindlegen, it converts any monospace font family to the HTML <tt> tag which is rendered in MOBI7 with a monospace font.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by joe 1

Yeah, sorry, I should have clarified. I'm doing testing with the IOS Kindle app. [snip]

Well, as jhowell told you, you've wasted all that time.

Emailing or sideloading a MOBI to your iOS device doesn't give you the correct file. You have to build an AZK file and then sideload it, hardwired via a USB cable, through iTunes, to the device.

Once you've done that, the coding probably works or you can fix it as per the coding that you've been given in this thread. This--the iOS--is exactly why I asked what I asked. We once had a ridiculously long thread on this forum, with someone driving us and himself insane, about embedded fonts--until I noticed something he had said, and it turned out he was viewing the file on KCR--which displays ZERO embedded fonts. {sigh}.

Hitch

[joe 1]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Emailing or sideloading a MOBI to your iOS device doesn't give you the correct file. You have to build an AZK file and then sideload it, hardwired via a USB cable, through iTunes, to the device.

Ok, but I replicated the behavior with Kindle Previewer:
1. Save epub with calibre
2. Use kindlegen to convert epub to mobi
3. Open mobi with Kindle Previewer

I don't see my monospace fonts this way, but if I:
1. Save epub with calibre
2. Convert epub to mobi with calibre
3. Open mobi with Kindle Previewer

then it works.

Originally Posted by jhowell

The reason that calibre conversion works in this case is that, unlike kindlegen, it converts any monospace font family to the HTML <tt> tag which is rendered in MOBI7 with a monospace font.

That would explain the behavior I'm seeing. So am I just out of luck in hoping to get monospace fonts? Or is it possible to replace the mobi7 portion of the kindlegen-generated file with one I create in calibre?

Thank you both very much for your assistance.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by joe 1

That would explain the behavior I'm seeing. So am I just out of luck in hoping to get monospace fonts? Or is it possible to replace the mobi7 portion of the kindlegen-generated file with one I create in calibre?

You can’t mix and match parts of files created by calibre and kindlegen.

You can fix the problem with devices and apps that use MOBI7 format by just dropping “Source Code Pro” from your font selection and going with just “monospace” or “courier, monospace”. That fails to display properly in the Kindle Previewer, but works in actual customer devices and apps except Kindle for PC.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by jhowell

You can’t mix and match parts of files created by calibre and kindlegen.

You can fix the problem with devices and apps that use MOBI7 format by just dropping “Source Code Pro” from your font selection and going with just “monospace” or “courier, monospace”. That fails to display properly in the Kindle Previewer, but works in actual customer devices and apps except Kindle for PC.

IME, The courier call always works. Calling "Source Code Pro" isn't going to work, obviously, on the myriad devices that don't have it.

Hitch

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by Hitch

IME, The courier call always works. Calling "Source Code Pro" isn't going to work, obviously, on the myriad devices that don't have it.
Hitch

Which devices come with Source Code Pro?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by joe 1

That would explain the behavior I'm seeing. So am I just out of luck in hoping to get monospace fonts? Or is it possible to replace the mobi7 portion of the kindlegen-generated file with one I create in calibre?

You seem to be confusing specifying some specific font not working with not being able to get monospace at all.