Kindle Previewer version 3.32 and KPF

[Kamikuza]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Kindle Previewer uses kindlegen to produce a Master MOBI that includes the older MOBI7 and newer KF8 in a single file. Kindle devices and apps will use the KF8 portion if they support that format or the MOBI7 portion if they do not.

So mobi is fine then

[Kamikuza]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Can you elaborate on that? Why KFX is "messing up" your heading sizes? Can you show us? I'm genuinely curious as to what's happening here.

Don't get me wrong--I personally prefer mobi, as a bookmaker. But I'm not clear on why KFX would mess up your heading sizes. What's your CSS?

Hitch

Using all the default settings in Calibre, so there may be a setting there, but ...

If I do a title page and have something like

<h1 style="font-size:5em;">Title</h1>

it just appears to revert to either whatever is declared in the stylesheet or the "default" 2em.

It also messes with table layout.

I suspect it's something to do with Calibre's conversion. I've stuck with KDP for a long time because what I get there looks almost exactly like what I get on-screen in Sigil.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Kamikuza

Using all the default settings in Calibre, so there may be a setting there, but ...

If I do a title page and have something like

<h1 style="font-size:5em;">Title</h1>

it just appears to revert to either whatever is declared in the stylesheet or the "default" 2em.

It also messes with table layout.

I suspect it's something to do with Calibre's conversion. I've stuck with KDP for a long time because what I get there looks almost exactly like what I get on-screen in Sigil.

Ah. Calibre. Sorry, can't help there.

Hitch

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Kamikuza

If I do a title page and have something like
<h1 style="font-size:5em;">Title</h1>

• Inline styles are usually a bad idea.
• You might want to follow jhowell's suggestion and use the command line interface if you want the cleanest conversion from your source file to KFX with no manipulation of formatting by calibre's conversion pipeline. If you're not a command line person, you can also use my KindleGen Sigil plugin, which uses the command line interface of the KFX output plugin to generate KFX files.

[Kamikuza]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

• Inline styles are usually a bad idea.
• You might want to follow jhowell's suggestion and use the command line interface if you want the cleanest conversion from your source file to KFX with no manipulation of formatting by calibre's conversion pipeline. If you're not a command line person, you can also use my KindleGen Sigil plugin, which uses the command line interface of the KFX output plugin to generate KFX files.

That might explain why Calibre creates ten thousand classes...

Oh that last one looks like a nice idea. KFX files automatically hyphenate on the Kindle, don't they?

[Kyriosity]

Just wondering what the consensus is on exporting from Kindle Previewer for books to be distributed by Amazon. Does Amazon now prefer KPF over MOBI? What are the advantages/disadvantages to the end user for each option?

Thanks!

~Valerie

[Quoth]

The epub2 format is best option to upload to KDP.
Testing on real Kindles is better than an app or Kindle Previewer. At a minimum a Kindle Keyboard and a PW3.

Mobi is nearly the worst to upload to KDP. The MS docx format (even from LO Writer) is better than Mobi upload, but a verified epub2 is better still.

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The epub2 format is best option to upload to KDP.

How happy I am to read that! I have been doing this since January 2012, when Hitch told me it was possible, and I've never looked back (or upgraded to epub3).

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The epub2 format is best option to upload to KDP.
Testing on real Kindles is better than an app or Kindle Previewer. At a minimum a Kindle Keyboard and a PW3.

Mobi is nearly the worst to upload to KDP. The MS docx format (even from LO Writer) is better than Mobi upload, but a verified epub2 is better still.

Well....that's not really what I'd say. Saying that 'MOBI" is the worst...I mean, that's like saying that tacos are bad, but pot roast is good--when in fact, you can make one (tacos) from the other (pot roast). When my firm gives MOBI files to our customers, those are built from ePUB2. So...that's a distinction without a difference.

Because we're a commerical firm, too, (with picky-ass customers!) we use MQs in the ePUBs that are used to build those mobis, to optimize the file for this environment or that.

If you mean "MOBI built from a Word file through Calibre" or some other farrago, I'd agree with you. :-)

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Kyriosity

Just wondering what the consensus is on exporting from Kindle Previewer for books to be distributed by Amazon.

Don't submit a Calibre-created MOBI/AZW3 or anything like that into Amazon... that's just asking for trouble.

Kindle Previewer is the official tool to use.

There's also:

• KindleGen
  
  • Commandline tool.
• Kindle Create
  
  • Designed to take your original document in, then let you make changes/adjustments to the text/formatting within the ebook.
    
  • DO NOT use this piece of junk.
    
    • Any changes made won't make its way back to the source document. So in the future, if you update your Word document to "Book v1.1", you'll have to redo all your work.
      
    • Best to fix your actual document (using Styles), then keep using Kindle Previewer.
      

Side Note: For more information on using Styles to clean your documents, see the middle of my post in "MS Word vs Open Office Word". I link to two videos on the why/how of Styles, and why they'll make your life WAY easier.

Does Amazon now prefer KPF over MOBI? What are the advantages/disadvantages to the end user for each option?

KPF is just Amazon's newer packaging format.

KPF was initially designed for Kindle Create, but now it's an option (on by default) in Kindle Previewer. I believe Amazon pushed it just to make it easier to share files between KC<->KP.

Personally, for now, I'm just sticking with the "Dual MOBIs". In Kindle Previewer, press File > Export > MOBI.

This keeps the workflow exactly the same as it has been for years and years...

Side Note: For more details on all the different Amazon formats (MOBI/KF8/KFX/[...]), see my Post #29+ in "Epub-problems in tablets".

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well....that's not really what I'd say. Saying that 'MOBI" is the worst... [...]

If you mean "MOBI built from a Word file through Calibre" or some other farrago, I'd agree with you. :-)

Yeah. That's why I try to specify "Dual MOBI".

There's just too much confusing discussion and nonsense information out there about MOBI/KF7/AZW, KF8/AZW3...

It kind of stinks that KF7 is still hanging around our necks. KF8 is great, since it's pretty much EPUB. And KFX... *spits on the ground*!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well....that's not really what I'd say. Saying that 'MOBI" is the worst...I mean, that's like saying that tacos are bad, but pot roast is good--when in fact, you can make one (tacos) from the other (pot roast). When my firm gives MOBI files to our customers, those are built from ePUB2. So...that's a distinction without a difference.

Because we're a commerical firm, too, (with picky-ass customers!) we use MQs in the ePUBs that are used to build those mobis, to optimize the file for this environment or that.

If you mean "MOBI built from a Word file through Calibre" or some other farrago, I'd agree with you. :-)

Hitch

I think we need to to say dual-format Mobi for dual-format Mobi and Mobi for Mobi so nobody can get confused as to which format.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

And KFX... *spits on the ground*!

Solution. Just figure out what doesn't work when converting from Kf8 to KFX and do that every time so the conversion failed and then no more KFX.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Solution. Just figure out what doesn't work when converting from Kf8 to KFX and do that every time so the conversion failed and then no more KFX.

I just don't like it because of the DRM, and instead of using HTML, it's converting to JSON and adding in all this other proprietary nonsense.

Where KF8 can pretty much converted back to "the source EPUB" with minimal distortion.

You need open book formats/standards, not locked-down proprietary formats.

Side Note: KFX itself is "okay" for reading + Enhanced Typesetting and better kerning, etc. etc... but as you've discussed before, those rendering enhancements could've been backported to KF8.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think we need to to say dual-format Mobi for dual-format Mobi and Mobi for Mobi so nobody can get confused as to which format.

Kind of like how we got a lot of the posters here specifying "This only works in EPUB3/ADE, doesn't work in Kindle..."

I know Hitch is one of the good ones, explaining all the difference between the different "MOBIs" and Amazon formats.

It's just that there's all this other awful information out there. (I believe it was all discussed in detail in the linked topics above.)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

I know Hitch is one of the good ones, explaining all the difference between the different "MOBIs" and Amazon formats.

Yes, thank yew, thank yew verra much....

Hitch

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Kyriosity

Just wondering what the consensus is on exporting from Kindle Previewer for books to be distributed by Amazon. Does Amazon now prefer KPF over MOBI? What are the advantages/disadvantages to the end user for each option?

I have also wondered whether or not publishing a book using a KPF file produced by the Kindle Previewer results in anything different in the final published book compared with uploading a Mater MOBI or an EPUB source file.

If anyone ever does ever publish a book using a Previewer KPF I would like to know the ASIN so that I can check it out.