Amazon's flawed conversion of epubs

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Within Calibre. Preferences > Plugins > Get new plugins Search for Modify ePub and you'll find it and can then install it.

Thanks.

@DNSB instructed me to "turn off all the options except Encode HTML in UTF-8". How do I do that? In other words, where do I find those options?

I looked under Calibre > Preferences > Plugins > Modify Epub > Customize Plugin, but it didn't see anything about encoding in UTF-8. It just asked me if I want to be prompted to save epubs.

I also looked under Calibre > Preferences > Output Options > Epub Output, but didn't see anything about encoding in UTF-8.

Also, once I change those options, how do I apply them to an existing epub?

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

I also looked under Calibre > Preferences > Output Options > Epub Output, but didn't see anything about encoding in UTF-8.

Also, once I change those options, how do I apply them to an existing epub?

It's under Preferences > Common Options > Look & Feel > Text > Input Character Encoding

After you saved those settings. You can just convert your epub files to epub again.

[innocenat]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why bother? It's a waste of time. It's just easier to use Modify ePub to make sure the ePubs are set to UTF-8 and then send them to Amazon to convert.

Because that's not what you said. Your original reply to me imply that using Kindle Previewer 3 is NOT a valid solution to check for misencoded EPUB.

I have not disagree with you on using Modify EPUB.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

Thanks.

@DNSB instructed me to "turn off all the options except Encode HTML in UTF-8". How do I do that? In other words, where do I find those options?

I looked under Calibre > Preferences > Plugins > Modify Epub > Customize Plugin, but it didn't see anything about encoding in UTF-8. It just asked me if I want to be prompted to save epubs.

I also looked under Calibre > Preferences > Output Options > Epub Output, but didn't see anything about encoding in UTF-8.

Also, once I change those options, how do I apply them to an existing epub?

Select an epub, click on Modify Epub to open and you should be presented with this popup shown in the attached image. If you click on Help in Modify Epub's customization options or on the help link when you open Modify Epub, it will give you a bit more help.

Once you have set the options (the example image has only the Encode HTML in UTF-8 option checked, you would then click on OK. Modify Epub will modify the epub as requested, rename the original file as filename.original_epub and the modified file as filename.epub.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by innocenat

Because that's not what you said. Your original reply to me imply that using Kindle Previewer 3 is NOT a valid solution to check for misencoded EPUB.

I have not disagree with you on using Modify EPUB.

It's poor compared to other epub checkers and limited on platform deployment. I now only use KDP via web and downloads from Amazon. Not had a problem with epubs to Amazon for years.

[JSWolf]

Every ePub I send to my Kobo is verifies with ePub check and the Calibre error checker.

[ZodWallop]

As someone who does the opposite (purchases AZW3 from Amazon and converts to ePub) I am no expert in this. So I may be missing something here.

But if you already have Calibre, why not use it to convert the ePub to AZW and sideload it to your Kindle via USB? Is there an advantage to emailing the book rather than sideloading it?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But if you already have Calibre, why not use it to convert the ePub to AZW and sideload it to your Kindle via USB? Is there an advantage to emailing the book rather than sideloading it?

Perhaps to make the ebook, reading progress, etc. available on more than one device/app?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps to make the ebook, reading progress, etc. available on more than one device/app?

I thought Kindle did that automagically with sideloaded content.

[innocenat]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's poor compared to other epub checkers and limited on platform deployment. I now only use KDP via web and downloads from Amazon. Not had a problem with epubs to Amazon for years.

A lot of EPUB that passed epubcheck failed Kindlegen/Previewer 3. Of course, if you are authoring the EPUB yourself you already know what Amazon is expecting so your EPUB that passed epubcheck will work fine with KDP/Send to Kindle. (You can check what https://kindle-epub-fix.netlify.app/ does if you want to know the non-definitive list of what passed epubcheck but failed Send to Kindle --- there are even a few fixes I haven't have time to implement yet like multiple <dc:title>)

But the topic is about the regular user, who are consuming god know what EPUB from god know source. In that case, since the target platform is purely Amazon, then Kindle Previewer 3 is one of the best tool for the task.

Not to mentioned the original question just asked what tools to preview EPUB so that they know if it is mis-encoded. Which I was then told it was a poor solution, and I haven't have any explanation why it was a poor solution for previewing if the EPUB is mis-encoded. All I was told was that it is a poor tool for previewing line height (unrelated) , it was poor compared to other epub checker (again, unrelated), or it was unnecessary and just send re-encoded all EPUB.(which doesn't answer the original question). I agree with all of that, but it's not related to the original question I answered. I am still waiting for the explanation why my answer was wrong.

I will defend my answer which I believe is perfectly correct to the bitter end.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I thought Kindle did that automagically with sideloaded content.

Not with the content transferred via USB. Only with emailed/sent by Send-to-Kindle content. It must be on your Kindle account to be synced.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But if you already have Calibre, why not use it to convert the ePub to AZW and sideload it to your Kindle via USB? Is there an advantage to emailing the book rather than sideloading it?

As a coupe other people have pointed out, the advantage of emailing your book is that it gets save to the Amazon cloud so that it's available on any device and the reading progress is tracked. That doesn't happen when you sideload a book via USB because it's not added to the Amazon cloud.

Anyway, every time I've tried to send an azw3 to my Kindle it's been rejected as an unsupported format. Which I realize makes no sense since that's the preferred format. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong. Perhaps I need to correct something in the Calibre settings, like the UTF-8 encoding I'm now doing with epub?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

As a coupe other people have pointed out, the advantage of emailing your book is that it gets save to the Amazon cloud so that it's available on any device and the reading progress is tracked. That doesn't happen when you sideload a book via USB because it's not added to the Amazon cloud.

Anyway, every time I've tried to send an azw3 to my Kindle it's been rejected as an unsupported format. Which I realize makes no sense since that's the preferred format. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong. Perhaps I need to correct something in the Calibre settings, like the UTF-8 encoding I'm now doing with epub?

The reason KF8 will not work with emailing to Amazon is that you can sync your purchased KF8 direct from Amazon. Amazon wants you to buy eBooks from them. So they won't support KF8 or KFX. ePub is something you cannot get from Amazon which is why they are supporting it even if not all that great a job doing so.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The reason KF8 will not work with emailing to Amazon is that you can sync your purchased KF8 direct from Amazon. Amazon wants you to buy eBooks from them. So they won't support KF8 or KFX. ePub is something you cannot get from Amazon which is why they are supporting it even if not all that great a job doing so.

That makes sense. I was going to suggest something along those lines, but I was afraid I was off-base.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

Anyway, every time I've tried to send an azw3 to my Kindle it's been rejected as an unsupported format. Which I realize makes no sense since that's the preferred format. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong. Perhaps I need to correct something in the Calibre settings, like the UTF-8 encoding I'm now doing with epub?

Send to Kindle or email to Kindle do not support KF8/azw3 format. If you take a look at Learn About Sending Documents to Your Kindle Library, you won't find it on the list of supported formats. If you send an epub/docx/rtf/html, it will be converted to KF8/azw3 if the device it's sent to supports that format, for devices that don't support KF8/azw3, you will get a mobi format ebook.