Embed fonts in mobi

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by NIRC

Yes, yes. This is exactly the point. Until Amazon decides to accept the font-embedding function of their own formats and not mess itup when they DMR files, no amount of converting will fix the problem. Don't they get it? I mean, there are lots of books that need special characters. I have been trying every available workaround for the past 2 years and find the Amazon technical help of no help, and telephone calls to "supervisors" a dead end. No one seems to understand . . . and it is such a basic question.

Are you saying that you're only having problems with fonts if you opt to have DRM applied to your book?

If you rely on fonts for special characters in your book, what happens when someone reads it on a device that doesn't support embedded fonts? Have you considered alternative solutions that don't rely on fonts?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Are you saying that you're only having problems with fonts if you opt to have DRM applied to your book?

If you rely on fonts for special characters in your book, what happens when someone reads it on a device that doesn't support embedded fonts? Have you considered alternative solutions that don't rely on fonts?

I've seen those solutions and using graphics instead of embedded fonts is the lousy way to do it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've seen those solutions and using graphics instead of embedded fonts is the lousy way to do it.

What would you recommend as a solution that will work correctly on Mobi7 devices?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What would you recommend as a solution that will work correctly on Mobi7 devices?

Is there a way to do it the graphic way for Mobi and the font way for KF8? If not, I'd say screw Mobi and just left KF8 work properly. This is one place ePub works better than Kindle eBooks. You don't have to deal with an obsolete format.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is there a way to do it the graphic way for Mobi and the font way for KF8? If not, I'd say screw Mobi and just left KF8 work properly.

That attitude is exactly why you don't actually work in the ebook publishing business...



The usual solution for Kf8 vs mobi7 (ask @Hitch) seems to be the use of media queries to produce a graceful styling fallback.

If you need an embedded font because the system fonts don't actually cover your character set, then there is no solution I can think of other than images. You could use media queries to only show the version applicable to the target format, although I think you will end up with those images padding the size of the AZW3.

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

If you need an embedded font because the system fonts don't actually cover your character set, then there is no solution I can think of other than images. You could use media queries to only show the version applicable to the target format, although I think you will end up with those images padding the size of the AZW3.

That approach works as long as you don't have very much content that falls outside the supported character set. If you do, it is pretty much a lost cause, because you'll run up against book size limitations from the two-order-of-magnitude HTML bloat. At that point, it actually would make sense to make the book be KF8-exclusive rather than making it so big that it is unmanageable, even if you have the technical expertise to build such a monster.

[eschwartz]

How do you make a book KF8-exclusive, anyway??

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

How do you make a book KF8-exclusive, anyway??

You don't, as far as I know (at least not with KDP). You just assume that no-one is going to buy the ugly mobi-only portion that you gave absolutely no thought to when creating the dual-format.

Some of the fixed-layout stuff will probably result in KF8 exclusivity, but I don't think there's an opt-in choice for KF8-only books. There's only the choice to not give a hoot if someone buys the book for an old device (which I'm not at all in favor of, by the way).

[eschwartz]

That's what I thought...


Make a bad mobi7 and someone is guaranteed to buy it and complain.
And Amazon is apparently getting "better" at listening to complaints.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

That's what I thought...


Make a bad mobi7 and someone is guaranteed to buy it and complain.
And Amazon is apparently getting "better" at listening to complaints.

Yep.
My philosophy is: as long as someone can buy your (rhetorical) book in the mobi7 format, I believe it is your responsibility to make sure it's done as well as possible. You still get the money they spent on it after all.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yep.
My philosophy is: as long as someone can buy your (rhetorical) book in the mobi7 format, I believe it is your responsibility to make sure it's done as well as possible. You still get the money they spent on it after all.

I thought it was possible to limit a Kindle book to only certain devices. In that case, couldn't the OP just exclude devices that can't handle kf8 format?

Shari

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by shalym

I thought it was possible to limit a Kindle book to only certain devices. In that case, couldn't the OP just exclude devices that can't handle kf8 format?

Shari

ONLY if the book is FXL of one color or another. Fixed-layout children's books, fixed-layout comics; fixed-layout textbooks. Other than that, you cannot connote a dual-content MOBI to be KF8 only, and you cannot submit a KF8-only regular book. Or, to be precise, you CAN submit a KF8 only reflowable book, but you can't limit the devices that buy it.

@Harry: no, it has naught to do with DRM. Zip, zein, zilch. The KDP will a) strip fonts from the MOBI file altogether, and, in some cases, b) literally strip CSS from the stylesheet that calls for fonts.

@Harry 2nd time: yes, you can use media queries, so that you can display an image in X and text in Y, but...jeeeze, it's a bloody headache. For a while, you couldn't, because the iOS app would display BOTH. You hide one, display the other, and vice-versa.

@NIRC: may I ask what it is that you are doing? You mention a "proprietary font." Do you mean that you've created your own font? Or do you mean you've licensed a font for eBook purposes, and you can't make it work? How are you using it? And is that the sum total of fonts you're trying to use? Are you using Arial, by any chance, in the book anywhere else? How are you testing the conversion?

Hitch

[JSWolf]

So is there a way to upload an eBook to Amazon that will display images where you need a custom font in Mobi, display a custom font for KF8, and allow you to keep the font for use in KF8?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So is there a way to upload an eBook to Amazon that will display images where you need a custom font in Mobi, display a custom font for KF8, and allow you to keep the font for use in KF8?

Sorry, Wolfie:

What are you asking, sweetie? Your sentence is confusing me a bit.

If you're asking, is there a way to upload a coffee table book, with embedded fonts for the Kindlebook (KF8), yes, of course. But I'm not clear on what you mean where you say "need a custom font in MOBI." Mobi--the KF7 format, in other words--doesn't/cannot display embedded fonts. So, if that part is the gist, the answer is no. If for Kindlebook solely (KF8, including FXL), then the answer is yes.

When you ask "allow you to keep the font for use in KF8," are you referring to the font-stripping issue at the KDP? If that's your question, yes if you know what you're doing and have developed/found a workaround, and no if someone is, say, uploading from Word, or a PDF, etc. The typical answer when more-complex formatting questions are posed. XHTML and CSS can overcome a host of formatting challenges.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

What is done in most cases now is for the stupid publisher to use a graphic image when they need a character or characters not available in the default font. This is garbage for when the embedded fonts are supported. I know this works with ePub & KF8.

The problem with Kindle eBooks is the dual-format. So, can you embed fonts for use in KF8 and just use the garbage graphic image(s) for Mobi? Do the media queries allow for this?