? about which version of Kindle Gen to use to convert epub to mobi

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Darth_Bane

I still use 1.2 for one simple, purely cosmetic reason. KindleGen 2.x versions seem to add a blank line between paragraphs, while 1.2 leaves paragraphs indented and glued together, with no blank lines in between. I've only tried up to version 2.5 or 2.6 and nothing later, so things may have changed. Note that I never upload books to Amazon.

I'd gladly use 2.x if there were some way of removing inter-paragraph spacing, but I haven't found a way (not that I tried very hard).

I've used the latest versions of Kindlegen for several years to create the e-books in my signature, and I've never had it add blank lines between paragraphs. I do have CSS that controls the formatting, though.

My husband's books start out in MS Word. My current method is to run that text through an online program that spits out clean HTML (Word to Clean HTML), and then I tweak everything in Sigil before creating the mobi using Kindlegen. There's an option in "Word to Clean HTML" to remove empty paragraphs, but even before I started using that method (when I did everything "by hand" in HTML), I never had Kindlegen insert blank lines.

[DiapDealer]

My guess is that the default behavior just changed after v1.2. Perhaps it defaulted to no paragraph spacing and a first-line indent when nothing was specified. Newer versions will definitely default to a space between paragraphs and no first-line indent if you provide no instruction otherwise. That's the only explanation I can come up with. I never experienced the problem because I never left paragraph-spacing and first-line indents to chance in the first place. I tell kindlegen how I want it done, I don't let it make its own decisions concerning styling if it can be avoided.

[Darth_Bane]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

My guess is that the default behavior just changed after v1.2. Perhaps it defaulted to no paragraph spacing and a first-line indent when nothing was specified. Newer versions will definitely default to a space between paragraphs and no first-line indent if you provide no instruction otherwise. That's the only explanation I can come up with. I never experienced the problem because I never left paragraph-spacing and first-line indents to chance in the first place. I tell kindlegen how I want it done, I don't let it make its own decisions concerning styling if it can be avoided.

Thanks for the reply. How do you tell KindleGen how you want it done? My CSS seems to have the right things in it:

p {
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  text-indent: 1.2em;
}

Am I missing something?

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Darth_Bane

Thanks for the reply. How do you tell KindleGen how you want it done? My CSS seems to have the right things in it:

p {
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  text-indent: 1.2em;
}

Am I missing something?

Here's how my CSS looks for regular paragraphs:

p {
  margin-top:0;
  margin-bottom:0;
  margin-left:0;
  margin-right:0;
  text-indent:5%;
}

(I could've just specified margin:0; instead of having all margins separate.)

If you haven't already, you may want to run all your CSS through the online validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/. It's possible there's CSS code elsewhere that's not well formed, and that's preventing your paragraph CSS from being rendered properly.

I hope you're able to figure it out.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Darth_Bane

Am I missing something?

That should definitely make Kindlegen create a document with no spaces between paragraphs and a first-line indent. If that's not happening, then there must be something else overriding the p element's style, or the style isn't being applied properly, or the external style sheet isn't being linked correctly. Pretty hard to guess without seeing a portion of the affected html (including the head) and the rest of the CSS.

You're saying the exact same source referred to above works as expected with v1.2, but doesn't work with later versions?

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That should definitely make Kindlegen create a document with no spaces between paragraphs and a first-line indent. If that's not happening, then there must be something else overriding the p element's style, or the style isn't being applied properly, or the external style sheet isn't being linked correctly. Pretty hard to guess without seeing a portion of the affected html (including the head) and the rest of the CSS.

You're saying the exact same source referred to above works as expected with v1.2, but doesn't work with later versions?

Good points, DiapDealer!

Darth, if you can post the HTML header information down to <body> and an HTML example of a paragraph, perhaps we can see something wrong there. Are other parts of your CSS being rendered properly?

[Darth_Bane]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That should definitely make Kindlegen create a document with no spaces between paragraphs and a first-line indent. If that's not happening, then there must be something else overriding the p element's style, or the style isn't being applied properly, or the external style sheet isn't being linked correctly. Pretty hard to guess without seeing a portion of the affected html (including the head) and the rest of the CSS.

You're saying the exact same source referred to above works as expected with v1.2, but doesn't work with later versions?

First off, thanks to DiapDealer and DreamWriter!

I'll try 2.8 later today and post back results. I have a hunch 2.8 will fix my problem because I just noticed something in the 2.5 ChangeLog on the KindleGen Wiki at https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KindleGen

• Unintended line breaks in Mobi7 when using some CSS properties ("margin-top: 0px" and "margin-bottom: 0px") has been fixed.

In the meantime, to answer your questions, the CSS validates as CSS2.1, it is properly linked, and I don't think the <p> is being overridden. The same CSS behaves differently in 1.2 and 2.3 or 2.4.

If 2.8 fails, I'll post a very simple cut-down example.

[Darth_Bane]

Originally Posted by Darth_Bane

I have a hunch 2.8 will fix my problem because I just noticed something in the 2.5 ChangeLog on the KindleGen Wiki at https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KindleGen

• Unintended line breaks in Mobi7 when using some CSS properties ("margin-top: 0px" and "margin-bottom: 0px") has been fixed.

<Professor Farmsworth>Good news everyone!</Professor Farmsworth>

KindleGen 2.8 works, and now my paragraphs are properly indented and unspaced. This solves my problem for self-created files.

When converting EPUBs that I haven't created myself, if indent and paragraph spacing are not defined, I'll probably have to tweak the CSS (or take the lazy approach of using KindleGen 1.2).

Thanks again!

[DreamWriter]

Yay! I'm glad it's working for you.