The case of the invisible book on my Voyage

[Skydog]

Rats. I suppose I will never know what it is about this book that the Voyage interprets differently than the others. :-( Thank you for the explanation.

Originally Posted by Skydog

Rats. I suppose I will never know what it is about this book that the Voyage interprets differently than the others. :-( Thank you for the explanation.

Try adjusting the text size up and down and see if those non-justified lines become justified. Changing the text size can eliminate the too large of a gap issue for that line, though it will likely occur somewhere else. If the non-justified lines become justified then it was just a gap issue. If not then there might be some other issue. The way many ebooks are formatted it is wonder they show up at all, so there could be some hard-coded formatting in some lines. An accidental <br /> tag can cause this.

[Skydog]

I have already tried changing text size as well as different fonts with no change in formatting. When the book is downloaded from the cloud the justification is correct, with no incomplete lines whatsoever. The trouble started after the conversion via Calibre. The original mobi version from the cloud had an awful embedded sans-serif font as well as spaces between paragraphs. As I have done dozens of times before, I converted to epub to remove the spacing and embedded fonts, reconverted to mobi which resulted in the justification problem. Calibre is doing something in the conversion and I am determined to figure out how to correct it. There must be a solution -- I just don't know what it is.

Originally Posted by Skydog

I have already tried changing text size as well as different fonts with no change in formatting. When the book is downloaded from the cloud the justification is correct, with no incomplete lines whatsoever. The trouble started after the conversion via Calibre. The original mobi version from the cloud had an awful embedded sans-serif font as well as spaces between paragraphs. As I have done dozens of times before, I converted to epub to remove the spacing and embedded fonts, reconverted to mobi which resulted in the justification problem. Calibre is doing something in the conversion and I am determined to figure out how to correct it. There must be a solution -- I just don't know what it is.

Then the issue is not the gap being too big. Open the HTML file that contains the non-justfied line(s) and search for the text that didn't justify. Look for any goofy tag at the point where the line broke without justfying. As I recall, calibre wraps everything inside of gosh awful SPAN tags, or something similar, then assigns CSS that is a royal PITA to trace back. It reminds me of the garbage MS Word produces when you convert text to HTML. I never use calibre for converting formats.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Then the issue is not the gap being too big. Open the HTML file that contains the non-justfied line(s) and search for the text that didn't justify. Look for any goofy tag at the point where the line broke without justfying. As I recall, calibre wraps everything inside of gosh awful SPAN tags, or something similar, then assigns CSS that is a royal PITA to trace back. It reminds me of the garbage MS Word produces when you convert text to HTML. I never use calibre for converting formats.

I did indeed have a look at the HTML file for something odd but there was nothing unusual inserted where the incorrect justification was occuring. Keep in mind, I am a self-taught novice when it comes to CSS. As you suggested, I looked again and do see the SPAN tags you mention (see attached, gaps appear following words highlighted in blue). The big head scratcher for me is why this particular book is displaying the problem and no previous mobi files converted with Calibre. I expect to have the same problem with the second book in the series as it has the same ugly font and paragraph spacing as this one.

What would you suggest to fix/convert the original problem and retain the proper justification of the mobi?

Thank you, Jack.

Spoiler:

<p class="calibre_4"><span class="calibre_1">Most of the “heavies,” or the general officers, had their offices on the second deck, as did the commandant, the top Marine. Because the corps was so very small, they all knew Newman, and even though the assignment was highly classified, they also knew he had a brother serving with Delta who had been dispatched with Task Force Ranger to Mogadishu. Newman went immediately to the command center and presented his ID card to the sentry, a Marine corporal.</span></p><div class="calibre_2">*</div>
<p class="calibre_4"><span class="calibre_1">After checking the ID card against a list of names on a clipboard and making sure that the photo on the card matched the officer standing in front of him, the corporal hit a button beneath the counter. There was a buzzing sound as the electronic lock on the door opened and Newman stepped into the command center.</span></p><div class="calibre_2">*</div>

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Then the issue is not the gap being too big. Open the HTML file that contains the non-justified line(s) and search for the text that didn't justify. Look for any goofy tag at the point where the line broke without justifying. As I recall, calibre wraps everything inside of gosh awful SPAN tags, or something similar, then assigns CSS that is a royal PITA to trace back. It reminds me of the garbage MS Word produces when you convert text to HTML. I never use calibre for converting formats.

calibre will NOT assign random CSS to do random things, and those spans contain the original CSS.

calibre flattens CSS, applying the calculated styles on each respective element as a blob. This is meant to aid calibre in applying various fixes etc. as the user specifies, and also makes ediing a nightmare... but it is meant for end-user output.

Whatever is causing it is likely a pre-existing problem. Granted, the conversion makes it a PITA to figure out where that is.

[mlewis78]

I am having the same problem with just one book and my paperwhite 2. I usually use the Send to Kindle method and right click on the file. But for this particular mobi file, it didn't work. I sideloaded it to my Fire HDX 8.9" and Fire HD6 and it works fine and shows in the carousel with the cover. But I cannot find it on my paperwhite.

I copied the file and pasted it into the docs folder of my paperwhite. It shows in the docs folder, but it doesn't show when I try to see it on the paperwhite. I haven't looked through every single item, however. I usually see a new book among the stray books after the collections folders.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

I am having the same problem with just one book and my paperwhite 2. I usually use the Send to Kindle method and right click on the file. But for this particular mobi file, it didn't work. I sideloaded it to my Fire HDX 8.9" and Fire HD6 and it works fine and shows in the carousel with the cover. But I cannot find it on my paperwhite.

I copied the file and pasted it into the docs folder of my paperwhite. It shows in the docs folder, but it doesn't show when I try to see it on the paperwhite. I haven't looked through every single item, however. I usually see a new book among the stray books after the collections folders.

Does it show up if you change the sort order to "Recent"? Perhaps its metadata are not what you think they are.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

calibre will NOT assign random CSS to do random things, and those spans contain the originl CSS.

calibre flattens CSS, applying the calculated styles on each respective elementa as a blob. This is meant to aid calibre in applying various fixes etc. as the user specifies, and also makes ediing a nightmare... but it is meant for end-user output.

Whatever is causing it is likely a pre-existing problem. Granted, the conversion makes it a PITA to figure out where that is.

Calibre turns out crap for HTML because that is how it has to do it, that is, wrap the existing stuff in SPAN tags and assign CSS with generated and thus difficult to trace names, etc. If you like convoluted, extremely difficult to read, and overly complicated HTML, then use calibre. Personally I prefer to use Sigil and then Send To Kindle, but not everyone can read and write HTML/CSS. And I never suggested calibre caused the problem, but it might have compounded it.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Calibre turns out crap for HTML because that is how it has to do it, that is, wrap the existing stuff in SPAN tags and assign CSS with generated and thus difficult to trace names, etc. If you like convoluted, extremely difficult to read, and overly complicated HTML, then use calibre. Personally I prefer to use Sigil and then Send To Kindle, but not everyone can read and write HTML/CSS. And I never suggested calibre caused the problem, but it might have compounded it.

But what would you use to convert mobi to epub prior to editing in Sigil?

[eschwartz]

Well, KindleUnpack (there is a calibre plugin) might do a better job at simply extracting the raw data from the MOBI, but since IIRC MOBI doesn't really have proper CSS to begin with that is still going to be a bit of a PITA.