Best Way for Drop Caps

[Wlan]

Originally Posted by Hitch

If you want to provide the file, I'll test it. The other thing I feel compelled to point out is that you should run the MOBI file through the KDP, download the resulting "preview mobi" and crack that open to see how your CSS survived the trip. I've seen mobi files undergo significant line-height modifications, at the KDP.

Hitch

Here is the file for the tests.

Thanks!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Wlan

Here is the file for the tests.

Thanks!

The book is failing to compile with the older Kindlegen. At least THREE CSS elements/properties were removed, in the building--max height, max width, and position:absolute, which I expected. AND, no surprise, line-height with an absolute property. But, that's the older KindleGen.

It does build with Kindlegen 3, under KP3.x. What's interesting, though, is that the resulting MOBI is pretty awful on KP2.9xx, which I've always found more accurate a representation of the results, than KP3. It seems fine on KP3. I fully expect, of course, that it will be non compos mentis for any KF7 devices, but all Drops are, so that is moot.

Now...Amazon's made a LOT of changes, recently; many in a very short period of time. I'm going to have to load this compiled file to my real devices, to see how it appears. I'll report back.

Hitch

[Wlan]

Originally Posted by Hitch

The book is failing to compile with the older Kindlegen. At least THREE CSS elements/properties were removed, in the building--max height, max width, and position:absolute, which I expected. AND, no surprise, line-height with an absolute property. But, that's the older KindleGen.

It does build with Kindlegen 3, under KP3.x. What's interesting, though, is that the resulting MOBI is pretty awful on KP2.9xx, which I've always found more accurate a representation of the results, than KP3. It seems fine on KP3. I fully expect, of course, that it will be non compos mentis for any KF7 devices, but all Drops are, so that is moot.

Now...Amazon's made a LOT of changes, recently; many in a very short period of time. I'm going to have to load this compiled file to my real devices, to see how it appears. I'll report back.

Hitch

Awesome!!!

[Wlan]

The CSS that is not compiling is referring to the cover page that I use an alternative responsive method.

Also the EPUB is in version 3 so maybe this can affect.

I know it works well on Google Books, Ibooks and Kindle apps.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Wlan

The CSS that is not compiling is referring to the cover page that I use an alternative responsive method.

Also the EPUB is in version 3 so maybe this can affect.

I know it works well on Google Books, Ibooks and Kindle apps.

No--not the line-height. That's not the cover, that's essential to the Dropcaps, which I believe was discussed earlier in this thread.

Kindle apps render quite differently than actual devices. I'm not saying that this can't work--but it also needs testing at the KDP, because, as I previously mentioned, not all CSS survives that trip. I know for a fact that I had a client that came to us from another bookmaker, because he wanted this and that, and the other bookmaker didn't have the skillset; however, the other bookmaker made his book double-spaced, effectively--the line-heights.

I had to prove to the client that if he'd uploaded the other MOBI file at the KDP, that that fixed line-height would be REMOVED, entirely, and replaced with Amazon's default line-heights--because they strictly forbid messing with that. Yours is set a 1.2, which might skate, solely because that's the same as the default size, give or take a lie or two.

Hitch

[Hitch]

As I expected, due to long years of doing this and the frustration of drops, this is not working particularly well in the Paperwhite family of devices. I'm a bit swamped, today, but I'll get some screenshots, and while I'm at it, I'll test it on the new F10, too.

But, if you've seen Drop attempts on a PPW device before, you've seen this. Nothing, unfortunately, new. :-(

Hitch

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by Hitch

The book is failing to compile with the older Kindlegen. At least THREE CSS elements/properties were removed, in the building--max height, max width, and position:absolute, which I expected. AND, no surprise, line-height with an absolute property. But, that's the older KindleGen.

It does build with Kindlegen 3, under KP3.x. What's interesting, though, is that the resulting MOBI is pretty awful on KP2.9xx, which I've always found more accurate a representation of the results, than KP3. It seems fine on KP3. I fully expect, of course, that it will be non compos mentis for any KF7 devices, but all Drops are, so that is moot.

Hitch

Please Hitch, could you tell me where can I find Kindlegen3 inside KP3 (I only could find version 2.9 in the folder Kindle Previewer 3\lib\fc\bin). Many thanks in advance.

Rubén

[Hitch]

Hi, guys:

Ok, to recap, I built the MOBI from the provided ePUB, using KP3.xx. I then loaded the resulting MOBI file onto my PPW and my KFire 10", figuring that covered a range of ages and advancement of devices. Attached are the relevant screenshots; the single screen, somewhat normal-sized, is the PPW, with various fonts, etc.; the two-page/screen view and the long portrait view is my Fire 10".

The screenshots speak for themselves. This solution, in my opinion, is not viable for the MOBI environment, at least, not more so than what most of us already do.

Hitch

[Wlan]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hi, guys:

Ok, to recap, I built the MOBI from the provided ePUB, using KP3.xx. I then loaded the resulting MOBI file onto my PPW and my KFire 10", figuring that covered a range of ages and advancement of devices. Attached are the relevant screenshots; the single screen, somewhat normal-sized, is the PPW, with various fonts, etc.; the two-page/screen view and the long portrait view is my Fire 10".

The screenshots speak for themselves. This solution, in my opinion, is not viable for the MOBI environment, at least, not more so than what most of us already do.

Hitch

If your MOBI removes the line-height like you said, it really is not supposed to work.

Can you confirm if this was the case?

Or do you think it's for some other reason?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Wlan

If your MOBI removes the line-height like you said, it really is not supposed to work.

Can you confirm if this was the case?

Or do you think it's for some other reason?

I did not remove the line-height, and did not run these through KDP. These were simply converted via KindleGen. I changed nothing. I've attached the file; you can unpack it and review what was altered if such is the case.

My personal gut take on it is that Amazon says very clearly not to set the line-heights, etc. {shrug}.

P.S.: these results were easily viewable in Kindle Previewer 2.9xx, by the way, as well.
PPS: As I believe I mentioned previously, the line-height settings were ripped out of the BODY tag, which I expected it to do.

Hitch

[Wlan]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I did not remove the line-height, and did not run these through KDP. These were simply converted via KindleGen. I changed nothing. I've attached the file; you can unpack it and review what was altered if such is the case.

My personal gut take on it is that Amazon says very clearly not to set the line-heights, etc. {shrug}.

P.S.: these results were easily viewable in Kindle Previewer 2.9xx, by the way, as well.
PPS: As I believe I mentioned previously, the line-height settings were ripped out of the BODY tag, which I expected it to do.

Hitch

I made specific calculations to work on the MOBI.

Please try this file. Should work for 2, 3 and 4 lines.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Wlan

I made specific calculations to work on the MOBI.

Please try this file. Should work for 2, 3 and 4 lines.

Did you run it and test it on KP 2.9xx?

Hitch

[Wlan]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Did you run it and test it on KP 2.9xx?

Hitch

I did not.

How is it on PPW and KFire 10?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Wlan

I did not.

How is it on PPW and KFire 10?

Which? The new file? I don't know yet. I have this pesky darn business to run, and these egregiously annoying folks called "customers" that think I should be servicing THEM, instead of testing eBook stuff for other people, selfish bustards.

It'll be a while, maybe even tomorrow. On top of those pesky customers, I happen to have this positively grim backache today, and it's denting my normally chipper personality.

Hitch

[Wlan]

For those who want to test, this code should work on the vast majority of devices

CSS:

@charset "utf-8";
*{margin:0%;padding:0%;border-width:0;}
html{height:100%;}
body{height:100%;line-height:1.2;}
body *{line-height:inherit;}
p{text-align:justify;text-indent:6.4mm;}
.removeti{text-indent:0%;}

/* 2 Lines(2.333em) Drop Caps for line-height 1.2 Example */
span.dropcaps2{
float:left;
font-size:1.944166666666667em;
height:1.2em;
line-height:1.2em;
margin-right:0.04em; /* optional */
margin-left:0.04em; /* optional */
}

/* 3 Lines(3.5em) Drop Caps for line-height 1.2 Example */
span.dropcaps3{
float:left;
font-size:2.916666666666667em;
height:1.2em;
line-height:1.2em;
margin-right:0.04em; /* optional */
margin-left:0.04em; /* optional */
}

/* 4 Lines(4.667em) Drop Caps for line-height 1.2 Example */
span.dropcaps4{
float:left;
font-size:3.889166666666667em;
height:1.2em;
line-height:1.2em;
margin-right:0.04em; /* optional */
margin-left:0.04em; /* optional */
}

HTML:

<p class="removeti"><span class="dropcaps2">L</span>orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam a nunc ac nibh venenatis aliquet. Cras posuere, dolor eget aliquet lobortis, lorem quam viverra purus, non pretium urna tortor ac neque. Fusce iaculis justo eget luctus mattis. Pellentesque finibus nisi eu aliquam porta. Nam ut pharetra ligula, eget venenatis ex. Ut vel urna elementum, tincidunt quam at, auctor ipsum. Suspendisse sagittis metus non ante ultrices lacinia. Morbi quis orci erat. Mauris sed sapien maximus, aliquam mauris sed, ornare ante. Donec in ultricies sapien, sed aliquam est. Vivamus tristique sapien a dolor tincidunt tempor. Cras pretium sagittis nulla, in suscipit libero feugiat auctor. In ac dui id velit porta aliquam eget vitae eros.</p>
<br/>
<p class="removeti"><span class="dropcaps3">L</span>orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam a nunc ac nibh venenatis aliquet. Cras posuere, dolor eget aliquet lobortis, lorem quam viverra purus, non pretium urna tortor ac neque. Fusce iaculis justo eget luctus mattis. Pellentesque finibus nisi eu aliquam porta. Nam ut pharetra ligula, eget venenatis ex. Ut vel urna elementum, tincidunt quam at, auctor ipsum. Suspendisse sagittis metus non ante ultrices lacinia. Morbi quis orci erat. Mauris sed sapien maximus, aliquam mauris sed, ornare ante. Donec in ultricies sapien, sed aliquam est. Vivamus tristique sapien a dolor tincidunt tempor. Cras pretium sagittis nulla, in suscipit libero feugiat auctor. In ac dui id velit porta aliquam eget vitae eros.</p>
<br/>
<p class="removeti"><span class="dropcaps4">L</span>orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam a nunc ac nibh venenatis aliquet. Cras posuere, dolor eget aliquet lobortis, lorem quam viverra purus, non pretium urna tortor ac neque. Fusce iaculis justo eget luctus mattis. Pellentesque finibus nisi eu aliquam porta. Nam ut pharetra ligula, eget venenatis ex. Ut vel urna elementum, tincidunt quam at, auctor ipsum. Suspendisse sagittis metus non ante ultrices lacinia. Morbi quis orci erat. Mauris sed sapien maximus, aliquam mauris sed, ornare ante. Donec in ultricies sapien, sed aliquam est. Vivamus tristique sapien a dolor tincidunt tempor. Cras pretium sagittis nulla, in suscipit libero feugiat auctor. In ac dui id velit porta aliquam eget vitae eros.</p>
<br/>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam a nunc ac nibh venenatis aliquet. Cras posuere, dolor eget aliquet lobortis, lorem quam viverra purus, non pretium urna tortor ac neque. Fusce iaculis justo eget luctus mattis. Pellentesque finibus nisi eu aliquam porta. Nam ut pharetra ligula, eget venenatis ex. Ut vel urna elementum, tincidunt quam at, auctor ipsum. Suspendisse sagittis metus non ante ultrices lacinia. Morbi quis orci erat. Mauris sed sapien maximus, aliquam mauris sed, ornare ante. Donec in ultricies sapien, sed aliquam est. Vivamus tristique sapien a dolor tincidunt tempor. Cras pretium sagittis nulla, in suscipit libero feugiat auctor. In ac dui id velit porta aliquam eget vitae eros.</p>