What is a perfect procedure for generate a amazon kindle mobi file?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

One downside is that the size of the MOBI is 3,327 kb while the EPUB is 766 kb; massive bloat. 3 1/3 megs versus 3/4s of a meg.

Kindle Previewer/KindleGen will attach the source files by default. However, you can reduce the file size by using the -dont_append_source KindleGen parameter.

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

KindleUnpack is available as standalone, and as a plug-in for Calibre.

Shameless plug: my KindleGen Sigil plugin also uses KindleUnpack and allows you to automatically split dual format mobi files into MOBI7 and AZW3 files. (Of course, you can also use it to create a dual format mobi file without attached source files.)

Originally Posted by lumpynose

What about the KFX format? Is there a way I can create that (instead of MOBI) and keep my CSS intact?

You can also create KFX files with the Sigil KindleGen plugin or simply use jhowell's Calibre KFX Output plugin. (The KindleGen plugin uses the command line mode of the Calibre KFX Output plugin to generate KFX files.)

[lumpynose]

Great, thank you both of you. I think I'm now armed to the teeth for making Kindle books in addition to epubs.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Absolutely. I just don't want the Kindle book to go up for sale on Amazon. I want to upload it here. Yes, it's for Kindle devices.

okay...good to know.

Thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to know, that the CSS stays intact. I was reading another thread started by FrustratedReader ("Dual Mobi. How Compatible?") and I learned from Doitsu that the MOBI created by Kindle Previewer is a dual one which will work on old Kindles as well. So that's good.

One downside is that the size of the MOBI is 3,327 kb while the EPUB is 766 kb; massive bloat. 3 1/3 megs versus 3/4s of a meg. Sheesh. (I had a boss who used the word moby as an adjective for something huge; very appropriate here.)

Sweet Moses on a pony, it's not BLOAT. They're not the same thing. Inside the MOBI are 3 sets of files--a complete copy of the source, a KF7 mobi and a KF8 mobi. That's not bloat. It's making sure that everyone who downloads it gets a file that will work on their Kindle. If you split them and people have more than one type of Kindle, they'll have to download both? I have both KF7 and KF8 devices. I really don't want to have to download two different files, just in case I decide to switch devices.

What about the KFX format? Is there a way I can create that (instead of MOBI) and keep my CSS intact? I always format with text-align: left for a ragged right margin but lots of people prefer a flush right margin. If I remember right with KFX people can switch between ragged right and flush right, while with this MOBI it's locked to whatever the CSS says.

It's not the coding inasmuch as the device. We make all our books with no alignment, so that the reader can change it, but 99% of all Kindle readers automatically justify. You can make a KFX using a plugin with Calibre, but not everyone wants that format.

Overall I'm glad to know that the MOBI file has my intact CSS; this gives me another device to test with; I'd been ignoring the Kindle because I was thinking that I had to use Calibre to create a Kindle file but that would change the CSS.

As you see, no.

Hitch

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Sweet Moses on a pony, it's not BLOAT.

Gotta keep up my gobsmacking chops!

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Hitch

It's making sure that everyone who downloads it gets a file that will work on their Kindle. If you split them and people have more than one type of Kindle, they'll have to download both? I have both KF7 and KF8 devices. I really don't want to have to download two different files, just in case I decide to switch devices.

Grumble, ok, ok MOM! I'll upload that obese mobi file that the kindle previewer makes.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Grumble, ok, ok MOM! I'll upload that obese mobi file that the kindle previewer makes.

Thank you, dear. ;-)

Hitch

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Shameless plug: my KindleGen Sigil plugin also uses KindleUnpack and allows you to automatically split dual format mobi files into MOBI7 and AZW3 files. (Of course, you can also use it to create a dual format mobi file without attached source files.)

You can also create KFX files with the Sigil KindleGen plugin or simply use jhowell's Calibre KFX Output plugin. (The KindleGen plugin uses the command line mode of the Calibre KFX Output plugin to generate KFX files.)

I installed this and was skeptical; so much wizardry and black magic going on; surely this can't really work can it? But it worked like a charm!

But in any even Hitch has beaten me into submission with her logic and I'll just upload the corpulent MOBI files.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Grumble, ok, ok MOM! I'll upload that obese mobi file that the kindle previewer makes.

I have to insist that for the purpose of uploading to the Mobileread library that the source EPUB in the combined mobi is bloat, especially if the epub version is also uploaded to the EPUB section of the library.

Please follow Doitsu's advice and use the -dont_append_source option.

The combined mobi is also convenient for people that want to email books to their kindles and also want to customize fonts. Amazon will mail the stripped out mobi or azw3 to the kindle dpending on which one it can handle. (I have never emailed anything to a kindle, so I don't know all the details.)

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I have to insist that for the purpose of uploading to the Mobileread library that the source EPUB in the combined mobi is bloat, especially if the epub version is also uploaded to the EPUB section of the library.

Please follow Doitsu's advice and use the -dont_append_source option.

The combined mobi is also convenient for people that want to email books to their kindles and also want to customize fonts. Amazon will mail the stripped out mobi or azw3 to the kindle dpending on which one it can handle. (I have never emailed anything to a kindle, so I don't know all the details.)

Ok, if I can remember to do that. Using the Kindle Previewer is easier and brainless compared to opening a DOS box and navigating to where I've extracted kindlegen. It saves about a third of the file size, but it's still "moby" (i.e., huge, like Moby Dick); the -2pieces one is with -dont_append_source:

2,503,060 achmed abdulla-short stories-combined-2pieces.mobi
  797,062 achmed abdulla-short stories-combined.epub
3,299,978 achmed abdulla-short stories-combined.mobi

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Ok, if I can remember to do that. Using the Kindle Previewer is easier and brainless compared to opening a DOS box and navigating to where I've extracted kindlegen. It saves about a third of the file size, but it's still "moby" (i.e., huge, like Moby Dick); the -2pieces one is with -dont_append_source:

2,503,060 achmed abdulla-short stories-combined-2pieces.mobi
  797,062 achmed abdulla-short stories-combined.epub
3,299,978 achmed abdulla-short stories-combined.mobi

EXACTLY right.

My feeling is, if someone is so affronted by the inclusion of the source, they can either make their own files or get them someplace else. The files donated to the MR library are, in a word, DONATED. That means that we should appreciate them however they appear, or whether or not we have some bug that makes us think that they're "bloated."

I see many files here or at PG, for that matter, that I'm less-than-enthralled by. Doesn't mean I get to impose my own standards on those kindly souls who've gone through all the trouble to make them available for my reading.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

So when did Amazon start accepting epub files with Kindle Direct Publishing?

I started using epub exclusively in January 2012, and I started because Hitch kindly suggested it, so it must have been enabled no later than December 2011, and probably earlier. I mean, she's fast, but surely not THAT fast.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

I started using epub exclusively in January 2012, and I started because Hitch kindly suggested it, so it must have been enabled no later than December 2011, and probably earlier. I mean, she's fast, but surely not THAT fast.

Sheesh, I swear I looked at the KDP page on Amazon and epub wasn't listed. And I remember being annoyed by that exclusion. Somehow I didn't see it. Not the first time I've done that and surely not the last.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

I started using epub exclusively in January 2012, and I started because Hitch kindly suggested it, so it must have been enabled no later than December 2011, and probably earlier. I mean, she's fast, but surely not THAT fast.

Seriously, what slays me is, I remember that conversation. God, that was dog's years ago, eh?


Hitch

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Hitch

... I remember that conversation. God, that was dog's years ago, eh?

Hitch

Count your blessings.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Count your blessings.

Oh, trust me, ever since I ran out of eggs (ha!) my memory ain't what it used to be.

Hitch