KF8 on Fire HD6 - Justification & Font Issues

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Hitch

DW:

That shouldn't be. You ought to have one, reasonable-length stylesheet, with some fallback media queries for KF7. You oughtn't to have uber-lengthy stylesheets for a novel, really. Our average, includes amzn-mobi CSS sheet is <380 lines long.

Hitch

I know.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

I know.

DW:

Did you type the headings, in your penultimate post, as you intended? You're using amzn-mobi as your KF8 sheet and not-amzn-mobi as your KF7 sheet? Are you sure that's what you've been doing?

Hitch

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Hitch

DW:

Did you type the headings, in your penultimate post, as you intended? You're using amzn-mobi as your KF8 sheet and not-amzn-mobi as your KF7 sheet? Are you sure that's what you've been doing?

Hitch

Oops! There was a cut-and-paste error in my CSS. I fixed the post.

Now, the SRL in the version I uploaded mid-afternoon today is opening at the second page of the Table of Contents, depending on the device. The version I uploaded in the wee hours this morning opened at Chapter 1. Both were fine before I uploaded to KDP, of course.

In the four years I've published, the SRL problem started happening to me with some files just this week! Before then, it was always fine. Sometimes I want to scream!

Edit: Hitch, I just re-read your question. I think you had it backwards: amzn-mobi is my Mobi7 sheet and not-amzn-mobi is my KF8 sheet.

I just re-read part of Kindle Publishing Guidelines, and I see that now they refer to the KF8 sheet as amzn-kf8. The converter seems to know which stylesheet is KF8 and which is Mobi7 from what I see in results, but might that be part of my problems?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

Oops! That was a cut-and-paste error. Thanks for pointing it out. I fixed the post.

Now, the SRL in the version I uploaded mid-afternoon today is opening at the second page of the Table of Contents, depending on the device. The version I uploaded in the wee hours this morning opened at Chapter 1. Both were fine before I uploaded to KDP, of course.

In the four years I've published, the SRL problem started happening to me with some files just this week! Before then, it was always fine. Sometimes I want to scream!

The SRL issue has been a pain since December 2011. Trust me.

On the media queries: may I ask, why are you using what you are using? Why aren't you using @media amzn-KF8 for the kf8, and @media amzn-mobi for the mobi?

(And really--there's no reason on God's green earth to do it the way you're doing it. Nothing wrong, at all, with two stylesheets, but you should just put the things that are different, on the KF7 sheet: @media amzn-mobi).

Also: are you using the text-justify strictly for the LITB? Is that your reasoning? I think you may have mentioned this...?

Hitch

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Hitch

The SRL issue has been a pain since December 2011. Trust me.

On the media queries: may I ask, why are you using what you are using? Why aren't you using @media amzn-KF8 for the kf8, and @media amzn-mobi for the mobi?

You were typing your reply as I was editing my last post.

Do you know of any way to fix the SRL? I have no idea why it's become a problem for me this week. And some files are fine.

I also have intermittent problems with both the TOC and Chapter 1 showing under FRONT MATTER on some devices, instead of just TOC. Sometimes it works fine; sometimes it doesn't! I would think that's controlled in part by the NCX. Maybe I'm missing something there or including something I shouldn't? Anyone have a snippet of code to show me how that should be done?

I see that @media not amzn-mobi is still mentioned in Kindle Publishing Guidelines (page 62), but I can replace that with @media amzn-kf8 for KF8. I'm already using @media amzn-mobi for Mobi7.

(And really--there's no reason on God's green earth to do it the way you're doing it. Nothing wrong, at all, with two stylesheets, but you should just put the things that are different, on the KF7 sheet: @media amzn-mobi).

I'll look at the CSS to see how I can fix that.

Also: are you using the text-justify strictly for the LITB? Is that your reasoning? I think you may have mentioned this...?

Yes, the only reason that text is justified in Mobi CSS is so the Look Inside will have an even right margin. Is there any other way to accomplish that?

Thanks so much for your help!

[Notjohn]

I feel like one of those bearded counterculture types of the 1970s who went around crying, Simplify! Simplify! I had no patience for them at the time, but when it comes to e-books, Simplify! is indeed a good way to go.

With respect to the SLR, if you solve that equation, we will build a statue to you in Seattle.

[cybmole]

as an end user, I don't much care what fonts & other justification/hyphenation settings an author chooses, so long as I can override them via my device / reader app preferences!'

for me that's caecilia, fully justified, no hyphens ( I'm not that hard to please )

the " my font appears darker" seems a non issue, as every reader has a brightness control built in ?

what bugs me about the Kindle hyphenation thing is that I cannot turn it off at device level, & I suspect I cannot turn it off by editing & then sideloading the speicfic azw file(s) either ?

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

With respect to the SLR, if you solve that equation, we will build a statue to you in Seattle.

I always wanted a statue of my likeness. It's SO odd that I've had this problem starting this last week. I've read about that being an issue for years. I guess I've just been lucky.

Originally Posted by cybmole

....what bugs me about the Kindle hyphenation thing is that I cannot turn it off at device level, & I suspect I cannot turn it off by editing & then sideloading the speicfic azw file(s) either ?

I agree. If Amazon's going to allow auto-hyphenated text, it needs to be a reader-selectable option.

As I've said before, I don't mind auto-hyphenation IF it's done well. I really don't like when it breaks words incorrectly, though. It's a distraction that briefly takes me out of the story, especially since I'm not used to it.

You should be able to edit and sideload. My pre-publication mobi files made with Kindlegen do not have hyphenation when sideloaded to my Fire HD6. I've never edited an azw file, though, so I may not know what I'm talking about.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

..

You should be able to edit and sideload. My pre-publication mobi files made with Kindlegen do not have hyphenation when sideloaded to my Fire HD6. I've never edited an azw file, though, so I may not know what I'm talking about.

i'ts knowing what I'd have to edit in an azxw file to sppress hyphens that stumps me.

I know how do to it in epub, , I add body {adobe-hyphenate: none;} to css via calibre and that works for the devices/apps I own.. but I doubt that the kindle renderer would honour it.

plus it would be a pain to have to edit and sideload an amazon book to an amazon device & lose the cloud backup / sync etc that you get with an original.
for Tube riders, I decided to convert & read it in epub instead.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by cybmole

i'ts knowing what I'd have to edit in an azxw file to sppress hyphens that stumps me.

I know how do to it in epub, , I add body {adobe-hyphenate: none;} to css via calibre and that works for the devices/apps I own.. but I doubt that the kindle renderer would honour it.

plus it would be a pain to have to edit and sideload an amazon book to an amazon device & lose the cloud backup / sync etc that you get with an original.
for Tube riders, I decided to convert & read it in epub instead.

KF8 auto-hyphenation can be turned off with this CSS:

body
{-webkit-hyphens:none;
hyphens:none;}

I may end up doing that for my e-books, but first I'd like to figure out if there's something specific in my code that's triggering the auto-hyphenation.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

I feel like one of those bearded counterculture types of the 1970s who went around crying, Simplify! Simplify! I had no patience for them at the time, but when it comes to e-books, Simplify! is indeed a good way to go.

With respect to the SLR, if you solve that equation, we will build a statue to you in Seattle.

Y'know, NJ:

I am tempted to tell you, just to see you attempt to build a likeness of me in Seattle. And yes--there is a way around it. And no--I think that just this once, I think I'll keep one of my secret-sauce items to myself.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I am tempted to tell you, just to see you attempt to build a likeness of me in Seattle. And yes--there is a way around it. And no--I think that just this once, I think I'll keep one of my secret-sauce items to myself.

It's almost too late for statues, anyhow. The snow is melting in New Hampshire.

My most recent book opens at the cover (which wasn't even included in the epub sent to the KDP). That's a great improvement over the middle of the table of contents, so I'm optimistic that Amazon itself will solve the problem, and that the statue will have to be bald.

Is it true, do you think, that there is a new Kindle edition published every seventeen seconds?

[JSWolf]

I've never liked the let's open at some page other than the cover that Kindle are doing. I like to see the cover. That's why I replace generic covers with a read cover.

I've found that if you don't put in any guide items in the OPF of an ePub before you convert it for a Kindle, you can get the cover to show upon displaying the eBook. When I have guide items, the cover is not what's shown on opening the eBook.

[DreamWriter]

My four e-books are now free of auto-hyphenation and other problems mentioned in this thread!

The solution was both simple and perplexing. I just added this to the ePub CSS:

body {font-family:"Bookerly", "Caecilia", serif;}

There is no font specified for main text otherwise (only titles and chapter headings), and the reader can still select their preferred paragraph font from the device's font menu, which is important to me.

For chapter headings and titles, {font-family:"Helvetica", sans-serif;} worked, but I later embedded fonts for those.

In the past, I did not specify a body font at all. This was never a problem for files I'd uploaded prior to mid-February 2015, but after that time the omission caused the following problems on several devices (Fire HD6, Fire HDX 8.9, and 2013 Fire HD7):

• Auto-hyphenation
• Darker, less crisp fonts
• Smaller, fuzzier chapter graphics and author photo

It feels SO good to have my books appear the way I intended again! I hope this information will help someone else.

I thank you all for your patience and generous assistance. Your efforts were truly appreciated!

[cybmole]

good to know but I agree that it is most perplexing, & how on earth did you stumble onto that as the fix ?

have you asked amazon to confirm & comment ?

I wonder if this works retrospectively e.g. if I had a sample (with auto-hyphenation) to hand ( I think I deleted them) , and I added your CSS via the calibre AZW3 editor, then maneuvered the edited book back on to the Kindle, would the hyphenation vanish?
If anyone does have the patience to test that, I'd love to know the result