Getting images/comics on the Kindle DX without downsizing?

[nickmarino]

Hey all -- I'm currently trying to convert my new self-published comic book into the best possible format for the Kindle DX to sell on Amazon. I've read a ton of tutorials online and done a lot of searching in this forum (and the web in general), and nothing seems to completely answer my questions.

For starters, I've read both:
http://www.publetariat.com/publish/kindle-dx-image-test
http://www.robotcomics.net/2009/07/a...-doc-tutorial/

Those are the two most prominent tutorials out there for comics/image conversion for the Kindle. The Robot Comics one is fine... but their method still forces the downsizing of images to the Kindle 2 size, which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid.

The other tutorial, by Joshua Tallent, talks more about avoiding the downsizing and gives a solution: any2mobi in Calibre. However, any mention of any2mobi seems to have been removed from the Calibre site. Is this feature still included with the latest version of Calibre?

I was able to successfully convert my comic into a .mobi with Calibre and upload it to Amazon... but it looks to me like the images are still being downsized by Calibre (I assume), despite my best efforts. Is there some sort of hack or way around this? Is there another .mobi file creator that won't try to force my images down to the Kindle 2 size?

Basically, I'd much rather have my stuff large enough for the DX and too big for the Kindle 2 (it will just downzise on the device, right?). But that seems nearly impossible to accomplish!

[LesleyO]

Wouldn't the best idea be to use PDF, or does Amazon not allow that if you publish through them? I know I've personally put 44-page quarterlies that I produce (that include photos) on my DXi, and they look great. Sorry, I can't comment on Calibre; I have it but am not that knowledgeable about it.

[nickmarino]

the internal conversion process that Kindle has when you upload PDFs can take a pretty heavy toll on the images. i mean, that's what i've read and that's how i felt about the PDF i uploaded as a test.

and i've actually somewhat found a solution to this (not complete nor do i know if it's actually working just because of the limitations of my own abilities to check stuff...) but i converted my images to 744x1022 and put them in a .rar file, then used Calibre to convert it into a .mobi BUT i turned off all image resizing on the backend of Calibre, and it looked to me like the .mobi was leaving the images at 744x1022. i've tested the item on the Kindle DX and it looks awesome, so i'm assuming it worked right. but like i said, i don;t know for sure.

[LesleyO]

Originally Posted by nickmarino

the internal conversion process that Kindle has when you upload PDFs can take a pretty heavy toll on the images. i mean, that's what i've read and that's how i felt about the PDF i uploaded as a test.

(snip)

Well I'm a photographer by education and pretty fussy, and the photos I edit for the quarterly I produce (some of which I've also taken) look darned good, but all I've done is drag the PDFs directly onto my DXi. Mind you, that's why I got the DXi in the first place — the larger Kindle so the PDFs would be legible from the get-go. And they are, even thought they're not fully graduated shades of grey. I guess downsizing for the K2 is a different matter.

[nickmarino]

Originally Posted by LesleyO

Well I'm a photographer by education and pretty fussy, and the photos I edit for the quarterly I produce (some of which I've also taken) look darned good, but all I've done is drag the PDFs directly onto my DXi. Mind you, that's why I got the DXi in the first place — the larger Kindle so the PDFs would be legible from the get-go. And they are, even thought they're not fully graduated shades of grey. I guess downsizing for the K2 is a different matter.

i meant when you upload something to the Kindle store as a PDF. sorry if i wasn't clear enough! i haven't tried dragging PDFs directly onto the device.