RTL Hebrew Kindle

[fredsmith123]

Like everyone else, Hebrew on my kindle is the wrong way round: the letters are in reverse order because Hebrew is read right-to-left.
But there's a simple fix...
Just use a program or script that reverses the order of the letters.
You give it a text file and it returns it reversed.
Where can I find such a thing? I've been looking for ages.

[tomsem]

KF8 format supports Hebrew rtl properly. You should not need to 'fix' anything. The HTML source needs to be properly marked up.

http://kneidlach.info/

Also, you should be able to send such ebook files to Personal Documents service now, as it preserves KF8 formatting (something that was added recently). However I don't know if it will properly convert .doc/.rtf/.txt files in Hebrew (probably not). Send To Kindle browser extension doesn't, it seems. So you may need to learn how to create kf8 files (or use Kindle Previewer or kindlegen to convert epub files you may have).

And the pd conversion service will only create mobi7 which does not supprt rtl.

Consider creating kindle-sized PDF. It is WYSIWYG, easier to author.

[twobob]

In answer to the orignal question: linux: rev.

simple as that. I do no have any knowledge of hebrew. also it would reverse EVERYTHING so a text-only file would be required.

Hope that helps.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by twobob

In answer to the orignal question: linux: rev.

simple as that. I do no have any knowledge of hebrew. also it would reverse EVERYTHING so a text-only file would be required.

Hope that helps.

Also you would not be able to mix Hebrew with ltr scripts and numerals.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by twobob

In answer to the orignal question: linux: rev.

Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as that, because 5 Hebrew letters have different shapes at the end of a word and as tomsem has pointed out, you wouldn't be able to mix RTL text with LTR text.

However, all of this isn't really necessary, because all current Kindles (K3 and higher) support RTL text (some older Kindle apps don't).

@fredsmith123:
If you use Calibre to generate Kindle files, select AZW3 and not MOBI as the target format. You can also simply open your source file with Kindle Previewer, which will automatically generate a master mobi file.

Some time ago, I created an Arabic/Hebrew font embedding test file that you can use to test whether your Kindle supports KF8/AZW3. (The source code is embedded.)

[twobob]

top work.

[chaditrad]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Some time ago, I created an Arabic/Hebrew font embedding test file that you can use to test whether your Kindle supports KF8/AZW3. (The source code is embedded.)

Hi. I am experimenting with the arabic language for .mobi files and I was wondering how you were able to generate the attachment above. The mobi file you provided renders correctly on my PW 5.3.4, but I was unable to reproduce it.

I tried converting using Calibre to epub then to mobi but the result was rendered incorrectly.

I also tried the unpack tool but it failed.

[HarryT]

It's not a Mobi file; it's a KF8 file. If you're using Calibre, convert to "AZW3" format, not Mobi.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's not a Mobi file; it's a KF8 file.

Actually, it's both.

I used KindleGen 2.8, which creates a master .mobi file that contains both a regular .mobi file and an .azw3 file. (KindleGen also attaches the source files, which can be extracted with 7Zip or Keka.)

But you are of course right. The OP needs to convert to AZW3 not MOBI.

I did some experiments and found out that eInk Kindles actually support Arabic vowel signs, if you keep the styles simple.
(Unfortunately, you cannot embed Arabic fonts.)

@chaditrad: To automatically generate a master .mobi file, download Kindle Previewer and open your .epub or .html files with it. Kindle Previewer will automatically generate a .mobi file.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Actually, it's both.

I used KindleGen 2.8, which creates a master .mobi file that contains both a regular .mobi file and an .azw3 file. (KindleGen also attaches the source files, which can be extracted with 7Zip or Keka.)

But it's only the KF8 portion of the file which will work . The older Mobi format doesn't support RTL languages.

[PoP]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

... I did some experiments and found out that eInk Kindles actually support Arabic vowel signs, if you keep the styles simple.
(Unfortunately, you cannot embed Arabic fonts.)...

I'm a bit confused. Didn't you embed the fonts in post#5 attachment?.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by PoP

I'm a bit confused. Didn't you embed the fonts in post#5 attachment?.

I did. But for some odd reason, Kindles don't use the Arabic glyphs, when you embed Arabic fonts. (If you mix Latin and Arabic text, the Latin glyphs actually show up.)
That's why I didn't embed fonts in my latest test file.
Also since I figured out that Arabic vowel signs are supported up to a certain font size I created a new test file without embedded fonts.

[chaditrad]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

I did. But for some odd reason, Kindles don't use the Arabic glyphs, when you embed Arabic fonts. (If you mix Latin and Arabic text, the Latin glyphs actually show up.)
That's why I didn't embed fonts in my latest test file.
Also since I figured out that Arabic vowel signs are supported up to a certain font size I created a new test file without embedded fonts.

I am not sure if I'm correct, but latin glyphs are usually found attached to the letter as one single character: so é ê è and e are 4 different characters by themselves.
whereas in arabic, و وُ وِ وَ are using one character for the و and one character for the glyph. I guess this is one difference worth mentioning.

Thanks for the update on the question. I am really interested in knowing the latest about Arabic fonts on Kindle. I guess many are interested in that especially for writing religious books (e.g. quran, bible) or dictionaries. We all agree that there is a big lack of arabic material in the kindle shop.

- Is there a group/page on this forum for Arabic font discussions? I only saw some small threads on the subject.

- According to your knowledge, what is the compatibility of Arabic with the various formats and various Kindle models ?

( I know this question is a bit extensive, but this kind of information would be interesting if available in one place)


Thanks for your time a lot.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by chaditrad

I am not sure if I'm correct, but latin glyphs are usually found attached to the letter as one single character: so é ê è and e are 4 different characters by themselves.
whereas in arabic, و وُ وِ وَ are using one character for the و and one character for the glyph. I guess this is one difference worth mentioning.

IMHO, there are other reasons for this behaviour. AFAIK, there's a configuration file that hard-codes the mapping of all Arabic characters to the ugly glyphs in the code2000.ttf Unicode fallback font and prevents using Arabic glyphs from embedded fonts.
IIRC, an Arab Kindle Paperwhite user was able to bypass this limitation by installing the USE_ALT_FONTS Kindle font hack, but, AFAIK, embedding Arabic fonts still doesn't work.

Originally Posted by chaditrad

We all agree that there is a big lack of arabic material in the kindle shop.

AFAIK, Amazon doesn't offically support Arabic and Amazon KDP doesn't accept Arabic-only Kindle books by independent authors.

Originally Posted by chaditrad

I guess many are interested in that especially for writing religious books (e.g. quran, bible) or dictionaries.

Unfortunately, Amazon hasn't updated the dictionary code in the KindleGen compiler in ages. I.e. it creates the Mobi7 files by default whenever it encounters dictionary tags. (KF8/AZW3 files are Mobi8 files.)
Mobi7 supports only single word based RTL shaping. For example it'll display سكة حديد as حديد سكة.
On the plus side, it's possible to create dictionaries with inflections for single word entries. (I.e. looking up طلاب will display the entry for طالب.)

Originally Posted by chaditrad

- Is there a group/page on this forum for Arabic font discussions? I only saw some small threads on the subject.

None that I know of. Feel free to create a dedictated Arabic on the Kindle thread, but don't be too disappointed if you don't get many replies.

Originally Posted by chaditrad

- According to your knowledge, what is the compatibility of Arabic with the various formats and various Kindle models ?

AFAIK, Arabic is supported on all Kindles that support KF8/AZW3:
- eInk (K3 and higher with the latest firmware)
- Android (all Fire models with the latest firmware)

[hakossem]

I have seen the bug where the words are in the wrong order but kindle support Hebrew perfectly. At least Kindle ppw.
The bug come from Calibre and not the Kindle. When I use kindlegen ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...cId=1000765211 ) to convert the files, they work perfectly