producing ebooks for kindle vs. cybook?

[hapax legomenon]

I know kindle supports mobipocket and so does cybook. I own a cybook and am self-publishing a creative commons erotic short story collection (which I'll be posting here in a few weeks).

Will mobipocket render exactly the same in both kindle and cybook? What are the differences (if any) in how kindle and cybook show mobipocket files?

I'm thinking mostly about navigation, headings and fonts. I'm guessing that images will be basically the same.

Would there be any reason to produce mobipocket versions for each device?

Thanks for your help.

[Nate the great]

There's no reason to create multiple versions of a Mobipocket ebook. All the devices read the exact same format.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

There's no reason to create multiple versions of a Mobipocket ebook. All the devices read the exact same format.

Yes they can read them, but I believe he's asking if they'll display the same on both devices or if there are tweaks to make them display better on a certain device.


I'm not sure, but I'd guess they would display virtually the same on both. It depends on how close the reader software for each device is. Don't know if we've got anyone on the forum yet that owns both a Cybook & a Kindle that could do a direct comparison.

[Hadrien]

You can also post your work on Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com

We'll add Mobipocket in the upcoming weeks and we already create custom PDF files on the fly and support the new ebook standard: epub.

[hapax legomenon]

Thanks, Hadrien. Yes, I was planning to post it on feedbooks as well.

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by hapax legomenon

I know kindle supports mobipocket and so does cybook. I own a cybook and am self-publishing a creative commons erotic short story collection (which I'll be posting here in a few weeks).

Will mobipocket render exactly the same in both kindle and cybook? What are the differences (if any) in how kindle and cybook show mobipocket files?

I'm thinking mostly about navigation, headings and fonts. I'm guessing that images will be basically the same.

Would there be any reason to produce mobipocket versions for each device?

Thanks for your help.

Um. If I understand right, Kindle supports unsecured Mobipocket (I think the .azw format is just mobipocket with a new DRM, actually) so I would expect navigation and headings to be the same. Kindle has only two fonts, so that would probably not be the same. The eInk screens on Kindle and Sony are exactly the same (except the Sony uses a different control chip, but in terms of pixels wide and pixels high they are exactly the same). I think the Cybook Gen 3 uses the same screen as well, but I'm not sure about that.

[wallcraft]

In general, a MOBI file should work on any device. The optimizations for a Cybook or a Kindle would be the same - primarily to use large images (and therefore in most cases JPEG images, with the JPEG option explicitly on in MobiPocket Creator or mobigen.exe). For short stories, a table of contents recognized as such by the Reader (rather than just in-lined HTML) would help too.

As catsittingstill pointed out, one difference is that the Kindle does not have selectable font types (only font sizes). However, that isn't usually a problem for document design. The two devices might convert images to fit the screen, and for 4 gray scales, differently - but I have not seen any reports on this issue. The Kindle does a pretty good job displaying color images.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

For short stories, a table of contents recognized as such by the Reader (rather than just in-lined HTML) would help too.

Is this working on the Kindle? On my Cybook I did not find any such functionality.

I have also been wondering if the Kindle have these small Cover images that the Cybook displays in it library views?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Is this working on the Kindle? On my Cybook I did not find any such functionality.

Tables of contents work just fine on the CyBook. While reading the book, click the centre button to display the menu, then select "Go To", and "Table of Contents".

Not all books have a TOC; for those which don't, this menu item will be greyed-out.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Tables of contents work just fine on the CyBook. While reading the book, click the centre button to display the menu, then select "Go To", and "Table of Contents".

Not all books have a TOC; for those which don't, this menu item will be greyed-out.

Thanks for that information. It never occured to me to look in a sub menu for the table of content. I tested with a book without a TOC and there was no entry at all for table of content. And I confirmed that I could go to the TOC in the book generated by my Perl script (lit2mobi).

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by tompe

Is this working on the Kindle?

For TOC, the Kindle has a sub-menu similar to the "contents" menu in the Windows MobiPocket Reader (cover, TOC, ...), which also includes go to beginning, location or boookmark. The "beginning" is what the Windows version calls "start reading" and is not the 1st page but rather where the publisher wants you to start.

The iLiad has no way of bringing up the cover image (unless it is in-lined in the HTML), but it has a TOC icon (similar to FBReader's TOC icon) and a "start reading" icon. The start reading icon will be grayed out unless the publisher has included this location.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

For TOC, the Kindle has a sub-menu similar to the "contents" menu in the Windows MobiPocket Reader (cover, TOC, ...), which also includes go to beginning, location or boookmark. The "beginning" is what the Windows version calls "start reading" and is not the 1st page but rather where the publisher wants you to start.

The iLiad has no way of bringing up the cover image (unless it is in-lined in the HTML), but it has a TOC icon (similar to FBReader's TOC icon) and a "start reading" icon. The start reading icon will be grayed out unless the publisher has included this location.

Well... It might be better in this case to add the TOC in this menu, rather than adding a TOC entry that would redirect to an in-line HTML TOC.

The only problem that I have with this menu, is that I don't know how I can create sub-menus. For example instead of displaying Part I and right under Chapter I, it would be much better if Part I acted like a sub-menu with its chapters inside.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by tompe

I have also been wondering if the Kindle have these small Cover images that the Cybook displays in it library views?

No. The Kindle's library view is similar to the title and author columns of the Windows MobiPocket Reader library view.

I assumed the Cybook's images were thunbnails based on the cover images. That is what the Windows MobiPocket Reader seems to be displaying in its library view when you select an e-book.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I assumed the Cybook's images were thunbnails based on the cover images.

That's exactly what they are. When the library first "catalogs" the book, it generates a thumbnail file. If there is a cover image it uses that, otherwise it creates one which shows the book title.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's exactly what they are. When the library first "catalogs" the book, it generates a thumbnail file. If there is a cover image it uses that, otherwise it creates one which shows the book title.

There is sometimes a small image packed in the mobi file that probably could be used if it is there. Otherwise it seems that it takes the first image record and rescale that and use as a thumbnail. If somebody happens to know exactly how this works and if there is relevant information in the MOBI header for this process I am very interested in this information. I want to make my conversion tools as correct as possible.