Amazon conversion adds excessive hyphenation

Olders · 11-20-2023, 07:45 AM

I posted this a while ago on a different forum but got no responses, so am hoping somebody here may be able to help me!

I am hoping somebody may be able to give me some tips or advice on overcoming this issue:

On some books (but by no means all) when I email the epub file to my kindle (or open it in Kindle Previewer) the conversion process adds a huge amount of hyphens, which makes it very difficult to read.

I have had an extensive play with re-formatting the 'problem' epubs using calibre to add/remove soft hyphens etc and they look perfect in the calibre reader. None of these changes seem to have much effect though as once converted by Amazon, they always end up with masses of hyphens. Sometimes most lines end in a hyphen!

The books use 'enhanced typsetting' are viewed at size 4 in the Bookerly font and are left justified.

I suspect I am beholden to Amazon's 'hyphenation algo' in the main but I just find it strange that some books convert with almost no hyphenation (and still look perfect), whilst others are a total mess!

Is there anything I can do by editing CSS etc in Calibre to try and minimise or improve/lessen the amount of hyphenation amazon implies during conversion?

Any help or suggestions much appreciated!

kovidgoyal · 11-20-2023, 08:00 AM

amazon's hyphenation is likely driven by language so change the lang attributes in the HTML.

Olders · 11-20-2023, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

amazon's hyphenation is likely driven by language so change the lang attributes in the HTML.

Many thanks Kovid.

The lang attribute is set to "en" in the first section of <html> in this particular book (the title page), which is correct, but none of the other root <html> elements for each of the following chapters contain the lang attribute.

Is there an easy way in calibre to automatically add the lang attribute to the <html> element for each chapter or do I have to edit the book and use Find/Replace to add the lang attribute 'manually'?

Many thanks!

JSWolf · 11-20-2023, 04:32 PM

The conversion is not adding hyphenations. The KFX renderer is what's adding the hyphens.

You could try changing the font and see if that helps reduce the number of hyphens.

kovidgoyal · 11-20-2023, 08:47 PM

there's no automated lang adding

11-20-2023, 07:45 AM	#1
Olders Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2023 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 11th Ed.	Amazon conversion adds excessive hyphenation I posted this a while ago on a different forum but got no responses, so am hoping somebody here may be able to help me! I am hoping somebody may be able to give me some tips or advice on overcoming this issue: On some books (but by no means all) when I email the epub file to my kindle (or open it in Kindle Previewer) the conversion process adds a huge amount of hyphens, which makes it very difficult to read. I have had an extensive play with re-formatting the 'problem' epubs using calibre to add/remove soft hyphens etc and they look perfect in the calibre reader. None of these changes seem to have much effect though as once converted by Amazon, they always end up with masses of hyphens. Sometimes most lines end in a hyphen! The books use 'enhanced typsetting' are viewed at size 4 in the Bookerly font and are left justified. I suspect I am beholden to Amazon's 'hyphenation algo' in the main but I just find it strange that some books convert with almost no hyphenation (and still look perfect), whilst others are a total mess! Is there anything I can do by editing CSS etc in Calibre to try and minimise or improve/lessen the amount of hyphenation amazon implies during conversion? Any help or suggestions much appreciated!

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Excessive Hyphenation added by Amazon	Olders	Kindle Formats	1	11-15-2023 01:40 PM
EPUB>PDF conversion adds unwanted margins	Micelement	Conversion	1	10-15-2020 06:56 AM
Conversion adds indents not in original input	snarkophilus	Conversion	2	05-27-2011 09:14 PM
Calibre V0.6.13 adds support for LRF conversion	Alexander Turcic	Calibre	3	09-20-2009 12:27 PM

11-20-2023, 08:00 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,866 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	amazon's hyphenation is likely driven by language so change the lang attributes in the HTML.

11-20-2023, 04:32 PM	#4
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 74,037 Karma: 129333114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	The conversion is not adding hyphenations. The KFX renderer is what's adding the hyphens. You could try changing the font and see if that helps reduce the number of hyphens.

11-20-2023, 08:47 PM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,866 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	there's no automated lang adding

Advert

Advert