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Old 09-30-2011, 02:29 AM   #1
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KindleGen: Epub to Mobi conversion

I'm having trouble converting my epubs (created in IDCS5.5, edited in TextWrangler) to mobi files with Kindlegen. The basic conversion works, but a few things are problematic.

I am interested in learning what adjustments I need to make to the epub file for a clean conversion, rather than working in Sigil or Calibre. Does anyone work like this?

My first main problem is generating a table of contents for the mobi. I have both a Contents page (in its own html file) and a toc.ncx file in the epub. Neither of these becomes the TOC in mobi. Is there a way to adjust the epub so Kindlegen will produce a TOC for Kindle?
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Old 09-30-2011, 03:04 AM   #2
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For reference, here is the errors I'm pulling up thus far:

Warning(prcgen): Guide title is empty. Item is ignored
Info(prcgen): Parsing files 0000017
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(cssparser): @rules other than @import and @charset are not supported.
Info(prcgen): Resolving hyperlinks
Info(prcgen): Building table of content URL: /var/folders/Dm/DmpXZclPH1KXvbHFzK9XqE+++TI/-Tmp-/mobi-Jo5hFQ/OEBPS/toc.ncx
Info(pagemap): No Page map found in the book
Warning(prcgen): Cover is too small : /var/folders/Dm/DmpXZclPH1KXvbHFzK9XqE+++TI/-Tmp-/mobi-Jo5hFQ/OEBPS/images/frontcover.jpg
Info(prcgen): Computing UNICODE ranges used in the book
Info(prcgen): Found UNICODE range: Basic Latin [20..7E]
Info(prcgen): Found UNICODE range: General Punctuation - Windows 1252 [201C..201E]
Info(prcgen): Found UNICODE range: Latin-1 Supplement [A0..FF]
Info(prcgen): Building MOBI file, record count: 0000053
Info(prcgen): Final stats - text compressed to (in % of original size): 052.84%
Info(prcgen): The document identifier is: "The_Happy_Life"
Info(prcgen): The file format version is V6
Info(prcgen): Saving MOBI file
Info(prcgen): MOBI File generated with WARNINGS!
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Old 09-30-2011, 04:51 AM   #3
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See the other thread. I think you're missing the toc reference item in the guide section of the OPF file... because judging by your kindlegen output, it looks like the ncx file is being processed just fine (which will give you the navigational "dots" on the progress bar on the Kindle).

Last edited by DiapDealer; 09-30-2011 at 06:00 AM. Reason: Typo correction
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Old 09-30-2011, 12:39 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by virtual_ink View Post
My first main problem is generating a table of contents for the mobi. I have both a Contents page (in its own html file) and a toc.ncx file in the epub. Neither of these becomes the TOC in mobi. Is there a way to adjust the epub so Kindlegen will produce a TOC for Kindle?
the way you get the in-line TOC to be identified as the TOC in the mobi is by declaring it as such in the <guide> section of the content.opf file.

If you did so, and it still doesn't work, I'd check the spellings, paths, etc. -- all the usual suspects.
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Old 10-02-2011, 08:21 PM   #5
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This is what I have in my content.opf guide section:

<guide>
<reference type="cover" href="cover_epub.html"/>
<reference type="title-page" href="title-page_epub.html"/>
<reference type="toc" href="toc_epub.html"/>
</guide>
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Old 10-03-2011, 12:24 AM   #6
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I have just tried another book (an epub received from a conversion house). Kindlegen ran with no errors except this message:

Info(pagemap): No Page map found in the book

The book works fine on Kindle Previewer for iPad, except there is no Table of Contents. Stumped.
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Old 10-03-2011, 02:48 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer View Post
See the other thread. I think you're missing the toc reference item in the guide section of the OPF file... because judging by your kindlegen output, it looks like the ncx file is being processed just fine (which will give you the navigational "dots" on the progress bar on the Kindle).
Thanks DiapDealer, I kept at it and this works! Thank you.

I have a new problem (of course!). Most conversions are working, but this one is giving me grief, just this error, which stops the cover from displaying:

Warning(prcgen): Cover invalid and was not built with the book : /var/folders/Dm/DmpXZclPH1KXvbHFzK9XqE+++TI/-Tmp-/mobi-6USM65/OEBPS/cover.html
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Old 10-03-2011, 11:37 PM   #8
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Warning(prcgen): Cover invalid and was not built with the book : /var/folders/Dm/DmpXZclPH1KXvbHFzK9XqE+++TI/-Tmp-/mobi-6USM65/OEBPS/cover.html

I figured this one out by hacking at the code - the file hadn't been built properly by the conversion house, and while it worked fine in the epub, it showed its flaws during the conversion process.

I think the epub to mobi conversion process is under control now - touch wood.
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Old 11-06-2011, 05:27 AM   #9
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I am coverting an epub that contains several indented block quotes to mobi. The kindlegen generated mobi doesn't scrub up too well, the indented quotes are indented on the left hand side (maybe a bit further thanI would like) but not at all on the right hand side. Is there a known way to fix this? If i need to edit the epub CSS first, or perhaps I need to use another program to clean up the mobi? Any help much appreciatted.
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Old 11-06-2011, 05:29 AM   #10
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The current Mobipocket format doesn't do right hand indents at all.
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Old 11-06-2011, 05:56 AM   #11
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Thanks pdurrant. And please excuse my ignorance, I'm new to the world of all things kindle, so does that mean any ebook on a kindle won't support right indents, or is there another format which kindle uses that does support right indent? AZW? Is there actually any difference?
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Old 11-06-2011, 06:36 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by virtual_ink View Post
Thanks pdurrant. And please excuse my ignorance, I'm new to the world of all things kindle, so does that mean any ebook on a kindle won't support right indents, or is there another format which kindle uses that does support right indent? AZW? Is there actually any difference?
Mobi and AZW are the same. There is another format, Topaz, used by Amazon when scanning old books that probably supports right indent, but you can't (and wouldn't want) to use that.

So no current Kinde ebooks have right indents.

Amazon have recently announced a new format "Kindle Format 8" - KF8 - that should support right indents (and a whole lot more) but it's not really ready for use yet.
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Old 11-06-2011, 06:41 AM   #13
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Cool. Thanks for the clarification.

I forgot to mention, the block quotes also have a space-before that is being ignored in the mobi. Is this another kindle setting, or is there a way to fix this? The space-after block quote is being honoured.
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Old 11-06-2011, 08:05 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by virtual_ink View Post
Cool. Thanks for the clarification.

I forgot to mention, the block quotes also have a space-before that is being ignored in the mobi. Is this another kindle setting, or is there a way to fix this? The space-after block quote is being honoured.
It should be possible to adjust the coding on the ePub so that KindleGen gives you some space before the block quote. But you'll just have to experiment to find out what works for your particular situation. There isn't any documentation of what KindleGen will convert properly as far as I know.
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Old 11-06-2011, 10:34 AM   #15
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I know kindlegen can be very fussy about top AND bottom margins being simultaneously applied through CSS to <p> and other block tags. One or the other seems to get ignored at times. Especially if the margins are specified in em's. I've had better luck designing layouts where you can get the spacing you want with top-margins only. Or using pt's instead of em's.

Another trick is to run the epub through calibre's mobi conversion process. If the results look the way you want them to (on a Kindle or in Kindle previewer)... use MobiUnpack to see what's going on. Or even just feed the results of MobiUnpack (the opf file) to kindlegen.
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