How to normalize smart quotes and apostrophes for Kindle?

mcandre · 12-06-2022, 04:36 PM

It's nearly 2023 and Amazon Kindle still does a shite job of rendering Unicode smart quotes and smart apostrophes. Normally when this happens, I edit the reflowable ePUB with the Sigil application, performing four Find & Replace All in all HTML file operations, one for each type of smart quote / apostrophe.

Is there an automated way to accomplish this directly in Calibre? Perhaps an option within the ePUB conversion default configuration, so that converting MOBI -> ePUB or ePUB -> ePUB results in books with strictly ASCII double quotes (") and apostrophes (')?

I already have Kindle Paperwhite set as the default target, but evidently that option is not aggressively ensuring that ebooks are formatted for consumption by Kindles.

JSWolf · 12-06-2022, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcandre

It's nearly 2023 and Amazon Kindle still does a shite job of rendering Unicode smart quotes and smart apostrophes. Normally when this happens, I edit the reflowable ePUB with the Sigil application, performing four Find & Replace All in all HTML file operations, one for each type of smart quote / apostrophe.

Is there an automated way to accomplish this directly in Calibre? Perhaps an option within the ePUB conversion default configuration, so that converting MOBI -> ePUB or ePUB -> ePUB results in books with strictly ASCII double quotes (") and apostrophes (')?

I already have Kindle Paperwhite set as the default target, but evidently that option is not aggressively ensuring that ebooks are formatted for consumption by Kindles.

Use the Modify ePub plugin with Claibre to set your ePub to be UTF-8. Then that should solve the problem. You can stop all this excess converting.

Quoth · 12-06-2022, 05:18 PM

It is the lack of a UTF-8
No need for HTML entities. “and” with ‘and’ are all fine with epub to KDP. The " and ' are only for typewriters and programming. Feet is ′ and inches are ″ (prime and double prime and work on Amazon). The ' might be used in some transliterations of some languages, maybe Farsi or Arabic. The ` on keyboards is only meant as a dead key for words like Sìde (Scottish) or some continental words, it’s not an opening quote. MS Word and LO Writer sometimes use an opening quote instead of an apostrophe, you need to explicitly type ’90s and not expect correct smart conversion of '90.

Blame IBM for basically using a 1928 teletype keyboard design based on Victorian typewriter for all the issues of quotes and apostrophes and primes and blame earlier USA (not IBM as they used EBCDIC) for wasting lots of the 126 characters on control functions instead of fewer and Escape for rest. Even 255 characters was still not used by email in 21st C.

kovidgoyal · 12-06-2022, 07:25 PM

Paperwhite's can reder smart quotes just fine. Convert your book to azw3 and send it to the kindle via USB and it will work fine.

Patricia1066 · 12-31-2022, 03:14 PM

I assume my epubs will fail to render when emailed to my paperwhite kindle, and convert epub to epub with utf-8 specified. It is very quick

mcandre · 12-31-2022, 04:16 PM

I may try the plugin.

That should really be the default behavior when importing reflowable text ebooks into the Calibre library. And the default behavior for Amazon's WhisperSync upload.

Meanwhile, I have been forcibly converting all smartquotes and smart apostrophes with a command line script:

https://github.com/mcandre/nile

12-06-2022, 04:36 PM	#1
mcandre Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 5000 Join Date: Oct 2012 Device: Kindle	How to normalize smart quotes and apostrophes for Kindle? It's nearly 2023 and Amazon Kindle still does a shite job of rendering Unicode smart quotes and smart apostrophes. Normally when this happens, I edit the reflowable ePUB with the Sigil application, performing four Find & Replace All in all HTML file operations, one for each type of smart quote / apostrophe. Is there an automated way to accomplish this directly in Calibre? Perhaps an option within the ePUB conversion default configuration, so that converting MOBI -> ePUB or ePUB -> ePUB results in books with strictly ASCII double quotes (") and apostrophes (')? I already have Kindle Paperwhite set as the default target, but evidently that option is not aggressively ensuring that ebooks are formatted for consumption by Kindles.

12-06-2022, 05:18 PM	#3
Quoth the rook, bossing Never. Posts: 11,169 Karma: 85874891 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper11	It is the lack of a UTF-8 No need for HTML entities. “and” with ‘and’ are all fine with epub to KDP. The " and ' are only for typewriters and programming. Feet is ′ and inches are ″ (prime and double prime and work on Amazon). The ' might be used in some transliterations of some languages, maybe Farsi or Arabic. The ` on keyboards is only meant as a dead key for words like Sìde (Scottish) or some continental words, it’s not an opening quote. MS Word and LO Writer sometimes use an opening quote instead of an apostrophe, you need to explicitly type ’90s and not expect correct smart conversion of '90. Blame IBM for basically using a 1928 teletype keyboard design based on Victorian typewriter for all the issues of quotes and apostrophes and primes and blame earlier USA (not IBM as they used EBCDIC) for wasting lots of the 126 characters on control functions instead of fewer and Escape for rest. Even 255 characters was still not used by email in 21st C. Last edited by Quoth; 12-06-2022 at 05:35 PM.

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12-06-2022, 07:25 PM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,866 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Paperwhite's can reder smart quotes just fine. Convert your book to azw3 and send it to the kindle via USB and it will work fine.

12-31-2022, 03:14 PM	#5
Patricia1066 Zealot Posts: 131 Karma: 19894 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Bromley, UK Device: Kindle PW 10th gen, Kindle Fire 7 9th gen, Kindle KB 3rd gen	I assume my epubs will fail to render when emailed to my paperwhite kindle, and convert epub to epub with utf-8 specified. It is very quick

12-31-2022, 04:16 PM	#6
mcandre Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 5000 Join Date: Oct 2012 Device: Kindle	I may try the plugin. That should really be the default behavior when importing reflowable text ebooks into the Calibre library. And the default behavior for Amazon's WhisperSync upload. Meanwhile, I have been forcibly converting all smartquotes and smart apostrophes with a command line script: https://github.com/mcandre/nile