[Conversion Output] KFX Output

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by sinanay

I've converted a bunch of markdown files to EPUB using Pandoc, and then converted the EPUB file to first AZW3 and then KFX. The AZW3 works fine when I sideload it to my Kindle via Calibre on macOS but the converted KFX file has more margins than I'd like, and the background of the whole page except the margins is very slightly gray - the margins are "transparent" as expected. This also results in all the pixels except the margins to refresh on each page turn.

I searched in the thread with some keywords but I was unable to find anything similar. This is the first time I'm using the plugin, is this a common rookie mistake or am I doing something wrong?

There have been no reports of anything similar. If you create a sample file demonstrating the problem and post it here I will take a look at it.

[sinanay]

Originally Posted by jhowell

There have been no reports of anything similar. If you create a sample file demonstrating the problem and post it here I will take a look at it.

Thanks a lot for the offer for help, you can find the the EPUB, AZW3 and KFX files in the ZIP archive attached below.

Archive.zip

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by sinanay

the converted KFX file has more margins than I'd like

On my Kindle the margins of that book are the same size as those found in Amazon purchased books in KFX format. It is working as expected.

You can change the conversion settings when producing KFX to try and make the results more to your liking by decreasing the margins using extra CSS. The Extra CSS box can be found in the conversion dialog in Styling tab of the Look & feel section. I was able to minimize the margins by adding the following:

body {margin-left: -5% !important; margin-right: -5% !important;}

Originally Posted by sinanay

the background of the whole page except the margins is very slightly gray - the margins are "transparent" as expected. This also results in all the pixels except the margins to refresh on each page turn.

Looking at the EPUB file I see that the coding of that book is unusual in that the bulk of the text is set to be a dark gray (#1a1a1a) and the background color is set to a very light gray (#fdfdfd). This background is rendered a bit darker in KFX to make the background more visible.

You can eliminate the gray background by removing "background-color: #fdfdfd;" in sytlesheet1.css of the EPUB.

Originally Posted by sinanay

This is the first time I'm using the plugin, is this a common rookie mistake or am I doing something wrong?

Looking that the internals of your EPUB, in my opinion the HTML/CSS coding is more appropriate for a web page than an e-book. That is going to lead to some odd behavior.

[sinanay]

Originally Posted by jhowell

On my Kindle the margins of that book are the same size as those found in Amazon purchased books in KFX format. It is working as expected.

You can change the conversion settings when producing KFX to try and make the results more to your liking by decreasing the margins using extra CSS. The Extra CSS box can be found in the conversion dialog in Styling tab of the Look & feel section. I was able to minimize the margins by adding the following:

body {margin-left: -5% !important; margin-right: -5% !important;}



Looking at the EPUB file I see that the coding of that book is unusual in that the bulk of the text is set to be a dark gray (#1a1a1a) and the background color is set to a very light gray (#fdfdfd). This background is rendered a bit darker in KFX to make the background more visible.

You can eliminate the gray background by removing "background-color: #fdfdfd;" in sytlesheet1.css of the EPUB.

Thanks a lot for the help, I'll make the changes you suggested.

Looking that the internals of your EPUB, in my opinion the HTML/CSS coding is more appropriate for a web page than an e-book. That is going to lead to some odd behavior.

No idea, I converted it from Markdown to EPUB with Pandoc, whatever it does is pretty opaque and from what you say I understand that it must be geared towards webby HTML generation.

[KindleAZWorKFX]

*removed*

[KindleAZWorKFX]

I found what I think is a bug in the plugin when converting a epub version of this into a KFX output, I don't know if the source was Compatible epub or Advanced epub, the problem is when converting the epub I used it turned only this ebook with its images, into black square box's.

Spoiler:

I might of added a font into the source ebook but otherwise, I think its close to the original source, but again I cannot tell at this time if I used which source, also I added my own cover image to it, the alice in wonderland ebook is fine, the bug only seems to affect this ebook. as you can see I did something to the original epub from standard ebooks, that seems to cause all the images to turn into black boxes not sure what I had did to cause this, I did use polish books to update metadata and used it to add my own covers to some of them, I had added a font Amazon Amber, to the source epub then I used KFX output plugin, again I don't know why if I had used the adv epub or compatible source, I plan on going back to the original from their website, compatible epub in and try to reconvert it again, since I made some mistake along the way, that might of caused its images to turn into black box's but just in case it's not my fault I wanted to share, this eBook is going onto my kindle ebook reader, using USB-C connection onto device, I am using that cable with my kindle paperwhite signature 11th gen device, but I wanted to share this bug in cause something in the output plugin is causing this or again this might been just a mistake I had made that caused it, I am not sure since it's like the only ebook that I had seen this problem in, so I am not sure how I ended up with black images in the kfx output and yet the source epub seems fine, source ebook is too big for me to share it as a attachment. but I can share the directory sizes, the kfx output seems too small, and the images might of something happened to them when converting them, also I think I did use metaguide epub output which also might of cause this bug, since it does something to the epub that maybe the kfx output does not like. that's the only other idea I have which might of caused this but then again at this point I am guessing what
caused it.

I have calibre updated to 7.7 and all my plugins are up to date.

Spoiler:

This bug I found is also affecting compatible epub fornat from standard ebooks website to mobi and azw3 outputs, all of them from the compatable epub from standard ebooks website when converting it, the images are ended up a black images, it seems almost like standard ebooks put some sort of DRM into its image files, or its something else,

at this time, I don't know the cause, if its related to metaguide epub plugin or not. since I did use that on it, before trying to convert it into any other formats.

Also I went ahead and downloaded standard ebooks azw3 file of this ebook its smaller in size than the epub file, which is fine, I am using KindleUnpack plugin to make a epub (epub2 version) then I try metaguide epub on it, then convert that epub into kfx output to see if it causes the black images, instead of normal ones, in side the ebook itself, I know if the problem at that point might be that metaguide epub plugin if it is that plugin is going to get uninstall on my calibre.

update information to the process in understanding the bug which I don't really understand still but was able to fix anyway?: converting azw3 downloaded from standard ebooks website then to epub with KindleUnpack plugin, then using metaguide epub plugin and that epub to kfx output seems to of worked, the Amazon Ember font was included to the KFX outputed ebook. below is a screenshot of the fixed ebook, again I used the azw3 source from the standard ebooks website, using the campatible epub source seems to cause the images to turn into black box's which again, I don't know why but the azw3 file outputed to an epub file using KindleUnpack then using metaguide and then using convert in calibre with included font, to KFX format seems to of fixed my problem, again it was only one ebook that I noticed this bug in and I am still not sure why the epub file causes this bug, I am guessing there is some code in its file, that causes this, also I do not see any quality changes with its images, I don't think you lose quality going from epub to kfx vs using azw3 to epub to kfx output, I think the images look about the same.

I am fine if anyone wants to explain what caused this bug in the first place, at this point I have a working ebook file for my kindle with my own cover image on it, so I just will keep this info here if anyone can explain it?



Website link to ebook in question
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/le...s/john-tenniel

These two screenshots below are showing the bug using compatible epub from standard ebooks website, which was updated with cover image and metadata using polish book in calibre, then converting that epub with font included to kfx output and as you can see it caused black box affect onto the kfx output, but the above image showing azw3 to epub using KindleUnpack seems to of fixed this bug

Spoiler:

if that information helps get this bug patched if the KFX plugin needs that or a fix for this if any of this information helps which I don't know if it does or not

.


this is the png file fron Canva software, which I used to add text onto the source AI image bing image creator software page my oil painting prompt was a source for it.



this is a cover image, I used bing image creator, and used Canva to add text to it, basically I had made my own personal ebook covers for some of my public domain ebooks.

jpg image in calibre directory for this ebook



https://www.canva.com/


the source that added to calibre is in png but it outputs it to a jpg image anyway for ebooks, which is fine since it makes the image file size smaller which is fine for ebooks, but the source also gets turned into a jpg image file on devianart also. when saving it from Canva the source is png with text it in, that's just how the process works that I used. this website also seems to take the png file and downgrade it to an jpg file as an attachment, the bigger sized Attached Thumbnails, should be the png file, it seems to of converted it in this forum.

added link to png file below


and I added full image here as spoiler so it will not take up too much space.

Spoiler:

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by KindleAZWorKFX

I am fine if anyone wants to explain what caused this bug in the first place, at this point I have a working ebook file for my kindle with my own cover image on it, so I just will keep this info here if anyone can explain it?

I do not know what might have caused the problem. I am happy that you were able to work around it.

[KindleAZWorKFX]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I do not know what might have caused the problem. I am happy that you were able to work around it.

Yes, thanks my fix worked, was not sure if the plugin needed some sort of patch, it could be a bug in Kindle previewer 3 software itself, if the problem is not in calibre or the KFX output plugin itself.

Since I have no way of knowing what caused the image bug to make them into black boxes, anyway yes downloading the azw3 source from Standard eBooks website worked for me.

For this one eBook then turning it into an ePub (2 version not an ePub 3) with KindleUnpack plugin in calibre worked for me, it seems that some code in the original Standard eBooks ePub for their compatible ePub is the cause of the bug that affects either KFX output plugin, or kindle previewer 3 itself and/or calibre windows x86-64 build version 7.7 might need a patch to fix this bug from whatever caused it, again just guessing where the problem might be since I don't know.

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/le...s/john-tenniel

[JSWolf]

@KindleAZWorKFX my guess is that the terrible code Standard Ebooks uses could be the problem.