Traditional Chinese

jhowell · 01-08-2019, 01:36 PM

Version 3.29 of Amazon's Kindle Previewer was just released and the updated manual for that version has the following statement:

Quote:

1.6.2 Supported Export File Formats
...
Kindle Previewer does not support export to .mobi or .azk when the language of the book is Arabic, Traditional Chinese, or one of the Indian languages. These languages are available only with Enhanced Typesetting features, and .mobi/.azk files do not support Enhanced Typesetting.

This is the first mention of Traditional Chinese that I have seen in the KDP Amazon publishing literature. (Chinese is listed as a supported language for the Kindle Previewer, but I believe that refers to simplified Chinese.)

Is this something new or is it just something that I never noticed before?

Notjohn · 01-09-2019, 09:19 AM

Omigosh, Simplified Chinese is supported? How fine.

jhowell · 01-09-2019, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notjohn

Omigosh, Simplified Chinese is supported? How fine.

Actually, I was wrong.

It is supported by the Kindle Previewer, but not listed on the KDP Supported Languages page.

My mistake was assuming that the Previewer languages were equivalent to KDP languages.

(I have made a correction to the first post.)

jhowell · 01-10-2019, 02:45 PM

Amazon has pulled version 3.29 of the Kindle Previewer and gone back to version 3.28 on the download page. I guess there was a problem with the new release.

Notjohn · 01-12-2019, 06:05 AM

Thanks for the update!

jhowell · 01-14-2019, 01:59 PM

Kindle Previewer 3.29.1 is now available. Amazon has updated the documentation to remove the mention of Traditional Chinese added in version 3.29. Perhaps they are not yet ready to announce support for that language.

————————

It turns out that version 3.29.1 is the same as 3.28.1, with only the version number changed so that it causes those who have already installed 3.29 to actually revert to the older version when they update.

jhowell · 05-24-2019, 08:11 AM

It has been four months since Amazon released a version of the Kindle Previewer that mentioned support for Traditional Chinese in the manual and then quickly pulled it. Now they have officially announced support for it.

Press release: Amazon Launches Support for Traditional Chinese Books on Kindle

Notjohn · 06-06-2019, 01:02 PM

Again, thanks for the update!

Hitch · 06-07-2019, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

It has been four months since Amazon released a version of the Kindle Previewer that mentioned support for Traditional Chinese in the manual and then quickly pulled it. Now they have officially announced support for it.

Press release: Amazon Launches Support for Traditional Chinese Books on Kindle

Thanks, jhowell.

We have a couple of Chinese-language clients, so this will be welcome news to them.

Hitch

jhowell · 06-07-2019, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hitch

We have a couple of Chinese-language clients, so this will be welcome news to them.

There are several restrictions for publishing. See the KDP guidelines: Chinese (Traditional) (Beta)

Notjohn · 06-08-2019, 04:59 PM

The Guidelines say:

>Format your eBook with content that’s read from left to right (LTR), not right to left (RTL).

Does the publishing workflow then reverse the reading order, or are Sinophones so adept that they can read either way?

Most of my experience is with Japanese texts, and there I have learned that horizontal is now apparently as acceptable as vertical, but AFAIK books are always right-to-left (and "back" to front!).

jhowell · 06-08-2019, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notjohn

Most of my experience is with Japanese texts, and there I have learned that horizontal is now apparently as acceptable as vertical, but AFAIK books are always right-to-left (and "back" to front!).

As far as I know in Kindle e-books horizontal layouts for Chinese and Japanese read left-to-right, top-to-bottom and page progression is left-to-right, the same as English. Vertical layouts read top-to-bottom, right-to-left and page progression right-to-left. I would appreciate someone who knows these languages correcting me if I am wrong about that.

I have seen signs that Amazon is working on supporting vertical layout for Traditional Chinese, but I suspect that won't be ready for six months or more. (Support for Traditional Chinese is called tcn-reflow-language internally and a new feature called tcnvertical-reflow-language is partially supported in the latest version of the Kindle Previewer.)

Hitch · 06-09-2019, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

As far as I know in Kindle e-books horizontal layouts for Chinese and Japanese read left-to-right, top-to-bottom and page progression is left-to-right, the same as English. Vertical layouts read top-to-bottom, right-to-left and page progression right-to-left. I would appreciate someone who knows these languages correcting me if I am wrong about that.

I have seen signs that Amazon is working on supporting vertical layout for Traditional Chinese, but I suspect that won't be ready for six months or more. (Support for Traditional Chinese is called tcn-reflow-language internally and a new feature called tcnvertical-reflow-language is partially supported in the latest version of the Kindle Previewer.)

Presumably so, as they are clearly working on RTL for Arabic, so...I wouldn't be surprised to see true Vertical Top-bottom, rtl for Chinese. (Just THINK how many markets would be opened up, with Arabic, Hebrew and Chinese, squee!)

Hitch

Doitsu · 06-09-2019, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hitch

(Just THINK how many markets would be opened up, with Arabic, Hebrew and Chinese, squee!)

All KFX-enabled readers and apps already support Arabic. Amazon even created a landing page for Arabic Kindle books and offers Arabic dictionaries as free downloads for eInk Kindles and some of the Kindle apps.

jhowell · 06-09-2019, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hitch

Presumably so, as they are clearly working on RTL for Arabic, so...I wouldn't be surprised to see true Vertical Top-bottom, rtl for Chinese. (Just THINK how many markets would be opened up, with Arabic, Hebrew and Chinese, squee!)

They have supported vertical layouts for Japanese in KF8 for a long time. And they just added Enhanced Typesetting for vertical Japanese in a last couple of months, unannounced as far as I can tell. I don't know enough about Japanese to tell whether ET/KFX actually improves the rendering in some way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doitsu

All KFX-enabled readers and apps already support Arabic. Amazon even created a landing page for Arabic Kindle books and offers Arabic dictionaries as free downloads for eInk Kindles and some of the Kindle apps.

Well all except for the Kindle for PC and Mac apps. They always seem to leave something unfinished.

01-14-2019, 01:59 PM	#6
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,496 Karma: 84420419 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Tampa Bay, Florida Device: Kindles	Kindle Previewer 3.29.1 is now available. Amazon has updated the documentation to remove the mention of Traditional Chinese added in version 3.29. Perhaps they are not yet ready to announce support for that language. ———————— It turns out that version 3.29.1 is the same as 3.28.1, with only the version number changed so that it causes those who have already installed 3.29 to actually revert to the older version when they update. Last edited by jhowell; 01-14-2019 at 03:54 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[Editor Plugin] Traditional<->Simplified Chinese Convertor	Hopkins	Plugins	74	03-27-2023 01:04 PM
Aura ONE Help with Traditional Chinese on Kobo Aura One	DiegoArmando	Kobo Reader	0	08-04-2018 04:09 PM
Traditional Chinese Character, PW2	readreadread	Amazon Kindle	4	12-24-2013 10:25 AM
traditional and simplified chinese character set?	mzmm	ePub	3	05-10-2013 07:41 AM
Problem viewing Traditional Chinese ebooks	siupalm	Calibre	2	11-19-2009 12:11 AM

01-09-2019, 09:19 AM	#2
Notjohn mostly an observer Posts: 1,515 Karma: 987654 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Kindle	Omigosh, Simplified Chinese is supported? How fine.

01-10-2019, 02:45 PM	#4
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,496 Karma: 84420419 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Tampa Bay, Florida Device: Kindles	Amazon has pulled version 3.29 of the Kindle Previewer and gone back to version 3.28 on the download page. I guess there was a problem with the new release.

01-12-2019, 06:05 AM	#5
Notjohn mostly an observer Posts: 1,515 Karma: 987654 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Kindle	Thanks for the update!

05-24-2019, 08:11 AM	#7
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,496 Karma: 84420419 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Tampa Bay, Florida Device: Kindles	It has been four months since Amazon released a version of the Kindle Previewer that mentioned support for Traditional Chinese in the manual and then quickly pulled it. Now they have officially announced support for it. Press release: Amazon Launches Support for Traditional Chinese Books on Kindle

06-06-2019, 01:02 PM	#8
Notjohn mostly an observer Posts: 1,515 Karma: 987654 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Kindle	Again, thanks for the update!

06-08-2019, 04:59 PM	#11
Notjohn mostly an observer Posts: 1,515 Karma: 987654 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Kindle	The Guidelines say: >Format your eBook with content that’s read from left to right (LTR), not right to left (RTL). Does the publishing workflow then reverse the reading order, or are Sinophones so adept that they can read either way? Most of my experience is with Japanese texts, and there I have learned that horizontal is now apparently as acceptable as vertical, but AFAIK books are always right-to-left (and "back" to front!).