KDP conversion failed!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by odedta

Darn it! hehe

Hitch: Most of the guideline were implemented it seems I was looking at a previous version of the pdf - Thanks, i'll try that!

Odedta:

Geeze, dude (I know you won't see this until Sunday, of course)...how old? I am about 80% sure that you never could go from INDD-->FXL ePUB-->FXL MOBI. Nonetheless, glad you are heading in the right direction now.

(To be fair: I recall that I've seen folks in a couple of places INSISTING that they could make a FXL mobi instantly doing exactly what you're doing. Insisted I was utterly wrong about not being able to go from A to B to C, so...hell, whaddoo I know?)

Anyway, ping back, here or there (Skype), and let me know if you don't get this sorted, or need a bit of whatever.

Hitch

[odedta]

Well, I used to do that over a year ago and it worked just fine, I guess things changed. I'm not insisting hehe

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by odedta

Well, I used to do that over a year ago and it worked just fine, I guess things changed. I'm not insisting hehe

I remembered, when you posted this, that someone claimed that. I guess it was you. Honestly, Oded, I don't see how it could have. The requirements for FXL ePUB and FXL MOBI haven't really changed in that time. For example, FXL ePUB doesn't require a new CSS sheet for every "page" in the eBook; MOBI does.

That's just one small thing. What about the screen sizes? Those obviously have to be altered, as well. It's just...there's so much, minute as it is, that is different between the two formats. Did you or your client upload these FXL through Amazon? They've been successfully sold, without any issues? What devices did you test these on?

Hitch

[odedta]

Well, that was over a year ago so I can't really be sure, but I remember that once I created the validated ePub with all the Amazon guidelines and iBooks guidelines in 1 file and passed it through Kindle Previewer it seems just like the ePub.

I think it was a Reflowable Fixed Layout ebook so somehow the mobi turned out well, oh well, that's all in the past now, no reason to dwell on things that don't work.

So, how do you go about creating a mobi file? epub -> mobi? book creator?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by odedta

Well, that was over a year ago so I can't really be sure, but I remember that once I created the validated ePub with all the Amazon guidelines and iBooks guidelines in 1 file and passed it through Kindle Previewer it seems just like the ePub.

I think it was a Reflowable Fixed Layout ebook so somehow the mobi turned out well, oh well, that's all in the past now, no reason to dwell on things that don't work.

Okay, now you're making my head spin. A REFLOWABLE FXL? You mean, the text on each page reflows to fit the screen, w/o moving to the ensuring "page?" Is that what you mean? No complaints from customers?

So, how do you go about creating a mobi file? epub -> mobi? book creator?

Wow, I feel really...antiquated. We code them by hand. We have various in-house templates, for sizing (single-pg landscape, spreads-landscape, portrait, etc.) and we plug in the sizes, etc., using regex. Then we make the pages one at a time. Naturally, we batch-process the background images, but you'd be surprised how often that cannot be done, and we end up redoing them manually, one at a time. {shrug}. That's the business we're in, though.

Obviously, there's no way to position the dialogue/text boxes for pop-up/RM. And our styling (CSS) changes for each book. Different text box colors, different fonts...but we can use a bunch of the "template" CSS to at least get us a starting place.

I would not use KKBC, et al, for a commercial book. Too many limits on what we can/can't change easily.

Obviously, fairly often we are making both ePUB/MOBI (not to mention ePIB for B&N). When we do that, we grab what we can reuse from the first book--usually the ePUB--and cobble it together with new custom material for the next (usually MOBI).

The ePIB is made using Nook's proprietary software COUGH,HACK,

Spoiler:

iBooks iAuthor,

so nothing is reusable there.

No secret sauce magic tricks, I'm afraid.


Hitch

[odedta]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Okay, now you're making my head spin. A REFLOWABLE FXL? You mean, the text on each page reflows to fit the screen, w/o moving to the ensuring "page?" Is that what you mean? No complaints from customers?

Yes, sorry, I meant a Fixed Layout book with reflowable text, like this one https://kindlegen.s3.amazonaws.com/A...es.pdf#page=48

What's weird about that book is that it seems exactly like a reflowable book where they just set the width and height of the body and place the images side by side. Only a few meta tags are required to "transform" it to an actual Fixed Layout ebook... I think this is the kind of book I had, since there is very little difference between this type of reflowable compared to FXL, Kindle Previewer ate it and asked for more :P

Anyways, I could be wrong here, I'd take your word for it since this is what you do for a living.

[Notjohn]

Hitch, I love reading your posts even when I don't understand them....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by odedta

Yes, sorry, I meant a Fixed Layout book with reflowable text

That sounds like a contradiction. If a book has reflowable text, its layout isn't fixed.

[odedta]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That sounds like a contradiction. If a book has reflowable text, its layout isn't fixed.

Harry, it's something that looks like this:

[Image violates Posting Guidelines for size - MODERATOR]

It's a Fixed Layout epub where I can highlight (copy) the text, if I increase the font size, the text increases in size.

Here's the content.opf...

<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
	<!-- Fixed Layout, Region Magnificaiton & Children's Content -->
	<meta name="fixed-layout" content="true"/>
	<meta name="orientation-lock" content="landscape"/>
	<meta name="original-resolution" content="1024x600"/>
	<meta name="book-type" content="children"/>
	<meta name="RegionMagnification" content="true"/>
	<dc-metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core" xmlns:oebpackage="http://openbook.org/namespaces/oeb-package/1.0/"> 
		<dc:title>The Alphabet of Animals</dc:title>
		<dc:language>en</dc:language>
		<dc:creator>Ernest Griset</dc:creator>
		<dc:publisher>Frederick Warne &amp; Co.</dc:publisher>
		<dc:date>1880</dc:date>
		<meta name="cover" content="my_cover_image" />
	</dc-metadata>
	<x-metadata>
		<EmbeddedCover>images/Cover.jpg</EmbeddedCover>
	</x-metadata>
</metadata>

I'm not making this up, it's in Amazon's book samples

[Doitsu]

@odedta: For all intents and purposes Kindle FXL books are like .pdf files, because all line-breaks need to be hard-coded. For example, the HTML code of the first paragraph looks like this:

<div class="txt fs1-txt2">
	<a class="app-amzn-magnify" 
		data-app-amzn-magnify='{"targetId":"fs1-txt2-magTarget", "sourceId":"fs1-2-txt", "ordinal":1}'>
		<div id="fs1-2-txt">
			<div class="dropcap">A</div>
			<div class="stanza">stands for APE, who has four clever <br/>
				&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; hands:<br/>
				He lives in great woods in the<br/>
				&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; tropical lands.</div>
			<div class="clear"></div>
		</div>
	</a>
</div>

If you open the example book with a Kindle app or Kindle Fire, you'll notice that you can't change the font size.
Also note the non-standard data-app-amzn-magnify attribute that is required for region magnification.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That sounds like a contradiction. If a book has reflowable text, its layout isn't fixed.

Hey, Harry:

Caveat: I have never done this.

My understanding is, there is some flexibility in *some* FXL books, in that if the reader chooses different font sizes, or moves the book from reader A to reader B, the text can reflow within a specified container. Think..div, or blockquote. Can't go from A to next screen, for example.

Now, I have NO idea how that's done. My tendency is to tell clients that if we're making FXL, we're making FXL. Otherwise, we're making reflowable. I can't see an environment in which "reflowable FXL" can work properly.

@notjohn: You know, after all the crap I've had to endure this last week with that bozo on the KDP, you oughtn't to leave me openings like that. <g>

For notjohn:

Spoiler:

(n.b.: I should add, the BEST part of the entire thing was his diatribe about how BAD that one book was--the one (that he thought Booknook had done) that was formatted by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint. Is it ungracious of me to snicker wickedly at that?)

@Doits:

Yeah, that's what I think that they look like. It's what ours look like. {shrug}

Hitch

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hey, Harry:

Caveat: I have never done this.

My understanding is, there is some flexibility in *some* FXL books, in that if the reader chooses different font sizes, or moves the book from reader A to reader B, the text can reflow within a specified container. Think..div, or blockquote. Can't go from A to next screen, for example.

Thank you - that makes sense. Never having actually seen an FXL book, I guess I'd just assumed that it was like a print book and completely fixed, with no changes of things like font size allowed.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thank you - that makes sense. Never having actually seen an FXL book, I guess I'd just assumed that it was like a print book and completely fixed, with no changes of things like font size allowed.

You actually can't change the font size in Kindle FXL books, and since readers can't change the font size, authors usually have to manually add region magnification definitions to text boxes in their FXL books.

BTW, you can download a free Kindle FXL childrens' book from Amazon and test it with a Kindle Fire or a Kindle for Android app. (Double-tap the text next to the letters of the alphabet to see region magnification in action.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

You actually can't change the font size in Kindle FXL books, and since readers can't change the font size, authors usually have to manually add region magnification definitions to text boxes in their FXL books.

Thank you. Now, though, I'm really confused. What then, is the above discussion on reflowable text in an FXL book referring to?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What then, is the above discussion on reflowable text in an FXL book referring to?

AFAIK, something that doesn't exist, at least not in Kindle FXL books.