PNG in KF8 yet?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, crap, now I'll have to go replicate the experiment. It's been a while and all I've done since then is dl the AZW via my (much older) laptop and the old K4PC. I could be misspeaking about KFX, but I know damned well it wasn't what I needed.

Downloading using K4PC is not the same as using the Download & transfer via USB. The Download & transfer via USB should give a popup which ask what device you want to download for even if you only have one hardware Kindle registered. Even using a eInk Kindle that supports KFX, all I ever see is azw3/KF8 or (rarely) mobi.

[Quoth]

What DSB writes ^^^^^

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, crap, now I'll have to go replicate the experiment. It's been a while and all I've done since then is dl the AZW via my (much older) laptop and the old K4PC. I could be misspeaking about KFX, but I know damned well it wasn't what I needed.

H

No, you have to use the Browser, go to your Amazon, log in, "Account and Lists" -> "Manage Content & Devices" -> Content -> Books
Go to a book and each as three "buttons": "Deliver or Remove from Device", "Mark as read" and "More Actions" (a sub menu)
More Actions has 8 options. First is Delete and second is "Download & Transfer via USB". It lists registered devices and apps as per DSNB's screen shot. Select any pre 3.4.x FW Kindle and you get mobi/azw, but select KK3 (with last FW) or later except DXG and you will get azw3 if available, but sometimes mobi/azw if there was only mobi upload. You never ever get KFX.
If the book or magazine is Fixed Layout or otherwise strange then no eink based kindle can be selected. DRM depends on if the Publisher requested it unlike KFX which always has DRM.

Do not use an old PC or K4PC. Just use a "modern enough" browser that supports Javascript (some need Amazon to be whitelisted). This works on Mac, Windows, Linux and Android. Probably on iOS too.

This has always worked for me on Windows and Linux.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Downloading using K4PC is not the same as using the Download & transfer via USB. The Download & transfer via USB should give a popup which ask what device you want to download for even if you only have one hardware Kindle registered. Even using a eInk Kindle that supports KFX, all I ever see is azw3/KF8 or (rarely) mobi.

Thank you, guys, I did and do, know this part. The download format is triggered by the "device" option you elect, if memory serves.

Apparently, I should be more detailed in my replies about what does, and doesn't, or did, and didn't, work. As I said, it's been...IDK, 2-3 years since I last tried this, because I have not had a need to, as I only use it in case of...well, client emergencies, a book formatted by somebody else, somewhere in time, only launched on Amazon, author lost his/her file copies, etc.

I'll dig into it and see if I can recall the book, etc.--doubtful, but I'll try--and revert.

Hitch

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Thank you, guys, I did and do, know this part. The download format is triggered by the "device" option you elect, if memory serves.
Apparently, I should be more detailed in my replies about what does, and doesn't, or did, and didn't, work.

I wondered if we misunderstood you.

Originally Posted by Hitch

As I said, it's been...IDK, 2-3 years since I last tried this, because I have not had a need to, as I only use it in case of...well, client emergencies, a book formatted by somebody else, somewhere in time, only launched on Amazon, author lost his/her file copies, etc.

Smashwords lets author / publisher download exactly what they uploaded. Possibly any version, even if different formats such doc, dual mobi (the only use for it IMO) and epub were uploaded.

Amazon, as you probably know, have stopped offering converted-to-mobi-or-something and now offer epub (for Send to Kindle) on KDP. The epub seems to be the epub you uploaded if you use that rather than MS Word (recommended). But you can't get the earlier versions unlike Smashwords.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I wondered if we misunderstood you.


Smashwords lets author / publisher download exactly what they uploaded. Possibly any version, even if different formats such doc, dual mobi (the only use for it IMO) and epub were uploaded.

Amazon, as you probably know, have stopped offering converted-to-mobi-or-something and now offer epub (for Send to Kindle) on KDP. The epub seems to be the epub you uploaded if you use that rather than MS Word (recommended). But you can't get the earlier versions unlike Smashwords.

I know you have a lotta SW content, but almost none of my customers publish there. Would I that they did, for situations like these!

I will delve into it. Trying to remember what bloody book that was, although I'm not sure it matters. Not saying it doesn't--simply saying *I* am not sure that it does.

Hitch

[DNSB]

There is also the chance of running into a book that for whatever reason (mostly language support or textbooks) that can only be downloaded in KFX. In that case, Download & transfer via USB will not show in the options menu.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

There is also the chance of running into a book that for whatever reason (mostly language support or textbooks) that can only be downloaded in KFX. In that case, Download & transfer via USB will not show in the options menu.

Well, I would never say that's "impossible," of course. If it were one of ours, I'd know, but 99% of the time, when I'm trying this, it's not. Hell, if it were ours, I wouldn't need to do this! Duh.

Hitch

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

There is also the chance of running into a book that for whatever reason (mostly language support or textbooks) that can only be downloaded in KFX. In that case, Download & transfer via USB will not show in the options menu.

Many or most of those can't even be bought if you have only eink. Some download as azw, no doubt fixed layout mobi. I managed to get a "free" one that had no DRM and downloaded it for K4PC, long ago. Naturally attempting to view it on a DXG or converting to epub was a mess. Only fixable by wordprocessor.

I can see a need for some text books or manuals to be fixed layout (essentially a PDF) but really people publishing fiction in fixed layout to exactly copy a printed layout are delusional.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Many or most of those can't even be bought if you have only eink. Some download as azw, no doubt fixed layout mobi. I managed to get a "free" one that had no DRM and downloaded it for K4PC, long ago. Naturally attempting to view it on a DXG or converting to epub was a mess. Only fixable by wordprocessor.

I can see a need for some text books or manuals to be fixed layout (essentially a PDF) but really people publishing fiction in fixed layout to exactly copy a printed layout are delusional.

Oh, hell, brutha,

it happens all the time now. Why? B/c KC doesn't have a quality filter that detects laziness--"oh, hey, look, I can slap a PDF in here, that my print designer gave me, push a button and it's done like dinner!" We see a lot of that over at the KDP forums. It's fast, easy, they don't have to learn how to make an ebook or pay someone (cough) and that's how they roll.

[SMH]. It's frustrating as hell. If/when i see that, in an ebook, I promptly return it and send nastygrams saying "fixed-layout should not be used for novels." (or many others, while I'm at it.)

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Fixed layout is a bad idea to include in any eBook format.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Fixed layout is a bad idea to include in any eBook format.

My youngest relatives often read fixed layout books. All to often, the graphics and text (not to mention the video and audio content) must be kept together. They are using Apple tablets for the most part since I haven't found a decent app on Android for that purpose.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My youngest relatives often read fixed layout books. All to often, the graphics and text (not to mention the video and audio content) must be kept together. They are using Apple tablets for the most part since I haven't found a decent app on Android for that purpose.

Books on an iPad is really the only place that fixed layout seems to work.

[Hitch]

I went to Amazon and my Content and Devices and promptly--without any problems--downloaded an eBook that we'd made, in 2021, as an AZW for my "K2" device.



Can I explain why I can do that now, without any fooferah? I damn sure cannot. I KNOW for example, that none of the 3 (three) instances of K4PC are listed as being available (as 'devices'), nor is the K4Mac that I keep running on this old Mac Mini I have here.

I know--but can't show at the moment--that I've run into this before, when there was no "xfer mechanism" that provided for AZW or whatever. I would not go through all the trouble of xferring a file, digging up the K4PC database, digging it out, for my health. I mean, who would? (I will add that the popup interface for Xfer by USB is completely new to my sight. Never seen that before. Not saying it didn't exist in some other configuration or layout, but...I could swear that there was another layer or even two to it...)

[Grumble]. Dammit, I know it's happened and more than once. I guess I will simply be glad that now it's so easy, no matter how demented that makes me look.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I went to Amazon and my Content and Devices and promptly--without any problems--downloaded an eBook that we'd made, in 2021, as an AZW for my "K2" device.



Can I explain why I can do that now, without any fooferah? I damn sure cannot. I KNOW for example, that none of the 3 (three) instances of K4PC are listed as being available (as 'devices'), nor is the K4Mac that I keep running on this old Mac Mini I have here.

Maybe it was a glitch on Amazon's side and they've since fixed it.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Maybe it was a glitch on Amazon's side and they've since fixed it.

Nope, I'd love to claim that, but it was something else. It happened more than once, and over a longer time period than any 'glitch' could reasonably explain.

....she said, having known full well that it took Amazon nearly 5 years to repair the "TOC.html functionality in K4Mac hasn't worked past the third item in the TOC list" item....and that fxl didn't have working links, and that.....

Hitch