epub to mobi - losing highlights ?

[cybmole]

I have an epub text with code like:

Hello, my name is <span class="docEmphMark">Ben</span>.

in epub readers, the word Ben is highlighted. ( i've used bold in this post for simplicity )

Hello, my name is Ben.

but when calibre converts to mobi all highlighting is lost

e.g. that line then reads as:
Hello, my name is Ben.

is this a bug, a config issue or a mobi limitation ?

exploding epub & looking at css: docemphmark is defined with background-color: #999

.docEmphMark {
    background-color: #999
    }

so is that an unsupported mobi function. what could I edit that bit of the CSS to, so that mobi would display as intended ?

[kovidgoyal]

iirc mobi doesn't support background colors.

[JMikeD]

I believe mobi supports background colors, but the Kindle does not. I have a book on programming Regex, and the results of the expression are highlighted; they don't show on the Kindle, but they do on the Kindle app on the iPad.

This caused me great confusion initially, as it appeared that all the regex expressions had no results.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by JMikeD

I believe mobi supports background colors, but the Kindle does not. I have a book on programming Regex, and the results of the expression are highlighted; they don't show on the Kindle, but they do on the Kindle app on the iPad.

This caused me great confusion initially, as it appeared that all the regex expressions had no results.

I think we may be both reading / converting the same book ! It's hard enough trying to learn the language without also having to decipher the conversion errors !

I found it in .chm format & converted it to epub OK, but not to mobi.

NB the background colours did not show up in the internal calibre mobi reader

I have not tried inside of Kindle for PC as I deleted the .mobi conversion once I realised it lacks this feature.

I'll probably just read the epub or the chm version on PC & abandon plans to get it onto my Kindle. - though I'm thinking that if I knew how to use the calibre conversion "more CSS" options box, I could have the words with background colours appear in BOLD instead in the mobi conversion.

[cybmole]

convert chm to mobi & to epub in calibre

chm source has both coloured entries and coloured entires with background highlighing.

when I send calibre output mobi file to Kindle - like the previous poster said it loses all backgrounds AND colours - but if I send calibre output to kindle for PC its fine. ( & he says it's fine in Kindle for ipad also)
calibre mobi reader scores 1 out of 2 - it keeps colours but loses backgrounds
calibre epub reader is good.

thus the mobi spec is OK, but the implementation in some viewers is limited.

[cybmole]

same book - new issue - I am losing the em-dahs-en-dash or whatever from this line
"using the – metacharacter"
that is a copy + paste from the CHM. no matter how I do the conversion to epub or to mobi, i end up with this:
"using the metacharacter"

I've tried ticking transliterate, tried cp1252 encoding ....

using view source on the chm i see this

Character sets may be enumerated explicitly or specified as ranges using the <TT>–</TT> metacharacter

it does not look any different to lots of other dashes which DO convert OK ???

in the output epub .xhtml it is simply missing. all that TT stuff is just not there and I see plain text -

but if I convert to mobi with same settings and send to Kindle then I see a question mark inside a box character, where the dash should be !