Does This Hack Work With Mac TextEdit?

[dzhmartin]

Hey Folks, I came across a post that gives instructions on how to change the Kindle's default font sizes -- link here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...2&postcount=19 -- when I tried it using my Mac's built in text editor, TextEdit, it did not work. Is there some other software that might make it work?

I did all of the steps in the post: I opened TextEdit, typed in 14 numbers with a space in between each number(7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 ... etc), saved the file and named it "FONT_RAMP", and then copied over to the root of my Kindle drive. The software on my Kindle Voyage is up to date.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by dzhmartin

Hey Folks, I came across a post that gives instructions on how to change the Kindle's default font sizes -- link here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...2&postcount=19 -- when I tried it using my Mac's built in text editor, TextEdit, it did not work. Is there some other software that might make it work?

I did all of the steps in the post: I opened TextEdit, typed in 14 numbers with a space in between each number(7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 ... etc), saved the file and named it "FONT_RAMP", and then copied over to the root of my Kindle drive. The software on my Kindle Voyage is up to date.

Mac and Linux may not use the same line endings.
What type of line ending did you have the editor use?
Did the editor help you by adding a filename extension?
What is the actual firmware version number? ("up to date" is very transitory, keep in mind you are writing for readers a decade later)

[NiLuJe]

IIRC, this only applies to *some* book formats (I want to say KF8?).

There *may* be another similar file for other formats (M7/KFX), but I don't rightly remember OTOH. A search for "FONT_RAMP" should dig it up, though.

[dzhmartin]

Mac and Linux may not use the same line endings.
What type of line ending did you have the editor use?
Did the editor help you by adding a filename extension?
What is the actual firmware version number? ("up to date" is very transitory, keep in mind you are writing for readers a decade later)

My Kindle software is Kindle 5.10.2
I'm new to this forum and have no programming experience. I actually don't know what a line ending is. Do I need to include a line ending? All I did was type in the 14 numbers, and renamed it FONT_RAMP

[knc1]

Originally Posted by dzhmartin

My Kindle software is Kindle 5.10.2
I'm new to this forum and have no programming experience. I actually don't know what a line ending is. Do I need to include a line ending? All I did was type in the 14 numbers, and renamed it FONT_RAMP

The question has come up before about the line ending used in this file.
Because it is a single line and is being read by Java, the conclusion is that it probably does not matter in this case.


What probably does matter is the answer to the question NiLuJe asked you above. I.E: Which of the possible book formats are you using to do your testing (FONT_RAMP)? Since this file is not used for all book types.


You can also find recent postings here about how to enable the user control file for other book types.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by dzhmartin

Hey Folks, I came across a post that gives instructions on how to change the Kindle's default font sizes -- link here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...2&postcount=19 -- when I tried it using my Mac's built in text editor, TextEdit, it did not work. Is there some other software that might make it work?

I did all of the steps in the post: I opened TextEdit, typed in 14 numbers with a space in between each number(7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 ... etc), saved the file and named it "FONT_RAMP", and then copied over to the root of my Kindle drive. The software on my Kindle Voyage is up to date.

By default, TextEdit uses a formatted text file format (allowing choice of font, style, size, etc), not plain text. There's a menu option to select plain text format for the file you're editing.

[NiLuJe]

Gah, @pdurrant's probably hit the nail on the head, TextEdit might indeed be doing RTF by default :/.

[shamanNS]

@NiLuJe: The KFX equivalent file is named "CONTENT_FONT_RAMP". But unlike "FONT_RAMP" parsing of that files is disabled on "stock" firmware.

People with jailbreak-ed Kindles can make one simple edit of appropriate JAR file to enabled the parsing / set "debug" flag to true. (the variable is still named "debug" on firmware 5.10.x, even though there was a new round of code obfuscation).

The best course of action would probably be for all of us to organize and "flood" kindle-feedback@amazon.com inbox with e-mails asking Lab123 team to just enable that parsing functionality in all future firmwares.

[dzhmartin]

People with jailbreak-ed Kindles can make one simple edit of appropriate JAR file to enabled the parsing / set "debug" flag to true. (the variable is still named "debug" on firmware 5.10.x, even though there was a new round of code obfuscation).

NiLuJe, knc1: all of the ebooks in my kindle have a .kfx file extension

pdurrant: Got it. I will make sure to make a plain text file, not RTF

shamanNS: So, to be clear, since my ebooks are all KFX, I need to jailbreak my kindle and tinker with the code the way the post you linked to says I should? As I said before, I don't have programming experience, but I might be able to figure that out. I can follow the instructions here -- https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/5_x_Jailbreak -- I'm assuming "KV" is Kindle Voyage. I will need to to some research figure out how to do what shamanNS's post says.

So are my next steps to jailbreak my Kindle and do what shamanNS's linked post says?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by dzhmartin

shamanNS: So, to be clear, since my ebooks are all KFX, I need to jailbreak my kindle and tinker with the code the way the post you linked to says I should? As I said before, I don't have programming experience, but I might be able to figure that out. I can follow the instructions here -- https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/5_x_Jailbreak -- I'm assuming "KV" is Kindle Voyage. I will need to to some research figure out how to do what shamanNS's post says.

So are my next steps to jailbreak my Kindle and do what shamanNS's linked post says?

There is no software jailbreak for your firmware version. You will have to use the serial port to jailbreak, which many find more daunting.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

There is no software jailbreak for your firmware version. You will have to use the serial port to jailbreak, which many find more daunting.

Which means "physically open your device and muck around". I am software savvy, and *I* won't even try to do that! Just in case you needed a translation.

[shamanNS]

@dzhmartin: Since you can't jailbreak your Kindle only option is removing all KFX books from your Kindle and then using your PC to re-downloading all of you books one by one (since the "Download & transfer via USB" option isn't available once you have selected multiple books) as azw3 using ""Download & transfer via USB" option on "Manage Your Content and Devices" section of Amazon's website.

That option forces a book to download in azw3 (KF8) format instead of KFX format.

Once your book(s) is in azw3 format then the FONT_RAMP thing is in effect.

Alternative approach to "download one by one" would be to use Kindle device or Kindle app that doesn't support KFX to speed up the "download all books" step but then you would have to remove DRM from each book to be able to read it on your Kindle Voyage.

Common step in both approaches is the last one: transfer azw3 files to your Kindle via USB cable.

And for any new books you want to send to your Kindle in the future you would have to repeat "Download & transfer via USB" > manually copy the file to your Kindle.

[dzhmartin]

Once your book(s) is in azw3 format then the FONT_RAMP thing is in effect.

@shamanNS: Okay. I'll let you know how that goes.

[dzhmartin]

It worked! One issue, though: after I did all that the text became fully-justified, instead of left-aligned, and the spaces between the words became wildly uneven. Here's a picture; look at "How can you tell when someone is only imagining" at the bottom: https://imgur.com/a/0JGg4h9

Did this happen to other people? Is there any way this can be fixed?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by dzhmartin

It worked! One issue, though: after I did all that the text became fully-justified, instead of left-aligned, and the spaces between the words became wildly uneven.

That looks like typical rendering for a book in KF8 (azw3) format.

The alternative KFX format does hyphenation, better word/letter spacing, choice of ragged-right alignment and other Enhanced Typesetting features. But it does not support FONT_RAMP.