multilanguage conversion issue

[wolf30]

Hello,


I recently completed a book that I am about to sell on amazon that has both english and vietnamese in it. Unfortunately when I try to convert it in calibre into the mobi format, the file ends up only showing squares for some of the special vietnamese characters. Is there a way to fix this in calibre? My original document is in word and I believe I did select both english and vietnamese during the conversion process in calibre however, it produces the same error. Any help would be appreciated as it would be a shame to throw out a book that I spent nearly a year on just because I cannot convert it properly into the mobi format.

[jhowell]

Since you plan to sell your book on Amazon I suggest that you use Amazon's Kindle Previewer to convert your book instead of calibre.

That should do a better job of showing whether or not the Vietnamese characters you use will display properly in the fonts available on Amazon devices.

[wolf30]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Since you plan to sell your book on Amazon I suggest that you use Amazon's Kindle Previewer to convert your book instead of calibre.

That should do a better job of showing whether or not the Vietnamese characters you use will display properly in the fonts available on Amazon devices.

That is what I am trying right now but it seems the formatting is now off, like for example the alignment of my texts. If I convert using calibre, it maintains the alignment and also the book cover size as shown in my word document. However when I use the previewer, my book cover now only covers like 2/3 of the table screen and my text is no longer aligned properly in some sections. Do you know if its possible to edit in the previewer the document or is it just used for previewing and checking your work?

[kovidgoyal]

Convert to azw3 and use the option to embed referenced fonts.

If you want to sell on amazon, convert to epub instead and let amazon do the final conversion

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by wolf30

However when I use the previewer, my book cover now only covers like 2/3 of the table screen and my text is no longer aligned properly in some sections.

Don't worry too much about the cover size. When you publish on Amazon you provide the cover image as a separate file and Amazon uses that to replace the cover in your book.

Originally Posted by wolf30

Do you know if its possible to edit in the previewer the document or is it just used for previewing and checking your work?

It only shows how the book will appear to readers. It doesn't allow you to change anything. You need to correct formatting in your original file, typically either MS Word or EPUB.

You may want to check out resources for Kindle author/publishers, such as the Kindle Direct Publishing Community Forum.

[wolf30]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Convert to azw3 and use the option to embed referenced fonts.

If you want to sell on amazon, convert to epub instead and let amazon do the final conversion

Where is the embed referenced fonts option in calibre? I can't seem to find it. Also the fonts pack was downloaded directly from the microsoft office website and installed as an exe file. I'm not even sure if there is one of those font files.

Edit: Never mind I found it.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by wolf30

Where is the embed referenced fonts option in calibre? I can't seem to find it. Also the fonts pack was downloaded directly from the microsoft office website and installed as an exe file. I'm not even sure if there is one of those font files.

Edit: Never mind I found it.

You might want to check into the licensing on the fonts. Microsoft's fonts are generally not freely redistributable.

As for installing the font pack executable, it should have unpacked it's contents into the Fonts directory (generally, C:\Windows\Fonts).

[wolf30]

Argg... all the formatting is messed up even when I use the kindle previewer. The character spacing is way off on some sentences when I added big spaces between words and the line spacing is off as well. One section would be way off while the others would look completely normal yet when I go to the paragraph settings, its all the same settings. This is giving me a huge headache.

[wolf30]

Is there a way to add in multiple spaces between words in a sentence for mobi?

eg. Ab as in apple Able

When I try to type in like that, it gets all messed up in kindle when the sizing is changed.

[wolf30]

I want to have something like this in my document but I have so far been unsuccessful figuring it out.

[kovidgoyal]

Use a <table> will work in all book formats