Drop cap issue converting ePub > AZW3

[Pepper Breath]

I have pictures because I wouldn't know how to properly describe this.

Basically I have the first 2-3 Harry Potter books straight from Amazon using AZW3. The drop cap at the beginning of the chapters looks perfectly fine. The rest of the series I got in epub format and converted via Calibre to AZW3. The drop cap isn't big enough and doesn't look right. Everything else seems to be fine in the conversions.

I generally use the default options during conversions. Basically, default settings minus unchecking "Remove fake margins" in Structure detection and a check on "Do not add Table of Contents to book" in AZW3 output.

I did try checking "Disable font size rescaling" in Look & Feel as well as selecting "Default Output Profile" in Page setup. Usually I have Paperwhite selected as the output profile.

Any ideas?

[kovidgoyal]

Drop caps are not any well defined thing in ebooks. They are implemented using various hacks, and whether they convert well or not depends on many factors. Your best bet is to edit the book after conversion and manually adjust the css used for the dropcaps to get it to look like you want.

[Pepper Breath]

I looked at the CSS and yes, altering the values for a class called "drop" allows me to get the look I'd like. I edited one of the non-affected AZW3 files and saw that the values were different. Is there any way to prevent Calibre from touching those values?

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Pepper Breath

...Is there any way to prevent Calibre from touching those values?

Are the values in the ePub and the calibre converted AZW3 the same, or did calibre actually change them during conversion?

It may be that the publisher chose to spec the drop cap values differently in the ePub, values that may work well in most ePub readers but not the same as what they chose for the AZW3

[JSWolf]

Take the drop cap code from one of the KF8 versions and copy it to the KF8 conversion and replace the CSS code. That should do it.

[theducks]

Note: This also depends on the Dropcaps font (metrics). Each font may need TLC

I also use padding-right rather than margins to space away from characters next to the DC

[Pepper Breath]

Originally Posted by dwig

Are the values in the ePub and the calibre converted AZW3 the same, or did calibre actually change them during conversion?

It may be that the publisher chose to spec the drop cap values differently in the ePub, values that may work well in most ePub readers but not the same as what they chose for the AZW3

Looks like the values are the same but the format is different for some reason. Original AZW3 and EPUB have the same format but the converted AZW3 is a bit different.

I did edit the converted AZW3 and I can get it to look pretty close to the original, so that's an option, though I am baffled why I have to do this when the original values in the original files look just fine.

AZW3 from Amazon:

.drop{float:left;font-size:3.4em;margin-right:0.05em;font-weight:bold;line-height:.7em;margin-top:.1em;}

EPUB from different store:

.drop{float:left;font-size:340%;margin-right:0.05em;font-weight:bold;line-height:.7em;margin-top:.1em;}

AZW3 after conversion:

.drop {
    float: left;
    font-size: 340%;
    font-weight: bold;
    line-height: 0.7em;
    margin-right: 0.05em;
    margin-top: 0.1em
    }

[JSWolf]

Change the font size from 340% to 3.4em.

[Divingduck]

A question, why is calibre changing measurement from 3.4em to 340% for the font-size. From the sample above I can't see why this is needed.
Are there more than one definition with different measurements for Dropcaps?

[kovidgoyal]

340% and 3.4 em are the same thing, they both mean 3.4 times the parent elements font size.

[Divingduck]

Yea, but why the change to %, is there a inside why this happen? I understood if there is a need for incompatible measurements between formats or multiple mixed measurements streamline to one measurement like you do it for the final live CSS view in the editor.

(It's only for understanding what happen)

[Pepper Breath]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Change the font size from 340% to 3.4em.

Tried this. No change unfortunately.

Some additional troubleshooting steps I took:

Reset all options to Default using the button below for AZW3 conversions: no change

Tried converting to MOBI (both old and new): no change

Disabled and re-enabled font size changing: no change

Tried replacing the "neat" format of the calibri .drop element with the single line from the original AZW3 and EPUBs: no change


I have no idea why it's doing this. If possible, it's annoying me much more now than when I first asked. lol I really regret not just getting the whole series from Amazon now.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Pepper Breath

I have no idea why it's doing this. If possible, it's annoying me much more now than when I first asked. lol I really regret not just getting the whole series from Amazon now.

The image on the left in your first post looks like it is being rendered with Enhanced Typesetting based on the look of the drop cap and the use of hyphenation. If your PW2 is reasonably up-to-date with firmware and that book was delivered to the device directly from Amazon then it would be in KFX format, not AZW3.

Have you made sure that that book is actually AZW3 format on your kindle?

[Pepper Breath]

So just a quick update. I adjusted the font size from 340% to something like 470% so that it looked correct on the edit preview in Calibre's editor. When I transferred, the drop cap looked exactly the same size as the incorrect images above, however the surrounding words were not in a nicely spaced box around it, but looked like they were more loosely arranged around it.

Basically the actual drop cap letter isn't responding to the increased font size, but the surrounding words are spacing around as if it is (if sloppily). So it seems that after conversion, the drop cap reaches a max size and then just shuts down.

Originally Posted by jhowell

The image on the left in your first post looks like it is being rendered with Enhanced Typesetting based on the look of the drop cap and the use of hyphenation. If your PW2 is reasonably up-to-date with firmware and that book was delivered to the device directly from Amazon then it would be in KFX format, not AZW3.

Have you made sure that that book is actually AZW3 format on your kindle?

It's definitely AZW3 and not KFX. To clarify, it's straight from Amazon, but I downloaded from the website and sideloaded to my kindle. For the most part, I keep my kindle on airplane mode.

[MaxM]

Hi there,

I used the following and it was working like a year ago:
<p class="calibre"><span class="dropcap">U</span> - problems with text-align: justify

PHP Code:

.dropcap {
  color: #900;
  float: left;
  font-size: 3em;
  font-style: normal;
  line-height: 0.8em;
  margin-bottom: -0.2em;
  margin-right: 3pt;
} 


I changed it to what I found today - working at least for calibre reader, Readium, and BlueFireReader:
<p class="first-paragraph"><span class="char-style-override2">D</span>

PHP Code:

.char-style-override2 {
    color: #900;
    float: left;
    font-size: 2.753em;
    line-height: 0.9;
    margin-bottom: -0.245em;
    margin-right: 0.1em;
    margin-top: 0.04em
    }
.first-paragraph {
    display: block;
    font-size: 1em;
    font-style: normal;
    font-variant: normal;
    font-weight: normal;
    line-height: 1.25;
    text-align: justify;
    text-decoration: none;
    text-indent: 0;
    margin: 0 0 2px
    } 


Try for your azw - its not my kind of stuff.
Good luck,
Max