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Old 06-19-2018, 09:59 AM   #1
RbnJrg
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Issue with drop caps under the .kfx format

Hi friends;

As all you know, Amazon has developed a new ebook format, .kfx. Supposly, that new format, among others things, would deliver perfect drop caps for all kindle devices with support for .kfx. However things not to seem being so. Many times, before the drop cap there is a symbol (an "em" dash, a quotation mark, a question mark, etc.) and when that is the case, then things look awfull under .kfx (but they look fine under .kf8).

Watch the picture below:

Click image for larger version

Name:	Image1.png
Views:	638
Size:	117.4 KB
ID:	164557

In Kindle for Android, the page break after the drop cap is not present, but the cap (—L) looks tiny and there is a big gap before starting the text. I made a lot of trials but I couldn't fix the issue. The code I'm employing now (and works fine with .kf8) is the following:

Code:
<p><span class="dropcap"><span class="sm">—</span>L</span>orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla ac tellus nunc.
and the css styles are:

Code:
.dropcap {
  float: left;
  font-size: 3em;
  font-weight: bold;
  margin: -0.2em 5px -0.3em 0;
}

.sm {
  vertical-align: 40%;
  font-size: 40%;
}
Attached to this post, you can find the respective .epub.

I will appreciate any tip you can give me about how to solve this problem. Many thanks in advance.

Regards
Rubén
Attached Files
File Type: epub Drop for KFX.epub (2.6 KB, 267 views)
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Old 06-19-2018, 12:12 PM   #2
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The Kindle Previewer display isn't always accurate. I've attached a KFX file generated with the Calibre KFX Output plugin and a screenshot taken with my Paperwhite 2.

The second drop cap doesn't look perfect, though. However, it's relatively rare to have characters other than a quotation mark before a drop cap.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	KindlePW2.png
Views:	371
Size:	36.7 KB
ID:	164559  
Attached Files
File Type: zip Drop_for_KFX.zip (2.3 KB, 234 views)
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Old 06-19-2018, 12:58 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doitsu View Post
The Kindle Previewer display isn't always accurate. I've attached a KFX file generated with the Calibre KFX Output plugin and a screenshot taken with my Paperwhite 2.
Hi Doitsu;

Your output is like my Kindle for Android but a bit better because the app for tablets and smartphones, it shows the dropcap with the em-dash more tiny. Yes, the Kindle Previewier is not relliable but the file generated with the KFX Output plugin is based on Kindle Previewer. And you can see how it looks the file in my smartphone:

Click image for larger version

Name:	Capture_2018-06-19-13-31-21.png
Views:	335
Size:	144.1 KB
ID:	164562

As you can see, the second drop cap has a different size than the first one. And also is that gap (the red rectangle in the picture) that I can't close, I don't know how to do it (a class with negative margin doesn't work).

And your output also says me that things are still more complicated than what I thought. The .kfx generated shows different outputs in Kindle devices and in Kindle for Android (and I afraid of the same things occurs in Kindle for IOs). Would it be possible to build a consistent output? (In theory, .kfx was designed for that).

Quote:
The second drop cap doesn't look perfect, though. However, it's relatively rare to have characters other than a quotation mark before a drop cap.
In spanish, you can find before a drop cap, an "em" dash (for dialogs), an "em" dash and an open question mark (—¿Qué me dices?), an "em" dash and an open exclamation mark (—¡Qué dices!), and french quotations marks («). In english is easier

Regards
Rubén

EDIT: And in Kindle for Android, in a tablet (in a smartphone things are different, maybe the Android version has relation with this), when you change fonts, the drop cap remains with Bookerly, but the drop cap with the dash, is afected for the new font and not always its position is like the original with Bookerly.

Last edited by RbnJrg; 06-19-2018 at 01:05 PM.
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Old 06-19-2018, 01:33 PM   #4
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Hi Rubén,

I actually noticed that gap after the second drop cap.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RbnJrg View Post
The .kfx generated shows different outputs in Kindle devices and in Kindle for Android (and I afraid of the same things occurs in Kindle for IOs). Would it be possible to build a consistent output? (In theory, .kfx was designed for that).
You might want to PM @jhowell, who wrote the KFX Output plugin and is intimately familiar with the intricacies of the KFX format. He might have some ideas how to fix this issue.

D.
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Old 06-19-2018, 06:40 PM   #5
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The Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines has sample html/css to produce a single letter drop cap, but there is no mention of special cases such as a paragraph that does not begin with a letter.

The KFX handling for drop caps has only two parameters: how many leading characters to include and how many lines high to make it. There is no allowance for different formatting being applied to initial punctuation characters.

Looking at the example posted in this thread the single letter case is being treated as a drop cap, but the m-dash plus letter is not being treated as a drop cap because different styling is being applied to the punctuation.

I don't think that there is any good work around for this.
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Old 06-20-2018, 04:44 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jhowell View Post
The Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines has sample html/css to produce a single letter drop cap, but there is no mention of special cases such as a paragraph that does not begin with a letter.

The KFX handling for drop caps has only two parameters: how many leading characters to include and how many lines high to make it. There is no allowance for different formatting being applied to initial punctuation characters.

Looking at the example posted in this thread the single letter case is being treated as a drop cap, but the m-dash plus letter is not being treated as a drop cap because different styling is being applied to the punctuation.

I don't think that there is any good work around for this.
Many thanks for the info jhowell. So you are telling me that if the two first letter have the same size, there wouldn't be any issue in .kfx. Hmmm, maybe I can find a way to cheat the .kfx generator (until Amazon realizes that it can have a first letter lower than the drop cap).
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Old 06-23-2018, 01:31 PM   #7
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I long ago gave up on drop-caps, favoring instead boldface faux small caps. But it is quite commonly done in print books to ignore any preceding non-alphabet character. Almost always this is a quotation mark. Since there is going to be a close-quote and probably a he said / she said sort of thing, that doesn't seems to bother many readers, if any.

Chicago Manual, 13.37: "When the first word ... opens with [a drop-cap], and this letter belongs to the beginning of a run-in quotation, the opening quotation mark is often omitted."

I realize that you are using the drop-cap more lavishly and for a different purpose, but my feeling is that you are overdoing it.
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Old 06-23-2018, 02:00 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Notjohn View Post
I realize that you are using the drop-cap more lavishly and for a different purpose, but my feeling is that you are overdoing it.
Hi Notjohn;

The opening quotation mark in spanish books, is replaced by an "em" dash ("—"). However, there is much more in spanish. For example, when someone formulates a question, is used an open question mark to start (the question) ("¿") a sign that is not employed in english; the same thing occurs when someone makes an exclamation, the open exclamation mark is used ("¡"). Of that way, in spanish books is quite common to start a sentence with "—¿" or "—¡". So, even when I could ignore the "em" dash, I can't do it with the opening question mark or opening exclamation mark. Regrettably for me, Amazon only focused in the english language when set the rules for drop caps in the .kfx format.

Regards
Rubén
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Old 06-24-2018, 12:39 PM   #9
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Well, like me, you always have the option of dropping the drop-cap!
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Old 06-24-2018, 01:46 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Notjohn View Post
Well, like me, you always have the option of dropping the drop-cap!
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Old 06-28-2018, 05:21 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RbnJrg View Post
Hi friends;

As all you know, Amazon has developed a new ebook format, .kfx. Supposly, that new format, among others things, would deliver perfect drop caps for all kindle devices with support for .kfx. However things not to seem being so. Many times, before the drop cap there is a symbol (an "em" dash, a quotation mark, a question mark, etc.) and when that is the case, then things look awfull under .kfx (but they look fine under .kf8).

Watch the picture below:

Attachment 164557

In Kindle for Android, the page break after the drop cap is not present, but the cap (—L) looks tiny and there is a big gap before starting the text. I made a lot of trials but I couldn't fix the issue. The code I'm employing now (and works fine with .kf8) is the following:

Code:
<p><span class="dropcap"><span class="sm">—</span>L</span>orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla ac tellus nunc.
and the css styles are:

Code:
.dropcap {
  float: left;
  font-size: 3em;
  font-weight: bold;
  margin: -0.2em 5px -0.3em 0;
}

.sm {
  vertical-align: 40%;
  font-size: 40%;
}
Attached to this post, you can find the respective .epub.

I will appreciate any tip you can give me about how to solve this problem. Many thanks in advance.

Regards
Rubén
Rubén,

Try this:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=300223
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