Keeping images from Re-sizing on Kindle Fire

[MJWare]

I have a Children's book with 52 images. Each is compressed and scaled to 400 x 600 (I could make them larger, but I found 400x600 works good for both Kindle 3 and Fire).

The problem I am having is that when I create the mobi file using MobiPocket Creator, the images are fine on the B&W kindle, but on the fire the images are sometimes shrunk to fit the page.



The first thing I tried was saving the file as HTML (it's a word doc) and specifying the height and width in the image tag. However, once converted via MobiPocket, is the Fire still shrinks the images.

Next, I tried converting it using the Kendlegen tool. That worked: the images wouldn't resize on the Fire, but the file size swelled to double the MobiPocket size--meaning I'd lose out on a big chunk of my commission for each sale (2150kb vs. 4400kb).

The last thing I tried was creating a Mobi file in Calibre, but that seems to strip out the image size tags and some of the images still get shrunk on the Fire.

I figure there must be someway to keep the Fire from re-sizing my images, but still keep the file size down?

I did search the forum before posting--any help is appreciated!

[Oldpilot]

When you build a mobi file with Kindlegen, the Previewer, or the online converter, it actually contains two files, one for the e-ink Kindles and another for the Fire etc. Amazon delivers the proper version to the customer depending on what device it's being sent to. Your delivery costs shouldn't change.

By all means, use the method that doesn't re-size the images!

(Mobipocket Creator is a bit out of date because it doesn't create the KF8 file for the Fire. That will be done in the online conversion. Better you use Kindlegen if it works for you -- it has never worked me!)

Nice picture, by the way!

For one thing, the aspect ratios of the eInk Kindles are different from the Kindle Fire and different from various other devices running Kindle apps. Kindle eInks with 6" screens have a 600 x 800 px display but the Fire has a 600 x 1024 px display. A 600 x800 px image will fill up an eInk screen but won't fill up the entire Fire screen. Here is what the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guide states on page 19:

Image guideline #9: Controlling image aspect ratio

To preserve aspect ratio of images, both width and height cannot be set to a fixed percentage. Either Width or Height can be set to the fixed percentage (e.g.100%) but then the other should be set to “auto” in order for the reader to preserve the aspect ratio.

If you want the image to fill up the screen on both devices from top to bottom, then set height=100%. If you want the image to fill up the screen on both devices from side to side, then set width=100%. But don't set both to 100%. Now whether Kindle Previewer will convert this correctly is beyond me. But I think using percent is worth a try since the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guide suggests using it.

[Oldpilot]

I never thought of using percent, but I can see that width="100%" would work in every instance if one follows the basic 600x800 format, UNLESS one includes a skinny photo (say 500x800, which would then scroll off the bottom of the page in the e-ink Kindles). I think I'll try that.