em-dashes & Kindle

hkdorama · 07-26-2010, 05:43 AM

I found that in Kindle when you have an em space with no spaces on the sides, the Kindle does not allow line breaks before or after the em dash.

What I have is a paragraph of words and their translations formatted as follows (the paragraph is justified and I need to keep is justified, so left-align would not be an option):

Code:

word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word;

Looks like Kindle treats "word—the" as one word. But that results in really bad line breaks, especially when 'word' is long.

I have tried using thin-spaces on the sides on the em dash by Kindle treats even that as one word!

Would anybody have any suggestions?

Lexi Revellian · 07-26-2010, 05:47 AM

Perhaps replace the M dash with an N dash with a space on either side? It's what Penguin use in their printed books, and it looks good I think.

Jellby · 07-26-2010, 06:38 AM

Yes, that's what I do for that same reason.

On the other hand, other readers (Adobe ePUB readers, for instance) do the opposite, allowing a break at either side of an unspaced em-dash. This produces wrong and annoying linebreaks in Spanish.

hkdorama · 07-26-2010, 09:53 AM

Yes, we use spaced en dashes for our other books but this one has to be a kind of facsimile. So, I need to make sure there is no way to keep the em-dashes and have line breaks after them. Otherwise here is an example of how it looks now in Kindle Previewer:

Jellby · 07-26-2010, 10:27 AM

You could try adding zero width spaces (& #8203; but without space between & and #) at both sides of the dash, but I don't know if/which readers support it.

hkdorama · 07-26-2010, 12:58 PM

Tried it just now on Kindle 2, the same problem. No line breaks before or after em-dashes...

JSWolf · 07-26-2010, 01:01 PM

LRF/LRX format has the very same bug. ePub via ADE does not.

Snowman · 07-27-2010, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexi Revellian

Perhaps replace the M dash with an N dash with a space on either side? It's what Penguin use in their printed books, and it looks good I think.

I too use spaced 'Ndash' instead of mdash, but with a slight mod, since mobi/kindle will sometimes put the linebreak before the dash, which just looks wrong to me. So, I am using the format [word][non-breakspace][ndash][space]. Additionally, no space after a left quote, nor before a right quote. I apply the same ruleset to ellipsis as well (converting 3dots where necessary, since these seem to be positively guaranteed to fall at a line boundary!)

snowman

07-26-2010, 05:43 AM	#1
hkdorama Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: iPad, Sony Reader, Kindle 2	em-dashes & Kindle I found that in Kindle when you have an em space with no spaces on the sides, the Kindle does not allow line breaks before or after the em dash. What I have is a paragraph of words and their translations formatted as follows (the paragraph is justified and I need to keep is justified, so left-align would not be an option): Code: word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; word—the translation of the word; Looks like Kindle treats "word—the" as one word. But that results in really bad line breaks, especially when 'word' is long. I have tried using thin-spaces on the sides on the em dash by Kindle treats even that as one word! Would anybody have any suggestions?

07-26-2010, 05:47 AM	#2
Lexi Revellian Groupie Posts: 172 Karma: 200001 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: London Device: Kindle keyboard	Perhaps replace the M dash with an N dash with a space on either side? It's what Penguin use in their printed books, and it looks good I think. Last edited by Lexi Revellian; 07-26-2010 at 05:49 AM.

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07-26-2010, 06:38 AM	#3
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,543 Karma: 19001583 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	Yes, that's what I do for that same reason. On the other hand, other readers (Adobe ePUB readers, for instance) do the opposite, allowing a break at either side of an unspaced em-dash. This produces wrong and annoying linebreaks in Spanish.

07-26-2010, 09:53 AM	#4
hkdorama Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: iPad, Sony Reader, Kindle 2	Yes, we use spaced en dashes for our other books but this one has to be a kind of facsimile. So, I need to make sure there is no way to keep the em-dashes and have line breaks after them. Otherwise here is an example of how it looks now in Kindle Previewer:

07-26-2010, 10:27 AM	#5
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,543 Karma: 19001583 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	You could try adding zero width spaces (& #8203; but without space between & and #) at both sides of the dash, but I don't know if/which readers support it.

07-26-2010, 12:58 PM	#6
hkdorama Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: iPad, Sony Reader, Kindle 2	Tried it just now on Kindle 2, the same problem. No line breaks before or after em-dashes...

07-26-2010, 01:01 PM	#7
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 78,948 Karma: 144284074 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	LRF/LRX format has the very same bug. ePub via ADE does not.

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