Note about Testing Kindle Files on iPad\/iPhone<\/h3>\n

If you test your Pressbooks output of Kindle files on your iPad\/iPhone, it will look bad. But the files that people actually buy from Kindle on iOS devices will look fine. Here is why:<\/p>\n

Pressbooks uses Amazon’s Kindlegen software to create the MOBI export (from the EPUB). This actually creates 2 files, a KF8 file and a MOBI7 file, bundled together as a MOBI file.<\/p>\n

KF8 file<\/h4>\n

\n
• KF8 file format\u00a0is used in: Kindle Fire<\/em>, Kindle Android<\/em> apps, and Kindle’s “modern” e-ink devices: Paperwhite<\/em> et. al.<\/li>\n
• the KF8 file is really an EPUB with a couple of modifications.<\/li>\n
• NOTE: the KF8 file is NOT used in iOS devices (iPhone, iPad), however … see below.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  A MOBI7 file<\/h4>\n

  \n
  • MOBI7 format is used in OLD Kindle e-ink devices.<\/li>\n
  • MOBI7 is a a VERY limited format (for instance, no background shading, very limited support for styling etc).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Because of the constraints of MOBI7 styling, in Pressbooks, we swap out all the nice styling from our EPUB\/KF8 formats for a generic “try your best not to look like total crap” output … which is all you can hope for on old Kindles.<\/p>\n

    BUT…What about iOS? (.AZK)<\/h4>\n

    \n
    • When a user buys a Kindle book from Amazon, on an iOS device (iPhone, iPad), Kindle actually delivers a third format: .AZK<\/strong><\/li>\n
    • The .AZK file on the iPhone\/iPad looks more or less like the KF8 file in Kindle Fire, which is more or less what the EPUB looks like in iBooks.<\/li>\n
    • The .AZK file is generated by Amazon, at some point between when you upload your ebook files to Kindle,\u00a0and when the user buys and downloads\u00a0the book from the Kindle\u00a0\u00a0store.<\/li>\n
    • .AZK files are NOT\u00a0generated by\u00a0Kindlegen (hence not from Pressbooks) … when you create a MOBI file.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      However Testing MOBI output on iPad\/iPhone … displays .MOBI7 not\u00a0.AZK<\/h4>\n

      \n
      • If you sideload (i.e. send a mobi file to your iphone\/ipad and open it, without buying from Kindle) …\u00a0it displays the MOBI7<\/strong> file (see above), which will look “as uncrap as we can make it.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Conclusion<\/h4>\n

        So, all that to say:<\/p>\n

        \n
        • Testing your Pressbooks output on your iPhone Kindle is going to look like crap.<\/li>\n
        • What readers will actually see<\/em> when they buy from Kindle on their iOS device will look like the KF8\/Kindle Fire output … which should look nice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":5,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["hugh-mcguire"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[58],"license":[50],"part":164,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/184\/revisions\/185"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/164"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/184\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pb.malartu.org\/pbuserguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}