I am working on getting a book uploaded into the Kindle system at Amazon, and noticing that there are some serious conversion errors in the document as it moves from Word or PDF into the Kindle HTML system that could seriously preclude using kindle if you are writing a dense rich document and thinking that you can just upload it into the system as is.
The problem looks like it stems from the original document format to the HTML conversion that is needed for the Kindle system. For self-publishers without a deep knowledge of HTML or using the Function Print Screen to generate graphics off the laptop as you make your documents, this gets to be very interesting. The problem also occurs with rescaled images that you might be using in your document.
Adobe PDF to Kindle Conversion.
In adobe the file looks like this:
Once translated though the same cover page looks like this
The same issue arises in a raw DOC file from Microsoft word
And once translated looks like this
This makes it much more difficult for the standard person to upload and submit their ebook to amazon if the translation routines do not give a WYSIWYG experience. While I would love to get the book uploaded and looking like it does in word or PDF, I am really wondering, why kindle has to covert to HTML without looking at the scaling involved. I lose tables; graphics are not the right size, those that are function print screen graphics do not show the edits or cropping that was done. Nor can I upload a standalone MHT file that would contain all the important changes to the graphics and keep the tables intact.
Essentially, though, all tables, all function print screen graphics are gone, while the word and PDF documents come out exactly as wanted. It does not look like you can bypass the DTP conversion process at all either. More on this, but right now as a publisher, this is not even close to being amusing.
And forget any support in the support system or FAQ’s, while people have been asking for support for the very same issues, no answer is yet forthcoming from Amazon.
tags: kindle, conversion, errors, self publisher, publishing, word, pdf, html, amazon
2 comments ↓
I really want to get a Kindle, but this is the only thing (besides price) that is keeping me from it.
If i am going to buy a $400 ebook reader, it NEEDS to be able to display my PDF library correctly.
My issues are not so much with the reading, but with the presentation of the file, a lot of work went into making it look great with a certain format, that word, PDF’s and a publisher could deal with, interesting that the conversion from PDF or Word to Kindle can’t handle the formatting that I want it to have.
Going back and rewriting the HTML is a pain, a big pain, and beyond a good many people. Without WYSIWYG for publishing, this could be a problem.
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