# problem in type size on Kindle Keyboard 3G?



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

I know someone who downloaded a Kindle book today on her Kindle Keyboard wifi/3G - the type size was small, and barely increased in size when she tried to increase the size (no change for the 1st 4 levels, then the size jumped up).  She doesn't have this problem on other books downloaded in the summer, or another book downloaded today. 

Meanwhile, someone else downloaded the same problematic book on the Kindle Mac app, and the type size was fine.

Any ideas would be appreciated.  Thanks!


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Unfortunately, there's a known issue with some books which are formatted with the latest Kindle publishing software on the Kindle Keyboards.  As far as I know, she'll have to read the book on a different device or return it for a refund.  EDIT: Now that I think about it, maybe it was the Kindle Touch?  At any rate, it sounds like the same problem.

I don't have a KK so haven't kept up with this as much as I should have.

Betsy


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

What Betsy said.  The problem is there's a new, potentially more flexible, formatting system, but not all publishers have it figured out and the result is that some books are being published with _less_ flexibility in font size and style.

I'd also suggest providing feedback to Amazon using the link at the bottom of the book's product page. . . . .

Remember, too, if it's been less than 7 days the book can be returned. For that matter, when it's a formatting issue, Amazon has been known to refund even after that.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

What Ann said.  Better than I did.


Betsy


----------



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Thanks everyone - I'll pass that on.


----------



## Ergodic Mage (Jan 23, 2012)

I think you can use Calibre to change font sizes as part of a conversion.

Edit: Yep check out http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html#font-size-rescaling.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Ergodic Mage said:


> I think you can use Calibre to change font sizes as part of a conversion.
> 
> Edit: Yep check out http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html#font-size-rescaling.


Not certain that would work on a book with DRM, which would likely be the case on a book purchased from Amazon. But I admit to a fair amount of ignorance as I don't really use Calibre at all. . . . certainly worth a try.

I'd still report the problem to Amazon -- they can't get their publishers to fix such things if they don't know it's happening, and too many books are published each day for them to check each one.


----------



## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Yeah, report them to Amazon. I have had to do so a few times. I am one of those that doesn't do sampling much. I vet my books different ways. So I ended up with some that were just like described by the OP. Going from size 1 to size 6 never changes the size much and at 6 it would be about the size of the normal 2. Way to small for me. But when you go just one more up, it goes back to what 7 is suppose to be, huge. Neither is readable to me so I have had to return books for this. 
Many times its also in a san serif font which I absolutely hate to read. 

Now when it happens I have another way I won't talk about here on this board. But really, the publisher need to know this and fix the way they format the books.


----------



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Thanks - that's very helpful.  Just as a matter of interest - were any of the books that you told Amazon about corrected?  If so, presumably those publishers would know how to fix the formatting.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

PaulLev said:


> Thanks - that's very helpful. Just as a matter of interest - were any of the books that you told Amazon about corrected? If so, presumably those publishers would know how to fix the formatting.


At least one: the latest JK Rowling, _The Casual Vacancy_ had this print size problem when it was first released. A LOT of people complained, as you may imagine -- the book cost $18.99 originally!  -- it was corrected within a couple of days.

I also know of an indie author who posts here frequently who's initial effort on at least one book had problems with the Fire using certain settings; she was able to fix that as well.


----------



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Thanks!  Good to know about Rowling!


----------



## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

PaulLev said:


> Thanks - that's very helpful. Just as a matter of interest - were any of the books that you told Amazon about corrected? If so, presumably those publishers would know how to fix the formatting.


I've been trying to help an author get these problems resolved - he's been told by Amazon that they've run a script on his book to fix it, but the changes haven't as yet gone out to readers.

I've raised it as a problem against another book as well.

These problems aren't only on the KK, I'm having them on my Paperwhite. The problem there isn't so much very small fonts (though I have seen that problem) as the book displaying in Helvetica and not being able to change it.

I get the impression these problems are in KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) which is probably used by a lot of self-publishers so I suspect it's quite widespread but not very visible yet.


----------



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

It would be good to know if that script fixes the problem - if you discover that it does, do let us know.

But it's beginning to sound as if this is more Amazon's problem or doing than the publisher's - is that right?  The sequence seems to be: (1) Mobi worked fine in the summer, (2) the K8 was introduced, and caused some problems on Touch and Paperwhite, (3) Amazon is trying to fix that, but in that process (4) there are now size and formatting problems with Mobi on KK and other models?


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I think it's the publishers not applying the new format correctly.  Only Amazon's fault to the extent that they didn't explain well enough what was needed to convert over.  And I can completely conceive of the publishers having done only a cursory glance at whatever instructions they were given but not really following it because they figured they knew what they were doing.

It IS Amazon's fault that, for example, Word files (.doc and .docx) no longer convert well via the Send to Kindle app which is, I think, a related problem.  Oh, they convert -- but to a default sans serif font no matter what the original font: it's not even to the 'normal' default kindle font.  But, though related, I see it as a bit different as that's a completely automated process.  Presumably, publishers have a bit more control.


----------



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I think it's the publishers not applying the new format correctly. Only Amazon's fault to the extent that they didn't explain well enough what was needed to convert over. And I can completely conceive of the publishers having done only a cursory glance at whatever instructions they were given but not really following it because they figured they knew what they were doing.
> 
> It IS Amazon's fault that, for example, Word files (.doc and .docx) no longer convert well via the Send to Kindle app which is, I think, a related problem. Oh, they convert -- but to a default sans serif font no matter what the original font: it's not even to the 'normal' default kindle font. But, though related, I see it as a bit different as that's a completely automated process. Presumably, publishers have a bit more control.


Yeah, but in the situation I'm looking into, the file was Mobi not K8. Is there a new Mobi format, too?


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

PaulLev said:


> Yeah, but in the situation I'm looking into, the file was Mobi not K8. Is there a new Mobi format, too?


As I understand it, the Amazon format is based on mobi. . . . .

And, FWIW, when I send a .mobi or .prc file via Send to Kindle, there's no problem with it setting it to a fixed font. Maybe because, in those cases, it's not _really_ converted to anything?

If you have questions about doing a whole book and getting it done correctly to sell, I'd ask in the Writer's Cafe -- a number of members here have played with it, I know, and worked hard to get it figured out. . . . . they can't generally afford to lose readers over something like that that they can fix easily!


----------



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Ok, that makes sense - thanks!


----------



## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Yeah, this is a publisher/author problem. Its bad formatting. Before the KK got the new update where it now reads those K8 file thingies, everything was fine. Then the update came and books suddenly had issues. The paperwhite also reads the K8 thingies. 

Publisher just have to learn to properly format.


----------



## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

To be fair, though, taking the example of the author I'm working with:

He's self-published quite a lot of books, presumably all in the same way, and I've bought several of them and read them on my old K3 with absolutely no problems whatsoever.

Now I've got a paperwhite, and I've pulled down those same books from my archive, and they are not formatted properly.

It's more than a little unfair, IMHO, to blame the publisher/author when books he's written and published in the past now don't work properly any more because Amazon have brought out new devices and put out new firmware on the old devices.

I think it's primarily Amazon's responsibility to make sure that the publishing tools they provide correctly support all their devices.

Furthermore, if their change of format means that an old book doesn't work any more, I think it's their responsibility to fix it, or at least to notify the author that there is a problem, and tell him what he will have to do differently.


----------



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

And just to provide a little closure, at least on the book which was the reason for this thread: The publisher applied a fix, which, if I understand it correctly, went back to an earlier way of formatting the text (maybe K7), and this works fine on the KK and every other Kindle and Kindle app looked at.

Thanks again, everyone, for your help on this.

As to what could be done to minimize problems like this in the future - I agree with what has been said above that publishers should undertake to be better informed, and Amazon should do what it can (by way of instructions) to help that happen.


----------



## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Sure, Amazon should have good instructions. I am not a publisher, so I have no idea what it is they do supply for uploading the files. Wouldn't part of the problem also be all the different programs being used to created and convert the files? 

But in the end its not my concern as a consumer, other than I want a ebook I paid for to work as it should. And I don't think most will point the fingers at the authors. I think most customers will point at Amazon as that is where they bought the book. 

Personally I would pay someone to do it if I couldn't do it properly myself. I buy and read plenty of books that have good formatting, so many can obviously figure it out. 

I just got a prime loan from one of Amazon imprints and in addition to it being perfectly formatted as far as fonts go, they also did a really nice job with the all over presentation. Chapters start where they suppose, the  nice squiggly thingies, whatever they are called that are above each chapter heading. Those little things make an ebook a joy for me.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Morf said:


> To be fair, though, taking the example of the author I'm working with:
> 
> He's self-published quite a lot of books, presumably all in the same way, and I've bought several of them and read them on my old K3 with absolutely no problems whatsoever.
> 
> ...


Morf,

this was posted in the Writers' Café this evening:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,136033.0.html

Might be of interest to your author...

Betsy


----------



## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Thanks Betsy, I've posted over there, if it's relevant to my problem I'll point the author to it.


----------

