# Kindle Text Too Small?



## -alex- (Jul 12, 2011)

Hey all,
I was wondering if anyone can help?

I have owned a Kindle Keyboard for a year, and yesterday I purchased my Kindle Touch. I loaded all of my previous books on to the Touch, no problem.

However, I have two books from the same author—which I have read already on my Kindle Keyboard—that the default text is very, very small. Too small to read. Now, the simple option is to increase the text size. I tried that, and to get the text in those two books to look like normal default size, I have to go to nearly the biggest size. All of my other books seem to be fine.

Has anyone else had this?

The books were fine on my Kindle Keyboard.

Does anyone know if this is my Kindle’s problem, or something to do with the formatting from the author?

Thanks for any help you can provide.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Sounds like a formatting problem... some books have really odd standard size formatted books...


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

Since it's only these two books from the same author, it would seem to be a formatting problem for that publisher.

Early on, with my Kobo, we had lots of books like this, only you couldn't enlarge the type at all. Rendered the books useless. This problem has been fixed, luckily, but there's still a lot of weird formatting out there.


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## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

If they were fine on the K3 (Kindle Keyboard), then it's not likely that the formatting problem is with the file.
Have you tried deleting the books from your Touch and loading them again?


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## -alex- (Jul 12, 2011)

Andra said:


> If they were fine on the K3 (Kindle Keyboard), then it's not likely that the formatting problem is with the file.
> Have you tried deleting the books from your Touch and loading them again?


You can't delete books from the Touch like you can on the KK. I sent them to Archive items (which deletes from the Touch but leaves on your Amazon account), and then re-downloaded them. They files are the same.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

-alex- said:


> You can't delete books from the Touch like you can on the KK. I sent them to Archive items (which deletes from the Touch but leaves on your Amazon account), and then re-downloaded them. They files are the same.


Sending them to archive IS deleting them from the Touch. It's the same thing on the Keyboard, though maybe different steps to do so and they may use different words. 

Andra was not suggesting deleting them from your account. . .you'd have to repurchase them if you did that!  (I don't really think that's what you thought.  ) BUT, sometimes when a file downloads it gets corrupted in the process. Often, removing it from the device and downloading a new copy fixes any problems. As I understand it, you've tried that with no change, so it's probably time to contact Kindle CS.

I'm going to move this to the Troubleshooting area. . . might be some of the folks who check in there have another idea you could try.


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## -alex- (Jul 12, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Andra was not suggesting deleting them from your account. . .you'd have to repurchase them if you did that!  (I don't really think that's what you thought.  ) BUT, sometimes when a file downloads it gets corrupted in the process. Often, removing it from the device and downloading a new copy fixes any problems. As I understand it, you've tried that with no change, so it's probably time to contact Kindle CS.


Yes, I understood what Andra ment, and yes, you are correct, I have taken those steps, but no change. Can I ask, where do I contact Kindle CS?



Ann in Arlington said:


> I'm going to move this to the Troubleshooting area. . . might be some of the folks who check in there have another idea you could try.


Thanks


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

-alex- said:


> Yes, I understood what Andra ment, and yes, you are correct, I have taken those steps, but no change. Can I ask, where do I contact Kindle CS?
> Thanks


http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,96272.msg1487795.html#msg1487795

This does sound strange, I've certainly come across books with strange formatting which changes the font, but it's odd they are different between a KK and a KT.

The only bit of troubleshooting I can suggest is to try the book in Kindle for PC (or Mac, Android, iPhone depending upon what you have) and see what the formatting is like there.

It may be that differences in the firmware between the KK and KT render these books differently - there's not a lot you can do about it, but if you can tell CS that it's OK on K4PC (or isn't OK, as the case may be) it might help them to pin down the problem.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

I noticed on one of my books that the text was too small to read on my KT but when I opened it in Cloud Reader, it was normal. I reported it to Amazon and they unhelpfully suggested I just increase the font size and gave me instructions on how to do so on the KT.   I do think it's a formatting problem since it's only certain books but for some reason, it's a formatting issue that only effects it on the KT.


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## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

You might post the names of the books if you don't mind.  Then one or two people could try samples of them on their Kindles to see what they look like.  

Ann/Morf - Do you still notice books in Topaz format looking different on different Kindles?  Even re-reading, I haven't come across a Topaz book in a while.  And I don't have a Touch that I can get to easily.  I flip back and forth between my K3 and K4 and so far the formatting has been consistent.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I have had a few that seem to have specialized formatting.  I've also had some where the default font size was larger or smaller than usual. . .but they seem to be pretty consistent between my eInk devices.  It's a little different on the fire because the font options are different.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Andra said:


> You might post the names of the books if you don't mind. Then one or two people could try samples of them on their Kindles to see what they look like.


For me, it was Silenced by the Yams (A Barbara Marr Murder Mystery #3) - I just checked the sample and it's the same for me.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

history_lover said:


> For me, it was Silenced by the Yams (A Barbara Marr Murder Mystery #3) - I just checked the sample and it's the same for me.


I just got the sample of this. . . the default text size seems the same as other books. I checked on both my basic Kindle and Keyboard model.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I just got the sample of this. . . the default text size seems the same as other books. I checked on both my basic Kindle and Keyboard model.


Which makes sense because Alex says the effected books were fine on the KK. This why I think it's something with the formatting which is only effected on the KT. Something about the KT and a certain formatting is clashing.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

I've just downloaded a sample from the UK store onto my KT and the text size is tiny. I had to increase it by at least three points to make it readable.

I think Amazon definitely need to know about this - most books work fine on all the different models, so there's something wrong with this particular book that's stops it working properly on the KT. It would benefit all authors to know what it is.


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## -alex- (Jul 12, 2011)

Thanks for the replies, guys.
I don’t feel comfortable posting the names of the books publicly (I don’t want to offend the author), but, I did download a couple of other samples of different books from the same author, and they have the same problem as the two books I currently have. So, I’m assuming it’s a formatting problem with the KT?


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## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

I understand that you aren't comfortable posting the names of the books.  That's definitely your decision and you have to do what is right for you.
But I will say that the times I have contacted an author about formatting issues, I have always been well-received.  This was especially true several years ago when many independent authors were self-publishing on Kindles and the higher cost of the hardware meant that the author did not have a Kindle to use for testing.
You can always send an email directly to the author in question and point out your issue - including photos so it's easier to explain.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Hey guys, I seem to now have this same problem for my own ebook. I've been trying to find a solution on the net but it seems not a lot of people are talking about this (or I use the wrong search terms). The things is that it shows perfectly on any other kindle app and device, just not my KT.

Anyone who can maybe point me in the direction of someone who has solved the problem?


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any resolutions to the problem, or even any suggestions on what the problem is. I have noticed it on a few other books though so it's obviously a growing problem yet Amazon seem to have no interest in resolving it.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

history_lover said:


> Unfortunately, I haven't seen any resolutions to the problem, or even any suggestions on what the problem is. I have noticed it on a few other books though so it's obviously a growing problem yet Amazon seem to have no interest in resolving it.


I uploaded a new file, hopefully the problem is gone when that goes live.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

I apparently have been able to solve the problem myself since the new version I uploaded this morning went live and has no longer the format problems. I just want to tell everybody that it is fixable, and it's not too hard either 
Hopefully we will run into less of these problems in a while


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## lbclark75 (Nov 15, 2011)

Please let us know what the fix is.  I'm running into the same problem!


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Are you running into the problem as a writer or a reader? As a reader there is no fix, only the writer/formatter can fix it.


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## JuliMonroe (Apr 25, 2011)

kiazishiru said:


> Are you running into the problem as a writer or a reader? As a reader there is no fix, only the writer/formatter can fix it.


What's the problem and fix for writers? Not happening with my book, but just in case it happens with a future book, I'd like to know.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

I made a blog post on it, haven't finished the other posts that go with it yet, but will be doing those soon. For now there is an explanation of the problem and at the bottom a link to where I explained a quick fix.

http://kiaswriting.blogspot.nl/2012/07/how-to-format-your-project-kf8-proof.html


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## JuliMonroe (Apr 25, 2011)

Very helpful. Thanks. Both my books are okay, but I'll be updating one soon and then publishing a new book later this year. Good to know what I need to do. Thankfully, I own a Kindle Touch and can check my own books.


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