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EPUB fonts not working in kindle mobi.

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    • #66343
      Paul OConnor
      Member

      Hi,

      I recently completed Anne-Marie Concepción’s “Indesign CS6 to EPUB” course on Lynda.com (https://www.lynda.com/EPUB-tutorials/InDesign-CS6-EPUB-Kindle-iPad/98834-2.html)

      As an experienced ID CC user it was great. I used an earlier book I had designed for print to experiment with. I can now output it as an e-pub and it is exactly as I want it. I even managed to amend the existing ID print file to output for e-pub without making a new version or damaging the existing print version. I slide it over to dropbox and open it in iBooks on my ipad and it is exactly the same as what I see in ADE on my mac.

      But, it’s final destination is as a kindle book on the Amazon store. That’s where the fun begins!

      When I open it in Kindle Previewer on my mac it looks good too (even if some title fonts have defaulted to sans-serif). But when I pop the generated mobi file into dropbox and open it in the Kindle app on the ipad, all fonts are stripped away to some generic serif font. All other formatting settings are preserved though (page breaks, spacing, images). When I upload the e-pub to the Amazon KDP store and let it convert it, the same is happening. Loss of fonts.

      I’ve tried everything in my power to try and preserve the fonts. I even output an additional css file with the epub that targets @media amzn-kf8, @media amzn-mobi and @media (monochrome) to just display a sans-serif font. This has no effect on the font type, but it is being assigned as I also set the titles to be pink (as a test) and that worked.

      In the css file (in both the epub and mobi files), all fonts are correctly listed as @font-face and the css font-families look good and set to fall back onto a generic sans-serif style.

      I read somewhere that kindle doesn’t like the encrypted fonts ID generates. So I even tried removing the encryption.xml file and replacing these fonts with full original versions. No joy. I’m only using two font families and the standard Georgia is one of them.

      Finally I made a single page test with 5 titles all with a different paragraph style set to a different font (standard ones). I converted it to mobi and sent it to the ipad kindle app. All titles get stripped to a generic serif font. Mmmmm……

      Im at a loss. Can anyone advise?

      Paul

    • #66421
      Paul OConnor
      Member

      Anybody?

    • #66423

      Hi Paul, I think I’ve read that side-loading a MOBI onto your device strips out the KF8-specific info, which would include custom embedded fonts. Users have had better luck emailing the mobi to their devices.

      That is unusual that Amazon strips out the fonts when you’ve uploaded the EPUB (the same epub that previewed correctly?). When you viewed it on your Kindle device, did you choose “Publisher” as the font choice?

      AM

    • #66426
      Paul OConnor
      Member

      Thanks for your reply AM.

      I tried emailing the mobi to my kindle account, but when viewed on the ipad app its the same (stripped of fonts). Also, I am looking at it with Publishers Fonts enabled.

      I have now created a single page test of sans serif fonts which includes the title page paragraph styles of the book below that.

      When output as an epub, all looks great in ADE. Once converted to a MOBI in Kindle Previewer, all looks well. But once I email the MOBI to my Kindle account (to view on the ipad) or upload it through KDP, it still strips all the sans serif fonts!

      Here is a link to the test EPUB and MOBI file: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dkveqtmuw83pkza/-OUFUOi48F

      I just can’t think of anything else thats causing it.

      It would be wonderful if someone can take a look and see what might be up. Its a small single page document with all fonts named.

      Thanks.

    • #72689
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      This was long time ago, but I still have the exact same problem. Did it Work out for you?

    • #72692
      Ken Jones
      Member

      If you are looking for fixed layout KF8 then CircularFLO https://www.CircularFLO.com is commercial software which creates KF8 directly from InDesign and supports live text without these issues.

      I have a feeling that the fonts are working in Kindle Previewer because the fonts are present on the Mac/PC you are running Kindle Previewer on. They then fail when the file is moved to a device without the fonts active.

      Have you tried deactivating the fonts on the Mac/PC before opening the eBook? They should still appear when reading the eBook if the fonts are working correctly within it.

    • #113069
      Paul Nylander
      Participant

      Many years on, and I seem to be having this problem. When I crack the InDesign generated ePub open I see the fonts are there, but of course in the IDPF compatible obfuscated way. Renders fine with correct fonts in Adobe Digital Editions and iBooks. But KindlePreviewer seems to just ignore the fonts. Even checked that “Publisher Fonts” was the font option selected.

      *Might* be a KindlePreviewer problem, as I’ve discovered that if I replace the ePub’s fonts with the original (un-obfuscated) fonts, KindlePreviewer works just fine. But seems odd that something as old as KindlePreviewer would now be having this fundamental of a problem.

      Anyone else seeing this kind of an issue, or have any thoughts on it?

      InDesign v. 14.0.1
      KindlePreviewer v. 3.28.1

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