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I have some really simple CSS styles that work fine in the Kindle preview software, and on my actual Kindle Paperwhite, but when I send it to my iPad/iPhone and use the Amazon Kindle App, they don't work.

For example...

The CSS:

#copyright p {
    text-align: center;
}

The HTML:

<div id="copyright">
  <p>©2014 Author's Name</p>
</div>

The output is centered in the Kindle Previewer, and on actual Kindle Paperwhite, but left aligned in the iOS app.

Another example:

CSS:

p.author-s-voice {
    font-style: italic;
    text-indent: 1.2em;
}

HTML:

<p class="author-s-voice">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur....</p>

The output is italicized in the Kindle Previewer, and on actual Kindle Paperwhite, but not in the iOS app.

This seems like really basic styling, why is it being ignored by the Kindle app?

Chuck
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  • Are you using the .azk file generated by Kindle Previewer and then sideloading it onto your device? If not, try doing it that way. – Tom Aug 29 '14 at 20:59
  • @Tom I'm converting the .epub using Amazon's KindleGenerator (v2.9), and then emailing the resulting .mobi file to my devices. – Chuck Aug 29 '14 at 21:15
  • Kindle Previewer will auto-generate an .azk file for you when you select iOS view. Sideload (rather than email) that file (rather than the mobi) onto your iOS device. – Tom Aug 29 '14 at 21:20
  • @Tom Ok, I'll try that, but isn't the resulting .mobi from KindleGen the actual file that gets distributed by Amazon when the book goes on sale? – Chuck Aug 29 '14 at 21:21
  • Nope, not for iOS. That's why they generate the .azk for you to proof with :D – Tom Aug 29 '14 at 21:21
  • @Tom Thanks for your help, I just don't get it. The book is in my personal library and is download from Amazon Cloud onto my iOS device. Amazon must have converted the .mobi to .azk when it was added to my personal library for it to be available for download there. Ugh. So weird. I'll try your trick. – Chuck Aug 29 '14 at 21:31
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    yeah, I hear you. The reading system they used on iOS was behind their other platforms for a long time--it would only show the most barebones, KF7 (old mobi) formatting. At least it's catching up a bit, but the fragmenting they have within their own closed little ecosystem is just ridiculous. I'm pretty sure that what they do is just deliver you an .azk file when you buy a mobi on an iOS device, but not certain. – Tom Aug 29 '14 at 21:34
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    Anyway, hope all that helps! – Tom Aug 29 '14 at 21:34
  • You were right. For some odd reason "side loading" reduced (but not completely) removed the number of errors. Baffling, but there you go. – Chuck Sep 07 '14 at 22:45
  • Yeah, sometimes dealing with Amazon's formats can feel a bit like voodoo. Glad it mostly worked! – Tom Sep 07 '14 at 22:47
  • Unfortunately the book has gone live and the "Look Inside" preview version is the same cruddy version I saw on the iOS version. Argh! – Chuck Sep 10 '14 at 13:05
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    I believe that on the legacy format KF7 they converted the CSS style sheet on the .epub file to this wonky inline CSS and basically this resulted in the text only being able to accept one style from one class so if there were say three classes/selectors that were styling text it would arbitrarily have to drop two of them. Baffling. – maxwell Mar 11 '15 at 00:37

0 Answers0