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Amazon Kindle Publishing

Guidelines

How to make books available for the Kindle

platform

version 2015.1

This document describes the primary ways publishers, authors, and conversion houses can

make their content available on the Amazon Kindle platform. This document includes guidelines

and suggestions to ensure a smooth conversion and publication process.

Summary of content (90 pages)

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Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines How to make books available for the Kindle platform version 2015.1 This document describes the primary ways publishers, authors, and conversion houses can make their content available on the Amazon Kindle platform. This document includes guidelines and suggestions to ensure a smooth conversion and publication process. Copyright © 2015 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Revision History Revision Number 2015.1 Revision Notes • Updated 8 Media Queries • Added 8.1 Media Query Guidelines (and subsections 8.1.1—8.1.5) Kindle Publishing Guidelines Amazon.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Table of Contents 1 Getting Started ............................................................................................................................ 7 2 Paths to Getting Your Content on Kindle ................................................................................. 7 2.1 Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Platform .......................................................................... 7 2.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 3.6.2 Image Guideline #2: KindleGen Performs Automatic Image Conversions....................................................... 21 3.6.3 Image Guideline #3: Use Color Images .......................................................................................................... 21 3.6.4 Image Guideline #4: Photographs Should Use JPEG Format ......................................................................... 21 3.6.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 4.3.2 Recommendation #2: Including One CSS File Per HTML Page ..................................................................... 37 4.3.3 Recommendation #3: Optimizing Content for Full Screen .............................................................................. 37 4.3.4 Recommendation #4: Using Large Region Magnification Tap Targets in Children’s Books ............................ 37 4.3.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 6.15 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... 55 6.16 Guidance on Media Captions ............................................................................................. 56 6.17 Custom Sample File ........................................................................................................... 56 7 Dictionary Overview .......................................
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 11.1 Appendix A: HTML Tags Supported in Kindle Format 8 .................................................... 76 11.2 Appendix B: CSS Selectors, Attributes, and Properties Supported in Kindle Format 8..... 80 11.3 Appendix C: Guidelines for Converting XMDF to KF8 ....................................................... 85 11.3.1 Kindlegen Command.....................................................................................................................
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers The most recent version of KindleGen can be downloaded for free from www.amazon.com/kindleformat/kindlegen. Amazon periodically releases new versions of the KindleGen software. Check the site regularly for updates. To create books for Kindle Format 8, use KindleGen 2 or later versions. 2.2.2.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers o Alternatively, view the instructions by typing the command cd ~/Downloads/KindleGen_Mac_i386_v2 in Terminal and then typing the command kindlegen. Conversion Example: 1. To convert a file called book.html, copy book.html to the desktop. 2. In the Finder window, locate the kindlegen program. Click and drag it to the Terminal window, and drop it where the cursor is. The cursor inserts the path automatically and moves to the end of that line. 3.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 2.2.2.4 KindleGen Messages As conversion progresses, KindleGen displays detailed informational messages. If KindleGen encounters issues while converting a file, it displays a warning or error. Amazon strongly recommends fixing all KindleGen warnings and errors before publishing an ebook. • If KindleGen displays an error, it will not create the .mobi file. Errors impair the readability of the book in the Kindle Reader.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers • XML (such as DocBook, etc.) • HTML, XHTML • EPUB (also known as IDPF or OEB) The process of converting non-reflowable content (such as PDF or scans) to reflowable content is laborintensive and requires specialized formatting knowledge. As you explore conversion house options, Amazon recommends that you confirm which source format(s) the conversion house requires to convert files for use on Kindle.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Features & Benefits All Kindle Devices and Apps st nd except 1 & 2 Generation Kindles and Kindle DX Support for multiple and repeated background images. Yes Support for color gradient. Yes Enables fine-grained control of attributes for text and other elements through CSS selectors. Yes Support for fixed-layout pages for specified screen sizes. Yes There are important differences between writing HTML for websites and for Kindle books.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 3.1.3 Text Guideline #3: Formatting Paragraphs KindleGen automatically indents the first line of every paragraph by default. To change this behavior, use the text-indent style on the
tag.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 3.1.7 Text Guideline #7: CSS Support The earlier Kindle platform offered very basic support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This has been significantly enhanced in KF8 with support for CSS 2/CSS 3. (See section 11.2 for the list of supported CSS attributes/selectors). To verify that your use of CSS elements displays the way you intended, preview your Kindle book on different devices before publishing it.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers { span.dropcaps { font-size:3em; font-weight: bold; } }
There is a sample To verify that the drop caps display as intended, test the book as described in section 9.1, Testing Kindle Books. 3.1.8 Text Guideline #8: Page Numbers Kindle books do not always map directly to page numbers in physical editions of the book. For this reason, there should not be any reference to page numbers in the book.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Incorrect CSS Code Correct CSS Code body{ font-size: asize; } body { font-family: PrimaryFont; font-size: asize; } .indent { font-size: asize; font-family: PrimaryFont; } .indent { font-size: asize; } .sidebar-text { font-family: SecondaryFont; weight: bold; } .sidebar-text { font-family: SecondaryFont; weight: bold; } 3.2 Cover Image Guidelines 3.2.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers ... ... ... ... ... The use of name="cover" in the metadata element name is mandatory. This syntax is not part of the IDPF standard, because the standard does not provide for cover images. However, it was designed with help from the IDPF and will validate in an IDPF validator. 3.2.
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Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers
1. AUTHOR'S NOTE
2. PART ONE
  1. THE HOUSES, 1969
  2. ROCK AND ROLL, 1962
  3. PAGE 19
    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers PART ONE THE HOUSES, 1969 ROCK AND ROLL, 1962 PAGE 20
    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Here is an example of a guide item for a TOC (underlined elements are mandatory): Here is an example of a landmarks nav element for a TOC (underlined elements are mandatory):
    Table of Contents
    3.3.4 TOC Guideline #4: No Tables in TOC Do not create a TOC using HTML tags.
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    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Amazon does not recommend adding additional guide items to the OPF file, because they will be grayed out in the menu options and may cause customer confusion. IMPORTANT: Guide items, especially the TOC guide item, do not replace the table of contents. 3.
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    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Optimize line-art GIFs before submitting them to KindleGen. Resizing or JPEG compression introduces blurriness or unwanted artifacts in line-art images, which is why Amazon insists on GIF or PNG file formats for line-art. To optimize GIFs and PNGs and make them fit in the 127 KB limit, try the following tips: • Try reducing the number of colors used. This can often be done without altering the quality of the image.
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    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Example Images Description Image A table with line-art/text content rendered as an image. This GIF image is 317 x 233 pixels and 6 KB in size. The text is sharp and legible. The font size requirement is met (“a” is 7 pixels high). The same image with JPEG compression. Compression artifacts appear, making the text blurry although it remains legible. The size has increased to 17 KB. Kindle Publishing Guidelines Amazon.
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    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Description Image Bad quality: The image is blurry because of resizing and JPEG compression. The text is not legible. This will be rejected. An example of the largest acceptable table rendered as an image is given below. The size is 500 x 600 pixels, which is the maximum. The font uses a body size (height of an “a”) of 7 pixels, which is just above the 6 pixel minimum. The size of the GIF is 33 KB. Kindle Publishing Guidelines Amazon.
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    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 3.6.7 Image Guideline #7: Prefer HTML to Images Do not render large chunks of text as images. If an image contains whole paragraphs of text, it should not be an image. Instead, it should be HTML. The following is an example of a text-heavy image that should be HTML. Note: The image would be shrunk to fit the screen and become unreadable, while an HTML version would be paginated. Kindle Publishing Guidelines Amazon.
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    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers 3.6.8 Image Guideline #8: Image Caption Placement Amazon recommends placing a caption below the related image, so that the reader views the image before the caption. Define a line break between the image and the caption (for example, using a
    tag) to make sure the caption text is not positioned adjacent to the image. 3.6.
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    Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers svg text sample 3.6.11 Image Guideline #11: Use Supported SVG Tags and Elements A publisher can reference the SVG files from within an HTML file using inline , , or