User`s guide

Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers
Features & Benefits
All Kindle Devices and Apps
except 1
st
& 2
nd
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. To provide a
good reading experience, many website design practices should be avoided when creating Kindle books.
Refer to the following sections for more information.
Support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Text
Kindle devices newer than and including the Paperwhite and Fire HD support right to left vertical scripts
and Japanese Ruby script. Older e Ink and tablet devices are limited to horizontal left to right Chinese,
Japanese, and Korean text.
Text Guidelines 3.1
3.1.1 Text Guideline #1: Body Text Must Use Defaults
The body text in a reflowable Kindle book (fiction and non-fiction) must be all defaults. Amazon
encourages content creators to use creative styles for headings, special paragraphs, footnotes, tables of
contents, etc., but not for body text. The reason for this is that any styling on body text in the HTML will
override the user’s preferred default reading settings. Users report such behavior as a poor reading
experience. Here are the most important points:
• Body text must use the default font size and line height. Body text should not use the <font
size="…"> tag or the font-size and line-height attributes in CSS.
• Body text should not be primarily bold or italicized. Selected parts of the text can be bold or
italicized for emphasis. This guideline only prohibits a book from being entirely bold, for example.
• Body text should not have an imposed font color throughout the book. If you prefer to use
imposed font color in some sections of your book, please do not use too light or too dark color.
Light colors will not display with enough contrast on devices set to white backgrounds or on e Ink
devices. Dark colors will not display well on devices set to black backgrounds. For grays, use
colors within the hex value range of #666 to #999.
• Body text must not have a white or black font color. Customers report this as a bad user
experience because the text can become invisible when the Kindle is set to the same background
color as the font.
• Body text must not have a black or white background color. Customers report this as a bad user
experience because it can create an awkward, boxy reading experience when the device
background is set to a different color and because the text can become invisible when a user
changes the background color setting on their device and the font color automatically inverts.
• Customers report that they enjoy having the option to select a preferred typeface from a list of
device defaults..
3.1.2 Text Guideline #2: Use CSS for Page Breaks
Do not insert blank lines of text to create page breaks. Use the CSS page-break-before and page-
break-after attributes.
Kindle Publishing Guidelines Amazon.com 12