A note sent to KDP management in which I try to move a mountain:
My correspondence with KDP regarding audio, video and other features of the epub3 format being included in ebooks with enhanced typesetting, began on November 3, 2021 with case #10546946. The book was titled Just to the Right of Disneyland. Other case numbers followed and I think ended with case #16897149 around August 11, 2022. An email exchange followed and the last email I received from KDP is dated September 29, 2022. I also sent a follow-up email on June 25, 2023.
I've uploaded the epub file for a new book and received the error message "There was a problem processing your file," the same error message I received on November 3, 2021. The new book is titled Just to Starboard of Epcot.
I recently learned that the web browser on the Kindle has been significantly upgraded. Since an epub file is basically a website confined to a book format, can the Kindle browser be utilized in the display of ebooks with both enhanced typesetting and audio/video?
As I mentioned in earlier correspondence, my use of audio and video files is graphical rather than informational. In a textbook, a reader stops reading to watch the video as it plays. In my use of multimedia, the reader continues reading while the video and audio play. It's something like an online style magazine using video as wallpaper, but my use of multimedia enhances the context of what the reader is reading. Since my book is a novel, the amount of text included makes the fixed-layout format inappropriate.
I've come to realize that the margins the Kindle imposes all around a page represent the text box that the Kindle uses to paginate the text. Knowing that now, I can format paragraphs without margins to use the margins the text box creates. What I request is that <div> and <img> and other elements be allowed to extend to the edges of the viewport. As it is now, images and other elements cannot bleed to the page edges, which is a fairly important aspect of graphic design.
I processed the epub file of the new book with KDP Previewer 3 to see how well the multimedia elements are displayed. What I found is listed below. (Addendum: Adobe Digital Editions is excellent for displaying media in ebooks. Almost perfect.)
Thanks very much for your assistance.
John Garvey
Previewer issues:
• The cover image does not bleed to the edges of the page, although in the svg style defined on the standardized cover page, the margin and padding are set to 0 and the viewbox is set to 0 and 0 for X and Y positions.
• The line height, or leading, of the text is too much and there is no option in Previewer to reduce it. Too much leading simply increases the number of page-turns unnecessarily. I expect that the motivation for the extra leading is to make the page easier to read, but the amount of leading I see in Previewer is excessive.
• The title page has a small JavaScript animation of a png image, and the animation does not play. I understand that implementing JavaScript in eBooks represents a risk, but the JS scripts a designer would include in an epub file would be much shorter and simpler than scripts that represent malware. It would seem to be a simple matter to check an epub file for scripts that are unusually long and complex.
• Transform:rotate() is ignored when images are positioned.
• Text-decoration:none is ignored when displaying links. The only time I choose no underscore for links is when I've indicated that text is a link with other formatting, like background-color. A reader will naturally assume that the list of chapters on a Contents page are live links and the underscore isn't actually necessary on that page.
• Font-family:sans-serif is ignored. A device would naturally have a default sans-serif font that can be displayed.
• Background images are displayed on two successive pages as a result of page-break-inside:avoid. They should appear only on the second page.
• Audio files can easily reflow along with text and should be permitted.
• Since an eBook is designed for reading offline, there is no risk of an advertiser taking advantage of autoplay with audio files. I have a few audio files set to autoplay on page-turn, but I include an inline pause button so the reader can stop playback if preferred. I also warn the reader with an icon at the end of the previous page that audio will begin on page-turn.
• A bleed image positioned between paragraphs should be allowed to bleed to the edges of the viewing screen. When that image is double-clicked, it appears alone on a display page and it bleeds properly in that context.
• On a page that includes text set to visibility:hidden, an image on that page is positioned incorrectly.
• Filter:drop-shadow() is ignored.
• Box-shadow is ignored or minimized.
• Shape-outside:url() is ignored.
• An image that is sized larger than the screen should be displayed at that size, and simple dragging should allow it to move around.
• When a png image with transparency is displayed over another image, the transparency is displayed as opaque white.
• The last few paragraphs of one chapter were superimposed over the text several pages earlier. In another chapter, a duplication of the first page of the chapter, with the <h2> chapter number, was superimposed over text several pages later.
