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Text Guidelines - Reflowable

Contents

Heading Alignment and Justification

Because text in reflowable eBooks is fully justified by default (i.e., text-align: justify;), Amazon strongly recommends specifying the appropriate CSS alignment for all headings to prevent excessive spaces between words (i.e., text-align: left; text-align: right; text-align: center;).




Body Text Defaults

The body text in a reflowable Kindle book (fiction and nonfiction) 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. See details on using embedded fonts. 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:

  • The body text font should be set in the CSS using the font-family attribute. Body text must use the default font size (1em) 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, do not use too light or too dark a color. Light colors will not display with enough contrast on devices set to white backgrounds or on E-reader devices. Dark colors will not display well on devices set to black backgrounds. See the W3C recommendation for maintaining a readable contrast ratio between text and background colors. For grays, use colors within the hex value range of #666 to #999.
    • To determine if a color falls within this range, use a tool to convert your color to RGB values. Enter the resulting three numbers into the following formula: Y = (0.2126 * R) + (0.7152 * G) + (0.0722 * B). If the value of Y falls within a range of 102 and 153, this color will create a good customer experience across Kindle devices and applications.
    In a book with Enhanced Typesetting enabled, Kindle readers can be sure that any text of any color that appears above any background color will be legible. Font colors will adapt automatically to provide sufficient contrast with either the device color theme chosen by the reader or to the background color of any element. In the below example, the same colors ("yellow", "black", and "orange") were applied to both the font and their background container; notice how the font color changes to provide readable contrast with the background. Learn more about Enhanced Typesetting.



  • 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.
  • Body text should not have a forced font face. Make sure that you have followed the guidelines for embedded fonts. Not following these guidelines could lead to customers not having the ability to change their preferred reading font.
  • Body text must not use non-breaking spaces in place of normal spaces in between words in paragraphs.
  • Body text must not have an imposed left/right margin or padding throughout the book. If there are paragraphs that do require left/right margin to differentiate them visually from body text, such as a recipe list or a block quote, margins applied to these sections should be specified as percentages rather than ems or point values.
  • The following font fixes will be applied in during the upload process:
    • The font size used in the majority of the content will be normalized to 1em.
    • The font-family used in the majority of the content will be moved to the root tag (body text).
    • Forced font colors used in body text will be removed so the user may change the color of the text.

Formatting Paragraphs

For body text, either indents or extra line spacing must be used to distinguish paragraphs for customers. Amazon recommends using the text-indent attribute in the CSS to set indent values of no more than 4 ems for body paragraphs. To change the space before or after each paragraph, use the margin-top or margin-bottom styles respectively in the CSS. We recommend using em values for these attributes. Never use the height property to control the size of elements containing text or instances of overlapping text may occur in your book. The height property should only ever be applied to images in reflowable books.


Fixed Values

Avoid using fixed values such as points and pixels for CSS properties such as font-size, width, height, margin, padding, and text-indent. To enable rendering across various screen sizes and resolutions, specify these values in ems or percentages.


Margin and Padding Formatting

When using left or right margin and padding CSS properties, specify the values in percentage (%) instead of em units. This ensures that the margins do not grow too wide with large font sizes and impair reading. Margins should be assigned values of 0 or greater to keep content from falling off the edge of the screen or overlapping other content. Always set left and right margins to 0 for normal body text to allow users the full range of margin selection using device defaults. Top/bottom margins should be specified in ems so that spacing between paragraphs is easily distinguishable at any font or device size.


Drop Caps

Elements such as drop caps should be specified using percentages or relative units (positive or negative) instead of fixed values such as points and pixels. The top of the drop cap should be aligned with the body text. To create drop caps, Amazon recommends using the following sample CSS:

Example:

p.para {
font-size: 1em;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-top: 0;
text-align: justify;
text-indent: 0;
}

@media amzn-kf8

{

span.dropcaps

{

font-weight:normal; font-size:320%; float:left; margin-top:-0.3225em; margin-bottom:-0.3245em;

}

}

@media amzn-mobi

{

span.dropcaps

{

font-size:3em; font-weight: bold;

}
}

<p class="para"><span class="dropcaps">T</span>his is a sample.

To verify that the drop caps display as intended, test the book. The following is an example of a drop cap formatted using this method in a book with Enhanced Typesetting:



Small font setting

Large font setting

CSS for Page Breaks

Kindle now supports CSS attributes for page-break-inside:avoid and break-inside:avoid. This allows publishers to group elements together so they do not break across pages. Use cases include images with captions and headlines with paragraphs you want to keep together in your design.

In addition, Kindle supports CSS for page-break-after and break-after as well as page-break-before and break-before, which can be used to avoid page breaks before and after specified containers or blocks. Kindle looks at these properties to determine if page breaks need to be prevented between or inside elements. Values for these attributes are :avoid, :auto, and :always.


Using Embedded Fonts

Kindle supports embedded fonts within the eBook. These fonts can be either Open Type (OTF) or True Type (TTF). Kindle does not recommend the use of Type 1 (Postscript) fonts. To provide Kindle customers with the best possible reading experience, reflowable books that use Type 1 fonts are rendered using Kindle fonts by default. On KF8-enabled devices and applications, customers have the option to turn publisher-provided fonts on or off.

It is the responsibility of the publisher to secure the appropriate license rights for fonts. Unless embedded fonts are necessary to convey intent, Amazon recommends using the default set of fonts installed on Kindle devices and applications because they have been tuned for high quality rendering.

When choosing a font, consider usability for readers with moderate vision impairments. Choose a simple, clear font which will contrast well against all tablet and E-reader backgrounds.

Accessibility tip: Thin fonts are harder to read and can impact the perceived contrast of the text with the background. Amazon recommends avoiding thin fonts for the body text of your manuscript.

Kindle also supports a monospaced font. Content in the following tags will be rendered in monospaced font: <pre>, <code>, <samp>, <kbd>, <tt>, <font face="courier">, <font face="monospace">.

With the exception of <pre>, the tags listed above do not change the text align


Customizing Font Selection

The primary or main font in a book should be set at the <body> level. If you prefer to use additional text styling such as bold or italics, ensure that the styles are set on the text rather than the font so that any font that the customer selects correctly displays these styling elements. Below are examples of both correct and incorrect implementation of customizing fonts in a Kindle book.

Incorrect HTML Code

Correct HTML Code

<html>

<body>

<p style="font-family:PrimaryFont"> Primary font content</p>

<p style="font-family:SecondaryFont"> Secondary font content</p>

<p style="font-family:PrimaryFont"> Primary font content</p>

<p style="font-family:PrimaryFont"> Primary font content</p>

</body>

</html>

<html>

<body style="font-family:PrimaryFont">

<p>Primary font content</p>

<p style="font-family:SecondaryFont"> Secondary font content</p>

<p>Primary font content</p> <p>Primary font content</p>

</body>

</html>

The same behavior can be achieved by using CSS classes as shown below.

Incorrect CSS Code

Correct CSS Code

body{ font-size: asize; }

.indent { font-size: asize; font-family: PrimaryFont;

}

.sidebar-text { font-family: SecondaryFont; font-weight: bold;

}

body { font-family: PrimaryFont; font-size: asize;

}

.indent {

font-size: asize;

}

.sidebar-text { font-family: SecondaryFont; weight: bold;

}

When coding fonts, make sure that HTML tags are closed correctly to avoid an override conflict. When there is an override conflict, the font files within the book will be intentionally removed to provide Kindle customers with the best possible reading experience when they select the font settings.

For example:

Incorrect HTML Code

Correct HTML Code

<html>

<body style="fontfamily:PrimaryFont">

<p>Primary font content</p>

<div style="fontfamily:SecondaryFont">

Secondary font content.

<div style="font-family:ThirdFont">

Third font content

</div>

</div>

<p>Primary font content</p>

</body>

</html>

<html>

<body style="font-family:PrimaryFont">

<p>Primary font content</p>

<div style="fontfamily:SecondaryFont">

Secondary font content.

</div>

<div style="font-family:ThirdFont">

Third font content

</div>

<p>Primary font content</p>

</body>

</html>


Incorrect CSS Code

Correct CSS Code

h2.title, h3.title {
text-indent:0;
text-align:center;
font-family:'PrimaryFont';

}
h3.title {
font-family:'SecondaryFont';
font-size:2em;
font-weight:bold;

}

h2.title {
text-indent:0;
text-align:center;
font-family:'PrimaryFont';

}
h3.title {
text-indent:0;
text-align:center;
font-size:2em;
font-weight:bold;
font-family:'SecondaryFont';

}


Page Number Guidelines

Kindle books do not always map directly to page numbers in physical editions of the book. Even if the Kindle Real Page Numbers feature is activated in the Go To menu, references to page numbers within the eBook should be handled as follows:

  • Table of contents (ToC): If there are page numbers in the print source's ToC, they should be removed in the digital conversion. The name of the section should be retained and hyperlinked to the relevant location in the eBook. For example, if a print source ToC displays the entry "Chapter 1 ... P. 36," then the eBook should only display "Chapter 1" hyperlinked to the correct digital location.
  • Internal links: If there is text that refers to another page in the eBook, such as "see page XX", this text should be linked to the relevant paragraph within the eBook.
  • Index: Every page number in the index should be linked to the relevant paragraph in the eBook (or the relevant illustration, table, or chart).
  • Links within index: If there is an entry that references another section of the index, such as "see also XXX", this text should be linked to the relevant section within the index.

Enabling Real Page Numbers

Readers enjoy page numbers because they are a familiar method of navigation and allow readers to coordinate reading with their peers who use print versions, such as in a classroom or book club. Authors and publishers can include Amazon's Real Page Number feature in their Kindle books by adding page numbers in the EPUB, which are displayed on Kindle devices and applications.

Publishers should map the Real Page Numbers in the eBook to the print edition (hardcover, paperback, etc.) that most closely matches the eBook and provide that ISBN in metadata as described in http://kb.daisy.org/publishing/docs/navigation/pagelist.html#desc. At this time, Real Page Numbers cannot be previewed in Kindle Previewer or by sideloading, but they are visible when your eBook is published and are mentioned on the detail page.

To support the Real Page Number feature:

Additional notes:

  • Only use Roman or Arabic numerals for adding page numbers. (Example: i, ii, iii, etc. and/or 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.)
  • Do not add additional text such as "Page" in the name attribute of the pages tags (Example: "Page 1", "Page 2"). Kindle adds the word "Page" in front of the page number attribute by default.
  • Make sure there are no duplicate HTML locations referenced as different pages.
  • Make sure there are no duplicate page labels referenced as different HTML locations.
  • Make sure there are no empty page labels (even for blank pages).
  • Make sure there are no anchors without proper targets.
  • Make sure that all paths to the HTML pages are relative.

Footnote Guidelines

Amazon strongly recommends marking footnotes with the HTML5 aside element, together with the epub:type attribute. This allows accessible reading systems to ignore the footnotes except when followed by their referents and allows any reading system to handle them more intelligently (e.g., as popups). This usage ensures that even if the EPUB semantic is not recognized, the notes will still be treated as secondary content due the nature of the HTML5 aside element.

Regardless of whether the aside element is used, Amazon requires formatting footnotes with bidirectional hyperlinks (the text is linked to the footnote and the footnote is linked back to the text). This makes it easier for customers to return to the text after viewing the footnote. On some Kindle devices, such as Kindle Paperwhite, footnotes with bi-directional hyperlinks are displayed in a pop-up.

For a better reading experience, Amazon strongly recommends placing the footnote text at the end of the chapter or book.

Define footnotes using either of the following methods:

Method 1 (preferred):

<p>This footnote example uses the aside element with the epub:type attribute and bi-directional hyperlinks.<sup><a id="source" href="#ft-1-1" epub:type="noteref">1</a></sup></p>

...

<aside id="ft-1-1" epub:type="footnote">

<p><a epub:type="noteref" href="#source">1.</a> This is the footnote text, which should be placed at the end of the chapter or book.</p>

</aside>

Method 2:

<p>This footnote example uses bi-directional hyperlinks only. <sup><a href=>footnotes.html#fn1" id="r1">[2]</a></sup></p>
...
<p id="fn1"><a href="chapter01.html#r1">2.</a> This is the footnote text, which should be placed at the end of the chapter or book.</p>

If your book includes footnotes or endnotes without numbers or symbols, Amazon recommends creating a single link from the note to the relevant text in the book.

Example:

<p>This example describes an <a id="fn1"/>event that happened.</p>
...
<p><a href="chapter01.html#fn1">event that happened</a> This is the endnote text, which provides a reference for the details of the event.</p>


MathML Support

Enhanced Typesetting supports MathML.

Supported Tags:

maligngroup

mrow

malignmark

ms

math

mspace

menclose

msqrt

mfenced

mstyle

mfrac

msub

mi

msubsup

mlabeledtr

msup

mmultiscripts

mtable

mn

mtd

mo

mtext

mover

mtr

mpadded

munder

mphantom

munderover

mroot

Unsupported Tags:

annotation

maction

mglyph

mlongdiv

msgroup

mstack

semantics

Troubleshooting:

Open the HTML page with MathJax. If MathML is displayed without any issues, then it will be supported in Enhanced Typesetting.

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