Comments on: Decrease Kindle File Size With Calibre to Lower KDP Delivery Fees http://empty-grave.com/2012/04/decrease-kindle-file-size-with-calibre-to-lower-kdp-delivery-fees/ Independent PoD and eBook Publisher Mon, 18 Sep 2017 19:19:02 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.7.41 By: Jean-Christian Imbeault http://empty-grave.com/2012/04/decrease-kindle-file-size-with-calibre-to-lower-kdp-delivery-fees/#comment-5354 Wed, 30 Apr 2014 13:51:04 +0000 http://empty-grave.com/?p=494#comment-5354 Update: in my case even I used that parameter to shrink size of the .mobi file I upload to KDP. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have changed the size that KDP says my file is after ‘processing’. I have a suspicion that KDP already uses that parameter when ‘processing’ whatever file you upload.

]]> By: Nicolai http://empty-grave.com/2012/04/decrease-kindle-file-size-with-calibre-to-lower-kdp-delivery-fees/#comment-5352 Wed, 30 Apr 2014 13:46:56 +0000 http://empty-grave.com/?p=494#comment-5352 Thanks for the info Jean-Christian! I’ll add your note to the page.

]]> By: Jean-Christian Imbeault http://empty-grave.com/2012/04/decrease-kindle-file-size-with-calibre-to-lower-kdp-delivery-fees/#comment-5350 Wed, 30 Apr 2014 06:10:22 +0000 http://empty-grave.com/?p=494#comment-5350 kindlegen now has a parameter t not include the source in the generated .mobi file. This reduces the file size by at least 50%.

The parameter is: -dont_append_source

]]> By: Nicolai http://empty-grave.com/2012/04/decrease-kindle-file-size-with-calibre-to-lower-kdp-delivery-fees/#comment-2428 Thu, 09 May 2013 20:13:29 +0000 http://empty-grave.com/?p=494#comment-2428 Hey Nate.

I haven’t used Amazon’s Comic Creator before, primarily because it wasn’t out when I was doing all those cartoon strip books. It probably wouldn’t have done much different for me just because all of my cartoons were single-panel and filled the screen already. I’ll have to check it out when I get back to publishing–been on kind of a hiatus while I’m tinkering with app programming.

I can draw about as well as a turnip but I am pretty good with Photoshop and can create some nice covers and interior graphics that way. I may have future work for a real comic artist though. If you are interested just shoot me an email (address on contact page and my profile) with some links to, or samples of, the type of art you do and maybe we can work something out for later this year.

Adam

]]> By: Nate http://empty-grave.com/2012/04/decrease-kindle-file-size-with-calibre-to-lower-kdp-delivery-fees/#comment-2425 Thu, 09 May 2013 03:23:33 +0000 http://empty-grave.com/?p=494#comment-2425 Thanks, Adam!

I’ll tinker with it and see what I can get. Is Calibre better than Amazon’s Comic Creator? I have never used Calibre before.

I did a test with the Comic Creator and I like the panel zoom function but 3 pages made a 2.25MB file which would cost more for delivery than I’d sell the comic for!

Yea, that seems like a stupid, rip-ya-off policy. Are you a comic artist? I’m looking to network with artists and authors, glad I found your blog, very nice and informative! Love the graphics.

Cheers,

Nate

]]> By: Nicolai http://empty-grave.com/2012/04/decrease-kindle-file-size-with-calibre-to-lower-kdp-delivery-fees/#comment-2424 Thu, 09 May 2013 02:56:31 +0000 http://empty-grave.com/?p=494#comment-2424 Hi Nate. Thanks for stopping by! Optimization of the graphics depends on what type of graphics you are dealing with. Mine were, for the most part, black/white line drawings. To optimize those I chose to save as .GIF files and forced it to save with just two colors (black/white). GIF files typically have a nice low file size so they were perfect.

For color it’s a different story though. You would have to tinker with your Photoshop (or equivalent program) “save for web” options and see what works best for you. You can try .GIF and decrease the color-cap until just above where your image starts to look noticeably worse, then compare that file size with a .JPG that you slide the quality down on. If you have a bunch of color images that you want to look sharp (high-rez) on tablets you are probably just going to have to bite the bullet and choose the 35% royalty option–at least until Amazon changes that idiotic policy.

If you want to email me a high-quality example of what you’re working with (or upload on a Google cloud drive or website) I would be glad to tinker with it to see how low I can get the file size in GIF JPG and PNG formats.

If you are using Calibre to convert your ebook format to Amazon’s MOBI type just make sure you check the box I noted in the post above as well.

Cheers!

Adam

]]> By: Nate http://empty-grave.com/2012/04/decrease-kindle-file-size-with-calibre-to-lower-kdp-delivery-fees/#comment-2423 Thu, 09 May 2013 01:19:04 +0000 http://empty-grave.com/?p=494#comment-2423 How do you ‘optimize’ the comic, as you say?

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