[JD Goff]

I am currently creating an ebook using KDP software called Kindle Create. This book will not be published at Amazon but potentially on other platforms. The software uses fonts typically found on some of the latest "Kindle" devices. These fonts are "Amazon Ember", "Bookerly" and "Monospace" (of which the latter seems to be free to use).

I cannot change the fonts into fonts I own myself and redoing the book (which took ages) in other software will take ages. I only thought of the potential font licensing problem a day or so ago. I have also tried taking my .epub and changing the font, which totally stuffs the formatting. I have the description of the license of the Amazon fonts here:

Amazon Ember Licensing Guidelines | PDF | Typefaces | Notation

Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site.

www.scribd.com

It says nothing about "Monospace". I cannot help but wonder what power Amazon will have over people using their fonts against potential policies (that may update without us even knowing it.)

Also, did any of you know the Times new Roman license costs $340 through Fonts(dot)com, or $210 on MyFonts(dot)com? I think the average user would have expected a font like this to be free to use commercially.

Which fonts do you use to create your ebooks and paperbacks?

• Do you guys use fonts you have purchased? - free fonts may be resold by scammers (and commercial fonts may wrongfully be advertised as free to use)
• The fonts that came with windows? - as far as I know, some windows fonts may not be used commercially (eg. times new roman)
• Your adobe software? - it is unclear to me when one is allowed to use Adobe fonts commercially
• other?

It is probably a stupid question, but I will ask it anyway. Do you think it will be safe to use the Amazon Ember font in my ebook (not published at Amazon)?

First, fonts are intellectual property and copyrighted. The fonts used by Amazon are in-house and the license to use them is part of the package. Ebooks are known as "reflowable" publications because the layout is determined by the device and the reader, who can choose font size and type, so you cannot set your font outside of the ones available. This is because the fonts must have the ability to reflow. Now, there is a setting in Kindle Create that allows you to override the font for things like chapter titles or even passages, but you are still limited to the fonts in the program.

I put together a tutorial on how to use Kindle Create to put together your book over on youtube.Currently you can use Kindle Create to make an epub version, but it will not produce a PDF file for print. The file format Amazon uses is KPF (Kindle Print File), and is used to create both the electronic and print version of the book. If you're interested in learning about how to use Kindle Create to design your book, you can check out my tutorial. I've also put together a tutorial on how to do a layout for print publication using Scribus, an open source design and layout program similar to Adobe In Line.

 

[JD Goff]

Hi there

I am basically familiar on how to use Kindle Create. I am trying to find out the terms of using their software and fonts to create a .epub. Do they have some sort of legal standing in me using their software with the fonts inside? Am I only allowed to distribute the .epub I created with their software to Amazon?



Thank you. Checking out your tutorial.
Edit: I like your voice. You should be on Focus on the Family or Radio or something.

Hi there

I am basically familiar on how to use Kindle Create. I am trying to find out the terms of using their software and fonts to create a .epub. Do they have some sort of legal standing in me using their software with the fonts inside? Am I only allowed to distribute the .epub I created with their software to Amazon?



Thank you. Checking out your tutorial.
Edit: I like your voice. You should be on Focus on the Family or Radio or something.

Thanks. I'm not a huge fan of how I sound, but then most people don't like the sound of their own voice. I narrated my first book (and I'm working on the second) because I've had a lot of people ask for an audio book version, though I'm not happy with it. But since audiobooks are one of the fastest growing segments in publishing, and I can't afford to hire a narrator, and no one has complained (too much), I guess I'm stuck doing them. It's nice to have a person who doesn't know me say they like my voice. I appreciate it.

As to using Kindle Create for making an epub version for distributing to other outlets, I don't believe there's any restriction. It is in beta, and I haven't played with it too much yet, but it does seem to work okay. The KPF file (the default output) will only work with Kindle, and you can't make a PDF of the book using Kindle Create, so it's not good for print books outside of Amazon, though the KPF will create a print version for Amazon. I would recommend reaching out to the Kindle support team for an authoritative answer. The only exception I know of would be if you have your book enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program, which requires that you have it exclusively on Amazon.

 

[JD Goff]

No worries. I meant it and in my opinion, you can do audiobooks with your voice.


What's stupid is that their documentation (if it's the right documentation) is old and unclear.


I will only be using .epub (I very muched liked the .KPF format for my fixed layout books, but I didn't use it as I knew that only Amazon will upload those. I am now hoping I can legally en safely upload a KDP generated .epub to lets say D2D.

Unfortunately KDP has written me off and is treating me like a dog in Calcutta. No way I am contacting them to ask this. I cannot trust a word they say anymore. My opinion of them was great until 2 months ago. But I still have friends who use them and are happy....oh well.

I don't know what your budget is, but if you can scrape together $147, I highly recommend Atticus. It's not cheap, but it is very easy to use, it creates ePub files which can be used on Amazon to create an eBook, and it has a lot more versatility than Kindle Create. KC is not bad, considering it's free, and it's come a long way since the original DOS based ebook software they had years ago, but Atticus is really good. Scrivener isn't bad either, but it's hard to learn. I'm working on a Scrivener video right now, and I find it counter intuitive (the prorgam, hopefully not the video ).

 

[JD Goff]

After KDP closed my account, I lost all my income. So opening $147 on software feels kind of risky, especially if distributors can close accounts so easily. I have also downloaded Scrivenger (Sigil) (I got confused between the two) and need to see if it will work for me. If it needs code, no way I will use it. It seems like most software is going online these days. I hate that and much prefer doing things offline. If I recover from what happened to my books and it seems to be going well, I will perhaps reconsider Atticus.

I have however checked my KDP .epub file with D2D and it gives the following results:

Validation for current epub: 0 fatals / 0 errors / 0 warnings / 0 infos
Your epub is valid according to EPUB version 3.0 rules.

The question whether I am allowed to use the Kindle Create .epub, still remains unresolved. I spent a lot of work using the Kindle Create software....so either way it will be terrible if I had to recreate my .epub. But if I have to do it, I will, especially if there is a better way.

Sorry to hear about your issue with KDP.

You can, but D2D likes to use their own epub, so it will tell you you won't be able to use their features, such as automatic table of content generation. If you've already built that in yours then you don't need to worry about it. I get the same notice when I upload files I created with Atticus.

Atticus is an odd bird. You don't have to be online to use is, just to open it. It is a browser based app, meaning it runs in your browser whether you have a connection or not. You need to be online because your files are stored online, and you need that initial connection in the beginning to open the project you want to work on. Once that's done, you can go offline.

I haven't used sigil so I don't know if it requires coding. Scrivener comes highly recommended, but it does have a high learning curve. It does, however, have 30 (I believe) free launches for you to evaluate the software. I like this feature because most software has a 30 day trial while scrivener has 30 free uses, so you can open it 30 times, with no limit on the number of days it takes you to use those 30 instances.

 

[JD Goff]

There are alternates to Kindle Create, which is an excellent free tool, but you are limited to their fonts and their distribution network. Though, KC now does have the ability to create EPUB files, allowing for your e-book to be more widely distributed. That said, you're still restricted to Amazon for your print editions, and there is very little formatting for these, and you face the same font restrictions. Reedsy is a very popular free resource that allows you to create both print and e-book editions, and they have a library of licensed typefaces (technically, a font is the type of imprint, such as bold or italic, while the type face is the style of letters and glyphs), but you are limited to their templates for producing your layout.

For my money, literally, I have been impressed with Atticus, which also has an extensive library of licensed typefaces. And they recently made available all of Google's typefaces, though it is in beta, and only works for print books. Further, they have customizable templates, which allow you to make your book unique and have far greater control of its layout, both for e-books and print publications.

I used to use HTML to do my e-book layouts, and Scribus (a free, open source alternative to Acrobat Pro) for my print books. It was time-consuming, and I spent hours on e-book design, only to spend even more hours doing the interior layout for my print books. Atticus gets all that done in a fraction of the time, and while it doesn't get me 100% of what I could do in Scribus, it's close enough. And the hours of time it saves me, made it worth every penny. All that alone would be worth it, but I have a large library of licensed typefaces at my disposal as well.

 

[JD Goff]

Here's a description of my problem:

KDP Community

www.kdpcommunity.com

What ImaWriter says about Windows Pro vs Windows Home could explain what's going on. But it seems very strange. I've discovered that you can right-click on a font file and get Properties, and there does not seem to be any difference between my old Windows Pro machine and my new Windows Home one.

The information is embedded in the font's meta data, which can be read by certain programs.

 

[JD Goff]

The information is embedded in the font's meta data, which can be read by certain programs.

The problem is that when you upload your file that you created, Kindle converts it to one of their own fonts. I just did a video on this, well, not on it, but referencing fonts and how they work. Kindle tries to convert the typeface (which is what we're actually talking about, fonts are technically just the style; bold, italic, etc), it tries to do a one to one conversion, but typefaces are comprised of glyphs, which represent letters, numbers and symbols. These are tied to a code in the operating system of the device. In the case of windows, for instance, the copyright symbol is alt+0169. ©

If there is not a corresponding code for the glyph in your device, it will use generic symbol in its place. You've already seen it, its the square.

Embedding fonts in word when you export to a pdf is only for print. It won't do anything for e-books unless you actually publish your book as a pdf, which kindle can open.

There is a way to embed fonts, but you have to be careful which you use. Amazon doesn't allow postscript (type 1) fonts, and will convert them to Bookerly, it's default font.

There's an article on Amazon's site that breaks it down, which I've linked to below. Hopefully it will help.

Text Guidelines - Reflowable

kdp.amazon.com