Kindle Previewer 3 has been updated to support the typographic and layout improvements available with Enhanced Typesetting.
The free desktop app from Amazon enables authors to preview how their books will appear when delivered for different screen sizes, display orientations and font sizes.
Users can selectively review key aspects of an Enhanced Typesetting-enabled book, such as images, tables, drop caps and lists without having to go through the whole book.
Kindle Previewer 3 was launched in a beta version in February 2016 and the new updated app opens eBooks in .epub, .mobi, .htm, .html, .xhtml, .mobi, .opf, .kpf, .doc and .docx formats. Support for .doc and .docx is limited to English language content.
The new features and improvements in Kindle Previewer 3 include:
- Access to the latest Kindle layout and typographic features that come with Enhanced Typesetting.
- Reflects the layout of the book as delivered to Kindle customers.
- Easy navigation options to review images, lists, tables and drop caps without having to go through the entire book.
- Simplified installer for Mac and Windows that does not require you to manually download additional software.
- Full-page previews without having to scroll.
- Ability to change the fonts during preview.
- Separate navigation pane for quicker page navigation.
- Faster text search, page navigation, and book re-open.
To use Kindle Previewer 3, download and install the program, launch the app and use Menu/Open Book to open, convert and preview a book.
Amazon introduced Enhanced Typesetting in August 2015 on the top-of-the-line Kindle Voyage and gradually added support for other devices. Books that are supported for Enhanced Typesetting also get Kindle features such as Page Flip. Some of the benefits include:
- Typography — Drop caps, hyphenation, smoother word spacing, kerning and ligatures.
- Layout features — Higher-quality images, font alignment and table formatting.
- Reading experience — Page-Flip to navigate within a book while reading and progressive download, so customers can start reading a book while it is still downloading.
Not all ebooks are compatible with Enhanced Typesetting and Amazon is working on guidance to ensure your book supports Enhanced Typesetting. Ebooks uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing are automatically converted for Enhanced Typesetting if they are compatible.
Enhanced Typesetting ebooks use the KFX file format but Kindle Previewer 3 does not allow you to convert an ebook to that format. The Calibre ebook management tool does feature a KFX converter plugin which can convert files from epub to KFX but this is mainly intended for sideloading converted epub files to be able to use the Enhanced Typesetting features on a Kindle device.
In April 2017, Amazon launched the free Kindle Create app which offers a simple way of producing ebooks from Word files but this does not offer any specific KFX support.
Links to related articles:
Amazon updates Kindle Voyage with Bookerly font and new typesetting engine
Amazon updates Kindle Voyage with Bookerly font and new typesetting engine