Help for Creating Framemaker Output for Kindle Direct Publishing (Print)

Report · Jul 21, 2020

I have a 475 page book I've created in FM for a decade or longer. It's printed these days on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), formerly Createspace. (Note this is for a print book sold on amazon, NOT the kindle--for that, see below) I exported for the 2017 edition without incident by exporting the PS file, and then running it through Acrobat Distiller. I updated the book now in FM 2020 and tried that process again and now the file is rejected by KDP because (according to their tech support) of transparency issues.

Below are their recommendation for printing. I figured out how to find PDF/X-1a 2001, and most of the other issues but not the "Transparent objects are flattened." one.

I'm also confused by the many different ways to generate a PDF. Can anyone recommend a method that would do the flattening?

Thanks!

John

With the native document open in the application you used to write your book, select "File > Print."
Select "PDF" from the list of printers you can to print to. If you do not find "PDF" in the list, there may be a "Print to PDF" or "PDF" button in the dialog box. Select this option if it is available. Otherwise, try Option 2 below.
Click "Properties", "Settings", or "Options" (naming depends on your system) to check the PDF settings that will be used to create your PDF file. If available, select "PDF/X-1a," "High-Quality Print" or "Press Quality" from the list of presets. If your system allows, make sure the following settings are chosen. Any other settings should be left to default in most cases.
- Fonts and images are embedded.
- Specified page size matches the intended trim size plus bleed (if applicable). You may lose the bleed you included in your native document if not printed to the proper size.
- Bookmarks, annotations, and comments are disabled.
- Document security (any type) is not used.
- PDF/X format is used. PDF/X is preferred, but if you are submitting non-PDF/X files (for example, PDF/A), any comments, forms, or other non-printing objects could be removed during our review.
- Transparent objects are flattened.
- Spreads and printer's marks are disabled.
- Downsampling, or decreasing resolution, of images is disabled.
Provide a name and location for the PDF file you are printing to (may default to the current name and location of the native document). Click "OK" in the print dialog box.
Once created, make sure to open the PDF file to see that it appears as you intended. Otherwise, make the necessary adjustments in the native document and re-create the PDF file.

Report · Jul 22, 2020

Well it looks like I'm not going to get a response here but if anyone's interested I have been posting updates over at the KDP forum: https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/question/0D52T000056RC4iSAG/incredibly-frustrating-interior-error

Thanks, John

Report · Jul 23, 2020

Can you please check this thread once. Not sure who the author of this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/transparency-compliance-with-pdf-x-1a/td-p/9277582?page=1

PDF engine across Indesign and FrameMaker is similar so you would need to ensure job option is correctly configured.

THanks

Amitoj Singh

Report · Jul 23, 2020

Thanks, this stuff make my head hurt. I still am not getting any guidance from Amazon, so I guess I just have to eventually hear from them some day.

John

Report · Jul 23, 2020

I may have missed something in the thread, but you may get better results by making your first output Epub. The EPub format is a little easier to understand and work with; it is like a small web site wrapped up in a zip archive. I use a program called Sigil to validate and make minor edits to an EPub. Once you have a valid EPub, Amazon has a tool for converting it to Kindle format. In my experience, a valid EPub will usually produce a valid, compliant Kindle document that Amazon will accept.

Report · Jul 23, 2020

Thanks but this is for the print on demand paper book version (which is still outselling the kindle edition).

The kindle edition was a breeze. I took the High Qualty print PDF, ran it through their Kindle Create software and made a print replica and uploaded the output of that which was immediately accepted. It's already online.

John

Report · Jul 23, 2020

OK I see. I am sorry for not getting the whole picture.

Report · Jul 23, 2020

No worries thanks for your help!

John

Report · Jul 23, 2020

Finally I got some actionable information from them! I have a few cases where my illustrator created two graphics in one Adobe Illustrator document. I then created an anchored frame, and then inserted the graphic inside the frame and just placed it so the unused illustration was not visible. This worked just fine on the last two editions on Createspace/Amazon. However now, somehow that got exported out through the PDF. You can see the parts that are supposed to be invisible where it's behind the text or outside the margins.

Any ideas on how to get the PDF just to export what is visible? I don't really want to have to go through and replace the files on hundreds of graphics.

Thanks!

John

Report · Jul 23, 2020

What I got from that thread was that you need to choose the PDF/X-1a option in your job options file and pick something like "compatible with Acrobat 4" to get the flattening effect happening.

Report · Jul 23, 2020

Thanks yes I have tried 7 different submissions with various X-1a options so far and they just keep getting rejected with no explanation. Their support says they are "working on it". Lesson: Don't use Amazon KDP. Before they absorbed Createspace, Createspace was great.

Thanks!

John

Report · Jul 23, 2020

RePosted above, I guess I can't delete this

Report · Jul 23, 2020

Can you condition the extra graphics so that they are hidden from publishing?

Report · Jul 23, 2020

I might be able to do that if I knew what that meant 🙂 I'm a never ending FM noob since I use it once every 3-5 years.

Thanks!

John

Report · Jul 23, 2020

In that case, the simplest thing you can do is just strip out the unused graphics - why put them in anyway if you're not using them??

Report · Jul 23, 2020

See above.

They aren't "unused", but in some cases I'm only showing a part of a larger graphic file. It would probably be several full days of work to go back through and crop out each graphic individually, re save it, insert new file names, etc etc.

Again, I never had problems with this in the last two editions in Createspace/KDP so if it ain't broke...

Thanks!

John

Report · Jul 24, 2020

But I guess manually reworking all the graphics may be the best option I have. Thanks for your reply.

John