Design Issues with PNG and PSD Images in EPUB Export from InDesign for Kindle Previewer

[thariqlatheef]

I designed a book in Adobe InDesign 2023 and exported it as an EPUB (Fixed Layout). When I open the EPUB file in Adobe Digital Edition 4.5, the eBook looks good with only minimal differences that do not affect the design. It looks ready for any eBook publishing platform.

However, the client wants to check it on Kindle, as they will be publishing it there. When I open the same EPUB file in Kindle Previewer 3, I see many design errors. PNG and PSD images, which I included in InDesign, have white backgrounds. This causes them to overlap and hide the text. JPEG/JPG files look good. Is there any solution to this?

See below images: left side view is Kindle.

   

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

Okay, several things going on here.

First, FXL/fixed page EPUB is a problematic format on many levels. It's a "works or it doesn't" process, and if there are flaws, they are difficult to resolve. This is compounded when the export is from a developed print layout. The assumption is often that FXL is the obvious or simple choice for e-book export, like export to PDF, but the truth is that it has all the hurdles and limitations of reflowable EPUB with many more of its own. Unlike PDF, which was developed to emulate a printer, EPUB needs an absolutely meticulous document structure to work with, including hidden elements and layout methods, or it will export with flaws. Put simply, it's a poor choice to rely on and if your first attempt doesn't come out well, it can be difficult to put right because there are probably sloppy "hey, it works in print!" aspects to the source document.

Second, EPUB and Kindle are not the same format at all. There's no reason to expect any given EPUB document, reflowable or FXL, to convert to Kindle without changes and flaws. In developing books for all platforms, a print layout must be specifically adapted to an export for optimum results on generic EPUB, the common Apple/iBooks version of EPUB, and Kindle.

Next, EPUB supports only three image formats, JPEG, PNG and GIF. InDesign converts any other format to one of those, and can be set to convert all images to one of them as well. If the export isn't good enough, and adjusting the few export options available doesn't fix things, the only good solution is to replace all source image files with one of the supported formats, with strong preference given to JPEG over PNG. (It is a nearly absolute rule to never use or convert to GIF, which is an obsolete and cranky format for anything but animated forum avatars.)

So those are the areas causing problems for you — you'll have to work at the source file until it gives the desired results for both FXL EPUB (using a "vanilla" EPUB reader like Calibre as your proofing tool) and Kindle Previewer. Besides needing two separate export files, know that Kindle does not handle fixed-page books very well or on all devices, making it an even poorer choice for that platform.

Happy to help further if the above doesn't get your project sorted out.

[thariqlatheef]

Thank you @James Gifford—NitroPress,
I just converted all the PNG and PSD formats to JPEG (which means EPUB file for Kindle only contains JPEG Images). Now the problem is solved, and the EPUB looks great in the Kindle Previewer. The print version is fine; I just adjusted a new version of the same InDesign project specifically for Kindle. Now it looks okay! Thanks for your help!

Solved:

Sovled: 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Good! An addendum, though — don't use ADE. It's a badly flawed doc viewer. Use a good standards-based reader like Calibre to check your EPUB results.