Very small font size on conversions to Mobi/Kindle conversions

[Torbjorn Lindgren]

Version: Calibre 0.7.58, revision 8994 and later.
OS: Windows 7 64-bit

After I updated to 0.7.58 I converted a couple of different ePub files to MOBI (Kindle 3) and they all have very small fonts everywhere. At first I assumed it was something with the first file but when every single one came out the same way I wondered if it was the new calibre version. I can get roughly the previous font-size as all earlier Calibre versions gave by changing Base font size from 0 (implicit 16.0) to 22.0, so the font size is a lot smaller (30-40%).

I tried reconverting an old .lit file and the result was the same, 0.7.58 conversions results in much smaller fonts than it should be in the resulting mobi file (previous versions converted it correctly).

So I rolled back to my previous source checkout, revision 8993 and when using that version the fonts sizes look fine (same as its looked as far as I can remember, the mobi files generated by 8993 are also significantly smaller (first case I looked at: 450 kB vs 475 kB) than 0.7.58.

I tried a few different revisions to find the exact point, anything up to and including 8993 is fine and 8994 and anything later is "broken". Conversions from that lit file to ePub and it works fine with 0.7.58, so this problem only affects conversions to some formats, I assume that's why it wasn't catched immediately.

I've attached the lit file I used for testing, I can provide the resulting mobi files from different Calibre versions if requested. I can also provide a number of sample epub files, but it doesn't seem really necessary since every single conversion to mobi that I've done has been affected so it should be trivial to reproduce.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

Change your input profile in Preferences->Common Options->Page Setup to The
default profile or the sont profile.

 status fixreleased

[Torbjorn Lindgren (torbjorn-lindgren)]

My Calibre was *already* set to "Default Input Profile"!
Additionally, I've now tried revision 9092 which supposedly fixes this and it's still giving the wrong fonts.

Just to be 100% sure I even set the input profile to Kindle, then back to "Default Input Profile", restarted Calibre and it still converts that lit file with wrong fonts. I could try other files but I think I've already proven that the diagnose and fix was incorrect.

[Torbjorn Lindgren (torbjorn-lindgren)]

Note: All this the testing was done with revision 9092.

[Torbjorn Lindgren (torbjorn-lindgren)]

Converted with revision 9092, all fonts are much smaller than they ought to be and was before 8994.
I already checked the global settings, but then thought it could be the per-item settings. So I pressed Restore Defaults before running this conversion.
Settings I suspect I may have be changed from default.
Remove spacing between paragraphs: Yes
Output Profile: Kindle
Input Profile: Default Input Profile (not changed but important).
Output format: MOBI

I can provide converted versions with r8993 if you wish too, or enable debug and provide the content from the debug directories from either. I can also provide any other files or settings you want and/or run test patches.

The sample I used are from Baen Free Library, so no restriction on using it.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

Look at the debug log to see which input profile is being used for your conversion. I tried converting your attached file, and the resulting MOBI looks normal to me. See attached.

[Torbjorn Lindgren (torbjorn-lindgren)]

The fonts in yours looks correct and it even picks up the hierarchical structure too, I've seen it do that sometimes but never got it to do that on this file.

I was wondering if it could be that you were running "test_eight_code = True" but that didn't help. This log is done with 9093 (latest), test_eight_code = False and calibre-debug -g > logfile, same result. I also rechecked the original 0.7.58 to confirm it wasn't something with my source install.

Not sure how to interpret the calibre-debug log, <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x055ED430> doesn't say me much. Perhaps you can compare it with your and see something.

I do have a lot of plugins installed, no one that should affect this though (no weird one, they're all available via the Plugin Updater). Do you want me to uninstall all the plugins or try with a pristine Calibre setup? I can easily install either 0.7.58 or latest Bazaar revision on one of the other Windows machines? I assume it could also be the official Python 2.7.1 install that's on the machine but that seems exceedingly strange that it would result in this.

Is there anything else I can do to debug or fix this? As a former C/C++/perl programmer I can easily apply custom debug patches to one of the source checkouts if you have something we could check.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

There was an additional wrinkle that I missed last night (see rev 9098). Update to latest trunk and you should be fine.

[Torbjorn Lindgren (torbjorn-lindgren)]

Confirmed, looks fine (using revision 9100). I'll set the status to fix released.