The newest Amazon guidelines say :
Kindlegen 2.9 however converts PNG in epubs to either GIF or JPEG on its whim, bloating the file and (when it makes JPEGs), blurring it. Does the update change that? I'd love to be able to use PNG.
Now I make text images (e.g. title pages), diagrams, most maps, ornaments, as GIF files, so they don't get messed up by Kindlegen.
(I'm avoiding KFX at this time.)
The documentation states that you can use PNG in the source of your book. It does not say that customers will receive PNG as a result.

Amazon reprocesses images, potentially changing their format, quality, and dimensions. This will vary based on the target device and file format.
Was this scripted by Amazon's legal department?
I cited the documentation that states the KF8 format does support PNG.

I want to know if I can actually make a KF8 file, using the PNGs Amazon states are supported by the format, and not have them "processed" and degraded.

I'm guessing the answer is still "No", but I live in hope.

I have heard that Calibre can do this, but while I'm sure it would work, might not be accepted for upload to Amazon.

There are KF7, KF8, KFX, AZK. The files do not "vary"for each device, though how each device displays them may be different. Or am I mistaken?
I don't care about KF7, but the rest should be able to cope with PNG, a format unencumbered by patents invented over 20 years ago.
Even the same format (eg KF8) can be delivered with different image content based on the reading device/app.

This thread has a discussion of different image content being delivered to customers of the same kindle book.
Yes, and it's said that since at least 2012. In the 2012.4 documentation:

Which is pretty much what it says NOW, no??? In fact, unless I'm losing it, 9.4.1 says exactly what 3.5.1 said 6 years ago. :-)

...and, as far as I know, nothing in terms of that has really changed. Although, Alan, we get really good image quality, compared to 2012 or even 2015. Yes, like you, we use PNGs and GIFs as the base image--GIF for line-art and tables, etc., PNGs for pretty much everything else. The image quality of the reprocessing has certainly increased. IMHO, of course.


Sorry--unless something's changed in the last two or three days, the answer is "no." I was just discussing this with them, as it happens. I have a client that is having cows over the fact that in Sepia/Night/Green his fleurons and chapter heads have the ubiquitous "white box" behind them. (sigh). I even sent him a Harry Potter, so he could see that even the biggest author in the world has the dreaded White Box. ;-) (not your issue, I know--yours being degradation--but that's why I was on with them.)

Given that the resulting file would be, at best, reprocessed, during the intake and PW (Publishing Workflow, as Amazon calls it) it's somewhat moot.

They absolutely vary. HD images, non-HD images...two different devices literally get different files. About 4 years ago, there was KF8 and KF7. Now, there are myriad different...flavors, I'd guess I call them...of KF8 delivered to the different devices.

You could try SVG, of course, but that's got its own issues and equally, KF7 doesn't support that at all. Moreover, at the moment, SVG will cause a page-break after each usage, too. Kind of a big PITA, really.

May I ask what type of image you're fighting with? Or examples, or...? I probably can't help, but you never know, someone here might have a helpful idea.

Hitch
just a suggestion that *small* ornaments (fleurons, etc) can be generated as font glyphs

Create a SVG image, and import into a font editor which is capable of such things ---such as Type 3.2 from CR8 Software Solutions --- Convert to glyph, and add that glyph to an embedded font.

(PS-- you can also copy glyphs from one font to another with this app)


I have done this many times, but of course, I am a hobbyist, and not using KDP.

Granny:

That would not be a great solution for KDP, as the KF7's can't display embedded fonts, and equally, many KF8 devices (the Paperwhite family) allow the total overriding of embedded fonts, so that the font glyphs would not work at all.

Hitch
@Hitch, you are right of course. Hobbyists can rush in where pros dare not tread.

I always map my special glyphs to a semi-decorative character (asterisk, tilde, etc), so even if the embedded font is not used, it won't look too awful. But the professional production will be expected to display the decoration, not an asterisk.
Oh bother and heck. Transparent PNGs still not reliably supported in 2022?

This is going to explain the problem I'm getting. I'd always thought that it was working - though to be honest it's hardly been a problem for years with just simple character head images.
I'd "assumed that becuse Amazon said PNG is supported that it would be true" (more fool me!)

What I'm currently finding is that I have a table with shaded backgrounds on alternate rows. There are PNG icons (nicely made with transparent backgrounds). BUT... on the white background lines, SOME of the PNGs have aquired the background colour of the shaded cells!!!

Um, well, SOME of them. In fact if the icon first appers in a cell that has a white background then the image will have a white box throughout, if the icon first appears on a SHADED cell, then all subsequent instances of that image have a shaded box.

... well, that's just lovely.

Just gonna have to drop the alternate shading and face the customer.
"Supported" has meant, for over a decade, converted to jpg. That's it. Even the Harry Potter Kindle eBooks show the "png" chapter images as white-backgrounded, (as they are jpgs, not pngs or anything else with transparency).

Not sure what that "shading' is--you should see white boxes and nothing else.

Hitch