391–400 of 433 posts
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> Amazon is very strict about EPUB validity. They're also bad at converting perfectly valid epubs to their own format.
EPUB3, yes. I don't think I have seen any EPUB2 having problem (except if it's missing encoding declaration)
I very consciously did not buy a Kindle when choosing an Ereader about a year ago. The Kobo H2O is incredible and has served me very well. The format support is wonderful, and the stock OS does more than I need (though there is a whole community of custom OSes that also look cool). Combined with Calibre, I don't even see what the Kindle value prop is.
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EPUB3, yes. I don't think I have seen any EPUB2 having problem (except if it's missing encoding declaration)
How are you getting them onto your Kindle? Send to Kindle using EPUB does not work at all for me.
https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Previewer/b?ie=UTF8&node=21381...
They do this because the normal flow involved in publishing a kindle book is that you write an epub and submit it to Amazon.
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Kindles only work with libraries in the U.S. Nowhere else. That's the regional edge case. Overdrive also supported ePubs before Kindle including the original Kobo back in 2010 although you had to go through the whole Adobe Digital Editions rigamarole.
TIL. And yes, that’s definitely a larger edge case but I would still posit that for many users who are buying into an ecosystem, Kindle is going to be the most portable. But that’s an important distinction for anyone who wants to check books out from their local library.
LOL, you think this is an _edge_ case? Feels pretty central from where me and the rest of the world are sitting...
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Can you use Calibre to strip the DRM off Kobo e-books? Being able to own my books outright is the only reason I went with Kindle over Kobo in 2014.
You can. It's slightly more involved than the Kindle DRM stripping, but it's not bad. I was able to do it and I don't even own a Kobo. I found a book I wanted that was for sale on the Kobo store but not offered by Amazon. For those who want to try this at home, you're looking for the Calibre Obok Plugin. I think it's usually part of the DeDRM package which you probably already have. I can't remember where I found ins…
Okay, relevant to the discussions of e-reader formats: Why, on my 2014 kindle, do MOBI files converted from ePub not support all the fonts on my Kindle? A native purchase, or even at times a non-native MOBI direct, looks better than an epub->mobi conversion. I had to create a new preset on the Kindle for font and margin to make it look tolerable.
I very consciously did not buy a Kindle when choosing an Ereader about a year ago. The Kobo H2O is incredible and has served me very well. The format support is wonderful, and the stock OS does more than I need (though there is a whole community of custom OSes that also look cool). Combined with Calibre, I don't even see what the Kindle value prop is.
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Kindles only work with libraries in the U.S. Nowhere else. That's the regional edge case. Overdrive also supported ePubs before Kindle including the original Kobo back in 2010 although you had to go through the whole Adobe Digital Editions rigamarole.
TIL. And yes, that’s definitely a larger edge case but I would still posit that for many users who are buying into an ecosystem, Kindle is going to be the most portable. But that’s an important distinction for anyone who wants to check books out from their local library.
Meanwhile Amazon has been constantly messing with their proprietary format, DRM etc. Any book bought outside their store also almost always needs conversion too.
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You can. It's slightly more involved than the Kindle DRM stripping, but it's not bad. I was able to do it and I don't even own a Kobo. I found a book I wanted that was for sale on the Kobo store but not offered by Amazon. For those who want to try this at home, you're looking for the Calibre Obok Plugin. I think it's usually part of the DeDRM package which you probably already have. I can't remember where I found ins…
I just discovered libgen... interesting. Okay, relevant to the discussions of e-reader formats: Why, on my 2014 kindle, do MOBI files converted from ePub not support all the fonts on my Kindle? A native purchase, or even at times a non-native MOBI direct, looks better than an epub->mobi conversion. I had to create a new preset on the Kindle for font and margin to make it look tolerable.
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The Kindle is inexpensive, has great support, has a huge library (open to non-US people with non-US credit cards), and you could just email a MOBI to it (which is great if the Kindle owner is your parent). It's only disadvantage was that it did not support ePub and so one had to go through Calibre. Now that Kindle is supporting ePUB and no Calibre-tion is needed, I don't even see what the Kobo value prop is.
Except Kindle isn't supporting ePub. You can't sideload an ePub on to a Kindle. All you can do is e-mail an ePub to Amazon, and they'll convert it to AZW3 and load that file on to your Kindle. Further the conversion that they do is notoriously bad and often results in unreadable books. So you often have to tweak the ePub files before sending them to get a decent result. Calibre is essential to that process.
The AZW3 proprietary format is not something I want to struggle with in my day-to-day -- if anything goes wrong, it's a rabbit hole of reverse engineering. I like copying media to my ereader using cables, because sometimes I don't have a solid internet connection or it just feels wasteful to send a bunch of big files over email (if I'm on a tethered or metered internet connection, just sending a couple dozen books is easily in the hundreds of megabytes up and down).
Kobos are a much friendlier ecosystem, and are what I recommend to all family members who don't want their device shackled by Amazon. Easy to hook up to local libraries to borrow books on the fly, easy to copy DRM-free ebooks from online stores.
I have a Boox tablet myself because I love notetaking in nonfiction books and hand writing my notes in work meetings and journals.
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There wasn't a choice when I bought mine.
> There wasn't a choice when I bought mine. Ad-supported or not has always been a choice for as long as Amazon has offered ad-supported kindles. I remember making this choice about 10 years ago, and I made this choice about a month ago when I bought my most recent Kindle. If you bought it used or from a reseller, I don't know what to tell you, but Amazon gave you a choice if you bought it from them. As a source, here…