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kindle Ebook Format :What is Kindle Format?

kindle Format: What is Kindle Format?

Unlike MP3s, which you can toss on any music gamer and anticipate to work, e-books show a labyrinth of open-source and exclusive formats. To make complex matters, even more, not all e-readers support all formats. In this short article, we take an appearance at some of the most typical formats, discuss their cons and pros, and inform you which format to pick for Kindle.

Have you just bought an Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, or other digital ereaders like the Sony eReader or Cybook? Welcome to the jungle of file formats.

ePub, Mobi, Prc, AZW, Cbr, Cbz, and Pdf are the preferred formats of digital books. Besides the additional formats also know that some readers appear as .doc Microsoft Office, as well as text files such as RTF, TXT, and even HTML.

As a result, it is difficult to know which format is most suitable for your readers, and especially more sustainable. Because it is likely that you change a media day, but not a library. So as to ensure that your books are compatible with your new ereader tool … Which format to choose, and how to convert?

First, start with a “small” table summarising the different e-readers market and readable formats for each :

 

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This table is only an excerpt from a more comprehensive study, associated with an article well-documented on the issue of e-book formats. Everything is available on Wikipedia.

1. ePub, The ideal Format?

ePub is an open standardized format. It has already been accepted by most of the manufacturers, and presents itself as the ideal format for your digital books, as you can well read in multiple formats without conversion. The format itself is a mini website ( XML -based ) containing text, images, information layout, and navigation. The only limitation, the advanced layout ( comics or technical books ) is difficult to implement in this format rather than dedicated to simple texts. EPub compatible players: iPad, Sony eReader (PRS 600, etc.), Cybook, BeBook, iRex, Nook, etc.

Warning, the Amazon Kindle does not support the ePub format. Despite having a reputation for being the best-selling ereader in the world, Amazon considers it unnecessary (for now ) to add the contribution of the support ePub. Reason given? Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has a proprietary format ( AZW ) and does not depend on third formats ( ePub ) allows Amazon to innovate faster and offer more new services to their customers.
can epub_kindleTraduction: One of the strengths of the AZW format is its digital protection system. Ensuring publishers an anti-piracy (DRM) system reliability is a major argument that surely favored the early establishment of the catalog of 600,000 books that Amazon relies on in their online store …

 2. PDF, The Poor Relation of The eBook

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a rather old format, though earlier than the e-book concept. It was first designed to meet specific needs of the sharing document in a digital environment: rights management, data protection, preserve the integrity of the document. Main advantage? Regardless of the computer on which the document is opened, it will appear exactly as the Creator willed (no worries of missing fonts erroneously layout, etc.). PDF has since evolved as an exchange format files and collaboration and especially as a new print validation system in the world of printing. It has emerged today as an international standard. Modern readers support all PDFs, but the characteristics of the format (data is encapsulated, and enclosed) do not offer great flexibility for reading an electronic book. The advantage of EPUB is to leave the ereader redial pages by changing the font size, font, and line spacing. So many things were impossible with PDF, which is also “flexible” an image …

To compensate, some ereaders offer specific options such as zoom and rotation of pages to improve reading ability. Alternatively, buy an ereader with larger pages to display a full-size screen. That’s the whole point of the Kindle DX, for example.

3. Mobi, AZW, LRF, Bed, Doc and Others.

Mobi and AZW are two standards for digital books. Mobi is rather old, and AZW is the native format of the Amazon Kindle. The LRF is needed on the Sony eReader, whereas Apple uses the standard ePub (who said that Apple was the company most “closed”?). Mobi is compatible with Tablet software, but also many ereaders. Logically, AZW LRF is a proprietary format. Can not read the LRF, therefore, on a Kindle or iPad …

Our advice: Upload your EPUB books to the extent possible. This format is the most universal and so you can play it on almost any media. For owners of Kindle: Myself user Kindle, 
I still download and purchase books in ePub or Mobi (including those of the Project Gutenberg I converted my ePub to Mobi via Calibre (Mac or PC), which is very. this work.

Attention books protected by DRM can not all be converted ...Also note that Amazon has developed a series of applications called " Kindle App" . They are available for all existing platforms: Windows, Mac , iPhone, iPad, Android. If this does not resolve the transition from a ereader to another, you can at least look to other media library .

What format does Kindle use?

If you have browsed several forums, you may have seen people refer to the AZW format or the AZW3 format. The first is the real, final, encrypted format of Kindle, certified by Amazon. It is not a format that you can create yourself. And even if you could, you can’t upload this format to KDP, the Kindle Digital Publishing platform. The AZW3 format is a file format created to emulate what is called “KF8”, or the most advanced Kindle formatting, by open-source library software called Calibre. However, just like AZW, you cannot upload an AZW3 file format to KDP. You can certainly create a file in this format, and load it onto your own Kindle device, but you cannot publish it. Obviously, this format lacks utility. Ideal for personal use, but useless for publication.

What file formats does KDP support?

Finally, you should know what file formats you can, and cannot, upload to Kindle’s KDP for the purpose of publishing your book or selling it. If you do it yourself, the KDP will take uploaded. DOC and . DOCX (Word or Word equivalent) files, .TXT files, HTML files, and PDFs, and try to convert them for you. We strongly recommend that you do not try to download a PDF file, the results are almost always very, very bad. If you are a bit technical, you can try to create your own ePUB and upload it, because the .ePUB format is accepted on KDP.

Your best option is to download a complete, fully designed, and custom-made MOBI file created for your own book. This method is the one that causes the fewest unpleasant surprises on the Kindle KDP, especially when clicking on the preview. If you are creating or have created a MOBI file, there will be no surprises. You will undoubtedly know exactly what your file will look like on Kindle… And it is the best eBook format for Kindle! It might be wise to take the time to train in the layout of this format, all at once, to definitively solve this problem.

 

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