# Convert to Kindle format using calibre



## kingharry (Nov 3, 2010)

I'd like to hear from Kindle 3 users who have successfully converted to Kindle format using calibre.
Problems? Success? Not successful? Tips?
Thanks.


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## ChrisGray (Oct 8, 2010)

Calibre is excellent if you're working with ePub/html/txt, and fairly painful when you're converting pdf. You should be able to use the bog-standard settings in Calibre for the first three formats, and a lot of time, patience and tinkering with the latter to get good results.

So essentially if you can steer towards ePub/html/txt you'll have a no-fuss conversion, and more time for reading. 

Not sure about other formats, although others will no doubt be able to help with that.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I do several conversions a week from ePub or HTML. I have no problems except with PDF files, which I try to avoid like the plague.


Mike


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## Numinous (Apr 19, 2010)

As others have said, it's very easy, and usually very good except for PDF.

From the Calibre FAQ, the best source formats in order of decreasing preference are:
LIT, EPUB, HTML, RTF, PDB, TXT, PDF

and this matches my experience.


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## mathewferguson (Oct 24, 2010)

It is BRILLIANT!

Very easy to use plug and play software.

That said, some pdfs will come out oddly - the type very small and faint. The solution there is to convert to a different format or to rotate the screen, read landscape and darken the text.


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## kingharry (Nov 3, 2010)

Thanks to all who took the time to respond to my request for info. Cheers.


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## Linda Ash (Jul 13, 2010)

Can Calrbre be used to convert library eBooks for use on the Kindle??


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Linda Ash said:


> Can Calrbre be used to convert library eBooks for use on the Kindle??


No. Library books have DRM on them. Calibre cannot convert DRMd books.


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

Calibre is the tool of my choice. I am creating all my MOBI, EPUB and LIT books using Calibre exclusively.


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## Linda Ash (Jul 13, 2010)

pidgeon92 said:


> No. Library books have DRM on them. Calibre cannot convert DRMd books.


Okay, thanks. I got a kindle for Christmas, but I really want the ability to read library books. Looks like I'll be exchanging it for a nook.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Linda Ash said:


> Okay, thanks. I got a kindle for Christmas, but I really want the ability to read library books. Looks like I'll be exchanging it for a nook.


Note that the Sony and Kobo both support borrowing of Library books. . .I mention this only because I find both to be more intuitive than the Nook.


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## Linda Ash (Jul 13, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Note that the Sony and Kobo both support borrowing of Library books. . .I mention this only because I find both to be more intuitive than the Nook.


After I typed that, I've been looking more seriously at all of the different eReaders I can find. I think I've actually decided on a Sony Touch. I'll go to Best Buy and play with all they have there before I make a final decision.


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

Lending is also a feature that IS coming to the Kindle with a firmware update. Once they have that in place it should open the Kindle up for library lending, also.


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## Linda Ash (Jul 13, 2010)

I wish lending were already a Kindle feature. I'm a library junkie. Our library's web page had a feature where you could calculate how much the library saves you per month. My figure came out to well over $900 : )

I do buy books. The ones I want to keep and add to my personal library, and for gifts. But I would shrivel up and die without my wonderful, local library.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Guido Henkel said:


> Once they have that in place it should open the Kindle up for library lending, also.


I wouldn't count on this. Library lending is entirely different than lending a Kindle book to another Kindle reader.

Library lending will require the Kindle to recognize another format. This is unlikely, especially in the near future.


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

It doesn't require the Kindle to recognize another format. It requires the Libraries to add MOBI versions to their catalog.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Guido Henkel said:


> It doesn't require the Kindle to recognize another format. It requires the Libraries to add MOBI versions to their catalog.


This is even further away and distinct from Amazon's decision to allow lending a Kindle book to another Kindle reader.

And even less likely.


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

Since the Kindle is the market leader, I am not sure why it would be so outlandish to expect Libraries to supplement their catalogs with Mobi files. After all, it is an open standard and with the kindle penetration no one can deny its significance.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Guido Henkel said:


> I am not sure why it would be so outlandish to expect Libraries to supplement their catalogs with Mobi files.[/quote
> 
> "Outlandish?" Not outlandish, _unlikely_.
> 
> ...


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

Elk said:


> Amazon's format is proprietary. It is unlikely that libraries will license duplicate copies of books simply to provide access to a proprietary format.
> 
> Epub is an open format, like MP3. If Amazon wants to provide library access, it will need to add epub support.


That is where you are actually wrong - like so many other people. Amazon is using the MOBI format as the native format for the Kindle and that is every bit as open as ePub. They do use a version of Mobi with DRM for their copy-protected books, but that doesn't mean their format is "propriertary," especially since this applies only to books that actually use DRM and are bought through Amazon. The same is true for DRM-protected EPub files, incidentally.

By design the Kindle is a MOBI reader and that format is every bit as open and publicly documented as ePub.

As for a format-war, I am not sure what you're referring to. I don't see a war by any stretch of imagination. 95% of all eBooks are available in both formats and only very infrequently do you see publishers trying to play their muscles by making a book available only in one format. But that's typically just for show and doesn't last very long - certainly not enough to call this a "War." This is not Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD or somesuch thing.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Guido Henkel said:


> They do use a version of Mobi with DRM for their copy-protected books, but that doesn't mean their format is "propriertary," especially since this applies only to books that actually use DRM and are bought through Amazon.


In the real world this is the same thing as proprietary to Amazon; Amazon only sells books in DRM protected Mobi for Kindles. No one else (to my knowledge) is able to use these files without hacking them. Only Kindles read these files.

Amazon purposely has not configured the Kindle to recognize epub, with or without DRM. Epubs are recognized by many other readers. This is why libraries stock epub books - and why Kindles cannot access them.

And back to the point: it is unlikely that libraries are going to re-license all of their epub books to DRM-protected Mobi just to accommodate Kindle owners. Instead libraries are accommodating the majority.

Amazon is playing hard ball hoping to keep their Kindle market as captive as possible. It may be a brilliant move. It may not.


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

Listen, I don't want to get into an argument with you here, but that is a bunch of bologna. There are thousands of books on Amazon without DRM that can be copied without problems. Mine are only a handful of them, as an example. I will say it again - Amazon's eBooks are in a MOBI format! If you don't believe me, try it for yourself. All that hard-ball, closing the market, proprietary file format, locked platform and other crap people are claiming, is simply not true and nothing more than vicious rumors, that have sprung to life because people are simply misinformed.

So far the Kindle has not been able to lend books and with the Kindle being the only MOBI device of importance, naturally libraries have been using EPUB until now. However, things may change once the Kindle will have that feature because no matter how hard the EPUB proponents try to dismiss it, the fact of the matter is that the Kindle is the market leader by a wide margin and once people start pouring into libraries asking for Kindle versions of books the libraries will begin stocking them.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Many libraries have mobi ebooks, but the DRM is different than Amazon's, so they don't work on Kindle.  So it is not just a matter of adding mobi ebooks to libraries, as many already have.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Linda Ash said:


> Okay, thanks. I got a kindle for Christmas, but I really want the ability to read library books. Looks like I'll be exchanging it for a nook.


Why not keep the kindle and buy a Sony as well for library books? I have both. The screen on the kindle is just better than the three other ereaders I have.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Amazon got into the eBook business by buying a French company called Mobipocket. The Kindle file format is, as has been said above, identical to the Mobipocket format.

DRM protected Mobipocket books won't load on a Kindle because Amazon has not included the Kindle PID in the authorized devices. They could change that in minutes, if they chose to.


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## Linda Ash (Jul 13, 2010)

mlewis78 said:


> Why not keep the kindle and buy a Sony as well for library books? I have both. The screen on the kindle is just better than the three other ereaders I have.


I can't really afford to do that  If I could, I'd buy an LCD eReader and an eInk reader so that I could read in both bright places and dark. And access library books with both


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Guido Henkel said:


> Listen, I don't want to get into an argument with you here,


No, clearly you _do_ want to argue, including over nomenclature.

However, amusingly, you are stating the same thing as everyone else; e.g.:

"The Kindle being the only MOBI device of importance." "They [Amazon] do use a version of Mobi with DRM for their copy-protected books."

Yup. No kidding.

We also all agree Kindles do not recognize DRM protected epub files.

You're convinced libraries will offer DRM-protected Mobi just to accommodate Kindle owners. I don't see this as likely in the near future.

However, neither of us knows. As I have previously noted, time will tell. (And once again, "unlikely" does not mean "outlandish.")

Best wishes.


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

Elk, I will bow out here because it is pointless. I have said what I wanted to say and you don't seem to understand or not want to understand what I am trying to say. There is no point in me continuing this conversation, I'm afraid. It is of no consequence, anyway.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

I already dropped out.


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