Conversion from epub to azw3

[Joy736]

Hello,
Up until now, I read on my Sony and my Kindle. But I like my Kindle much more. I'm thinking of getting rid of my Sony and read on the Kindle full-time.
Dutch e-books are always in epub-format, so I will keep buying a lot of epubs. What can I expect when I just convert everything to Azw3? Are those conversions always smooth. Will I always get nice readable azw3-books? In other words:Is it safe for me to get rid of the Sony? Thank you.

[Skillganon]

You can use Calibre to convert but only if the books are DRM free and if they came from a store or public library they will be DRM Locked.
It is possible to remove DRM but it breaks the Law.
See Aprentice Alf's Blog for details

[Joy736]

Originally Posted by Skillganon

You can use Calibre to convert but only if the books are DRM free and if they came from a store or public library they will be DRM Locked.
It is possible to remove DRM but it breaks the Law.
See Aprentice Alf's Blog for details

Thanks for replying Skillganon, but I know about aprentice alf. I un-drm all my books and I have converted several books from epub to azw3 with succes.
What I now want to know, from people who converted lots of ebooks: will it be a succes every time? Or have I've been lucky so far? I'm sorry if I haven't been more clear before.

[pdurrant]

For the vast majority of books it'll be a success. Some ePubs with special formatting might not transfer as well (e.g. fixed layout ePubs.)

[Agama]

Originally Posted by Joy736

Will I always get nice readable azw3-books? In other words:Is it safe for me to get rid of the Sony? Thank you.

I asked a similar question in this thread: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=199680 and Kovid suggested downloading the Kindle Previewer from Amazon to test ePub to azw3 conversions. It was a big download but well worth the effort. The ePubs that I converted to azw3 came out nigh on perfect and I have since bought a Kindle Paperwhite.

[Joy736]

Thanks Pdurrant and Agama! This is much appreciated! Sound like it is save to get rid of the Sony. As I said, so far I like the convertions and hopefully Amazon is finaly coming to the Netherlands this year.

[Agama]

Personally I'd keep both. I don't suppose a second-hand reader is worth very much and you could always use the Sony for work, travel, lending to a friend, etc. where a reader may be more likely to get damaged.

[Joy736]

Originally Posted by Agama

Personally I'd keep both. I don't suppose a second-hand reader is worth very much and you could always use the Sony for work, travel, lending to a friend, etc. where a reader may be more likely to get damaged.

You're probably right. A back-up (travel) reader wouldn't hurt. I'm going to think about it some more. Maybe I'll sell my Sony when the Paperwhite (or Paperwhite2?) comes to the Netherlands. Anyway, I'm going to fully enjoy my kindle in the meantime!

[HarryT]

I've converted hundreds of books from ePub to AZWs. The results have almost all been excellent, and in those rare cases where the default conversion options don't produce a good result, it's easy to put it right.

[Joy736]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've converted hundreds of books from ePub to AZWs. The results have almost all been excellent, and in those rare cases where the default conversion options don't produce a good result, it's easy to put it right.

Thank you too Harry! I just want to keep reading on my kindle, because I like the reading-experience much better: the Kindle-font, the slightly broader screen and better contrast (according to my eyes). And I like the Kindle-store very much.

[cybmole]

I went the other way - FROM kindle TO Sony - because I was fed up with the extra tweaking needed to get chapters to work properly on Kindle i.e. to get the prev/ next chapter arrow keys to work.

Even in the mobi format books that Amazon sell / give way themselves, chapter navigation was often broken. Maybe the newer Kindles are more tolerant but on the K3 you had to ensure that all chapter starts had <h2> tags, and in many epubs that is not the case.

but if you don't need / use chapter skip and don't mind losing features like drop caps or fractional 1.5em indents, or left margin controls, or background shading then yes, go from epub to amazon formats.

PS maybe some of that stuff which was NOT in mobi, IS supported now in azw.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by cybmole

and don't mind losing features like drop caps or fractional 1.5em indents, or left margin controls, or background shading then yes, go from epub to amazon formats.

PS maybe some of that stuff which was NOT in mobi, IS supported now in azw.

The OP talked about going to azw3, i.e. KF8, which does include all those features.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by cybmole

but if you don't need / use chapter skip and don't mind losing features like drop caps or fractional 1.5em indents, or left margin controls, or background shading then yes, go from epub to amazon formats.

PS maybe some of that stuff which was NOT in mobi, IS supported now in azw.

That's why we're talking about AZW3 - the new Amazon "KF8" format - not Mobi. KF8 supports all the features that ePub does.