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Originally Posted by jgsmith
I am also a Kobo user, and am torn between the new Aura and PW2. I've never owned a Kindle, so this may be a dumb question, but here goes anyway...
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Not a dumb question. Quite legitimate.
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Since the PW2 is not out yet, lets assume the PW1 for this comparison. If I were to purchase a book from Amazon, in Amazon's format, and display this on the PW1, then compare this to the same book, purchased elsewhere as an ePub, then converted to a mobi to display on the PW1, would the 2 books be identical or would there be differences?
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It depends. Some publishers create books specifically for the Kindle, and another one specifically for EPUB-readers. Other publishers create one book, convert it to the other format, and sell it as such. (Some even use Calibre for this.)
It is not possible to buy a book at Amazon, then buy the same book at Kobo and convert it, and then compare the two on a Kindle. You are possibly comparing two different editions. Converting the Amazon book to EPUB and comparing on a Kobo reader will also not work because of this.
Also, it is not possible to buy a book on Amazon, then buy the same book at Kobo, load the Amazon one to a Kindle, the Kobo one to an Aura, and then compare. Not only are the books possibly different editions, the devices are different too, so the books will look different.
However:
If you buy a book in EPUB format and then convert it to AZW3 format, it will normally retain all of its markup perfectly. This is because AZW3 seems to be an EPUB, wrapped in an Amazon-specific container. Most of the time, I do exactly this. I prefer EPUB as a base format, so I buy EPUB books, then convert them to AZW3, and they look just fine (except in one very specific case, see below).
If I buy an Amazon book (if they are *really* cheap compared to others), then I even don't use their original AZW3 file on the Kindle.
1. I buy the book, and de-DRM it. I stash the original AZW3 away as backup.
2. Using Calibre, I get the EPUB from the AZW3 using the KindleUnpack plugin. The plugin extracts an EPUB; this is not a conversion.
3. I stash this EPUB away as a backup as well.
3. After that, I use Sigil to change the EPUB as I want to. (If I deem it necessary, but I'm very nitpicky about layout. Most people won't need to do this.)
4. Then I convert the EPUB back into an AZW3 which I use on the Kindle.
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Just wondering if my current collection of unread ePubs will be inferior on a Kindle.
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Probably not; if you convert to AZW3, the result will most likely be fine.
Do not convert EPUB to MOBI, if you don't have a very good reason for that (such as using a very old Kindle). You will lose most of the markup, as MOBI is very old and does not support a lot of stuff that EPUB can do.
So... as long as you make sure you de-DRM your books ASAP, converting between AZW3 and EPUB should not be a problem. From EPUB to AZW3 for use on a Kindle certainly isn't.
The only thing I have found is that the KPW1 does not seem to support huge fonts. And I mean huge, like 96pt high. Feedbooks.com uses those for a chapter header in their free Public Domain books, and the Kindle displays them as a normal font, but it is misaligned. A tweak in Calibre while converting can fix this. This is the only problem I've ever come across.
See here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=222550