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Alisa · 06-29-2009, 02:37 PM

I don't have enough experience to know the best format. I read primarily Mobipocket format which does quite well, in my opinion. Visually it seems quite nice, most readers that use it support dictionary lookup (a surprisingly rare feature), and its DRM has been broken so I can make archive copies of my files that I could potentially convert to use on a different device. I have a Kindle and its .azw format is essentially Mobipocket. They try to obscure the PID (the ID of the device which is used as an encryption key for the DRM) but there is a script which can get you this key so you can archive your files. LIT, ePub and PDF are also similarly convertible. There might be others. I'm not expert. The two I know of that cannot have the DRM removed and are therefore not convertible are .lrx and .tpz/.azw1. The first is Sony's DRMed format. LRF is convertible. That's not DRMed. The second is Topaz which is another format the Amazon carries. It's far less common. This is my least favorite format so far, since it is not only inflexible but it is often unattractive and slow. It's sort of an enhanced scan of a document so the font often isn't as crisp, it's slower to process and sometimes there are visual errors. It's a fast way to get a print book digitized, which is its main attraction to publishers. Fortunately .tpz is pretty rare. I've had the Kindle for over a year and a half, and have only had two Topaz books.

So my advice if you get the Sony is to avoid .lrx if you want to be able to archive or convert your files. There are plenty of other places you can buy books besides the Sony store. If you buy a Kindle, the Topaz files are easy to avoid. Sadly, when a book is available in Topaz, it's usually only available in the Kindle store. It's typically an older book that the publisher didn't want to spend much effort on digitizing. They can get it in the Kindle store fast with Topaz but since that doesn't help them get it out in other formats to other stores. I've heard some people say that they've seen Topaz books replaced later with .azw books so that's heartening.

06-29-2009, 02:37 PM	#3
Alisa Gadget Geek Posts: 2,324 Karma: 22221 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Paperwhite, Kindle 3 (retired), Skindle 1.2 (retired)	I don't have enough experience to know the best format. I read primarily Mobipocket format which does quite well, in my opinion. Visually it seems quite nice, most readers that use it support dictionary lookup (a surprisingly rare feature), and its DRM has been broken so I can make archive copies of my files that I could potentially convert to use on a different device. I have a Kindle and its .azw format is essentially Mobipocket. They try to obscure the PID (the ID of the device which is used as an encryption key for the DRM) but there is a script which can get you this key so you can archive your files. LIT, ePub and PDF are also similarly convertible. There might be others. I'm not expert. The two I know of that cannot have the DRM removed and are therefore not convertible are .lrx and .tpz/.azw1. The first is Sony's DRMed format. LRF is convertible. That's not DRMed. The second is Topaz which is another format the Amazon carries. It's far less common. This is my least favorite format so far, since it is not only inflexible but it is often unattractive and slow. It's sort of an enhanced scan of a document so the font often isn't as crisp, it's slower to process and sometimes there are visual errors. It's a fast way to get a print book digitized, which is its main attraction to publishers. Fortunately .tpz is pretty rare. I've had the Kindle for over a year and a half, and have only had two Topaz books. So my advice if you get the Sony is to avoid .lrx if you want to be able to archive or convert your files. There are plenty of other places you can buy books besides the Sony store. If you buy a Kindle, the Topaz files are easy to avoid. Sadly, when a book is available in Topaz, it's usually only available in the Kindle store. It's typically an older book that the publisher didn't want to spend much effort on digitizing. They can get it in the Kindle store fast with Topaz but since that doesn't help them get it out in other formats to other stores. I've heard some people say that they've seen Topaz books replaced later with .azw books so that's heartening.