(formerly MobiUnpack - The Plugin: changed 1/29/2013)
Used to unpack/inspect the contents of DRM-free Kindle Books/MOBI files.
KindleUnpack (formerly MobiUnpack) has existed as a standalone python tool for quite some time. Its purpose is to unpack the contents of DRM-free Kindle Books or MOBI files into their source components—all the while trying to maintain as much of the original metadata as humanly possible. This is useful for tweaking existing Kindle Books or MOBIs with the intention of rebuilding with kindlegen... as well as simply being a tool for studying the internals of Kindle Books or MOBI files in general.
It has the ability to extract the data from standard MOBIs, KF8s, Joint MOBI/KF8s, Print Replicas (AZW4), and has some limited (experimental) support for processing MOBI dictionaries (Provided they are DRM-free of course).
KindleUnpack has been contributed to by numerous people over time (pdurrant, KevinH and myself among them), so I'm only claiming responsibility for building the plugin around it. The original MobileRead thread that documents the evolution of the core of this plugin can be found
here. The latest versions of that stand-alone tool can be found in
this post.
Main Features of KindleUnpack - The Plugin:
- Unpack the source components of DRM-free Kindle Books or MOBI files to an external directory (configured/chosen by the user).
- Split Kindlegen 2 produced files into separate, stand-alone MOBI and KF8 ebooks.
- Convert DRM-free KF8 ebooks to ePubs; and add to the calibre library.
- Extract PDFs from DRM-free Print Replica ebooks (AZW4); and add to the calibre library.
Special Notes:- Requires calibre v0.8.60 or higher.
Installation Steps:- Download the attached zip file and install the plugin... add to context menu and/or toolbar... and restart Calibre as described in the Introduction to plugins thread.
Configuration:- From the Configure menu or the Customize plugin button... configure a "Default Unpack Directory."
- If you want the plugin to automatically use the Default Unpack Directory, then check the "Always use the Default Unpack Directory" box. Otherwise, you will be prompted to choose a directory each time you unpack a MOBI.
Github Repository for the plugin code/releases
Version History: