epub vs. mobi?

harpangel36 · 09-08-2012, 05:57 PM

I read books on my kindle and also on my ipad so I have always converted them to .mobi and opened them on my ipad with the kindle app. Is there any difference in the format, (will one format provide a better reading experience) or are they exactly the same?

fratermus · 09-13-2012, 06:21 AM

If you are currently able to read .epub natively it might be worth doing. I won't say that one is better than the other but in converting from one format to any other rarely increases quality.

Of possible interest: .epub seems to be about 1/2 the size of .mobi in those cases where I can make a direct comparison.

Consider this example picked at random from the front page of Project Gutenberg. The "Kindle" files mentioned below are .mobi:

EPUB (no images) 181 kB
Kindle (no images) 533 kB

EPUB (with images) 1.0 MB
Kindle (with images) 2.2 MB

RafalK · 09-17-2012, 07:26 AM

If your have professionaly prepared book in EPUB format, it can display better in that format than after conversion, becuase MOBI does not support embedded fonts (but new KF8 format does). Fonts can be useful, because they let you distinguish beetween sections of book.

09-08-2012, 05:57 PM	#1
harpangel36 Connoisseur Posts: 75 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle	epub vs. mobi? I read books on my kindle and also on my ipad so I have always converted them to .mobi and opened them on my ipad with the kindle app. Is there any difference in the format, (will one format provide a better reading experience) or are they exactly the same?

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09-13-2012, 06:21 AM	#2
fratermus e-bookworm Posts: 86 Karma: 630090 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: PW2, K3, KF2, Touch (dying)	If you are currently able to read .epub natively it might be worth doing. I won't say that one is better than the other but in converting from one format to any other rarely increases quality. Of possible interest: .epub seems to be about 1/2 the size of .mobi in those cases where I can make a direct comparison. Consider this example picked at random from the front page of Project Gutenberg. The "Kindle" files mentioned below are .mobi: EPUB (no images) 181 kB Kindle (no images) 533 kB EPUB (with images) 1.0 MB Kindle (with images) 2.2 MB

09-17-2012, 07:26 AM	#3
RafalK Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: Kindle 3 (Keyboard)	If your have professionaly prepared book in EPUB format, it can display better in that format than after conversion, becuase MOBI does not support embedded fonts (but new KF8 format does). Fonts can be useful, because they let you distinguish beetween sections of book.

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