Foreigh languages on Amazon Kindle (2.0)

[peggynek]

Hi guys,
I would like to know how much Kindle can handle text in foreign languages, for example Polish, Slovak and Czech - generaly Eastern Europe, not Russian.
I expect that PDF should be handled without any problems, but what about unprotected Mobipocket or RTF? Do you have any experience with it?

Thank you for your reply

[desertgrandma]

Hello, peggynek, and welcome to MobileRead.

Thats a great question you have there, and someone will chime in soon with an answer, and in the meantime, be sure and check out the books we have here for downloading.

The following site has free books in many languages

http://manybooks.net/language.php

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by peggynek

Hi guys,
I would like to know how much Kindle can handle text in foreign languages, for example Polish, Slovak and Czech - generaly Eastern Europe, not Russian.
I expect that PDF should be handled without any problems, but what about unprotected Mobipocket or RTF? Do you have any experience with it?

Thank you for your reply

The K2 does not handle PDF or RTF. But it does handle DRM-free Mobipocket format. RTF is fairly easy to convert to Mobipocket. PDF can be a nightmare to convert. So basically, if you want a device to handle PDF then the K2 is not it. In fact, iRex makes the best one so far for handling PDF.

[wallcraft]

The Kindle essentially only supports MOBI and it only has one font. If the characters you need are not in that font you are out of luck. They only recently added Greek characters for example. If you have an example ebook in MOBI with copyright status that allows download I'll try it this evening on my Kindle 1 (if someone does not beat me to it). However, my guess is that it won't work.

The Cybook supports MOBI and has user installable fonts. The Hanlin V3 allows user installable fonts, but not for MOBI (they are working on this). The Sony's don't support MOBI but they support fonts embedded in the ebook.

[peggynek]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The K2 does not handle PDF or RTF. But it does handle DRM-free Mobipocket format. RTF is fairly easy to convert to Mobipocket. PDF can be a nightmare to convert. So basically, if you want a device to handle PDF then the K2 is not it. In fact, iRex makes the best one so far for handling PDF.

I don't need PDF format that much. The most important is if it can handle Eastern European characters.
Maybe I can upload to RapidShare some *.azw or *.mobi file, then some kind person would sync it with his (her) Kindle and make few pictures of it. I can very easily recognize whether the text is in correct format or not.

Is such a nice person here, please? :-)
Thank you.

[peggynek]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Hello, peggynek, and welcome to MobileRead.

Thats a great question you have there, and someone will chime in soon with an answer, and in the meantime, be sure and check out the books we have here for downloading.

The following site has free books in many languages

http://manybooks.net/language.php

Hello desertgrandma,
thank you for the link. Unfortunately there is only one book in my native language... :-) But very nice and famous in our country. I have downloaded it already.

[peggynek]

Hi guys and girls,
will you be so kind and try to download book (link below) and make some print screen of the text on Kindle? I am very curious about support of Czech and Slovak language on it.

Thank you in advance

http://rapidshare.com/files/19724915...k_RUR.prc.html

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by peggynek

Hi guys and girls,
will you be so kind and try to download book (link below) and make some print screen of the text on Kindle? I am very curious about support of Czech and Slovak language on it.

Thank you in advance

http://rapidshare.com/files/19724915...k_RUR.prc.html

Here ya go. This is from Kindle 1.

[peggynek]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Here ya go. This is from Kindle 1.

You are the man

This is great news. Czech language without a single problem in it. I was so affraid to order Kindle, but now I am going to order it right now.

[meibao]

I'm guessing languages like Japanese, Korean and Chinese are out of the question

[Slow_hand]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The Kindle essentially only supports MOBI and it only has one font. If the characters you need are not in that font you are out of luck. They only recently added Greek characters for example. If you have an example ebook in MOBI with copyright status that allows download I'll try it this evening on my Kindle 1 (if someone does not beat me to it). However, my guess is that it won't work.

The Cybook supports MOBI and has user installable fonts. The Hanlin V3 allows user installable fonts, but not for MOBI (they are working on this). The Sony's don't support MOBI but they support fonts embedded in the ebook.

I purchased a book from Amazon that has a different font than that prevalent on the majority of titles. It's The Skinner by Neal Asher.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Slow_hand

I purchased a book from Amazon that has a different font than that prevalent on the majority of titles. It's The Skinner by Neal Asher.

"Topaz" format books can have embedded fonts. Such files will have a ".azw1" file extension unlike the normal extension of ".awz" which the Mobi books use.