Convert from Kindle's .azw to other formats?

[thrawn_aj]

Ah, forgive me if I'm missing something important, but unencrypted mobi files convert fine using Calibre. I've done a fair number of these with no problems and no formatting issues. Or was the question more about coding or having a standalone program to do this?

[readman]

Hello, I bought a kindle book from amazon and downloaded it on my Mac Kindle reader, now I want to convert it to PDF. I read that Calibre can do it but first the DRM needs to be removed. I used a Calibre plugin to do that but it failed saying it couldn't find the PID. I read elsewhere that Mobipocker Reader could give the PID, I installed the Windows version in Wine but it didn't recognize the .azw or .mobi

Any solution ?

[HarryT]

We can't give you any help with DRM removal here, I'm afraid, but Google for "Apprentice Alf".

[JSWolf]

It's actually really easy to convert azw3 to ePub. All you. Do is tweak ePub it and pull out the files. Then you can build an ePub from the files. You will need to add in a cover XML and a few minor tweaks to make it valid. Then you may have some fairly clean code. Cleaner then you get from Mobi > ePub.

In the azw3 you are extracting the code for the KF8.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's actually really easy to convert azw3 to ePub. All you. Do is tweak ePub it and pull out the files. Then you can build an ePub from the files. You will need to add in a cover XML and a few minor tweaks to make it valid. Then you may have some fairly clean code. Cleaner then you get from Mobi > ePub.

In the azw3 you are extracting the code for the KF8.

Actually, all you have to do is use the MobiUnpack plugin to extract (no mobi->epub conversion) the epub from an azw3 file (if it's drm-free, of course).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Actually, all you have to do is use the MobiUnpack plugin to extract (no mobi->epub conversion) the epub from an azw3 file (if it's drm-free, of course).

That does work well. Thanks for the tip.

[DeniseHat]

so I know this is an old thread -
but I am considering buying a samsung tablet and want to use as an ereader -
When you put your kindle book on the sd card - kindle will not find it since it in on the maid storage - so as an alternative am considering Moon reader - which reads only mobi and not azw -
so this means the need to convert -

the solution above - simply change the file extension sounds easy -
but I can't figure out how! -
when I click on 'rename' I don't have access to the file type.

Help!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DeniseHat

so I know this is an old thread -
but I am considering buying a samsung tablet and want to use as an ereader -
When you put your kindle book on the sd card - kindle will not find it since it in on the maid storage - so as an alternative am considering Moon reader - which reads only mobi and not azw -
so this means the need to convert -

the solution above - simply change the file extension sounds easy -
but I can't figure out how! -
when I click on 'rename' I don't have access to the file type.

Help!

Control Panel -> Folder Options. "View" tab. Uncheck the "Hide Extensions for Known File Types" check box.

First thing I do on any Windows computer.

[willus]

Originally Posted by HarryT

First thing I do on any Windows computer.

Amen to that.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Control Panel -> Folder Options. "View" tab. Uncheck the "Hide Extensions for Known File Types" check box.

First thing I do on any Windows computer.

Originally Posted by willus

Amen to that.

I solve the problem by not using Windows.

(Course, I do have to manually setup a lot of xdg-open file associations. Archlinux, you see. )

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I solve the problem by not using Windows.

(Course, I do have to manually setup a lot of xdg-open file associations. Archlinux, you see. )

You have my condolences. Sorry you use some version linux.

But for all it's faults, Windows 7 is very good and works very well. Windows 8 is quite good too if you use Classic Shell.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You have my condolences. Sorry you use some version linux.

But for all it's faults, Windows 7 is very good and works very well. Windows 8 is quite good too if you use Classic Shell.

So far, the only thing I am missing from Windows is ADE, and quite frankly I wouldn't want to use it much on Windows either.

To each his own... but my system is now working far better for me than WinXP-8 ever did. Faster, too.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

(Course, I do have to manually setup a lot of xdg-open file associations. Archlinux, you see. )

Just FYI, a handy trick I use is to create my own ~/bin/xdg-open much nicer than having to configure file associations, for the crazy xdg-utils. This allows me to do fun things like change the virtual desktop to the desktop I use for my web-browser when opening http links and to create associations for every file type I use in just a few lines of code.

#!/usr/bin/env python2
# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import,
                        print_function)

__license__ = 'GPL v3'
__copyright__ = '2013, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'

BROWSER = 'firefox'
PDF = 'okular'
EBOOK = 'ebook-viewer'
EDITOR = ('gvim', '-f')
IMAGE = 'gwenview'
OFFICE = ('libreoffice', '--nologo')
DIRECTORY = 'dolphin'
COMIC = 'okular'
ARCHIVE = 'ark'

import os
import sys
import mimetypes
import urlparse
import subprocess
import urllib

arg = sys.argv[-1]
base = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(os.path.realpath(__file__)))
custom_mimetypes = os.path.join(base, 'conf/mime.types')
url = urlparse.urlparse(arg)


def call(args, path):
    if isinstance(args, basestring):
        args = [args]
    raise SystemExit(subprocess.Popen(list(args) + [path]).wait())

if url.scheme in {'http', 'https', 'ftp'}:
    from libqtile.command import Client
    c = Client()
    if c.group.info()['name'] != '2':
        c.screen.togglegroup('2')
    call(BROWSER, arg)

if url.scheme in {'file', ''}:
    path = url.path
    if path and not os.path.exists(path):
        path = urllib.unquote(path)

    ext = path.rpartition('.')[-1] if path else ''

    if not path or not os.path.exists(path):
        print (path, 'does not exist')
        raise SystemExit(1)

    if os.path.isdir(path):
        call(DIRECTORY, path)

    if ext in {'epub', 'mobi', 'azw', 'azw3', 'fb2', 'lrf', 'pdb', 'prc', 'lit', 'txtz', 'htmlz'}:
        call(EBOOK, path)

    if ext == 'pdf':
        call(PDF, path)

    if ext in {'cbz', 'cbr'}:
        call(COMIC, path)

    if ext in {'gz', 'bz2', 'xz', 'txz', 'tgz', 'tbz2', 'rar', '7z'}:
        call(ARCHIVE, path)

    if ext in {'opf', 'xml', 'html', 'htm', 'xhtm', 'xhtml', 'zip'}:
        call(EDITOR, path)

    mimetypes.init(mimetypes.knownfiles + [custom_mimetypes])

    mt = mimetypes.guess_type(path)[0]
    if mt:
        if mt.startswith('text/'):
            call(EDITOR,  path)
        if mt.startswith('image/'):
            call(IMAGE, path)
        if mt.startswith('application/vnd.openxmlformats.') or mt.startswith('application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.'):
            call(OFFICE, path)
        for x in {'application/msword', 'application/vnd.ms-'}:
            call(OFFICE, path)

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just FYI, a handy trick I use is to create my own ~/bin/xdg-open much nicer than having to configure file associations, for the crazy xdg-utils. This allows me to do fun things like change the virtual desktop to the desktop I use for my web-browser when opening http links and to create associations for every file type I use in just a few lines of code.

#!/usr/bin/env python2
# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import,
                        print_function)

__license__ = 'GPL v3'
__copyright__ = '2013, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'

BROWSER = 'firefox'
PDF = 'okular'
EBOOK = 'ebook-viewer'
EDITOR = ('gvim', '-f')
IMAGE = 'gwenview'
OFFICE = ('libreoffice', '--nologo')
DIRECTORY = 'dolphin'
COMIC = 'okular'
ARCHIVE = 'ark'

import os
import sys
import mimetypes
import urlparse
import subprocess
import urllib

arg = sys.argv[-1]
base = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(os.path.realpath(__file__)))
custom_mimetypes = os.path.join(base, 'conf/mime.types')
url = urlparse.urlparse(arg)


def call(args, path):
    if isinstance(args, basestring):
        args = [args]
    raise SystemExit(subprocess.Popen(list(args) + [path]).wait())

if url.scheme in {'http', 'https', 'ftp'}:
    from libqtile.command import Client
    c = Client()
    if c.group.info()['name'] != '2':
        c.screen.togglegroup('2')
    call(BROWSER, arg)

if url.scheme in {'file', ''}:
    path = url.path
    if path and not os.path.exists(path):
        path = urllib.unquote(path)

    ext = path.rpartition('.')[-1] if path else ''

    if not path or not os.path.exists(path):
        print (path, 'does not exist')
        raise SystemExit(1)

    if os.path.isdir(path):
        call(DIRECTORY, path)

    if ext in {'epub', 'mobi', 'azw', 'azw3', 'fb2', 'lrf', 'pdb', 'prc', 'lit', 'txtz', 'htmlz'}:
        call(EBOOK, path)

    if ext == 'pdf':
        call(PDF, path)

    if ext in {'cbz', 'cbr'}:
        call(COMIC, path)

    if ext in {'gz', 'bz2', 'xz', 'txz', 'tgz', 'tbz2', 'rar', '7z'}:
        call(ARCHIVE, path)

    if ext in {'opf', 'xml', 'html', 'htm', 'xhtm', 'xhtml', 'zip'}:
        call(EDITOR, path)

    mimetypes.init(mimetypes.knownfiles + [custom_mimetypes])

    mt = mimetypes.guess_type(path)[0]
    if mt:
        if mt.startswith('text/'):
            call(EDITOR,  path)
        if mt.startswith('image/'):
            call(IMAGE, path)
        if mt.startswith('application/vnd.openxmlformats.') or mt.startswith('application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.'):
            call(OFFICE, path)
        for x in {'application/msword', 'application/vnd.ms-'}:
            call(OFFICE, path)

Thank you for this suggestion! I will happily steal this and see what I can do with it.

It just works as a command-line wrapper for opening files, though -- not for integrating into a file manager, so ultimately a better solution may simply be to assemble the mimeapps.list that custom-specifies everything I use and add it to the list of dotfiles I would copy from computer to computer.

Or setting all files to open with "xdg-open"...

[kovidgoyal]

It depends on the file manager, some of them use xdg-open, some do not. Personally, I dont use file managers. But, if you do use one, then setting all files to open with xdg-open will do the trick. I find maintaining ~/bin/xdg-open for file associations is much easier in the long term. It's more powerful and needs much fewer lines of text to maintain.