Add page numbers

[jbcohen]

Is it possible to add page numbers to books I download from Amazon? How?

[susan_cassidy]

You would have to de-DRM them, and run it through Calibre with the page number plugin or plugboard. I'm not sure which. Then you'd have to move the book directly to your Kindle, so that the page number file gets copied, also. But, the page numbers will not be accurate, the way they are if the page numbers come from the publishers.

[eschwartz]

By default calibre will generate a pagenumber map (with pseudo-guessed pagenumnbers) and sideload it with the books that it sends -- I disabled this, as I don't want false page numbers.

Page numbers are only useful, IMHO, if you want to reference the paper edition -- and in that case, you want verified page numbers, not autogenerated ones.

[cybmole]

most books you download from amazon already have page numbers, but you need to tap bottom left of kindle screen to toggle them on .

let me make that more specific: most books I download from amazon to kindle voyage / kindle fire already have page numbers... so I would expect your experience of amazon books to be similar, if you are downloading to and reading on an amazon device

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Page numbers are only useful, IMHO, if you want to reference the paper edition -- and in that case, you want verified page numbers, not autogenerated ones.

If you use Count Pages, and set a specific number of characters per page (I use 2400, so approximately 400 words per page), the number is very useful in knowing how long a book will be. A book having 500 pages will be exactly twice as long as one having 250 pages.

If you know how fast you read, lets say, 30 'pages' per hour, you can determine almost exactly how long a book will take you to finish.

In paper books, this is not the case of course, as page numbers depend on font, font size, margins, whitespace, illustrations, and so on. Count pages ignores all that so page number counting is equal for all books.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

If you know how fast you read, lets say, 30 'pages' per hour, you can determine almost exactly how long a book will take you to finish.

Surely the Kindle will tell you that anyway, won't it?

[eschwartz]

The Kindle already has Time Left To Read, which I find far more useful anyway.

[cvkemp]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The Kindle already has Time Left To Read, which I find far more useful anyway.

I use the time left in the chapter the page numbers on the ebooks means very little.

[HarryT]

Plus the fact that the "time to read" is adaptive to your actual reading speed.

[cybmole]

i don't trust that time to read feature. it's immediately confused if you fast page turn through a lot of front of book stuff that you are not interested in & confidently predicts that you are on course to finish the whole book in 15 mins

I like you are on page x. even better is you are on page x of y but kindle cannot do the latter
if I can't have page numbers, my 2nd choice is %, as in you have now read X% of the book

[cvkemp]

Originally Posted by cybmole

i don't trust that time to read feature. it's immediately confused if you fast page turn through a lot of front of book stuff that you are not interested in & confidently predicts that you are on course to finish the whole book in 15 mins

I like you are on page x. even better is you are on page x of y but kindle cannot do the latter
if I can't have page numbers, my 2nd choice is %, as in you have now read X% of the book

The Kindle does that also, both the apps and the devices.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

If you use Count Pages, and set a specific number of characters per page (I use 2400, so approximately 400 words per page), the number is very useful in knowing how long a book will be. A book having 500 pages will be exactly twice as long as one having 250 pages.

If you know how fast you read, lets say, 30 'pages' per hour, you can determine almost exactly how long a book will take you to finish.

...

exactly. I find the epub page numbers ( generated as per adobe standards ? ) to be a reliable guide across multiple books and devices. So i populate a page count column in calibre with the plug in calibrated to use the adobe method, based on epub.

I see matching counts shown in mantano reader app on Kindle Fire; so I guess it uses the same formula. on the front page of that app I can see all my current reading + how far into each book I am.

Kindle disappointingly still only has the "row of dots" rough guide on home page book cover thumbnails on voyage, they have not updated that method since the days of K3

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

The Kindle does that also, both the apps and the devices.

my kindle voyage does not do page x of y. for any books from amazon. Am I missing a preference setting?
it may say that I am on page 124 but is that 124 of 250, 124 of 950....
I'd like to be told !

[eschwartz]

How astonishingly odd. I was unaware that you could ever end up seeing the current page number but not the total page number.

I see the page number when I tap the top of the screen to see the menu (because they never updated the KT to offer it as a choice on the lower left corner). But the PW and on can show that instead of Location or TLTR, right?
Do you not see the same?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

How astonishingly odd. I was unaware that you could ever end up seeing the current page number but not the total page number.

I see the page number when I tap the top of the screen to see the menu (because they never updated the KT to offer it as a choice on the lower left corner). But the PW and on can show that instead of Location or TLTR, right?
Do you not see the same?

The PW and Voyage will show "Page X" as one of the "Reading Location" choices. It will not show "Page X of Y".