Kobo Store Questions

[Aleron Ives]

As somebody who's never bought any e-books before, I have some questions regarding buying them for my Libra 2.

I know that you can use the Kobo store directly on the Libra, and doing so will result in a KEPUB download. I've read that if you use the Kobo store on a PC, you can also get ACSM files for use with Adobe Digital Editions. Will using ADE result in a regular EPUB file, and if so, are there any major differences in formatting between the two, aside from EPUB lacking the Kobo-specific features, such as automatic page renumbering based on your font size?

If the Kobo store doesn't have a book I want, is it possible to buy from Amazon and convert to a Kobo format using Calibre on Linux, even though I don't have a Kindle? Are there usually any major differences between the formatting of the same e-book from Kobo vs Amazon?

Finally, assuming all three of these strategies are viable, can Calibre strip the DRM from all three formats?

[Sirtel]

Calibre can strip the DRM from ebooks bought from both the Kobo store and Amazon with the help of the noDRM plugin.

The easiest way to deDRM Kobo ebooks is to download the ACSM file and open it with Adobe Digital Editions, or to use the deACSM plugin in addition to the noDRM plugin (you won't need ADE in the latter case, but you'll still need an Adobe account).

To deDRM Amazon ebooks on Linux... I don't know if that's possible without an eink Kindle. AFAIK you can't install an old version of Kindle for PC (required for deDRMing if you don't have a physical Kindle) on Linux, but I know really nothing about Linux.

Ebooks from major publishers usually look the same, no matter where purchased. Self-published stuff may be differently formatted in different stores, but not necessarily so.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The easiest way to deDRM Kobo ebooks is to download the ACSM file and open it with Adobe Digital Editions, or to use the deACSM plugin in addition to the noDRM plugin (you won't need ADE in the latter case, but you'll still need an Adobe account).

That sounds fine to me. I don't want the KEPUB features, so I'd rather have a normal EPUB, anyway. I managed to set up ADE in WINE after a lot of struggling, so I do have a way to use ACSM files. Once you have the EPUB downloaded with ADE, can you just add the EPUB to Calibre to strip the DRM, or do you need to extract your ADE key from somewhere and enter it into Calibre manually, first?

Originally Posted by Sirtel

To deDRM Amazon ebooks on Linux... I don't know if that's possible without an eink Kindle.

I see. I guess I'll avoid Amazon for the time being. My main PC is Windows 7, so I figured I'd need to use Linux to access modern Calibre features, since I don't want to hex edit the Calibre 5 installers to make them run. I see that only Calibre 4.99 is available in the Linux Mint 20 repositories, so I guess even on Linux my Calibre version may be too old to do what I need it to do?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

That sounds fine to me. I don't want the KEPUB features, so I'd rather have a normal EPUB, anyway. I managed to set up ADE in WINE after a lot of struggling, so I do have a way to use ACSM files. Once you have the EPUB downloaded with ADE, can you just add the EPUB to Calibre to strip the DRM, or do you need to extract your ADE key from somewhere and enter it into Calibre manually, first?

You won't need to enter the key manually. And you can still have kepub features if you want to try them. The KoboTouch Extended Driver for Calibre will convert your epubs to kepubs on the fly while sending the books to your Kobo, without cluttering your library with converted copies. You can switch between it and the ordinary Kobo driver, to try out both epub and kepub format.

I see. I guess I'll avoid Amazon for the time being. My main PC is Windows 7, so I figured I'd need to use Linux to access modern Calibre features, since I don't want to hex edit the Calibre 5 installers to make them run. I see that only Calibre 4.99 is available in the Linux Mint 20 repositories, so I guess even on Linux my Calibre version may be too old to do what I need it to do?

You can download the latest version of Calibre from its homepage:
https://calibre-ebook.com/download_linux

[Aleron Ives]

OK, I took the plunge and bought a Kobo e-book and opened the ACSM in ADE 2.0 under WINE. Unfortunately...

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You won't need to enter the key manually.

This is not the case. Linux Calibre cannot extract the key from ADE, since it's running under the virtual Windows environment. After several hours of head banging, research, and even some Python script editing, I finally got it to work and decrypted my book, but man... what a headache!

I would post a tutorial so that other people wouldn't have to suffer as much as I did, but it's my understanding that doing so would be against the rules, so I won't.

That leads me to another question: does the trick for buying Kobo e-books from other store regions by editing your "zip" code to that of another country still work? If so, do you still have to pay by gift card, or do other options such as PayPal work, since they don't reveal your billing address the way a credit card would? If the trick only works on the Kobo device itself and not on the Kobo website, then I guess that rules out PayPal.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

OK, I took the plunge and bought a Kobo e-book and opened the ACSM in ADE 2.0 under WINE. Unfortunately...


This is not the case. Linux Calibre cannot extract the key from ADE, since it's running under the virtual Windows environment. After several hours of head banging, research, and even some Python script editing, I finally got it to work and decrypted my book, but man... what a headache!

I would post a tutorial so that other people wouldn't have to suffer as much as I did, but it's my understanding that doing so would be against the rules, so I won't.

Sorry for that. I've only ever used Windows.

From what I've read, Linux IS a headache for deDRMing ebooks, because the programs needed for deDRMing have no Linux version. One solution would be to use your Windows 7 computer for deDRMing purposes and afterwards transfer the liberated books to your Linux PC. But that's additional work, of course.

That leads me to another question: does the trick for buying Kobo e-books from other store regions by editing your "zip" code to that of another country still work? If so, do you still have to pay by gift card, or do other options such as PayPal work, since they don't reveal your billing address the way a credit card would? If the trick only works on the Kobo device itself and not on the Kobo website, then I guess that rules out PayPal.

It's been years since I "traveled", so I don't know how things work now. PayPal worked then.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

does the trick for buying Kobo e-books from other store regions by editing your "zip" code to that of another country still work?

For what it's worth, I never even did that. I have my US address listed and just switched to the UK store and bought the book. No lying about my ZIP, no nothing.

Looking at my Kobo account, I have Country set as United Kingdom, but I have my real street and city info. ZIP and phone are blank.

Still works as of June 19, 2022. That's the last time I bought a book. (I only use Kobo to buy UK books. My US books I buy at Amazon, stripping the DRM. Windows FTW!)

If so, do you still have to pay by gift card, or do other options such as PayPal work, since they don't reveal your billing address the way a credit card would? If the trick only works on the Kobo device itself and not on the Kobo website, then I guess that rules out PayPal.

Payment information: Just don't store any on the site. Then, when you purchase a book it will offer you PayPal, which is what I used. Still works as of June. And I have never bought a book on the device. Only on the Kobo website.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

From what I've read, Linux IS a headache for deDRMing ebooks, because the programs needed for deDRMing have no Linux version.

Well, the DeDRM Calibre plugin works on any OS, since it's Python. Removing the DRM is easy: all you have to do is import the e-book into Calibre. The hard part is extracting the ADE encryption keys required for DeDRM to do its work.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

One solution would be to use your Windows 7 computer for deDRMing purposes and afterwards transfer the liberated books to your Linux PC.

I managed to get DeDRM to work on Windows 7, but I had to switch to 6.8.1. DeDRM 10.0.3 doesn't seem to work with Calibre 3.48. I'm pretty sure it's not possible to run Calibre 6 under Windows 7, so I'll probably have to use Linux to remove any semi-modern DRM schemes that version 6.8.1 can't handle.

Interestingly, the EPUB files produced by both versions are not the same; the files inside each ZIP/EPUB file are the same, but the ZIP containers are not. The compressed files seem to be stored in a different order for whatever reason.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I have my US address listed and just switched to the UK store and bought the book. No lying about my ZIP, no nothing.

Looking at my Kobo account, I have Country set as United Kingdom, but I have my real street and city info. ZIP and phone are blank.

I guess that's encouraging. I had to enter a ZIP code to buy a book with PayPal (but not a street address), so I suspect that entering a London postal code may be required to buy from the UK store with PayPal?

Here's another question: how does buying a series or e-book bundle work? Do you get the regular EPUB file for each book in the series, as if you'd bought each e-book separately, or do you get some kind of monster EPUB that has the contents of every book crammed into one file with a single table of contents?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I guess that's encouraging. I had to enter a ZIP code to buy a book with PayPal (but not a street address), so I suspect that entering a London postal code may be required to buy from the UK store with PayPal?

I honestly don't remember. But if I entered a ZIP, it was my Texas one. I have only purchased from the UK Kobo store and have only purchased with PayPal. And I never used a British postal code.

Honestly, just go try it. They aren't going to send the FBI or Interpol to your door.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I have only purchased from the UK Kobo store and have only purchased with PayPal. And I never used a British postal code.

Hmm... I tried to download an e-book preview from the UK store, and it gave me the US version, instead.

I also downloaded an e-book collection preview, which answered my previous question. It appears that a collection gives you a single e-book with every chapter from every book compiled into one mega book, rather than separate files for each book in the series. The table of contents appears to be the same as from the actual e-book, as it lists the contents of every book in the series with most chapters greyed out.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I guess that's encouraging. I had to enter a ZIP code to buy a book with PayPal (but not a street address), so I suspect that entering a London postal code may be required to buy from the UK store with PayPal?

The zip code swap trick still works, AFAIK, but I haven't had occasion to buy a UK book in awhile.

One thing to note, though, is that if you buy a book through Kobo's android app, all of the billing is going through Google Pay now. So Kobo doesn't store any of that payment information. This might be useful for those of us who like to buy books both from US and UK without having to constantly swap payment info. When I buy a book through the Kobo app, it's going through my US credit card and billing info, but when purchasing through Kobo.com, I can continue to use the UK zip and whatever credit I had loaded to my Kobo account via gift cards.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Hmm... I tried to download an e-book preview from the UK store, and it gave me the US version, instead.

I dunno dude. I purchased two books that are only available in the UK (The Town That Forgot How To Breathe by Kenneth J Harvey and Toady by Mark Morris) and two books where there was a deal (The Living Dead by George Romero and Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost) and always got the UK version.

Honestly, you are overthinking it. Find a book you want to purchase that is cheap. Make sure the flag at the top of your screen is the Union Jack, not the Stars and Bars. Purchase said cheap book. Download said cheap book.

It appears that a collection gives you a single e-book with every chapter from every book compiled into one mega book, rather than separate files for each book in the series. The table of contents appears to be the same as from the actual e-book, as it lists the contents of every book in the series with most chapters greyed out.

That's standard for ebook collections. If you purchase a series from Amazon, then you will get individual book files.