Best format to convert to kindle now and the best practices.

[hydrolox]

Hello, I am using calibre and the latest Kindle Paperwhite. I have read that KFX is the best format (overall) to convert to and I have been using calibre to do so. Can anyone give advice on this/ link to something/ explain the best settings to put on calibre and otherwise? Since most books I get are in .epub format, I going from epub -> azw3 -> KFX (I heard this is advantageous). Right now I have a problem where the footnotes in some books get resized to really small font. Overall, I would just like to know the best way to convert.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hydrolox

Hello, I am using calibre and the latest Kindle Paperwhite. I have read that KFX is the best format (overall) to convert to and I have been using calibre to do so. Can anyone give advice on this/ link to something/ explain the best settings to put on calibre and otherwise? Since most books I get are in .epub format, I going from epub -> azw3 -> KFX (I heard this is advantageous). Right now I have a problem where the footnotes in some books get resized to really small font. Overall, I would just like to know the best way to convert.

You are best to go ePub > KFX.

[Quoth]

Though AZW3 (KF8) is fine too. Keep the epubs and for WP source, docx-> epub. Then make any other format from the epub.

[hydrolox]

Any way to convert well from PDF to other formats? Or its not really possible consistently.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by hydrolox

Any way to convert well from PDF to other formats? Or its not really possible consistently.

It's not possible consistently.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hydrolox

Any way to convert well from PDF to other formats? Or its not really possible consistently.

It's a real pain to convert from PDF. You get more errors then it's worth trying to fix. And you may never be sure you've ever fixed them unless you A/B compare the PDF to the ePub and by then, you've read the book (not in a good way).

[Kusuri]

i would recommend EPUB. when i got my kindle fresh i used for the first few months mobi, but then i learned to love KoReader so now i get every book i want to read in .epub

Originally Posted by hydrolox

Any way to convert well from PDF to other formats? Or its not really possible consistently.

not really, nope. you can do a lot and get individual PDFs working so you can read them, but its still not a good experience to read PDFs like that.

i tried it for a while to get really simple PDFs working by converting them with all kinds of tools, playing with settings etc.. and for each PDF i had to fiddle around with it hours to get it working to a state where it was barelly okay. after a while i just said "fuck it, i read it on my phone / tablet / pc instead".

if you can, get books in other formats. PDFs is a pain in the ass on kindles.

[FelixKrull]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You are best to go ePub > KFX.

What is the difference then between aw3 and KFX if I may ask?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by FelixKrull

What is the difference then between aw3 and KFX if I may ask?

KF8 (AZW3) does not do kerning, ligatures, or hyphenation. But you can get hyphens using soft-hyphens. You can add soft-hyphens to KF8 and it will work just like regular hyphens. With KF8 you can use negative margins (in CSS) to reduce the margin waste. You can also use ChareInk (font) to reduce the line height. The DRM on KF8 can be removed.

KFX gives you kerning, ligatures, and hyphenation. You cannot reduce the line height. I don't know if negative margins work to reduce margin waste. You cannot remove the DRM from KFX except in a very specific circumstance. KFX can be multiple files for the eBook.

Which you prefer is up to you.

[FelixKrull]

Well thank you. I guess I'll stick with converting Epub to Azw3 for now as I do hyphenating with a plugin and I surely want to controll line hight, and I don't want to use negative margins.