Transferring downloaded ebooks to new kindle color

[jlinear]

Originally Posted by tomsem

As for providing more options being always better, it is not, It can be bewildering and frustrating and paralyzing to have more options and information to explore. The ideal is to have [I]good enough[/] choices to move on and accomplish the task at hand.

I pretty much hate KOReader because the default settings look ugly and the menus can be 2 or 3 levels deep, and everything is adjustable. I am not all that picky about layout but having so many options gets in the way of discovering a good enough one.

"Bewildering and frustrating?" Why are you taking things to extremes? Are the formatting options provided by KOBO too extreme for you? Just because you find something "bewildering and frustrating" doesn't mean everyone else does. I like KOReader precisely because it give me options. With a little effort you can build Profiles, QuickMenus and setup Gestures that cushion much of the pain of navigating the menus. And makes the whole reading experience much more enjoyable. If it's too confusing for you than so be it. For many it is not.

[HLS]

Originally Posted by nille

Hi,
I have preordered the new Kindle color, but I just read that it will no longer be possible to sideload ebooks. I am not sure what sideload actually means?
With my current paperwhite I send ebooks to my kindle e-mail through calibre or just through my phone. Will that no longer be possible?
If I can only read amazon bought books then the kindle color is not interesting to me.

well the whole purpose of buying a kindle is to buy kindle books

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HLS

well the whole purpose of buying a kindle is to buy kindle books

Not really. The idea is to be able to buy eBooks from any shop and use it on whatever Reader you have.

[jackm8]

Originally Posted by HLS

well the whole purpose of buying a kindle is to buy kindle books

I strongly disagree. It's e-reader first and foremost. If it's got no options to read books that are not available on amazon's site, then it's simply a monopolistic device, and deserves severe U.S. regulators and EU Commission sections.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by HLS

well the whole purpose of buying a kindle is to buy kindle books

When I purchased a Kindle ereader (Paperwhite 10th gen), it was to have a physical device to test ebook formatting on. The only time I purchase an ebook from Amazon is when I want to read a book and it is not available from another site which amounts to maybe, 5% of my purchases.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

When I purchased a Kindle ereader (Paperwhite 10th gen), it was to have a physical device to test ebook formatting on. The only time I purchase an ebook from Amazon is when I want to read a book and it is not available from another site which amounts to maybe, 5% of my purchases.

That's all true for me too (PW1 or PW2 orginally), but the foremost thing was to be able to read PD (esp Gutenberg) which I had been reading for nearly 10 years on the laptop. I had an Archos media player from 2006 (160 G HDD), but it had no direct way of paginating, so I used a DTP program to convert text to paginated webpages for that size screen (using javascript), but the laptop was less tiring to read. Late 2006 or early 2007 I saw the Sony eink ereader, and it was very grey, but I couldn't afford it. I'd have bought it for PD ebooks.

Later I got a PW3 but when DXG was on "fire sale" I bought it and passed PW3 to wife. The DXG was terrible and no good for PDF scans of PD, which was the idea. At this stage I ceased printing anything on paper and was creating ebooks, even to proof, so got the original Kobo Aura HD H2O, which was in some ways better than PW3 though lower resolution.
When the PW4 came out I bought a PW3 to test ebooks on as the DXG didn't and would never do azw3 or KFX and the PW4 seemed inferior. My son got the PW4 and it was inferior to the PW3 (one of the last sold).

Then wife & I got the original Libra and only used the two PW3 for Amazon Download and Transfer.

About 90% of our ebook library is PD (dating back to about 2000) and about 8% is from Amazon bought over last 12 years.

Then I thought eink might be good for writing and notes too, and got the Elipsa and the reMarkable. Too heavy and reMarkable is a bit mad (USB networking and only PDF), so not long after bought the Sage.

I also later bought a Libra 2 to loan to betareaders.

The notes were easier to do on Sage, and really it was better for many PDFs, but unsatisfactory for writing.

I only read ebooks now on the Sage, and only read/Highlight on the Sage (no Notebook or pen use now) as the TCL Nxtpaper 11 is far better for everything except epubs, and nearly as good as the Sage for those. Sadly the several approx 8″ TCL tablets are 16:10 aspect and ordinary screens. I'd get a 7″ to 9″ 4:3 aspect Nxtpaper tomorrow if it existed. I did get a Nxtpaper phone to replace my 5″ Sony PSR-300 and the phone sized non-touch 4.7″ simple eink ereader. However I have a shoulder bag and one coat with big pockets so moistly take the 8″ Sage if I'll be reading when I'm out.

I've no interest in sync (I can search for phrase faster and that's private and rarely read the same books of different devices).

The Kobo is great of metadata with Calibre (author, title, series, collection, and subtitle, with publisher/publish info and blurb/comments under "details" from Library "My Books" (replaces Home Screen) interface.

So for reading novels, more than 9" seems too big and less than 5" too small for long sessions and 8″ most like a paperback for me. After over 12 years and maybe 15 models of eink, I'm convinced the best way to read ebook novels (not graphic, multimedia, interactive, fixed layout or PDF) is a 6″ to less than 9″ 300 dpi mono eink.

I've developed a game engine, multimedia, wordprocessor with built in audio and foot pedals for audio-transcription, plot your own text adventure app (sort of possible in Mobi) and apps in Java and one on Android. I can see no value to an "ebook" with video, animation, audio or interactive content as it can't easily distribute as an ebook, won't work on most eink and needs one of a handful of apps to view. Doing an app is better (iOS & Android).
I've tried audio (working) on KK3, DXG, PW3 (needs USB audio) and they are poorer for TTS than pocketbook on Android 8 and later. They and Kobo are abysmal to useless for MP3 or audiobooks even compared to an old Android 4.1 phone (4.3″) which as it blanks screen, gives as good battery life.


Preference is Mass Storage over MTP which is clunky and poor for listings even on Windows. USB networking or WiFi only seems a mad solution for ebook transfer (reMarkable).

[jackm8]

Originally Posted by Quoth

So for reading novels, more than 9" seems too big and less than 5" too small for long sessions and 8″ most like a paperback for me. After over 12 years and maybe 15 models of eink, I'm convinced the best way to read ebook novels (not graphic, multimedia, interactive, fixed layout or PDF) is a 6″ to less than 9″ 300 dpi mono eink.

These are your personal preferences, nothing else. People tend to read things differently. 8'' is the size of one page of a larger paperback book. As books go, you tend to see two 8'' pages side by side (unless you have a go at cracking the spine), so you can't get that on an 8'' reader. After that, a lot depends on distance to the screen. Some people prefer small fonts and having their eyes close to the screen, some larger distances. There's negative space to consider, also, and it's again down to personal preference. I used to be in the habit of maximising text over everything, I'd use custom programs just so I could read on the widest possible margins, now I prefer the opposite. Choices, the best thing about e-readers is that they provide people with different means to read. I'm pretty sure that that's also the reason why there are so many different options to buy.

[JoeC]

Can someone advise on how to side load a book to Kindle Colorsoft and get the "page color" option (kind of like "dark mode") to work? I understand that by design it doesn't work with personal documents but I'm trying to figure out if there's an option/setting in Calibre that would allow me to overcome this. Thanks in advance!

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by JoeC

Can someone advise on how to side load a book to Kindle Colorsoft and get the "page color" option (kind of like "dark mode") to work? I understand that by design it doesn't work with personal documents but I'm trying to figure out if there's an option/setting in Calibre that would allow me to overcome this. Thanks in advance!

It should not matter whether the book is a personal document or not, however it has to be in KFX format, as AFAIK the “page color” functionality was only implemented in the KFX renderer.

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

It should not matter whether the book is a personal document or not, however it has to be in KFX format, as AFAIK the “page color” functionality was only implemented in the KFX renderer.

Thank you for the help. I must be doing something wrong. I thought I was delivering the KFX formatted book. I will go back and check my work.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by JoeC

Thank you for the help. I must be doing something wrong. I thought I was delivering the KFX formatted book. I will go back and check my work.

For the sake of experimentation I sideloaded three KFX books on my Colorsoft:

1. One Amazon purchase imported into Calibre via the KFX Input plugin
2. One Kobo purchase converted to KFX with the KFX Output plugin with default settings
3. One Kobo purchase converted to KFX with the KFX Output plugin with the "Create personal document instead of book" option enabled

The result is that the "page color" option is available on all three of them, however only the third book has a visible book cover in the library.

I also sideloaded some books (one from Amazon and one from Kobo) converted to AZW3 with Calibre to confirm that indeed KFX is required but I got an error when trying to open them. This is weird, and perhaps a side effect of jailbreaking my Colorsoft, but I don't really use AZW3 so I won't investigate the issue further.

Also it might be worth noting that the books were manually copied to the Kindle via USB, not transferred via Calibre; I already have a Calibre library on the Kindle which I use for KOReader and didn't want to mess with it.

Anyway I hope you get it to work, the lack of a real dark mode is really the big shortcoming of the Colorsoft!

[JoeC]

THANK YOU! I will play with this when I have a chance. This is a big help.

[JoeC]

I was able to get a KFX on the Colorsoft (page color option is visible on the Kindle now) by using the KFX Output plugin, but had to use a USB transfer to Kindle, it didn’t work through Calibre. I think it has to be user error - I will experiment more this weekend and report back.

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by JoeC

I was able to get a KFX on the Colorsoft (page color option is visible on the Kindle now) by using the KFX Output plugin, but had to use a USB transfer to Kindle, it didn’t work through Calibre. I think it has to be user error - I will experiment more this weekend and report back.

I'm not sure what I was doing wrong. I can get Calibre to send the KFX book to the Kindle Colorsoft. All is well.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Known your comment is not forgotten

I haven't read everything about how you're supposed to handle your kindle but I guess if it's your own work it shouldn't be any problem.

Could someone more experienced confirm please ?

I create ebooks from fan fiction. I have over 500 on my kindle, they are all sent via Send to Kindle.