Kindle Scribe

[HLS]

Originally Posted by LDB

It should probably be better for everything except reading.

Reading is quite nice on it. Since the 2020 models to current I noticed less glare. I don't experience eye strain at all.

[LDB]

I have the iPad and I love it for all the things it does, but a Kindle with front lighting is better reading. YMMV

[jhowell]

I know that I have brought this up before with no responses, but I am curious whether Amazon delivers book images in higher quality to a Kindle Scribe or if it receives the same low quality as other e-ink Kindles.

I was reading a recently published book (The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson) on my Kindle Oasis and it contains a few maps at the beginning to add context to the story. I was disappointed that on my device the map images were of low resolution, barely readable even when zoomed in. Looking at the same maps in the Kindle app on my iPad the maps were far clearer with much more detail. This is an example of how Amazon delivers different image quality for the same book depending on the Kindle reading platform used.

If any Scribe owner has purchased this particular book and wants to help research this topic here are the basic steps:

• Connect your Scribe to a PC or Mac via USB
  
• Locate the folder containing the book's image files using File Explorer or Finder. On a PC they should be in:
  D:\documents\Downloads\Items01\The Lost Metal_ A Mistborn Novel (The Mistborn Saga Book 7)_B09MBS37W9.sdr\assets\attachables
  (The drive letter may vary on a PC and the root folder will be different on a Mac.)
  
• You should find four files with names starting with "CR!". These contain the book's images and metadata.

For me those files are:

  130,173 CR!0SS2M693MS5WKE8FETFFPBRKRED7.kfx
  591,447 CR!7SWJJYV8TX525DWBCJ7A6Q59CNYZ.kfx
3,137,533 CR!1B21R5WD914079JR7HPCJA5MNJ21.kfx
3,146,397 CR!XH30569PYX39X0VF3F8SFCE9WYCP.kfx

The book has been updated since it was published and so you may see different file names depending on when you purchased the book. However the sizes of the files should be very close.

If the same file sizes show up on a Kindle Scribe that will mean that it is receiving the same highly compressed low resolution images as other Kindle devices. If they are significantly different that would indicate that the Kindle Scribe is considered to be a different class of device from other Kindles.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

@tomsem The video link is functional, it is the Mobileread's YouTube player plugin thingy that has some issues...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g37ZXAsn-2c

When wrapping in [youtube], only the video ID is needed. I've fixed the original post.

[Fat Abe]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I know that I have brought this up before with no responses, but I am curious whether Amazon delivers book images in higher quality to a Kindle Scribe or if it receives the same low quality as other e-ink Kindles.

I read somewhere that the b&w color depth is only 4 bits on the Scribe. This is much lower than the recent iPads which use 8 bits per color channel. I tested out the Scribe with a digital edition of Playboy from the 1990's. The model was Sharon Stone, and her picture looks about the same on a Kindle DX Graphite vs. Kindle Scribe. The same file looks great on an iPad, or a normal PC.

Where the new Scribe shines is displaying chess books that were originally published in b&w or grayscale. The larger format and faster page switching are definitely worth it. I just need to find a sturdy holder with an articulating arm. I would hate to have it fall on a electronic tournament size chess board with piece recognition. These are 6x the cost of the most expensive Kindle.

[NiLuJe]

Grayscale eInk screens have only ever supported 16 shades of gray (which, yes, is technically 4 bits, but that doesn't mean what you think it means ).

The only (mainstream) exception was the original Kindle, which only supported 8 shades of gray (or possibly even 4).

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Grayscale eInk screens have only ever supported 16 shades of gray (which, yes, is technically 4 bits, but that doesn't mean what you think it means ).

The only (mainstream) exception was the original Kindle, which only supported 8 shades of gray (or possibly even 4).

DX -> DXG -> PaperWhite 2 -> Scribe. Just get whiter and more contrast. All have Black, nearly white and 14 greys. Four bits.

Early eInk had 2 bits rather than 16, so: nearly black, dark grey, mid grey and pale grey.

16 bits on old PCs allowed 32000 to 64000 colours, so-called Hi-Color.

Coloured eink, except Gallery AECP, uses a coloured filter on top, so does technically 4096 variations including 16 levels of greyscale.

The Scribe can't display really differently to a Paperwhite 3, just bigger.

[JSWolf]

So with a Scribe, you get enhanced typesetting with KF8?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I know that I have brought this up before with no responses, but I am curious whether Amazon delivers book images in higher quality to a Kindle Scribe or if it receives the same low quality as other e-ink Kindles.

I was reading a recently published book (The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson) on my Kindle Oasis and it contains a few maps at the beginning to add context to the story. I was disappointed that on my device the map images were of low resolution, barely readable even when zoomed in. Looking at the same maps in the Kindle app on my iPad the maps were far clearer with much more detail. This is an example of how Amazon delivers different image quality for the same book depending on the Kindle reading platform used.

If any Scribe owner has purchased this particular book and wants to help research this topic here are the basic steps:

• Connect your Scribe to a PC or Mac via USB
  
• Locate the folder containing the book's image files using File Explorer or Finder. On a PC they should be in:
  D:\documents\Downloads\Items01\The Lost Metal_ A Mistborn Novel (The Mistborn Saga Book 7)_B09MBS37W9.sdr\assets\attachables
  (The drive letter may vary on a PC and the root folder will be different on a Mac.)
  
• You should find four files with names starting with "CR!". These contain the book's images and metadata.

For me those files are:

  130,173 CR!0SS2M693MS5WKE8FETFFPBRKRED7.kfx
  591,447 CR!7SWJJYV8TX525DWBCJ7A6Q59CNYZ.kfx
3,137,533 CR!1B21R5WD914079JR7HPCJA5MNJ21.kfx
3,146,397 CR!XH30569PYX39X0VF3F8SFCE9WYCP.kfx

The book has been updated since it was published and so you may see different file names depending on when you purchased the book. However the sizes of the files should be very close.

If the same file sizes show up on a Kindle Scribe that will mean that it is receiving the same highly compressed low resolution images as other Kindle devices. If they are significantly different that would indicate that the Kindle Scribe is considered to be a different class of device from other Kindles.

The ePub file is 10,366,752 (not modified other then removing the DRM) and most of the graphics are GIF. So it could be made a lot smaller by converting the images to JPG. Most of the images with three circles are at a resolution of 1548x400.

How does this compare with the Kindle version with the highest resolution graphics?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So with a Scribe, you get enhanced typesetting with KF8?

No, apparently you get personal documents in KFX format since that is required for the sticky note feature to work.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The ePub file is 10,366,752 (not modified other then removing the DRM) and most of the graphics are GIF. So it could be made a lot smaller by converting the images to JPG. Most of the images with three circles are at a resolution of 1548x400.

How does this compare with the Kindle version with the highest resolution graphics?

Amazon produces different variants of the book with different image resolutions. I took at look at that particular book in all of the formats that were available to me.

The best was KF8 format (3.57MB) with a separate HD image container (8.43MB) delivered to Kindle for PC with KFX disabled. That contained the same high resolution GIF files as the EPUB version.

Next best was KFX format (30MB) delivered to the various Kindle apps. In that case the images kept the same resolution but were converted to JPEG, resulting in significantly larger images files.

Worst was KFX format (6.7MB) delivered to an e-ink Kindle. Images were converted to JPEG-XR grayscale. Most had only slightly reduced resolution. However the larger images, such as maps, were reduced to the point of being almost unreadable.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

No, apparently you get personal documents in KFX format since that is required for the sticky note feature to work.



Amazon produces different variants of the book with different image resolutions. I took at look at that particular book in all of the formats that were available to me.

The best was KF8 format (3.57MB) with a separate HD image container (8.43MB) delivered to Kindle for PC with KFX disabled. That contained the same high resolution GIF files as the EPUB version.

Next best was KFX format (30MB) delivered to the various Kindle apps. In that case the images kept the same resolution but were converted to JPEG, resulting in significantly larger images files.

Worst was KFX format (6.7MB) delivered to an e-ink Kindle. Images were converted to JPEG-XR grayscale. Most had only slightly reduced resolution. However the larger images, such as maps, were reduced to the point of being almost unreadable.

Either the JPG in the KF8 format are smaller or some of the images in the ePub have higher resolution. The images directory for the ePub is 9.86MB.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Either the JPG in the KF8 format are smaller or some of the images in the ePub have higher resolution. The images directory for the ePub is 9.86MB.

The KF8 format for the book contains 116 images totaling 3.03MB. Some images there are of lower resolution than the original EPUB.

The associated HD container has ten higher resolution replacement images. With the replacements made the total for images is 10.4MB and they are almost the same as the images in the EPUB.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The KF8 format for the book contains 116 images totaling 3.03MB. Some images there are of lower resolution than the original EPUB.

The associated HD container has ten higher resolution replacement images. With the replacements made the total for images is 10.4MB and they are almost the same as the images in the EPUB.

It seems to me that it would be easier to buy the ePub and convert for use on a Kindle. This different resolutions is annoying.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It seems to me that it would be easier to buy the ePub and convert for use on a Kindle. This different resolutions is annoying.

In most cases it is easiest to just buy the book from Amazon and start reading on my Kindle. The problem with low resolution maps in this book is relatively rare.

[Pjama]

Had this almost a week, and it’s my favorite Kindle so far. Battery life is outstanding, bearing in mind I’m coming from an Oasis with appalling battery life. I’ve been using this to do many puzzles, and the battery lasts and lasts. I’ve done so many puzzles that I am already onto my second nib! As of yesterday. So my first nib only lasted four days. I have been doing a lot of nonograms though, which has involved a lot of heavy shading.

It’s the first time I’ve really loved a kindle, and that is what I have been waiting for all these years. Reading novels is also a wonderful experience. Books with pictures are stunning on this as well.

I’ve emailed PDF puzzle books, and puzzles from my Times of London subscription. Has been a wonderful experience getting back into cryptic crosswords again.