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Old 04-01-2024, 03:17 PM   #1
mmobes
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Moving to Kobo from Amazon, which file format should I use?
So I’m moving over to the Kobo platform with a Libra 2 after having used Kindle devices for probably a decade. I store all my books in Calibre and have it set to auto convert to AZW3 on import.

Now that I’m changing to Kobo, I’m wondering what file format is preferred? I see a lot of people talk about epub, though I see Kobo has its own file format as well. Is there any benefit to using one over the other?

If it matters, I only read English books, and I don’t do much note taking or highlighting. I really just care about readability.

Thanks!
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Old 04-01-2024, 03:48 PM   #2
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Most people won't notice much difference between ePub and Kobo's variant (kepub). For me, I prefer ePub since it has a slight advantage in typography and font handling. The only time I use kepub is when there is an image (a map for instance) that would benefit from being zoomable.
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Old 04-01-2024, 05:33 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mmobes View Post
So I’m moving over to the Kobo platform with a Libra 2 after having used Kindle devices for probably a decade. I store all my books in Calibre and have it set to auto convert to AZW3 on import.

Now that I’m changing to Kobo, I’m wondering what file format is preferred? I see a lot of people talk about epub, though I see Kobo has its own file format as well. Is there any benefit to using one over the other?

If it matters, I only read English books, and I don’t do much note taking or highlighting. I really just care about readability.

Thanks!
You have no idea what you started with this post...

The ePub vs KePub war!!
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Old 04-01-2024, 07:22 PM   #4
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The benefits of KEPUB are the image viewer, the rapid page turning feature, and perhaps slightly faster performance, especially with large books. KEPUB also numbers pages based on screens, so when you adjust the font size, the number of virtual pages in the book will change. EPUB uses Adobe's synthetic page numbering system, so a given book will have a fixed number of pages.
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Old 04-01-2024, 08:55 PM   #5
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Just use KOReader and then you can use almost any ebook format that you want.
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Old 04-01-2024, 09:00 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by twowheels View Post
Just use KOReader and then you can use almost any ebook format that you want.
I would suggest that letting the OP get used to his Kobo before we start throwing KOReader and Plato into the mix.
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Old 04-01-2024, 10:08 PM   #7
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Just use KOReader and then you can use almost any ebook format that you want.
KOReader has no library management, only a file browser. It is also slow with large books, e.g. omnibus editions. For those reasons I prefer the patched native reader.

As to epub vs kepub, I'd suggest trying both and deciding for yourself. Aleron Ives already listed the main differences. I'd add that the advantages of epubs are better layout (like word spacing) and respecting different fonts if they're used in the book (there's a kepub patch for the latter, but out of the box only epubs display different fonts in the book while still using your chosen font for the main body text).
Last edited by Sirtel; 04-02-2024 at 04:45 AM.
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Old 04-02-2024, 04:37 AM   #8
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My suggestion is to use ePub as it displays better then KePub. This is without any hacks/patches. RMSDK renders better then the software used for KePub.
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Old 04-02-2024, 05:32 PM   #9
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Epub has a better typography (ligatures), Kepub has pop up notes and images enlargement but no ligatures.
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Old 04-02-2024, 08:14 PM   #10
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You can get ligatures by enabling optimizeLegibility or geometricPrecision in the configuration file (if your font supports it), but doing so makes word spacing even worse.
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Old 04-02-2024, 08:17 PM   #11
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Last time I checked, tapping on footnotes was hard with epub.
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Old 04-02-2024, 09:54 PM   #12
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Last time I checked, tapping on footnotes was hard with epub.
For me, I've found it depends more on how the text the link is linked to is constructed. One recent book I was reading used a superscript number at 60% of the body font to make it hard to hit. Another recent book used a ' [number] ' to give a bigger target which was a lot easier to hit reliably.
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Old 04-03-2024, 12:53 AM   #13
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I've also found that the footnotes popup almost never works with KEPUB. Footnotes appear to be the bane of e-books. x)
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Old 04-03-2024, 09:06 AM   #14
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If you have eBooks with enough footnotes and/or images you'll want to zoom, then use KePub. Otherwise (IMHO) ePub will be look better.
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Old 04-14-2024, 02:04 PM   #15
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I would add that the Kobo firmware can display a LOT of ebook formats, including mobi. On occasion, when using Calibre to convert my books from Amazon's azw to more open formats, it will fail to convert one of my Kindle books into epub or kepub. In those cases, I've been able to use Calibre to make a de-DRM'd mobi file, which my Kobo Clara HD can open and display. Images are not zoomable, and this is a major limitation in my experience.

But if my goal is just to read text, then mobi works fine.
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