What 6" Kobo to get?

[Shohreh]

Hello,

I've been using an OEM version of Bookeen’s Saga for years. It does the job, but there are a few things that make me want to get a Kobo — unless it's a breeze to convert EPUB to MOBI using eg. Calibre… I'd rather not get a Kindle:

• No clock
• A bit heavy (320g)
• The PDF reader could be better
• Too many steps to delete a book I just read
• Hard to jump from a footnote reference to its text and back

Provided Kobo has an 6" reader that performs better, what model would you suggest?

Thank you.

[Frogm4n]

It's long past time to give up on MOBI. AZW3 and KFX are much better and have been supported for well over a decade. Amazon also supports uploading EPUB with Send to Kindle so you don't have to worry about converting yourself unless you have specific personal requirements.

[DNSB]

I would suggest the Clara BW unless you want to try a colour device.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Shohreh

It does the job, but there are a few things that make me want to get a Kobo —[...]

• No clock
• A bit heavy (320g)
• The PDF reader could be better
• Too many steps to delete a book I just read
• Hard to jump from a footnote reference to its text and back

Provided Kobo has an 6" reader that performs better, what model would you suggest?

Unless you need colour, the Clara BW is a lovely device. The display is great.

- Weight is 174g.

- No six inch reader will read large-format PDFs well - that's a job for a larger device. PDF handling is fine for a small eink reader, and you can play with koreader if you want further features.

- Kobos have a clock one tap away while reading, and you can add it to always show with NickelClock.

- Deleting books is straightforward.

- If you use kepub not epub (it is easy to set up Calibre to send kepubs by default), you get pop-up footnotes.

[Shohreh]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

It's long past time to give up on MOBI. AZW3 and KFX are much better and have been supported for well over a decade. Amazon also supports uploading EPUB with Send to Kindle so you don't have to worry about converting yourself unless you have specific personal requirements.

Thanks for the infos. I'd rather not depend on Amazon. Can EPUB be converted to AZW3/KFX in Windows, preferably with open-source software?

Originally Posted by meeera

Unless you need colour, the Clara BW is a lovely device.

Looks good.

Is koreader easy to install on that Kobo? Is Calibre the only open-source solution on Windows to convert EPUB to KEPUB? Apparently, there's at least kepubify, but it might not be avalailable for Windows.

--
Edit: Are NickelMenu and NickelClock also worth installing?

[PeterT]

Kepubify is definitely available for windows. See https://github.com/pgaskin/kepubify



Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

[Aleron Ives]

I use kepubify under Windows for all of my books. It converts them pretty much instantly. Whether NickleMenu is worth it depends upon what you want to do. You get to define the items that appear in the menu.

[Ghostcat]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

It's long past time to give up on MOBI. AZW3 and KFX are much better and have been supported for well over a decade.

I keep seeing posts saying that MOBI is superior to AZW3. Can someone explain the advantages of AZW3 WRT plain ebooks with no illustrations.

FWIW. I belong to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it school".

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Ghostcat

I keep seeing posts saying that MOBI is superior to AZW3. Can someone explain the advantages of AZW3 WRT plain ebooks with no illustrations.

FWIW. I belong to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it school".

- blockquotes are badly done (those are the sections with different margins than the main text - letters, text messages, newspaper articles in the book). Mobi can only do the left margin, not the right, so those sections look lopsided

- no custom font support, you can only use the default fonts on your Kindle

- no boldness slider, i.e. cannot adjust the font weight/thickness

There are other things, but those three are the ones immediately apparent (to me, at least)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Ghostcat

I keep seeing posts saying that MOBI is superior to AZW3. Can someone explain the advantages of AZW3 WRT plain ebooks with no illustrations.

FWIW. I belong to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it school".

Where are you seeing this very very incorrect posts? You should go back to these posts and tell the posters that they are 100% wrong.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

- blockquotes are badly done (those are the sections with different margins than the main text - letters, text messages, newspaper articles in the book). Mobi can only do the left margin, not the right, so those sections look lopsided

- no custom font support, you can only use the default fonts on your Kindle

- no boldness slider, i.e. cannot adjust the font weight/thickness

There are other things, but those three are the ones immediately apparent (to me, at least)

- You can't edit Mobi in calibre's editor.

[Quoth]

mobi (KF7) is really limited
No CSS, it's HTML 3 with a few inline styles and some mobi extensions.
Very limited font and language support (no embedded fonts).
It's never better than azw3.
Already obsolete before Amazon bought Mobipocket in 2005.
Only the K1, K2, DX and DXG must use mobi. All other Kindles can use azw3 (KF8).
The azw (without 3) is mobi with later Amazon encryption.
Can't easily be edited.

AZW3 / KF8
Basically Amazon version of epub.
Uses CSS and similar HTML to HTML5.
Supports extra internal and external fonts
Supports multiple languages / wrting systems
Supported by all Kindles except the K1, K2, DX and DXG, though some earlier Kindles need updated to get AZW3. It was backported, where possible because it's so much better.
AZW3 is easily edited in Calibre.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...MQC26VQQMM8XSW

No plain novel is better in mobi than azw3. There are only a few edge cases of mobi, not actually reflowable novels, that don't work as AZW3 (I've never actually encountered them).

Mobi is so bad it should never have been used by Amazon in 2007 for 1st Kindle. The precursor to epub2 came out in 1998 and was better and open. Amazon wanted the Mobipocket encryption instead of Adobe (which they were using). They did ebooks befor Kindle launched in 2007 and bought Mobipocket (world's biggest ebook seller) in 2005. Mobipocket's mobi encryption was cracked, so Amazon moved to azw (mobi with amazon encryption before they released azw3 (KF8).

The ONLY reason ever to format ebooks in mobi is if you only have a K1, K2, DX (batteries likely dead) or the DXG (better screen and maybe dead battery).
The K1 is terrrible. The K2 & DX have poor screens.

[Quoth]

I think azw3 wasn't backported to K1, K2, DX and DXG due to lack of RAM. Sadly though the DXG has good screen and released same time as the K3/KK3 it's otherwise a DX, very lacking in RAM and CPU. Very slow with PDFs.

[Shohreh]

So, if Calibre (and possibly other open-source solutions) can easily convert EPUB to AZW3… is there a Kindle alternative to Kobo's Clara BW in the same price range (€140 over here) I should consider?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Shohreh

So, if Calibre (and possibly other open-source solutions) can easily convert EPUB to AZW3… is there a Kindle alternative to Kobo's Clara BW in the same price range (€140 over here) I should consider?

I don't know of any other open source program other then calibre to convert ePub to KF8. There is Kindlgen to convert ePub to dual-Mobi (including KF8). You can use KindleUnpack to split the dual-Mobi to Mobi and KF8.