Kindle to utilize epub format in late 2022

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Dodgy eBooks illegally downloaded from the net can have incorrect encoding.

Sure but by definition, they are not ePubs.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by GeniusJ

How do I fix this?

You can fix it by using the "Encode HTML in UTF-8" option of the Modify EPUB plugin for calibre.


The problem occurs because although the EPUB specification requires Unicode encoding Amazon's kindlegen assumes that the default encoding is ISO 8859-1 if it is not specified in the EPUB. This is a holdover from the old Mobipocket Creator software that produced the original MOBI format.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Is there a big difference between the extra font options of azw3/kf8 and kfx's enhanced typesetting?

KFX has the same font options as KF8.

Originally Posted by hleo12

I tried it and the only difference I could see is kfx has the alignment enabled.

The main advantages to KFX are the ability to switch between left-aligned and justified text on the fly and the addition of hyphenation and ligatures. You can read a more detailed description of the differences in the Background section of the first post in the KFX Output Plugin thread.

Originally Posted by hleo12

Since I would be sideloading books via usb once email mobi support is gone, should I just convert books to kfx and transfer those to my kindle?

Your choice.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by nesler

Thank you for using the Send to Kindle service to send personal documents to your Kindle library. We wanted to let you know that starting August 2022, you’ll no longer be able to send MOBI (.mobi, .azw) files to your library. Any MOBI files already in your Kindle library will not be affected by this change.

They're blocking AZW too. I wonder if no new books will be available in AZW format from the ebook store itself.

[mrevent]

Originally Posted by jhowell

You can fix it by using the "Encode HTML in UTF-8" option of the Modify EPUB plugin for calibre.


The problem occurs because although the EPUB specification requires Unicode encoding Amazon's kindlegen assumes that the default encoding is ISO 8859-1 if it is not specified in the EPUB. This is a holdover from the old Mobipocket Creator software that produced the original MOBI format.

In my case, an epub-to-epub conversion with the "unsmarten punctuation" checked (under Look & Feel, Text tab...) fixed the aforementioned problem with quotation marks. I'll try the encoding plug-in if other issues occur, thanks.

...
While epub as an option would surely be great, when .mobi and .azw3 are no longer supported as the announcement says, older kindle devices may be more cumbersome to use... Today, the epub emailed by Calibre was converted to azw3 on a good-old Kindle 5. Possibly, it won't be delivered at all after August?

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by mrevent

While epub as an option would surely be great, when .mobi and .azw3 are no longer supported as the announcement says, older kindle devices may be more cumbersome to use... Today, the epub emailed by Calibre was converted to azw3 on a good-old Kindle 5. Possibly, it won't be delivered at all after August?

Before this change, .azw is the format being sent to newer Kindles. It's the format that's gonna get phased out along with .mobi.

.azw3 replaced it. The only thing that's gonna change is we're gonna lose covers in exchange for more font options. That's pretty much it.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

They're blocking AZW too. I wonder if no new books will be available in AZW format from the ebook store itself.

I doubt that they are dropping MOBI internally. It costs them almost nothing to continue to support MOBI and users of older devices depend on it.

This is about making sure that MOBI files are only created using Amazon’s own tool (kindlegen) that also produces the newer KF8 format along with the means to synchronize reading position and annotations between the two formats.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by mrevent

Today, the epub emailed by Calibre was converted to azw3 on a good-old Kindle 5. Possibly, it won't be delivered at all after August?

Not true. You won’t be able to email a MOBI file after August. The whole idea is to get people to Email EPUB files so that Amazon can convert them to KF8 for delivery to the devices that support it

[mrevent]

@hleo12 & jhowell: Thank you both for the clarifications... Better than what I suspected then.

[realthk]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Before this change, .azw is the format being sent to newer Kindles. It's the format that's gonna get phased out along with .mobi

I believe AZW is the same format as MOBI, with Amazon-specific DRM added.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by realthk

I believe AZW is the same format as MOBI, with Amazon-specific DRM added.

The terminology of Kindle formats is confusing and inconsistent.

MOBI format originated with the French company MobiPocket which Amazon purchased in 2005. In order to support improvements to the format over time each MOBI file has a version number associated with it. Versions up to 7 are considered by Amazon to be MOBI7 and version 8 is called KF8 (Kindle Format 8). In addition there is Master-MOBI produced by kindlegen which contains version 8 along with an older version in a single file.

The file extension .azw is used in different ways depending on the reading app/device. On a Kindle device it is used for MOBI7 files, but in the Kindle for PC app it can contain any Kindle format including KF8 or KFX (Kindle format 10).

While .azw can be used for different formats, the file extension .azw3 is only used for KF8. Some other file extensions used to refer to various Kindle formats are .mobi, .prc, .kfx, .azk, .azw4, .azw6, .azw8, and .azw9.

calibre uses it's own terminology for Kindle formats which differs from that used by Amazon.

[hleo12]

MobiPocket... That brings back so many memories. It used to be my ereader app back in my Nokia days.

[Joykins]

We can still sideload with MOBI, right? This is just about the format we email in going forward?

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by Joykins

We can still sideload with MOBI, right? This is just about the format we email in going forward?

Yes. You can still sideload .mobi and .azw formats via calibre/usb.

But since you're sideloading books anyways, it's probably better to convert them to a more recent format to take advantage of more font settings.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The terminology of Kindle formats is confusing and inconsistent.

MOBI format originated with the French company MobiPocket which Amazon purchased in 2005. In order to support improvements to the format over time each MOBI file has a version number associated with it. Versions up to 7 are considered by Amazon to be MOBI7 and version 8 is called KF8 (Kindle Format 8). In addition there is Master-MOBI produced by kindlegen which contains version 8 along with an older version in a single file.

The file extension .azw is used in different ways depending on the reading app/device. On a Kindle device it is used for MOBI7 files, but in the Kindle for PC app it can contain any Kindle format including KF8 or KFX (Kindle format 10).

While .azw can be used for different formats, the file extension .azw3 is only used for KF8. Some other file extensions used to refer to various Kindle formats are .mobi, .prc, .kfx, .azk, .azw4, .azw6, .azw8, and .azw9.

calibre uses it's own terminology for Kindle formats which differs from that used by Amazon.

No wonder I was confused. Someone gave me some AZW files, and I uploaded them into Calibre. They came out as KFX files. (Calibre couldn't read them but could convert them to ePubs.)