Non-English Kindle?

pdani · 09-11-2011, 12:59 AM

what's the scoop on this? I would like to read a diferent language on my kindle - is it possible?

Andrew H. · 09-11-2011, 01:53 AM

Yes, depending on the language.

rogue_librarian · 09-11-2011, 06:25 AM

What's the problem? The language only affects the interface, you can easily read English, German, French, Spanish ... books on your Kindle already. Not sure about more exotic charsets, or RTL support etc., though. What language(s) did you have in mind?

HarryT · 09-11-2011, 08:46 AM

Why don't you just try it and see? There are books in pretty much every language you can name available at PG.

Kumabjorn · 09-11-2011, 12:00 PM

While my main collection is English, I also have collection of books in Swedish, Danish, German and Japanese, and there is no problem with any of these. The only limitation I've encountered is the lack of dictionary support if you would need it.

Kyste · 09-11-2011, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

The only limitation I've encountered is the lack of dictionary support if you would need it.

Well, that and the text-to-speech function. I've tried to have it read aloud french e-books and the results are hilarious. Think Officer Crabtree in 'allo 'allo hilarious.

pdani · 09-12-2011, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why don't you just try it and see? There are books in pretty much every language you can name available at PG.

I did try - I downloaded some books in Hebrew and they came up as unreadable garbage. is there an issue with the format e.g. epub, mobi etc.? perhaps some formats work and others don't. I needed to convert them in calibre from epub to mobi so maybe the problem is with the conversion - do I need to set up some special options etc.?

pdani · 09-12-2011, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

While my main collection is English, I also have collection of books in Swedish, Danish, German and Japanese, and there is no problem with any of these. The only limitation I've encountered is the lack of dictionary support if you would need it.

thanks for your reply - please see my note to Harry below - I have a problem with Hebrew.

gASK · 09-12-2011, 04:27 AM

Since as far as I know, Kindle has no trouble with even most exotic characters as it is Unicode based, so I would think hebrew would be supported as well. The trouble most probably lies in the encoding used (and most probably it is caused by the conversion). I had pretty much the same problem with encoding of some Czech books I downloaded - some came out right directly after epub -> mobi conversion while most needed some tweaking of the conversion settings in Calibre.

Since I have no knowledge of possible hebrew encodings, I could not help you should direct your attention in that direction.

susan_cassidy · 09-12-2011, 12:28 PM

The problem is not the encoding (if the book is in UTF-8), but the available fonts. I don't think there is a Hebrew font available on Kindle.

Kumabjorn · 09-12-2011, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdani

thanks for your reply - please see my note to Harry below - I have a problem with Hebrew.

I noticed that. Have you looked for any Hebrew based Kindle community. You'd be surprised what is out there?

Obviously it must come with Japanese fonts since I can read it on mine. Seems a tad niggard not to invlude hebrew, don't take up nearly the space that Kanji does.

Andrew H. · 09-13-2011, 01:10 AM

There is a known problem with Hebrew and most e-readers, although I don't know the details or possible workarounds. I think the devices are not set up to allow you to read right-to-left.

HarryT · 09-14-2011, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdani

I did try - I downloaded some books in Hebrew and they came up as unreadable garbage. is there an issue with the format e.g. epub, mobi etc.? perhaps some formats work and others don't. I needed to convert them in calibre from epub to mobi so maybe the problem is with the conversion - do I need to set up some special options etc.?

That explains it. The Mobipocket format, which the Kindle uses, does not support right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. You should look at ePub devices if you need to read RTL.

09-11-2011, 12:59 AM	#1
pdani Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: kindle 3.2.1	Non-English Kindle? what's the scoop on this? I would like to read a diferent language on my kindle - is it possible?

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09-11-2011, 01:53 AM	#2
Andrew H. Grand Master of Flowers Posts: 2,201 Karma: 8389072 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Naptown Device: Kindle PW, Kindle 3 (aka Keyboard), iPhone, iPad 3 (not for reading)	Yes, depending on the language.

09-11-2011, 06:25 AM	#3
rogue_librarian Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 4269175 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Europe Device: Pocketbook Basic 613	What's the problem? The language only affects the interface, you can easily read English, German, French, Spanish ... books on your Kindle already. Not sure about more exotic charsets, or RTL support etc., though. What language(s) did you have in mind?

09-11-2011, 08:46 AM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Why don't you just try it and see? There are books in pretty much every language you can name available at PG.

09-11-2011, 12:00 PM	#5
Kumabjorn Basculocolpic Posts: 4,356 Karma: 20181319 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sweden Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle 4SO, Kindle for Android, Sony PRS-350 and PRS-T1	While my main collection is English, I also have collection of books in Swedish, Danish, German and Japanese, and there is no problem with any of these. The only limitation I've encountered is the lack of dictionary support if you would need it.

09-12-2011, 04:27 AM	#9
gASK Member Posts: 10 Karma: 3684 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Prague, ČR Device: Kindle 3	Since as far as I know, Kindle has no trouble with even most exotic characters as it is Unicode based, so I would think hebrew would be supported as well. The trouble most probably lies in the encoding used (and most probably it is caused by the conversion). I had pretty much the same problem with encoding of some Czech books I downloaded - some came out right directly after epub -> mobi conversion while most needed some tweaking of the conversion settings in Calibre. Since I have no knowledge of possible hebrew encodings, I could not help you should direct your attention in that direction.

09-12-2011, 12:28 PM	#10
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	The problem is not the encoding (if the book is in UTF-8), but the available fonts. I don't think there is a Hebrew font available on Kindle.

09-13-2011, 01:10 AM	#12
Andrew H. Grand Master of Flowers Posts: 2,201 Karma: 8389072 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Naptown Device: Kindle PW, Kindle 3 (aka Keyboard), iPhone, iPad 3 (not for reading)	There is a known problem with Hebrew and most e-readers, although I don't know the details or possible workarounds. I think the devices are not set up to allow you to read right-to-left.