What's the difference between Kindle and PDFs

[wxwwttkljr]

I'm familiar with PDF Readers to open an e-book like "PDF Reader Pro" which was powered by ComPDFKit.

But, I am quite unfamiliar with Kindle. Is it better than a PDF Reader?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by wxwwttkljr

I'm familiar with PDF Readers to open an e-book like "PDF Reader Pro" which was powered by ComPDFKit.

But, I am quite unfamiliar with Kindle. Is it better than a PDF Reader?

A Kindle is terrible for reading PDF. The screens are too small. Most eInk Readers are terrible for PDF for the same reason.

[Quoth]

PDFs are not real ebooks, they are electronic documents intended to be WYSIWG preview for paper. PDFs define a physical page size, so most won't be usable on a screen not large enough. A PDF can contain postscript, OCR text, scanned images of books, vector graphics and other images as well as forms, either layered or on separate pages.

Kindle (Amazon) can mean:

1. An eink based ereader, hardware to read Kindle ebooks, though they will show PDFs if the PDF page is small enough. The first model was in 2007.
2. An App for PC, Mac, iOS or Android.
3. An ebook format (though some Kindle formats are fixed layout or encapsulated PDF, so won't work on ereader hardware). There are several formats possible in a mobi or azw file, including KF7, dual KF7+KF8 and others. An azw3 file is KF8. Most have DRM. KFX format can use several files and always has DRM. Kindle ereaders and apps might also read old Mobipocket prc files. The Kindle formats were created (maybe 2007) after Amazon bought Mobipocket (2005).
4. KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is the service and interface to upload ebooks for sale. The epub format is best.
5. Send to Kindle. A Cloud service where you send an epub to Amazon and they keep a copy and also send it via WiFi or Mobile to the Kindle Hardware. Sideloading (copy by USB) of a Kindle

Amazon also has a Fire Tablet, it's Amazon's version of Android linked to the Amazon store instead of Google Playstore. It was confusingly called a Kindle Fire for a while. It has a pre-installed Kindle app that's not quite the same as the Android or iOS apps.

The Kindle ebook ereader will not read all Kindle "ebooks", because some only work on Amazon's Web app, some only work on the Fire and some only work on the Apps. However the Kindle ereader is the simplest way to read real Kindle ebooks.

The Kindle ereader never has been leading edge. Sony was once more advanced and now Kobo is superior for ease of use. It's possible to read Kindle ebooks on other ereader hardware, but they need converted to epub, and often need DRM removed. Fixed layout Kindle books won't convert, sometimes you can extract a PDF.

See Calibre Forum here.

[rjwse@aol.com]

What's the difference between Kindle and PDFs
PDF and EPUB both let you read text and look up words. PDF is like a printed page and the words and lines are fixed in position. If you enlarge, then the text 'goes offscreen' and you have to cursor all around the page. By contrast, when you enlarge an EPUB the text automatically reflows to the next line as needed. EPUB reading software (like the viewer in calibre) lets you read on computer screens of any size and you can even configure the text into any number of multicolumn settings as well as make the text larger or smaller. calibre even has a 'content server' so that you can send and read on your phone instead of your computer. By and large, calibre has more options than any and all physical hardware readers. Dedicated hardware readers like Nook (Barnes and Noble) and Kindle (Amazon) are proprietary. You must accept their limitations and rules for what works with their machines. Same goes for Apple, etc. PDFs seem to be used for legal documents a lot. PDFs are also used to send to a printing company to make a paper book. For actual reading of books, nothing is better than EPUB because of the ability to resize for any screen and reflow of lines. EPUB is the generic official type of file but Amazon has created its own proprietary format which goes by several names. It is the old conumdrum: do you like Ford or Chevy? Although calibre can convert from Anything to Anything-else there is a problem converting PDF to EPUB. Results obtained are quite often not good and this requires lots and lots of manual tweaking, so much so, generally, it's hardly worth doing. The program K2PDFOPT is the best option for this. If you must read a PDF as-is the best option is a large-as-possible monitor. calibre has a built-in EPUB reader but does not have its own PDF reader. However, calibre will open your own PDF reader from the calibre library. For example if you have a book with two formats, EPUB and PDF, hitting 'V' will open that book in calibre's ereader. I set my calibre key-combos so that 'ctrl-E' opens the PDF in Evince. I also have set it so 'ctrl-O' opens the PDF in Okular. There are many PDF readers, some better than others. Best regards, Pop