do Kobos support mobi as well as epub?

[phunnylinguist]

Figured I'd ask this question in an environment where it seems there are many satisfied users.

I literally just looked in on the Kobo site to compare the Glo, Aura and Aura HD. Among the features which surprised me were the battery life on theses browser-enabled devices (way more than I get with my Nook HD), but most of all that according to the view of merely minutes ago, they all support Amazon's mobi format.

Is this a recent addition?

[PeterT]

No. mobi's have been supported since day 1 on the Kobo eReader devices. HOWEVER; mobi support is not what one would call robust.

If you have much content in mobi format you would be advised to use calibre to convert to ePub format for Kobo devices.

PS: I'm requesting this thread be moved to the main Kobo forum; this subforum is for the Android series of devices (Arc / Vox) and not the eInk (Glo / Touch / Aura / ...) devices.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by phunnylinguist

I literally just looked in on the Kobo site to compare the Glo, Aura and Aura HD. Among the features which surprised me were the battery life on theses browser-enabled devices (way more than I get with my Nook HD), but most of all that according to the view of merely minutes ago, they all support Amazon's mobi format.

Is this a recent addition?

The libpdb.so file has been part of Kobo's firmware since the Kobo WiFi -- I never checked the firmware for the orignal Kobo. The .mobi format supported is not Amazon's but the original Mobipocket format which also used the .pdb extension (Palm DataBase) which may tell you how long it's been around. Even before Amazon bought Mobipocket, there were several variants on the format including a higher compression version. As far as I was able to tell last time I played with testing Kobo's mobi support somewheres around firmware 2.0.4, even the high compression version was not supported.

Using Calibre to convert mobi to epub is a lot more flexible and gives a better reading experience on Kobo's ereaders.

[phunnylinguist]

Thanks for the mini history on the mobi format, DNSB. Especially enlightening but certainly believable is the fact that Amazon just gobbled up (purchased) the format to tweak it as they wish for proprietary marketing reasons. In that they are certianly not alone.

I've a number of purchased pubs which offer the choice of epub and/or mobi. Being a current Nook HD owner up to now it's been a moot point. The publisher still offers the titles in this way as 'mobi' rather than 'azw' which from your response would be no mean feat to convert to epub using Calibre.

From a different post of mine I'd inquired about Kobo's built-in mobi support, forgetting that Amazon now offers their titles in azw. My thought was to buy one device for most all current, popular formats. I have since been enlightened.

One further question if I may? One main complaint of epub or for that matter even pdfs on a Nook HD is the exceptionally displeasing experience if a title contains graphics but especially maps. There seems to be no way to expand or may them larger and thus more readable. I'd read that the Kobos I've been looking at (Glo, Aura) have a pinch-to-zoom feature. If this is indeed the case it would be a huge plus in device consideration, if it indeed functions as it is described, that is. Is this a fantasy or false claim, or an actual for-real functioning feature? What's been your experience with it?

Thanks in advance,
Charlie

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by phunnylinguist

Thanks for the mini history on the mobi format, DNSB. Especially enlightening but certainly believable is the fact that Amazon just gobbled up (purchased) the format to tweak it as they wish for proprietary marketing reasons. In that they are certianly not alone.

I've a number of purchased pubs which offer the choice of epub and/or mobi. Being a current Nook HD owner up to now it's been a moot point. The publisher still offers the titles in this way as 'mobi' rather than 'azw' which from your response would be no mean feat to convert to epub using Calibre.

"AZW" is just a file extension: it's still a "Mobi" file, and can be converted to ePub using Calibre. I buy most of my ebooks from Amazon, and convert them to ePub.

[Ripplinger]

I also buy the majority of my books from Amazon right now and convert them to epub with Calibre and the epub quality is excellent, very nice formatting, you wouldn't even know it wasn't an epub to begin with. So I've never even been tempted to try the mobi support on the Kobo.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by phunnylinguist

One further question if I may? One main complaint of epub or for that matter even pdfs on a Nook HD is the exceptionally displeasing experience if a title contains graphics but especially maps. There seems to be no way to expand or may them larger and thus more readable. I'd read that the Kobos I've been looking at (Glo, Aura) have a pinch-to-zoom feature. If this is indeed the case it would be a huge plus in device consideration, if it indeed functions as it is described, that is. Is this a fantasy or false claim, or an actual for-real functioning feature? What's been your experience with it?

If you purchase the ebooks from Kobo in their variant on the epub format, you can select an image and zoom/rotate it. For the most part, I've found it a fairly useless feature since most of the images in ebooks are pretty low resolution. On the 6 inch Aura, pinch to zoom works on PDF and Kobo epubs but I'm not fond of PDFs on my Kobos. Even on my iPad, I keep wanting a bigger screen since most of my PDFs are tech manuals. The ones where the dead tree versions have those lovely foldout diagrams that are about A2 size. For other Kobo ereaders, there was a kernel patch to allow two finger light control and pinch to zoom on IR touch Kobos. I tested it but never made much use of it though it has been updated for firmware 3.8.0.

[frenshprince]

Mobi can be read on my h2o, but you can't use dictonnary. No problem with epub or kepub.

[frenshprince]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I also buy the majority of my books from Amazon right now and convert them to epub with Calibre and the epub quality is excellent, very nice formatting, you wouldn't even know it wasn't an epub to begin with. So I've never even been tempted to try the mobi support on the Kobo.

Why don't you buy them on Kobo store ?
It seems that with original kepub, you have more reading options on a Kobo reader.

Like this :
[Image violates guidelines for size - MODERATOR]

[Ripplinger]

I don't like .kepubs, and I don't like Kobo's setup where it's hard to know if you can download a book in epub or kepub before you buy it. I know it can be done, but it's just another hassle to deal with there. If anything is wrong, their customer support is lacking. And generally I buy books on sale, very rarely at full price these days since I have so many still to be read. And that means Amazon's sale price is usually cheaper.

The point is if you remove DRM, you're not limited to one store or tied to their system. You're free to buy from wherever you like, whether to get the best price or best selection or if you just like the colors of their website better. I could ask why you don't buy from Amazon (but I won't and I'm not).

[frenshprince]

I get what you mean, and I buy books on amazon for my kindle pw
And that's my point :

When you buy books from the same store as your reader brand, you get a lot of reading features, which doesn't work with sideloaded books.

With ebook from AmazonStore read on your kindle, you have :
- sync between devices
- freetime
- sharing quote on social network
- good reads

And with ebook from KoboStore read on your kobo, you have :
- sync betwin devices
- extend stats reading
- and maybe others features that i'm not aware of (I only have a h2o since friday)

But if price is more important to you than these features, I understand

[Ripplinger]

I don't ever need to sync between devices, I read all the way through on one reader only. I despise social networking and think it's the scourge of the 21st Century (and let me apologize now to anyone I might offend with that comment). I don't need the reader to tell me how long I've been reading a book, or how long until I finish a chapter or a page... all of those features are just totally useless to me. If I'm interested in reviews or checking Goodreads, I only do that from my PC, never from my reader. I just want to sit and read and not be bothered with all the other minutia they keep adding to readers.

So that leaves just availability and price as my only concerns when buying a book.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by frenshprince

Why don't you buy them on Kobo store ?
It seems that with original kepub, you have more reading options on a Kobo reader.

Sideloading ebooks as epub also has some advantages over downloading them directly as epub from the Kobo store: hyphenation and justification work better in epubs than in kepubs. (words are often hyphenated in the wrong place in kepubs, and lines that contain dashes or ellipses often don't justify properly in kepubs).

Although I buy the majority of my books from Kobo (because they usually have the best prices after allowing for exchange rate/fees and promo codes), I usually sideload them as epubs to avoid the hyphenation and justification problems of kepubs.

[frenshprince]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Sideloading ebooks as epub also has some advantages over downloading them directly as epub from the Kobo store: hyphenation and justification work better in epubs than in kepubs. (words are often hyphenated in the wrong place in kepubs, and lines that contain dashes or ellipses often don't justify properly in kepubs).

Although I buy the majority of my books from Kobo (because they usually have the best prices after allowing for exchange rate/fees and promo codes), I usually sideload them as epubs to avoid the hyphenation and justification problems of kepubs.

Kepub doens't seem to be an appreciated format.
It's new for me, I just got here 4 days ago, so it's nice to learn stuff like this.

But so far, I don't really like how epub look on the h2o.
The text is too close to the top, and with the shadow of the beze, it's quite uncomfortable.


Kepub have a light margin on top, which is perfect to me.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by frenshprince

Kepub have a light margin on top, which is perfect to me.

The top margin is set in the book itself, but you can set up Calibre to automatically change the margins (and other things) when it sends the book to the device.

Another alternative is to patch the firmware to add adjustable top and bottom margins to epubs. With this feature all four margins will change when you adjust the margin slider, not just the left/right margins. (works best if all margins are removed from the book before sideloading).

Edit: See this post for screenshots from my Glo using adjustable top/bottom epub margins.