Is Print Replica sold as "Kindle Edition" misleading?

[Quoth]

This title is only available on select devices and the latest version of the Kindle app. Please refer to the supported device list before purchase.

In fact only on an app (as the Fire is really a kind of Android tablet with Kindle App pre-installed).

The Scribe (any version) isn't supported.

It likely would be useless on a phone or even a 7" tablet.

It's just a novel. Not illustrated or a textbook.


Actually, logically Amazon will eventually stop making eInk Kindles.

[davedeacon]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Attachment 222470

In fact only on an app (as the Fire is really a kind of Android tablet with Kindle App pre-installed).

The Scribe (any version) isn't supported.

It likely would be useless on a phone or even a 7" tablet.

It's just a novel. Not illustrated or a textbook.


Actually, logically Amazon will eventually stop making eInk Kindles.

I guess Amazon think of their kindle as reading platform, whether that's an general purpose device with an app or a piece of hardware just for consuming it. Where "it" is "something to read in whatever format". So a PDF becomes a "kindle edition book" because as a PDF it's this thing which a kindle (device) can or can't display.

I tried viewing PDFs on kindles in the past and it was not ok. Is it even supported any more? I've long since resigned myself to reading PDFs on the Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet. It's not so bad - it's got a great display. Not sure of the need for precise formatting for fiction and anyway, isn't azw3/mobi/epub etc just a wrapper for html? Pretty sure that can handle all but the most deliberately crazy formatting with that.

Once upon a time I was interested in a larger kindle to do so but none existed; recently they've introduced the Scribe range but they'd need to reduce the price by about 80% plus I'd need to be sure I could read PDFs on it.

I can't imagine Amazon stopping eInk devices any time soon - they must be making an absolute fortune from them.

[tomsem]

There are a number of fixed layout formats Kindles support.

Print Replica is the most analogous to PDF, and is in fact what Scribe and Kindle Colorsoft get when you send a PDF to Send To Kindle. I have no idea why the others do not get them as well, you can certainly side-load them and they will open and render 'as expected' on any recent Kindle. The main issue is that there is no 2 page display, whatever size display you have. It's a huge weakness of the ecosystem.

The other fixed layout formats (comics/manga/children) can be read on any Kindle, and can support 2 page display even on 6" displays.

There's one KFX format that is more like fixed-layout ePub, with all of its many warts. I do not know how you create them. Kindle Create (which can produce all of the other KFX variants for KDP) will not ingest fixed-layout ePub. So it must involve some internal tool. I have seen it used for 'coffee table books' with complex layout and text. But text is not interactive: you cannot select or highlight or even do text search (that is true of FXL ePub too on most platforms). It's ludicrous that even B&W 6" Kindles can get these, but at least you can if you want to suffer.

Print Replica is commonly used for textbooks in Kindle format (math/engineering/techinical). These also cost a lot more, and publishers tend to restrict it to the apps which have strongest DRM measures (Apple/Android - though Windows remains 'in play' for a bit longer). Amazon's recent and more aggressive efforts to harden Kindle DRM (and cut off older devices) may be laying the groundwork for the day when these textbooks will be available at least for Scribe lineup, which has a large enough display to make it workable.

But will textbook publishers embrace it? It is ultimately their choice.

Amazon would most likely need to restrict annotation that's available for print replica personal documents: just highlights and text notes, and maybe no drawing.

Currently you can export notes to PDF, and full page page previews are included for pages with drawing on them. And you can export the entire document with drawing and highlights overlaid. Either would provide a way to casually share content of the textbook with people who cannot afford to purchase (or even rent).

If drawing annotation weren't allowed in the first place then it would be on par with Kindle apps in terms of 'sharing'. Kindle apps allow copy and paste (to other apps) without restriction AFAICT. Not to mention screen captures (also possible on Kindles).

There are a few dozen at least 'Open Access' books in Print Replica that are free. I think there is perhaps one that allowed download to Scribe but no idea how to discover it again. You would think they'd think a little and enable download to Scribe, since no profits are at stake. But no.

Apart from that there are the Write On Books: puzzle or journalling books, only available for Scribe (and easy to find or create in PDF for free).