Kindle uses ISO-8859-1 format, not UTF-8. So there are a lot of characters not natively included in Amazon's format. I am Spanish and I find issues with characters like — (em dash) or € (euro currency). Fortunately, you can use their html entity code instead. For instance, the html entity code for em dash is & mdash ; and the html entity code for € is & euro ; (without spaces).

Here you are:

ISO-8859-1 entry in Wikipedia. Incomplete support to Hungarian characters is mentioned by November 3rd 2014.
List of html entity codes in the W3 Consortium.

Amazon published a list of ISO-8859-1 characters in a gif image. This is my first post on stackexchange, so I cannot publish more than two links. This is the image distributed by Amazon (you can google it if you want to access the info by yourself):


How to send web pages to a Kindle from Firefox?

What type of Kindle do you have? Most of them support browsers, even though some are quite basic. So one option would be to simply view the website on the kindle itself, no?

If this is not sufficient please can you clarify why in your original question.


(I assume you are talking about an internal, not external link. Is that right?)

Here are some helpful clues and semi-educated guesses.

The epub3 spec doesn't say anything about whether reading systems need to support this feature. Also, there is nothing in the Content Document spec which forbids this. So I wouldn't think that a hyperlinked image would cause a validation problem. (I could be wrong though).

By default, touching an area with a graphic in a reading system will simply enlarge the image. But currently vior for the the touchscreen reading systems I know is that when you click an image, it enlarges that image.  You would need some way to let the reader know that the image is also a link.

Here are some guesses:

1)the reading system would need to indicate dual actions for the image OR
2)you would need some scripting language that would permit the  opening of a link.

Personally, I see no reason why a reading system shouldn't include hyperlinked images; indeed, the hover action does seem to trigger actions in certain contexts on a tablet.  In contrast to web browsers, ebook reading systems don't seem designed to permit animation or interactivity. This could change.

One feature which is semi-supported on iBooks is aside popups. http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/best-practices-for-ebook-back-matter-footnotes-and-endnotes/ If the goal is simply to provide data for each art work, a simple popup might do the trick. Or you could add a caption to each image which shows the information you want.


How to split an EPUB into multiple files of one chapter?

If each chapter is formatted as an h1-h6 tag or marked with a unique style, you could use Sigil to insert split markers. For example, if all your chapter headings are formatted as <h1> tags, you'd use:

Find:<h1

Replace:<hr class="sigil_split_marker" /><h1

Then select Edit > Split at markers.


Can I keep a reading diary on my device?

You can not directly keep a diary on your device of your written reviews. If that is your question. You can indeed write your review on the device after finishing the book. And you can always find it online on the Kobo.com website.

What is maybe an option but rarely used, is to make a screenshot of your written review. This can be done by editing the code of your device a little bit. More of the explanation about that can be found in this question: Is it possible to take a screenshot from a Kobo ereader device?

If you can categorize your annotations that would also be an option to annotate your review stuff and divide it for annotations of the specific passages in the book and annotations for the review parts in the book.


How to generate Kindle AZK on the command line from mobi/epub?

I’m not sure you can generate an AZK from the command line. From https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KindleGen

  Note that Kindle Previewer is currently the only way to generate AZK files for iOS use.

Not the answer you seek, but an answer.


I solved it!

The reason why I didn't see at first place was that my collections were only on the cloud.On the tabs (ALL|DOWNLOADED   and 2 filters on the right corner), I was choosing "collections" instead of "all items" in the first tiny arrow. And the second tiny filter arrow didn't allow me to choose collections (but only recent/title/author). The "collection" selection was faded.

After I downloaded my collections, then choose "all items" on the first filter arrow, "collection" on the second filter arrow, I am able to see my collections as well as my non-sorted books.

I hope it helps for someone else :)


How to improve image heavy mobi format book?

Reduce the size of the images using a tool such as free IrfanView or an alternative. If you simply drop an image into a word processor such as LibreOffice Writer or MS Word, and then drag a corner to shrink the image to fit the page, the number of bytes used by the image stays the same. Pre-shrink the image to the approximate size needed in the page layout.
If you have many images, you can batch process some to a set size with image editors.
BTW, MOBI files are often twice the size of EPUB, so consider other formats for non-Kindle devices, if file size is an issue.


When an Amazon account contains more than 1023 purchased Kindle books, how do you access the books beyond the 1023rd book?

This sounds like a limitation of the software, so you probably won't be able to get around it from the device.

First, I recommend reporting this as a bug to Amazon. Don't expect them to fix it right away or anything, but it's always good to let the devs know when something doesn't behave as you as a user want. ;)

If your final goal is to get all your books to the Kindle somehow, the solution would be to download them from Amazon ("Your Content and Devices") and sideload them over the USB cable. (It's good to download the files as backups anyway and de-DRM them while you do that, IMO, but that's a different topic...)

EDIT - how to report a bug: I forgot that Amazon is one of those "don't bother us dirty mortal!" companies. The only way to report a Kindle bug I found is to use the form at /gp/help/support/contact-us (choose "Devices" from the buttons above) - and whow, that is one very well-buried page!


Are there any solar-powered ebook reader?

Following this article, it looks like one has been developed by LG already:

  Designed by LG Display, the sleek reader features a wafer-fin
  photovoltaic cell that provides it with a steady stream of solar
  energy.

  Read more: LG Unveils Solar Powered E-Book Reader | Inhabitat -
  Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

EDIT: Found after digging some more through Google

Biblio Leaf By Toshiba:

  Toshiba has decided to give their next gadget a green twist by
  announcing that their new eReader, the Biblio Leaf, will be solar
  powered

Solar panel cover for Kindle:

  SolarFocus Technology Company Ltd. has just unveiled one of the most
  ingenious and practical solar powered gadgets that we’ve seen in a
  long time — a sun-powered cover for the most popular e-reader on the
  market, the Amazon Kindle.

Links to articles about Solar powering the ebook reader


Kindle (2nd gen) battery can't hold power

You can try to change the battery.

A simple Google search returns a lot of results, I summarize here the steps from this page:

  Turn off your Kindle. Slide and hold the power switch for four
  seconds, then release. The screen blanks.
  Place the Kindle screen down on a flat, clean surface.
  Remove the plastic back panel. Two tabs keep the back panel in
  place. Use a thin spudger to slide the panel away from the larger
  metal back panel. This step is a little scary while you do it. You will think you’re breaking the Kindle, but as long as you apply only
  gentle force, you won’t actually break anything.
  Remove the metal back panel. With a Phillips #0 screwdriver, remove the two screws which attach the metal back panel to the
  Kindle’s plastic body, then slide the panel away. Until you replace
  the back panels, keep a close eye on the volume rocker. Without the
  back panels to hold it into position, it may fall out.
  Remove the old battery. With a Phillips #0 screwdriver, remove the two screws holding the battery in place, then lift the battery out by
  its black tabs.
  Install the new battery. Drop it in connector first, then replace the two retaining screws.
  Replace the metal back panel. Place it such that the panel lies flat and the volume rocker is held in place, then replace the two
  retaining screws.
  Replace the plastic back panel. Place it such that the panel lies flat and the volume rocker is held in place, then slide it toward the
  bottom of the Kindle.
  Recharge the Kindle with a micro USB cable. After a few seconds, the amber light will illuminate and the screen will refresh.

You can also try this and this.


How do you access the benefits from Amazon Prime to get free Kindle books?

Amazon has two types of eBook subscription services
1.  Kindle Unlimited
2.  Kindle Owner's Lending Library

Differences:

The books available to each service are both around 1.4 million titles.

Amazon Prime members can borrow ONE book each calendar month from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library.  This link has a good video of how to search the Kindle Owner's Lending Library... https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=help_search_1-1?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200757120&qid=1360282925&sr=1-1&tag=bom-tomsguideca-20

Also, Amazon Prime members have access to the Amazon Kindle First Picks Program for free. Meaning, you have the option to download one of six editor's picks made available before their publication date each month, for free.  This option does not carry over each month. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201376210&tag=bom-tomsguideca-20

For an additional fee of $99 a year or $10.99 a month, you can have full access to the Kindle Owner's Lending Library.  Alternatively, for an additional $2.99 you can get FreeTime Unlimited which gives you access to ~ 13,000 kid friendly books, tv shows and games.

Here is a quick overview of your Amazon Prime Benefits:
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/what-is-amazon-prime,news-18041.html


Converting PDFs results in fragmented sentences/paragraphs

I read on another forum that the best way to improve PDF conversion was to enable the heuristic processing. Hope this helps
https://www.reddit.com/r/ebooks/comments/1hst5i/converting_pdf_to_mobi_in_calibre_getting_a_gap/


Calibre: Author with the word "and" in the name?

You can change default behaviour in Preferences/Tweaks:
# Splitting multiple author names

The default setting is:
authors_split_regex = ',?\s+(and|with)\s+'

When you clear that, Calibre won't split author names.


I'm not sure what you mean by best. Best is subjective and dependent on various factors such as type of PDF document and acceptability of quality loss.

However, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC offers an option to Reduce File Size.

Similar software also offer such an option. Example: ABBYY FineReader (p. 3 of Source).


How to convert .epub to .pdb for testing

There is an old program called TL-PDB. The original authors site seems to be here according to this site, but I have some difficulty reading the original.

You can read about it here and here as well (download sites for free software seem to copy each others content).

Calibre can generate PDB output (not surprisingly as MOBI is a superset of PalmDoc).


Need suggestion on selecting the font type for self-publishing book

Recommending a specific font without actually seeing where it's going to be used is a lot like suggesting a wardrobe without knowing the person who will wear it.

The purpose of a font is to make text readable. This is particularly true when there's a lot of text for the reader to process. Setting the text of a book in a fonts with potential for slowing down reading speed is going to hamper readability. (Also, support for custom fonts varies between e-book platforms. Different ebook standards handle fonts differently, and what's supported in different platforms can change. If custom fonts are important to your book, PDFs and printed books can handle any font you like.)

What do users find appealing? That's extremely subjective. Different designers, who have been trained in font use, will disagree on this. In general, a font will set the mood of a page. Looking into past use of a type of font will help you predict what kind of feel a font will create in users. What kinds of fonts do other books like yours use? Knowing that will help you, whether you want to blend in and let the words do the talking, or stand out from your peers with a page that has a different feel.

Readability is a large area to explore. There are many studies and articles on which fonts are most readable, but the conventional wisdom (which has often been questioned) is that serif fonts are best for body type. Sans-serif fonts are often used to set off headlines and titles. Using no more than two fonts on a page is a good rule of thumb; without real knowledge of how fonts work together, using more than that looks chaotic and amateurish.


Aldiko, though not perfect, is by far the best ebook reader available for Android. It has full support for all ePub features, plus PDF, and has a reasonably nice UI unlike all the other apps.

It has all the features you asked for, except built-in ColorDict support - however, you can "share" selected text using the Android sharing system, which allows you to share it to ColorDict. One extra tap, but it works.

UB Reader also works well - it has the best ePub formatting support of any reader I've tried. But it has a poor UI compared to Aldiko. It has some kind of dictionary system of its own built in, which I have not tried.

Regarding the other suggestions :

Google Play Books is not a good solution as it can not directly open files on your device, you have to upload them to Google.
Moon Reader has equal functionality to Aldiko in many respects, but (in my opinion) a horrible, outdated UI and much worse ePub formatting support.


Try the Adobe Digital Editions apps for macOS or iOS. Also check out Menestrello and the free Menestrello media overlay epub3 books.

If you're a software developer, also check out Minstrel.


Connect Kobo Touch to Linux PC using USB; PC not recognized by reader

Exactly  the same problem.
Fedora 24, Kobo mini connected via micro USB cable

Kobo starts charging but no sign of it on computer, no "connect" option
on kobo.

Tried a different cable and hey presto - instant success...

Sadly, I've seen this behaviour before, hence trying a different cable
was my first thing to try (after checking internet and finding no real
answers but coming across your question... )

Motto is - not all cables are equal in all situations...

Hope this helps


Are there any solutions available for managing a corporate library of ebooks?

There aren’t many choices. The most simple is to have a cloud-like space/service or simply a shared intranet directory. The need for controlling readers requires much more and is typically dependent on a special app or DRM. This issue is typically a thing for bigger companies like publishers or libraries (Adobe Content Server, Azardi Online).

If it is simple, small library it would need simple and strict rules. Otherwise the solution would be expensive, complex and annoying for you.

You could also try: Personal Book Space but I have no experiences with it.


TOC section scope is not included in the parent chapter:Table of Contents

I had the same problem, was caused by repeated chapters.


How to convert PDFs to readable Kindle format

Simplest way is to send kindle team an email with the PDF attached along. They'll send you back the converted .mobi format.

  Send to Kindle by E-mail Send documents to your Kindle as an email
  attachment You and your approved contacts can send documents to your
  registered Kindle devices, free Kindle reading applications, and your
  Kindle Library in the Amazon Cloud by e-mailing them to your
  Send-to-Kindle e-mail address ([name]@kindle.com). Your Send-to-Kindle
  e-mail address is a unique e-mail address assigned to each of your
  Kindle devices and free Kindle reading applications upon registration.

  How to send a document to your Kindle: To find your Send-to-Kindle
  e-mail address, visit the Manage your Devices page at Manage Your
  Kindle. Documents can only be sent to your Kindle devices or apps from
  e-mail accounts that you added to your Approved Personal Document
  E-mail List. To add an e-mail account, visit the Personal Document
  Settings page at Manage Your Kindle. To send a document to your Kindle
  device or app, simply attach it to an e-mail addressed to your
  Send-to-Kindle e-mail. It is not necessary to include a subject in the
  email.


Online ebooks opensource platform that can be hosted on a server

Hosting the files is the easy part. Making sure that you don't violate any copyright laws in doing so is the hard part.

To host the files, all you need to do is copy the files into a folder on your web host. Then create a web page with links to those files. If you don't know how to do this, then you should check the resources offered by your web hosting service. They usually include free site builder tools that will help explain how to create a basic web site and link to different pages or files.

As for the copyright, that is a much more complex issue. Just because you own a particular book doesn't mean you have the right to give away copies of it, especially with e-books. You need to check each book carefully and look for the copyright notice to see if it grants you permission to redistribute. Also, if you can't find a copyright notice or a release, you should assume that the book is still protected under copyright. The safest way to ensure that you can do this legally would probably be to contact the author or publisher.


Install Python, download KindleUnpack and unpack the mobi book using the following command:

python kindle_unpack.py INPUT_FILE OUTPUT_FOLDER

(KindleUnpack only works with DRM-free books.)


Part of the screen on my reader is stuck

This looks like broken eInk display and I'm afraid that only display replacement can help here.
eInk displays are rather fragile and not only dropping, but something that looks not so dangerous, like putting reader without inflexible cover with paper books in same bag, can mechanically damage display (even if glass is not broken). And display is rather expensive part of reader so if ereader with eInk display is not covered by warranty (good one) replacement may be not cost effective.


Can I make my ebook free while retaining the paperback available on KDP

Paperback and ebook are two different items, as far as KDP is concerned. I have published some paper book without the Kindle version (which is free on my site) and nobody ever complained.


Semantically, the most appropriate element to use for section breaks is HR. (Whether it renders properly on reading systems is another matter).

According to HTML 5, HR is supposed to "indicate  a paragraph-level thematic break, e.g. a scene change in a story, or a transition to another topic within a section of a reference book". https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/grouping-content.html#the-hr-element

HR isn't necessarily a horizontal rule anymore! (this changed from HTML 4)

You can use CSS on the HR to change it from a horizontal line to extra space/longer margins/background image.

the HTML standard says that br elements must be used only for line breaks that are actually part of the content, as in poems or addresses. br elements must not be used for separating thematic groups in a paragraph.

https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-br-element

In the past I have created classes for p to handle different kinds of section breaks. (I will start using HR instead to do that).

I would expect that BR rendering is not consistent among reading systems. I don't know if some of the older systems like K4 and below will render HR as a horizontal line or if you can override that.

Finally about testing on android readers. I have found that some of the minor reading systems apply their own CSS without regard to the ebook's own css. As a result, css rendering is hit-and-miss. Android-wise, I personally test only on Google Play Books, Kindle and Adobe DE. I'm pretty sure all 3 would render CSS for these section breaks (whether they be hr, p or whatever) properly.


Is it advisable to add sound excerpts to an ebook?

It's great to hear about a project where the audio would actually add substantively to the content of the book--that's too often not the case. In your case, I'd say yes, it does definitely make sense to add the audio, as it is directly relevant and helpful to understanding the subject. It is also perfectly allowable in the epub 3.0 specification, though support is optional rather than mandatory--not all reading systems will have support, but there is a standardized method for those that do support it.

Outside of the epub world, things are a little less rosy: Amazon sells files with audio built in, but only supports multimedia on their iOS apps. In addition, last I checked they weren't accepting multimedia-enabled files through KDP (their self-publishing program), even though the instructions for making such files are clearly available in the Kindle Publishing Guidelines. In order to sell a multimedia file through Amazon, you'll need to be able to talk directly to Amazon--if you're a mid size or larger publisher, you probably have a contact you can speak with about that.


Two kindles bricked, can there be a common cause?

You can try and convert all of your Calibre managed files, to any format and see if any of the books show a problem.

If you don't want to polute your book database, make a copy first and work on that. No guarantee to find the culprit, but not a lot of effort either.


Which software should I use to manage all my books and collections in my Kindle?

I like to use Calibre to manage and convert ebooks. You will need Kindle's software for PC in order to download the books, that you can then import on Calibre.

Beware that the books are DRM protected, so you won't be able to convert those.

It is free (both as in '..speech' and in '..beer') and actively maintained.


Is there an ebook format that stores annotations in the ebook file itself?

Simple answer: NO

To annotate inside an ebook would require the file to be altered on the device side and some sites will not allow this due to the DRM they add.  That said this is why Kindle creates a secondary file instead of in the ebook itself.  This would also depend on the app you are using to view the ebook on.

Some apps that allow Annotation for books:

iAnnotate
Subtext
Mantano Ebook Reader
iBooks
Marvin


transfer ebooks protected by DRM to a new device -- how?

It probably would help to know which company's  DRM you are talking about.

First, with Adobe ID, there are ways to retrieve the password or even the ID if you have the correct email associated with the account.

In some cases (not often, thankfully), the ebook distributor might allow you to download an ebook only once and not let you download it again. In that case you are out of luck.

In other cases, the ebook distributor is out of business, so you cannot retrieve the password or login.

This is one advantage of choosing a DRM-free distributor like smashwords (instead of apple, Adobe, Kindle). You can keep backups -- and as long as it's a well-known format, you can read it in other reading systems.

On the other hand, distributors with DRM try to keep the ebooks available in the cloud so you you can read it in on different reading systems. This of course assumes that the distributor makes reading apps for different operating systems (as do Google and Kindle, but not Apple, for example).

It's possible that there are ways to break the DRM, but discussions about these things are not appropriate here (and it may be illegal in your country).


How do I liberate ebooks from Kindle device?

I had the exact same issue you are having now when I first bought my Kindle. I had many books in EPUB that the Kindle just didn't read (got used to it - found http://www.epub2mobi.com/ :-) ) and then I bought first e-book on the Amazon. Boom, stuck in there. I wanted to put it on my iPad and eventually I managed but was it worth it? Meh, not sure...

First I had to get rid of DRM - I am a Mac user, so I used Mac DRM removal. Questions here: Is it legal? Is it right?
-- I didn't share it with anyone but I was not sure. It required that the book was on the reader downloaded and it needed the serial number of the reader. Because only with that the software was able to remove it.

For you, I suggest reading this article for getting the tools for the workflow I described above. And then I suggest reading also this article for converting the book formats. However...as I said - the work was simply not worth it. I still read the books most of the times on my Kindle only. Once I read them I don't come back to them so why would I store them anywhere else?


References in e-books and printed books: Common style for both? If so, which one fits both media?

I don't think there is any reference style suitable for both print and ebook. Certainly footnotes look better in printed books, though I think EndNotes would be a better compromise solution for both medias.

One problem with ebooks is that the semantics can be different when you are trying to come up with something resembling footnotes.

In epub3 there is a solution called  which has been used by ibooks and kindle to present Notes popups. See my remarks on this question: How to handle footnotes when working with epub files  I don't know if book design software (like Indesign) can be configured to output these things as asides in epubs but footnotes in printed books.

I use a branch of XML (called Docbook XML) which allows for (printed) footnotes and (HTML) endnotes to be output from the same source. See http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/Footnotes.html Configuring this solution is not easy although I have done it..... To my knowledge Docbook xsl does not output footnotes into asides, although I will check on that.

As for styling, obviously you can do it easily in HTML/epub, while in software for printing book design you may have to apply the style manually.

The key problem is that print solution can't implement a footnote easily and cross platform. In the answer I gave before (see above URL) I recommended waiting until ASIDES were formally supported in KF8 before I start doing them. (although a popup note certainly sounds good in theory).


If you sync your phone to your computer, you should be able to see all your files in this location:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books
Use a terminal to go there, or press CMD+Shift+G in Finder and paste in the path.

Note that your books will not be named as titles but rather the hash of the file. With some basic plist hacking and bash scripting you can rename them so something useful, or just throw them into Calibre and let it do it's thing.


How to create an ePub full-page image which properly reflows

Either put the images in their own html files or use the code above, page-break-before, or -after.

In these situations I generally use the css height: 100%, on both the container and the image itself, so if you use

you could create this css rule that does what you want:

div.fullscreenimage , div.fullscreenimage img {height: 100%;}


How can I set my Kindle Paperwhite to ignore font color settings?

In the case you have bought pure ePub and later converted it to Mobi, you could delete the color attribute at all (Kindle will treat this with it’s built in color spec.). This needs unpacking of ePub, deleting the css part you have mentioned and proper packing into ePub again.


This sounds like a minor error. I have a META-INF/container.xml which I have never looked at until now. The entire file says:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
  <container xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container"
   version="1.0">
     <rootfiles>
        <rootfile full-path="OEBPS/package.opf" media-
         type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>
     </rootfiles>
 </container>

The specification for this file is here: http://www.idpf.org/epub/31/spec/epub-ocf.html#sec-container-metainf-container.xml

By the way, if you don't already do this, you should always use the epub validator to validate your epub file. (This error message sounds like the output of an epub validator).

(Let me add that my ebook production process generates the container.xml file automatically. Sigil should do the same. Perhaps you changed a setting or accidentally deleted this file?)


Can I use books from pdfdrive.com (legally) for my learning purpose?

First, in USA pdfdrive is probably operating on the fringe of legality. They scrape the internet for free pdf files to make it available in their service. I see several books there which shouldn't be there, which means that someone made an unauthorized copy and then put it on their website. Then PDFDRIVE will locate this copy and store it until someone complains. PDFDRIVE will remove things upon request, but of course, many publishers are too busy to complain.

The legal consequences may differ depending on what country you in. Generally speaking though, the consequences are more severe for people who share or distribute copyrighted material without permission. If you download it for private use, you are unlikely to pay a penalty. I am speaking generally.

I would think of it in another way. What is the right thing to do? Is the ebook easily available in your country? Is the cost of trying to obtain a legal copy significantly higher than other books produced in your country?

Also: what is your status/economic level? Generally if you are a student or teacher, you face fewer legal consequences (if any). If your monthly income is $500, and the cost to buy a foreign-produced book in your country is $75, I would consider that price to be excessive. Academic textbooks in particular are expensive for people in developing countries (and many of these publishers  try to discount their prices for customers in that region).

One way to deal with this ethically is to try first, buy later. If you find an unauthorized copy of an ebook and end up using it a lot, perhaps you will feel a duty to buy it later.

Finally, there's a lot of free and low cost ebooks (and wikipedia). While certain well-known books may cost a lot, often there are low-cost books which are equivalent or better. It just takes a little more time to find them.


How to convert Kindle format (.mobi or .azw) with annotations to PDF?

This might be helpful. http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/02/21/how-to-download-your-kindle-notes-and-highlights-and-export-them/

My guess is that because PDF is ultimately a fixed layout format, the annotations from Kindle won't mean anything in PDF because they would need to be placed in certain positions on the PDF. But ebook formats aren't really about positions but flexible reflowable text.

If it's possible to convert to PDF, it might be possible to build a calibre plugin to position the annotations as well... But someone would have to do it...


Problems with reading MOBI documens from Aldiko on Kindle

How did you manage to get those books to your kindle? By cable or by email? If cable I would try to send them over your kindle mail - it will got parsed one more time and that could help.


How can i add a copy right/license to my book online

In many countries you don't need to register a copyright, but it is automatically granted to you. Therefore it is probably unnecessary for you to do anything. Typically you can declare it on the title page of the book.


JPG continues to appear in subsequent pages

After much trial, I finally got round the problem by breaking paragraph after each image.


calibre - how to upload my highlights online?

I found this site: https://my.clippings.io

It allows you to upload a file named my clippings which is downloadable through the fetch annotations button in calibre. I found this file in my library after performing the fetch.


cloud-based epub reading system with offline reading AND collections -- what are my options?

Aldiko book reader is a really good app that has the most of the features you require.


When you connect the new device to your account, you will be able to see all of the existing books in your library. You can then download whichever ones you want to have on the new device.


how to convert djvu files to some files?

There is AFAIK not such a utility that does exactly what you want but you can explode the file by repeatedly using the djvused utility:

djvused  file.djvu -e "select <nr>; save-page-with <filename>"

where <nr> is the pagenumber and <filename> the output filename. I have a python utility that does this automatically for all the pages while using incremental filename of the form page_<nr>.djvu.

After that you can combine multiple files with the djvm command:

djvm -c output.djvu page01.djvu page02.djvu ... page06.djvu

for each of the combinations of page. The images and associated data (like OCR-ed text) will get in the 84 files. That data is not unpacked and repacked, so the process doesn't lead to any loss of quality.

The following is a minimalistic version of my Python program that calls djvused to explode the file into individual pages:

#! /usr/bin/env python

import sys
from subprocess import check_output

page_base = 'page_{:03d}.djvu'
file_name = sys.argv[1]
djvused = 'djvused'  # r'C:\Program Files\DjVuLibre\djvused.exe'
number_of_pages = int(check_output([djvused, file_name, '-e', 'n']))
for x in range(number_of_pages):
    page_name = page_base.format(x)
    check_output([djvused, file_name, '-e',
        'select {}; save-page-with {}'.format(x+1, page_name)])


The German Amazon (Amazon.de) is a good source for (German) Kindle audio books.  Die website wird www.amazon.de, dann verwenden Sie den Suchbegriff (auf Deutsch) "Kindle-Shop" --> "hörbücher kindle".

Ich hoffe, dies wird Ihnen helfen -- wenn du einen Kindle hast!


How can non-US customers buy Kindle Active Content

You got me curious, so I started digging through the terms of service. Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer, so anything I say is just my own personal interpretation of the terms.

After reading through who-knows-how-many documents, this is all I could come up with.

The Kindle Store Terms state:

  "In addition, you may not bypass, modify, defeat, or circumvent security features that protect the Kindle Content." (emphasis mine)

This is a little vague, but using an address that isn't yours to access Kindle content could possibly be seen as "bypassing" security features.


What software should I use to write books, which can be exported to Lulu and CreateSpace?

For CreateSpace you essentially need to provide a PDF and do the layout by combining your output with images in the form of PDF output. To conform to their formats, you would still need a template for the editing software that you use, that generates a PDF that can be merged with such templates (and not come into the margins as they warn you not to).

The CreateSpace forums give some, but IMHO not very much more helpful tips (e.g. here)

It looks like CreateSpace is more reader-customer oriented and not so much bookwriter-customer, I had more help from the publisher for the single book that I helped typeset that made the shelves, and I was the first generating electronic input (from LaTex) for them.


How do I ensure my Hebrew displays correctly in the Kindle apps and EPUB readers?

I'd advise wrapping Hebrew-in-English in spans with the dir attribute set to rtl. I'd also advise following each span with the lrm element.

See http://www.w3.org/International/articles/inline-bidi-markup/

As for fonts, pointed Hebrew support is now surprisingly good in the default fonts on a variety of platforms: Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for PC, Kindle for iPad, iBooks for Mac, and iBooks for iPad.

One platform completely lacking Hebrew support in the default fonts is Nook GlowLight.

So, see if the platforms you care about have okay Hebrew support and, if they do, consider just letting the default font be used rather than providing your own font. Providing your own font has its pluses and minuses.

For more detailed help, I am available professionally: http://bdenckla.github.io/efs/.

P.S. I consulted Meta Stack Exchange about self-promotion,

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/57497/limits-for-self-promotion-in-answers,

and I hope I understood correctly that it seems it is within community standards to have promoted myself as I have done above.


Yes, it can JavaScript or what they call as Acrobat Javascript , but not all the PDF viewer can are designed to follow the Adobe Javascript API. There are few limitations defined in the API, it can make Ajax network calls but no it cannot run any other then the JavaScript  as of now.

But you can disable it by

Select Edit>Preferences.
Select the JavaScript Category.
Uncheck the Enable Acrobat JavaScript' option.


How does the Kindle's reading rate algorithm work?

Basically, they have no limit on how fast someone could actually read (supporting speed readers) but they do have a limit on how slow someone can read. That is, if someone takes 30 seconds to read a page, they will add that to their calculations, but if someone takes 5 minutes to read a page but only 20 seconds to read other pages then ignore the 5 minute exception.

This is not surprising since people will often put a book (electronic or paper) down while they do something else, then return to it. For this reason, they really need a maximum time per page.

As far as different books requiring different estimates, different books have different readability levels. If I read a book on leadership, I tend to read it quite quickly because I've already digested so much content on the topic. However, when I read a book on coding neural networks, I read much more slowly. My slowness on complex topics which I have little experience with does not mean that I am slower at reading other books/topics.


How do I convert an RSS feed's entries into an ebook?

If all you're wanting is to easily get specific RSS items to a Kindle, Instapaper has a service that makes this very simple:

http://www.instapaper.com/user/kindle

That's how I do it, and only for specific posts that I'm actually wanting to read on my Kindle. My usual workflow is when I'm reading through my feeds on my iPhone, I click "send to Instapaper" on longer posts that I want to read on my Kindle.


is there any software available to directly write in mobi format?

Your question -- if I may restate -- is whether there are tools which allow you to create ebooks natively  for Kindle.

Probably not, although it does have some specialized creation tools (Kindle Textbook Creator, > Kindle Kids' Book Creator, Kindle Comic Creator, Kindle Previewer).

My guess is that only Amazon.com could create such a tool because the .mobi standard is a proprietary format and is updated fairly regularly.

Some  tools have features  which let you export  to .mobi format (from MS word, PDF, or .mobi),  that includes Calibre  https://calibre-ebook.com/ Sigil, and Adobe InDesign. usually it converts from epub to mobi -- though calibre lets you convert from MS Word to mobi. But it isn't always a good conversion.

The thing is, aside from being a binary file, the Kindle format is trying to align closely to the epub format, so it makes sense (in my opinion) to focus on developing and testing an epub file -- and then after the fact converting the epub to mobi (and testing it and maybe  the styles so it works well on kindle devices and apps).

It's crazy and a waste of time to do all this; it would be a lot easier if Amazon.com  had adopted the epub standard. Certainly that would be better for publishers. But Amazon has come half-way and said if something is a valid EPUB file, then our Kindle Previewer app can reliably convert it to mobi. That's better than nothing.

For long term use, it's best to have an epub file -- because in the future it will be easier to convert from epub than to convert from .mobi


According to the FileSuffix.com website, this suffix is for the "Sky Ebook Reader Encrypted Ebook". Because the file is encrypted, it is not (generally) legal under DMCA to remove the encryption (in the US). And of course, as you certainly have already found, the Sky eBook Reader company only offers their software on Window.

The format is not used by any of the major ebook companies, as far as I've been able to determine. There is a message on the MobileRead forum from the developer of the Calibre program that he has no plans to support that format. While a solution might be available eventually, it does not appear that one exists at this time.


Can you use CSS to target iOS night reading mode?

I found the answer to this on stackoverflow. You can target different iBooks reading modes using these special CSS selectors:

:root[__ibooks_internal_theme*="Sepia"]
:root[__ibooks_internal_theme*="Gray"]
:root[__ibooks_internal_theme*="Night"]

Here's an example. I was using an <hr> below my chapter heading. I set the color to black, but in Night mode it disappears on the black background. This CSS changes the color to match the text when Night mode is active:

hr {
  border: 0;
  border-bottom: 1px solid black;
}
:root[__ibooks_internal_theme*="Night"] hr {
  border-bottom: 1px solid #b0b0b0;
}

Used appropriately, this is super useful for getting your decorative elements to show up in Night/Gray modes or for retaining syntax highlighting in a programming book while in Night/Gray mode. However, as others have said on stackoverflow and at the github page with sample code, this is not a method that Apple has officially sanctioned, so remember not to abuse it or they could start blocking it.

For reference, here are the default text and background colors for all four themes (obtained from screenshots of iBooks on my iPhone 6):

"White"
    color: #000000;
    background-color: #fbfbfb;
"Sepia"
    color: #000000;
    background-color: #f8f1e3;
"Gray"
    color: #c9caca;
    background-color: #5a5a5c;
"Night"
    color: #b0b0b0;
    background-color: #121212;


Does erasing data before selling a Kindle remove updates I've downloaded?

Haven't reset my Kindle (Paperwhite 2) for a while, but as far as I remember the updates stayed there, so there was no need to update from scratch.

I guess when you update a Kindle, you just update operating system of the Kindle. And when hard-resetting, you're just wiping all the data and restoring the default settings etc. for that version of a system.


How do I have Calibre automatically create a cover image from a non-ebook file?

I'm afraid this isn't the answer you need, and it's been a long time coming. Although I don't recall the method, be it via an add-on or whatever, I succeeded in using a jpg image of my own design (CS6) as a cover. It was available in the Calibre cover customization window, so applying title/author text in the usual way was no problem. So, yes, there's an easy to use method, and if I re-discover it before you do, I'll post the details.


If you purchased this item from Amazon, delete the item and download it from the Cloud

Most likely you downloaded a partial file or it was corrupted somehow. Just delete it from your device and try again. (Alternatively, remove it by going  to Manage Your Content and Devices.

Don't delete the ebook from all devices, just the one device you are working on.

Failing that, you can also contact Oreilly or even the author and include a receipt. Oreilly is a great publisher, and they would probably be able to send you via email  the file to you if you asked nicely.

Quality control on Oreilly ebooks is  pretty high. I doubt there's a formatting issue. The file is 5mb, not too big. But it might be worthwhile trying to view it on a Kindle app on a tablet or on Kindle for PC Desktop.

Occasionally I have an issue downloading certain ebooks. Often it's a matter of just deleting the first version you downloading and retrying. Sometimes it gets stuck, but I'm generally able to download everything.
Hope this helps!


Is there any tool I can use to examine the differences between two OCR pdfs?

I've done it by converting each PDF to Word, for which there are a bunch of free converters online. Then I use Word's file comparison feature to see the differences: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306484


E-reader that syncs progress across Linux and Android?

There's a way, but it's kinda tricky.

There's a bunch of android apps which sync the progress across the devices (like Moon+ Reader). So, if you can set up an Android emulator on your Linux machine, that should do the trick.


Is there a way to read kindle books on Windows which do not support Windows?

As we discussed in the comments, you can use the Kindle Cloud Reader to read your books in your browser, instead of in the Windows desktop application.


How to debug GPB "This file cannot be processed."

So I solved this issue by converting epub file to mobi format (mobi is the format kindle uses) and then converting back to epub. After doing this, google books didn't have issues processing it. There are multiple online converters you can use.


Pandoc can convert from and to a large number of formats:

It can read plain text, Markdown, CommonMark, PHP Markdown Extra, GitHub-Flavored Markdown, MultiMarkdown, and (subsets of) Textile, reStructuredText, HTML, LaTeX, MediaWiki markup, TWiki markup, Haddock markup, OPML, Emacs Org mode, DocBook, txt2tags, EPUB, ODT and Word docx
it can write plain text, Markdown, CommonMark, PHP Markdown Extra, GitHub-Flavored Markdown, MultiMarkdown, reStructuredText, XHTML, HTML5, LaTeX (including beamer slide shows), ConTeXt, RTF, OPML, DocBook, OpenDocument, ODT, Word docx, GNU Texinfo, MediaWiki markup, DokuWiki markup, ZimWiki markup, Haddock markup, EPUB (v2 or v3), FictionBook2, Textile, groff man pages, Emacs Org mode, AsciiDoc, InDesign ICML, TEI Simple, and Slidy, Slideous, DZSlides, reveal.js or S5 HTML slide shows. It can also produce PDF output on systems where LaTeX, ConTeXt, or wkhtmltopdf is installed.
It can create epub files with chapters see here for instructions.
It runs on Linux, Windows & OS-X
It is free, gratis & open source
You can even point it at a URL and it will do a reasonable job of converting the online resource into an epub.

If are ready to take a little more time on preparation then the python Sphinx document generator can produce EPUB format, organised into chapters, from a number of input formats, including plain text.

Also free, gratis & open source


Can I get just the EPUB file from the Kobo store?

Yes. Once you've purchased the book, you can go to "My Books" and find the one you want to download. Below the thumbnail of the book cover there is a "..." menu which looks like this when expanded:

Click "Download" and you'll be presented with a dialog:

Now you can load the downloaded epub on any reader you like.


If you mean the little dots that appear below the book name in the Kindle device/app library, you can't. Amazon determines how many dots to show, and they apparently do it based mostly on file size. There's no way to tell Amazon how many dots to use or that a particular dot corresponds to a particular portion of the book.

If you mean adding ticks to the progress bar on the bottom of the reading screen, that isn't possible. Authors don't have any access to those features of the device or apps.


Can my Kindle paper white read a flash drive

Nope, the only external storage you can use is Amazon's cloud storage.


Kindle's sleep mode: keeping last page on screen

You're right, there is no reason for it not being technically possible.  In other words, you can do that if the firmware lets you do that. Which, AFAIK, the native Kindle firmware does not. That leaves you with either a hack or jailbreak as your options, if you're feeling adventurous: I found a relevant thread on Reddit that could point you in the right direction. (Also, I have been educated it's called "off screen" not "screensaver", as it's not saving anything. Which... I don't agree with, see below.)

As for "why doesn't Kindle allow this", that's an interesting question.

I would theorize that it's for the same reason we used screensavers on CRT monitors: replacing a page of text with a picture helps to avoid ghosting/residual image and therefore extend the life of the screen.

I mean, aside from the obvious, which is "we gotta put the ads somewhere" ;)


Book length indicator for Kindle Paperwhite firmware 5.7.2.1

After lots of complaints the dots were brought back in the latest 5.8.1 firmware update for PW2 and PW3 Kindles, which you might need to manually download from the Amazon website.

(You can only downgrade to a previous version, if your Kindle had the latest jailbreak installed.)


How do I determine the latest firmware version for a Bookeen Odyssey?

If you sync via WiFi you should get version 5.2 build 1894. You can check if you have that version via the Settings → About ... menu.

The manual download page might be out of date with the actual version of CybUpdate.bin you download from there, or the download itself might be the 1780.

I have never tried to install that 1780 version as my Bookeen came with build 1894 and has not wanted to upgrade via WiFi (so I assume I have the latest version).


Will Kindle 3 Touch cover case fit a Paperwhite?

As far as I know, there is no Kindle 3 Touch. Kindle 3 readers have a keyboard and are therefore larger. Their covers will be too large for a Paperwhite.

If you are talking about a Kindle Touch (4th generation): There are non-original covers that claim to fit for both, so your old cover should fit. On mobileread they do however claim that the Paperwhite is slightly smaller:

  The PW is 4.6" x 6.7".

  The K4 (non-touch) is 4.5" x 6.5".

  The K Touch is 4.7" x 6.8".

An advantage of buying a new (original) Paperwhite cover is that It has magnets inside. These will automatically switch your Kindle on and off if you open or close the cover.


Epub 2.O: font in ul, ol lists is smaller than regular font

<li> will not inherit from <p>, so what you are seeing is probably a different font in your lists than in your paragraphs. The easiest way I've found to test this is to add something impossible to mistake to the CSS for <p>. I like to use color: red, but your mileage may vary.

Note that the reason that the fonts could appear to be different sizes is that some fonts look bigger than others—compare Open Sans and Times New Roman, for example, and the Times will look substantially smaller, even though both are 1.0em.

Including

li {
  font-family:"texgyreschola", serif;
  font-size:1.0em;
}

in your CSS should do the trick.


Somehow I missed that … thanks to Donald.McLean’s answer, I found it.

In the ePub editor, I hit Ctrl+F, and a search & replace tool showed up at the bottom:

I have used the regex mode and the following patterns:

-
\n
]*> replaced with nothing to remove paragraph breaks within words. I hit Replace all here.
\s
\n
]*> replaced with a single space to remove paragraph breaks within sentences. This had to be done manually, unfortunately, because there were some spaces at the end of lines which should stay separated.
\n
]*>\d+
 replaced with nothing to remove orphaned page numbers. Replace all again.

I have also installed, but not yet tested, the plugin Modify ePub by Grant Drake. It offers some automated tasks:


How can I create beautifully designed ebooks?

There are several ways to create ebooks. 1. MS Word --> epub. 2. HTML --> epub. 3. Adobe Indesign --> Epub. 4. (Various formats) with Calibre --> epub.

There are other tools like those described here: https://www.epubor.com/epub-builder-freeware.html

Remember that all epub files must be validly formatted. In other words, if you run it through this validator, it will give you zero errors. http://validator.idpf.org/

Then from epub, you can use Kindle Beta Previewer to convert to a kindle file.

An epub file is basically a zip file of various HTML files and package.opf. The package.opf will list the TOC so it's virtually a given that if you have a valid epub file, you will have a correctly formatted TOC menu.

If you are using content as a marketing device, I would be fine with keeping it in PDF form. Many people who read things have tablets which allow them to see PDF in its native format. EPUBs are better for content-heavy stuff and for viewing on multiple devices of different sizes.

I don't use the Adobe Indesign --> epub method, but if you are already comfortable with Adobe tools, this might be your best bet because they let you export to epub.

Obviously there's a lot more to say, but this information should give you enough to get started.

UPDATE: The question seems to ask specifically about how to create a beautiful ebook.  That's hard to answer directly, but I can say that PDFs created via Adobe offer lots of options for font and pixel-perfect layout and illustrations that you're unlikely to find in an epub -- even on a robust reading system. You could argue that epub follows the responsive design paradigm, which means the end goal is to have a consistent reading experience on multiple platforms, whereas Adobe tools and workflow are more dedicated to one single form factor. I don't think I'm really being too controversial in saying that Adobe tools can produce lovely and complex designs and layouts, and it would take at least a decade before epub reading systems catch up. On the other hand, epub files are more functional and flexible and less dependent on having the right reading system to read it on. I have seen some amazing things produced for iBooks, but these are optimized only for one platform and not easily read on other platforms.

The question boils down to: do the benefits of designing for a single reading system outweigh the benefits of responsive design?


I assume your question is:  can bootstrap be used to generate code for an epub file?

I don't really know anything about bootstrap, but I know that there is a blitz framework which uses  the  less preprocessor to generate responsive epub css.

You might find interesting the two tutorials and here by the guy who started this framework

(I have not tried it out myself, but like the idea of it).


How to move a word to the next line in Sigil

If you want to create a hard line-break within a paragraph use
. For example:

First line
Second line

Alternatively, insert

. For example:

First line

Second line


How can I read my epub books on the kobo app on my computer?

Attributed to ebookfriendly.com:

  Authorize your device with Adobe DRM

Kobo is using Adobe DRM to prevent ebook files from unauthorized distribution. You should be aware of it before you start buying books on Kobo.

If you don’t authorize the device with your AdobeID, you will be only able to read the book on a first device to which you download it. It won’t open on any other device.

The key to flexibility is to authorize any app and device with the same Adobe ID.

If you accept the limitations Adobe DRM puts on a user, follow these steps:

Get Adobe ID. It’s a combination of the email address and a password you’ll use after signing up on Adobe site.
Authorize with your new credentials any of the devices/apps you use. Do it before you download the first ebook. Here is a tip on how to authorize a computer and your mobile devices with Adobe ID credentials.

  Back up Kobo books to a computer

The books you bought are stored on a device you use to read them. They can also be synced between devices.

How to get all of them to a computer? You can use Adobe Digital Editions application for that. There are versions for PC and Mac computers.

Again, make sure to authorize the computer with the same AdobeID, otherwise you won’t be able to open the books.

In Adobe Digital Editions, look for the command saying “Authorize” (Help menu). Type in your AdobeID.
Go to Kobo store, sign in and go to My Library. You’ll see here a list of all the books or book samples you downloaded from Kobo.

To download the book, click on the turquoise button on the right. ”Adobe DRM Epub” means the book has DRM and you’ll be able to open it only with ADE. “Download Epub” means the book is unprotected, so any epub reading application will open it.

The blog goes on with a number of collected links to other resources, including other blogs and videos, for specific importing steps for a number of readers. See those links at the bottom of the page at ebookfriendly.com.


What page size maximizes readability across common ebook readers?

This would be extremely difficult since the broad range of devices out there have vastly different physical screen sizes and aspect ratios. Your best bet would be to use a small page size (perhaps 4" x 3") so that users with e-book apps on their smartphones would still be able to comfortably read the text. This comes at a price: e-book readers or tables with large screens will display very large text - although some might allow you to zoom out or display multiple pages at a time.

I would suggest a slightly different route based on this similar question. Instead of exporting from LaTeX to PDF, export to HTML. Then use a tool such as Calibre to convert the HTML files produced to a MOBI or EPUB file.


How to add a clickable table of contents in a book bought from Amazon Kindle?

If your book isn't DRM-protected or you manage to DeDRM it, you could convert it to an epub book with Calibre, regenerate the TOC from all headings and convert it back to an azw3 or kfx book. (If the original book is an azw3 book you could also directly edit it with Calibre Editor.)
Obviously, this method will only work if all headings were marked with h1..h6 tags.


Is there a kindle with a light up screen but NOT a touchscreen?

No
All the  currently available Kindles have a touchscreen.
One solution would be to buy an old kindle lighted cover


iBooks ERROR ITMS-9000 - problem with id

An XML name must begin with a letter, underscore or colon (although in this case, the colon is prohibited).

See https://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006.html#sec-common-syn


How to customize the font when converting from EPUB to MOBI with Calibre?

If you are starting with an .epub file, there is an editor program in the Calibre suite which can change anything in the .epub, including the fonts:

C:\Program Files\Calibre\ebook-edit.exe

But if you convert the file from .epub to .mobi, with any program including Calibre, it's then almost impossible to edit the resulting .mobi file. So you get stuck with whatever default font the conversion program has specified in the conversion process.

The .mobi reader program on your computer (e.g. Mobipocket Reader v6.02) will let you apply any font that is currently installed on your computer to the .mobi file, regardless of what font the .epub file specifies (in effect, the specified font is simply treated as the default setting, hence you can impose a different font in your reader program).

But if you transfer the .mobi file from your computer to a kindle, the kindle will probably only have one choice of font, a default that can't be altered. With no user option to choose a different font, you can only change the font size on the kindle, but not the font itself.

I only have an older kindle, admittedly, but the design philosophy is clearly to deprive the user of the ability to select a font. The kindle comes with what is an attractive and easy to read font, and the manufacturer doesn't want the kindle to get a bad reputation by allowing users to set up fonts which look less attractive, or which might be harder to read within the limitations of the kindle's hardware.

The kindle is a cheap device to buy, because of its extreme simplicity. And part of the business motivation of the manufacturer in not including fancy fonts with it is to avoid the cost of paying licensing fees for the use of such fonts, all of which have a commercial cost - a fee will be due to someone who owns the rights in the fonts. Fonts that look nice always belong to someone.

It might be possible for the user to tamper with the kindle's default font, by delving into the program code using specialist hacking tools. There are plenty of such tools. I've used some of them, even though they use a commandline interface of no mean complexity.

But I don't have any idea how to do that particular bit of reprogramming.

If what you want is a device that gives you a choice of font, you might be better off buying a different device, even a small tablet, that allows a choice of font.

Any device on which Mobipocket Reader v6.02 will run would meet your needs, because as I say that program has easily configurable settings that can apply any font you have on your computer to your current choice of .mobi file (without needing to change anything in the .mobi file).


After doing some more research, it appears that X/HTML files can NOT be imported into InDesign. The best you can do is use InDesign to create a framework for your epub, export it as an epub, then use BBEdit to open and modify the HTML files that make up your epub. If you have to copy an entire HTML file into your epub (or delete a file), then you can use eCanCrusher to crack open your epub, giving you full access to everything inside.


writing inline footnotes for html to mobi conversion using calibre

I've figured it out. To make the inline footnote works, must put the footnotes in the "Footnotes" section. Here is the example:
I have the file: "HDN is the best.html"

    <title>HDN is the best</title>

Best of HDN

[1] HDN is the best

[2] HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

HDN is the best

Footnotes

[1] It's true.

[2] It's double true.

There, just convert the file "HDN is the best.html" and see for yourself.
Now here is the tip: when you convert this file "HDN is the best.html" to mobi file, Calibre may count footnotes as chapters, that'd be a mess for your table of content. So you need to prevent Calibre from doing this by using the cmd (using the option --toc-threshold 0) instead of using UI, here is the cmd:
ebook-convert.exe "E:\temp\TempMisc\HDN is the best.html" "E:\temp\TempMisc\HDN is the best.mobi" --toc-threshold 0

location of ebook-convert.exe is .\[Your installed Calibre folder]\Calibre\ebook-convert.exe
Note: this tested and work on my Kindle Paperwhite (second generation), but doesn't work on Kindle app for my iPhone. But it's good enough for me because I read mainly on Kindle Paperwhite.


First, try to ask one question at a time.  Sometimes it takes a while just to ask one question :)

Kindle has an option for lending the ebook to another user. You can lend the ebook exactly once for a two week period. (I don't know if you can borrow the same ebook 2 times).

Ebooks are uploaded as a proprietary file format called .mobi . There are ways to convert from MS Word to .mobi (or epub to .mobi) but PDF to .mobi doesn't work that well.

Publishers and authors can choose to upload their ebook in encrypted or unencrypted form. If it's in unencrypted format, it is possible for you to connect your device to a laptop via usb and to copy the .mobi file to another device.

My guess is about 70% of ebooks sold on Amazon are in encrypted form (so you cannot copy it). But there are tools to break through the Kindle encryption -- not legal, and might not work well, but they do exist.

The more basic question is whether it is convenient to copy an unauthorized copy. If the ebook already costs less than $5, most people would rather pay. Ultimately it is impossible to protect any ebook from copyright, but keeping the price cheap gives an incentive for the consumer to obey the law and support the author.


Do I need an Amazon account to use a Kindle?

You don't need a credit Card to register your amazon account.
With amazon account, it is much easier to send your personal books to your kindle:

send books an an attachment to your personal amazon email
Use browser extensions to send webpage directly to your kindle

Alternatively you can send books via USB cable to your kindle without using an account.


Can Amazon know about the books I upload to my Kindle device?

While it is possible, it is improbable as long as you ensure all data capabilities of the device are always off. If they are ever turned on, there would be nothing stopping Amazon from snooping what's on your device. Furthermore, if it's 3G enabled, you have no guarantee that it doesn't switch on data without your knowledge and snoops your files.


ePub is just a whole bunch of HTML, some metadata, and CSS. So, you have the same rules as with any HTML page.

You can't force any browser to display a page the way you want it. Your "fixed layout" is at best a suggestion.
If you specify a typeface, and that typeface is not available on the client device, it will be ignored. You can ensure that the font is available by packaging it in your ePub, but you'd better be sure you have a legal right to do so! If you aren't including the font in the ePub, then you have no way to force the client to use it.


Move image to top of the page (like LaTeX’s \begin{figure}[t])

My guess is no. You want the img (or the div container) to be a block element. At the same time, you want the image to act like an inline element -- adjusting to the display.

A block element by definition cannot switch order  with other elements depending on the display. In other words, you have to change the semantics to get what you want. But you still are not changing the order of elements.

One thought is that you could use CSS media queries to conditionally change the img or div elements from block display to inline display depending on the device's screen dimensions.  That might help if you could boil your use cases to maybe two or three display sizes.

I am not a css expert, so I'd love to hear if there is a way that works. But my guess is currently no, and even if a method exists, it probably won't be supported on Kindles anytime soon.

I don't know much about Latex, but it can perform these conditional tricks because you are dealing with a fixed display size. With ebooks you are dealing with an endless variety of display sizes and devices.

UPDATE: I'm having second thoughts about the answer. CSS has some new mechanisms like flexbox and grid formatting to deal with these cases. I could easily see a time in the next 5 years where ebook readers can deal with positioning of an image on a fixed point in the page. Jimmy Panoz pointed out that because reading systems use browser rendering systems, eventually reading systems will allow you to use  CSS Feature Queries to try CSS  experimental features.


Share book uploaded to my Google Play Books account with other account

As long as you uploaded that specific book to google play books (in contrast to buying it on that platform) you can simply download it as a epub/pdf file using Adobe Digital Editions.
A detailed tutorial on this procedure can be found at Google Play Help.


Are dictionaries, as described here [...]

The dictionaries and glossaries specification is not a part of the epub3.x standards.

  Which readers support them?

None that I know of.

  Are there any working examples of epub documents using dictionaries?

No.

If you want to use dictionaries, you'll have to create StarDict dicionaries, which are supported by most Android devices, but not by iOS devices. (There are iOS StarDict dictionary apps, but you can't use them as lookup dictionaries in iOS ebook apps because of iOS limitations.)

If the dictionary is rather small, you could theoretically embed it as an Sqlite database in epub3 books and query it with JavaScript.


How do I crop out an image from a pdf file?

This is not possible using only Adobe Reader unless you either take a screenshot with another tool or use the Edit > Take a Snapshot feature of Adobe Reader (may be version specific... I don't have an Android device to confirm, or know which version of Adobe Reader you are using). Doing the latter will require you to paste it from the clipboard.

Another option is to look into using different software. A google search (or Google Play search) reveals many. For example, you may want to look into the PDF Utility - Lite. The description for this software says specifically:

-Extract Images from pdf


Adding blurb/summary metadata to an ebook file

Anything that you want to actually show up on an ebook reader will need to be in the content files of the epub, just like any of the chapters or other divisions of the text. It is possible to include a description in the metadata of the book; this should appear in the <meta> section of the content.opf file and be formatted as described in the epub 3.0 specification. That metadata will not necessarily be visible to any reading systems, but it'll be in there.

Note that the <dc:description> element uses the Dublin Core Metadata standard, which says

  Description may include but is not limited to: an abstract, a table of
  contents, a graphical representation, or a free-text account of the
  resource.

So while there's some room for interpretation, it's not really the place for blurbs as such, which are generally endorsements rather than "account[s] of the resource."

Again: if you want it to be read by devices, just include it as another section of the manuscript.


What is the definition for "location" in a kindle eBook?

According to the MobileRead Wiki, a location is 150 bytes.

  The Kindle uses an absolute position system named locations which are
  actually every 150 bytes in the file. Easy to generate accurately but
  are much smaller than a standard page so you get a range of numbers on
  every page. The exact formula is floor(bytes/150)+1, and note that
  this is bytes, not characters, and includes all the markup and tags in
  the mobi-html, not just the displayed text.


Amazon Kindle app and Personal Documents on Android emulator

I've been using kindle inside an android emulator on my windows 8 tablet for a while now in order to read personal documents and get the full syncing capabilities.  Like you, I've seen that even though the registered emulator app shows on your device list at amazon, you can't send documents to it directly.  The workaround is to send documents to one of your other physical devices using send to kindle, and check the box to "save to Amazon Cloud Drive".  Once the document resides on the cloud you can download to any of your devices, including the app running in the emulator.


How to convert epub/mobi to PDF without image distortion?

Converting from mobi to pdf is almost always going to be a problem. Both are rendered formats. The problem could come from anywhere. Two ideas:

First, try to obtain an epub copy instead of a mobi file. It's easier to convert from epub to pdf than from mobi to pdf.

Try decompiling the mobi file (go to mobileread to find a tool that can do so).

Possibly there is a setting in Calibre to preserve the image ratios. But really, this is asking calibre to do the impossible.


How to remove and add certain pages from pdf file?

I think that PDFtk is the tool you need.

https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/


Calibre's EpubSplit plugin should be able to do what you need, but as far as I know you have to manually select which chapters you want to extract.


Git can be used, but if you use with epub, or any other kind of archive files then you will not get a meaningful diff between versions, just store each version of the ebook. You can use Git wit literally everything, but if it is not like a simple text file, the diff will fail.

Also, you can set Git LFS for such kind of files as ebooks, it has the advantage that it will not download every version of the files when somebody clones it, just the latest version.


Are there any open e-book file formats that support statistics gathering?

Note that companies controlling both the devices/apps and the store (e.g., Amazon or Kobo) perform analytics routinely, exactly because they can gather info from the reading system (app or device firmware). They even share their findings with the publishers (to make them "optimize" their eBooks, so that they can sell more)

EDIT: see "/data lessons/", presentation by Tamblyn (Kobo) given at BiB12: http://youtu.be/eQfJ3NWiPmU

Some guys tried to build a company (Hiptype) around the concept of "google analytics" for eBooks, but they did not succeed and went out of money. Their solution was basically embedding JS code into EPUB eBooks. This type of solution is quite doomed, because if the reading system disallows network communication (e.g., iBooks does), the ebook cannot "phone home" the reading statistics. The same holds true for remotely-hosted images (like those used to log the visitors of a web page).

Finally, no ebook standard that I am aware of has explicit mechanisms to collect such statistics. And, even if they had, the actual availability of such a feature would be depending on the reading system implementer.


Can I use a Youtube still image in my ebook

This answer does not present any legal advice.
In fact your post contains two questions.
Speaking of the youtube license part you should definetly add information about the country you want to publish the eBook.

CC licenses come with different characteristics, regulating the rights and responsibilities.
The use of CC licensed images may be limited in terms of content derivation, derived licenses, commercial use and all diverse combinations of those. The exact license versions can be found at creativecommons.org


Kindle eBook turns into two page layout in landscape

Good day!
Please check spine in your .opf for page-spread-* properties.
If it is there, please remove and build your ebook again.


Since some users want to close this question as off-topic or opinion
based, I decided to give my own tentative answer, based on my own
thinking since I asked the question, and influenced by some of the comments.

I am well aware of cost issues in publishing, but I have little
experience as a customer where e-books are concerned. Having to fix my
own price as an e-book customer is a new experience to me, and I was
wondering how it is perceived and analyzed by other e-books customers
and sellers. This type of pricing is not usual where paper books are
concerned.

Is this off-topic on this site? I believe not. The topic page states:

  The main focus is on the processes involved in publishing and/or
    consuming ebooks (and related tools), rather than on the content of
    ebooks.

Though this does not explicitly include economic aspects, it does not
rule them out. A question such as pros and cons of  publishing in XYZ
format can typically have economic answers.

What is explicitly ruled out is questions about specific books or
sites, or discussing specific ebooks or ereader retailers, when it can
be shopping or opinion based, which does not rule out technical
questions.

My question is about pricing in the general sense, not specific items,
and it is an issue that is seriously analyzed by professionals and
economists. It is a technical and scientific issue.

Many documents do address this issue, for both traditional paper books
and more recently for ebooks.

It is true that many statements are opinion based, because all kinds
of people have an opinion to voice, with or without competence to
justify it (see Consumers Upset and Confused Over E-Book Pricing). Some people have also an interest in keeping this fuzzy,
so that their market is not understood or analyzed too closely,  especially by authors and consumers.

My own usual references on books cost are not in English.
However, I was  able to find rather quickly some new ones on the web,
such as
Book Cost Analysis – Cost of Physical Book Publishing
which does itself use several external references.

This article agrees that about 50% of the printed book cost comes
from distribution (10%) and retail (40%), to which one can add around
10% of printing costs. This is reduced to nearly nothing in the case
of e-books.

Clearly, ebooks have their own costs, but they are very unlikely to be
comparable to what is being saved (some more than 50%) on the material
aspects of printed books.

What is more likely is that market behavior changes significantly, because eproducts have no marginal cost
(it costs nearly nothing to make extra copies).
That is to be taken into account by both the producers and the
consumers of ebooks. One aspect of it is that the market is a lot more
competitive as more authors can enter it (I am currently reading a
very nice ebook that is available only for free).

Another consequence is that some sellers consider that letting the
customer fix his own price, possibly within limits, is a good way to
do business. Why do they do this? Fixing my own price as a customer,
in a way that is fair, also depends on my understanding of the
economics and of the economic analysis of the seller. There can be, as
always opinion based assessments of it: some people still have strange
opinions about well established scientific facts. But this is clearly
a matter for scientific and technical analysis.

The major point is that paper books both have fixed costs, independent
of the number of books sold, and marginal costs for each (additional)
book. They also have a high investment cost in the printing, since it
must be done in large numbers to be economically acceptable.

The ebooks business has a lesser up-front investment, because no mass
printing is needed, and no marginal costs (the more than 50% in
printing, distribution and retail. Once the book exist in epub, mobi,
or whaterver, it is essentially free for the publisher (except for
advertising possibly, but that is done only when return is expected).

What matters to the publisher is not the number of books sold, but the total
income it brings. Any addtional dollar is worth taking, since what is
given in exchange no longer costs anything.

That is probably the motivations for open pricing and bundle pricing.

Then, I would think that what matters for the producers of ebooks is
not to get a given price for a book or a bundle, but how much of my
money I will input in the book production system every month. Giving
me additional books, that I will probably not read all, cost them
nothing and may increase my inclination to buy.

So my conclusion is that there is no real fair price for each
individual buy. Rather one should spend monthly a global amount
proportional to one's means and one's amount of reading.

The role of the seller is to induce a consumer behavior that will
maximize the total income, rather than the profit per book sold.
One role of the consumer is to make sure the producers can make a
living (and keep producing), which does imply a level of spending, but
not necessarily a high cost per book.

This analysis may not be totally accurate, but it is fairly precise (in a qualitative way) and
can be disputed on objective facts and arguments, rather than opinions.


How do I build multiple ebooks using common blocks of content and styling, such as title pages and CSS?

Assuming you're familiar with HTML and CSS, and given that your content has a lot of commonality to it, it would be fairly straightforward to set up a template file with all the parts you need for an ebook. You could, for example, have a template made of files like this:

cover.xhtml
title.xhtml
toc.xhtml
prologue.xhtml
intro.xhtml
chapter.xhtml
appendix.xhtml
index.xhtml
about_the_author.xhtml
style.css
content.opf
(toc.ncx)
images/cover.jpg

The toc.ncx is optional but suggested (as noted elsewhere on this site) to ensure usability on older reading systems. The content.opf and both toc files have specific requirements for the content, as they're epub-required navigational files. The other XHTML files must be valid, but otherwise are more flexible in terms of content. The content of those template files could look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops">
<head>
<title></title>
<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
 <body>

 </body>
</html>

The navigational files would have to have the information about the other files added to them each time, but that is fairly automateable with a minimum amount of scripting in a language like Ruby or Python.

In your CSS file, you could have default styles already built for the things you use all the time. You could even have default boilerplate styles at the top of the CSS file for all the basic element type (<p>, <li>, and so on) and then just add other CSS rules at the bottom of the file as needed—since the styles cascade, the ones at the bottom would overwrite the ones at the top if there were any conflicts.

All that's left from there is getting your document from whatever format the editors are using into HTML so that you can apply all the tags and then pass it along to the designers (unless you're doing ebook-last, in which case the issue is getting the file from whatever the designers use to HTML).

Hope that helps!


Is there a way to read DjVu files on a 4th gen Kindle?

There is no out of the box possibility.

The easiest way would be to convert the file to pdf, of course this would make the DjVu advantages disappear.

The alternative is to modify your Kindle by installing a compatible reader. One possibility that is still actively developed is Librerator (which is also a superior for viewing larger pdfs). You will however have to jailbreak your Kindle and install KUAL, which will possibly void warranty.


Are there good ebook management tools available for free?

Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application available. You can download from here which is available for all operating systems.

Adobe Digital Editions is also one of the e-book manager by Adobe. You can access it from here.

Alfa Ebooks Manager features a lot of templates and options for library vizualization. Besides, it allows to update book data from multiple web sources (like Amazon, Google Books, Barnes & Nobel, etc). It's also good at file management and metadata extraction. You can download it from here.

Delicious Library's a bit different. Actually it's a software not just for books but for managing all stuff at your home. It's greates feature - entering books via webcam shot (it recognizes ISBN code). This feature makes Delicious Library the best software for collecting paper books. You can see the details from here.

And if you are a mac user Delicious Library is the best e-book manager but unfortunately it's not free. Second priority I will give to Alfa eBooks Manager.

Hope it will help!


Is there a Linux distro geared to ebook users?

Greenie is an Lubuntu spin that works with standard Ubuntu repositories.

It comes with a set of pre-installed apps for ebook readers and authors, including:

GWrite: Simple GTK+ HTML5 Rich Text Editor
PDF Mod: Remove, extract, rotate pages
Sigil: ePub file editor
E-book Viewer
FBReader
Calibre

The default language is Slovak, but experienced linux users will have no trouble installing Greenie and switching the installation and system language to English (or any other language).

After installation, you will still need to use Keyboard Input Methods to switch the keyboard to your preferred language. I also had to add the Mozilla English add-on for browser spell-checking.

Windows users can try a linux distro in a live session without changing their hard drive.

If you have never installed a linux distro before, you can find lots of answers at AskUbuntu that apply to any Ubuntu-based distro about how to burn an iso to disk or usb and how to do an installation.

(But please note that Ubuntu-based installations such as Greenie are off-topic as such at AskUbuntu.)

When you boot Greenie, the first option translates to Try Greenie without Installing, the second to Install Greenie.

The easiest way to switch the language for experimenting with the live distro is to:

Choose the 2nd option to install
Choose your language in the next screen
Cancel the installation

This will drop you into the Try without Installing option, but with your preferred language as the system language.

You can then change the keyboard from Menu >> Preferences >> Keyboard Input Methods.

(I have no connection to the Greenie project.)


How to correct unicode errors after converting file format?

To convert epub to mobi I utilized on online tool

Most online tools actually use Calibre as the conversion tool. I.e., you might as well use Calibre.

  Throughout the text there are 0092, 0093 and 0094 in place of punctuation.

There's most likely a problem with the original epub file. You might want to check your epub with the IDPF validator before converting it with Calibre.

If the validator doesn't report any problems, open the file with Calibre Editor and search and replace all numerical codes with the equivalent punctuation characters.

When using Calibre to convert your epub files make sure to select AZW3 as the  target format. For even better results install Kindle Previewer 3 and the KFX plugin and convert your epub files to KFX files.


Destructive scanning: Sanding down spine better than band saw?

Why not use a cutter rather than a saw or a sander.

In more details, it the title is not enough.

I think a sander is likely to remove wood as easily as it does
paper, possibly more easily. Thus it is not clear that you will get a
clean job.

You might get a better result by clamping the pages between two pieces
of some hard metal, like iron. Aluminum or other soft metals might not
work as well.

Then, the pages may still stick a bit together, as they would with
sawing. But it should be enough if all you want is scanning.

However, extending your question to other solutions:

Another suggestion may be to use a cutting press, as was done by
bookbinders for trimming pages when mechanical paper guillotine, such
as hydraulic book trimmers were not available. Professional
bookbinders used to do excellent and precise work centuries ago, which
was particularly necessary when they wanted to apply a gold finish on
page edges.  This is still practised by amateur bookbinders.

Basically it simply replaces the saw by a knife. You need just a very simple press to hold the pages and
compress them. One edge of the press must be flat and wide enough so
that you can hold a cutting tool against it in order to keep the the
blade perpendicular to the stack of pages. The cutting edge itself
makes an angle, as is often the case when cutting with a blade.  You
cut the page stack progressively in many passes, a few pages at a
time.

The basic procedure is described in this video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9EZhXQ1p1c , but I am sure you can
find many others on bookbinding sites, or in books about bookbinding,
if you look for "page trimming".

This video gives you the essential. But the blade may have a different
shape. Actually, when I learned to do that a very long time ago, I
think I used my leather paring knife.  It is a simple blade composed
of a flat piece of steel about an inch or two wide, sharpened on one
end by grinding it only on one side (the other side must be perfectly
flat, as i rests on the edge of the press to guide the cutting). The
grinding is done so that the cutting edge makes an angle of about 45
degrees with the the non cutting edge (I was taught to make my own
blades).

Now, it you are just removing the binding, and not looking for a
perfect job, my guess is that a cutter could do the job just as well. Just don't try
to cut too many pages with each pass of the blade.


Read Kindle books without Kindle or Kindle app?

Yes, you can in theory read Kindle books on almost any other ebook reader or tablet.

However, this requires you to convert your mobi or azw file to other formats, such as epub. There is software for this, but, as you can imagine, you will be breaking the DRM. It is therefore not legal, at least in the United States and presumably other countries where the Kindle is sold. Not a great option!

If you dislike Amazon devices and software, a better option is to buy books in the epub format. These are not sold by Amazon, but you can find them in online stores such as Barnes & Noble. The epub format give you legal access to a far greater range of devices.


How can I update an existing side-loaded MOBI file on a Kindle?

Two questions which I need to ask:
a)who owns the devices?
b)what kinds of files are you sharing? You say, .mobi, but are you just repackaging .doc files or .pdfs into .mobi?

First, let's not use the word "side-load" because that usually refers to moving a file through USB. If you're "sending to Kindle", that obviously is not using USB.

I think what you're using is "Kindle Personal Documents service" to send it to a specific device.

The key question is whether your company owns the devices in question. If yes, then it also is controlled through a single Amazon account, in which case it would be fairly easy to delete and swap  old Kindle files remotely.

To  log in to the Kindle Personal Documents service via computer, go to the Amazon account options, choose "Manage your content and devices" , for  show, select Docs . Under Actions choose Delete  and that should do it.

I'm guessing that everyone owns their own device and use their personal Amazon login for it. I'm also assuming that each device  has listed a specified employee's email as authorized to receive  Kindle files from via  the Personal Documents service. (Remember, the person may have several devices they are managing content on; they only need to authorize the device email which you want to send company docs to).

To add the file to devices for each employee, you would need to send a single email to all the relevant device emails and then attach the kindle file. Obviously if you can email one version of a file, you can email an updated version. If I send different versions of a file to a device, I usually rename the ebook's title (which is not the same as the name of the file).

If you don't have a single login for all devices (but are simply sending things from an authorized email to the devices), you do not have access to the user's Manage Your Content and Devices screen; therefore, you could not swap files.

To give a different perspective here, I prefer the Google Play Books solution for syncing ebooks to the Kindle solution. (For one thing, Google accepts epubs instead of a proprietary file). Google Play Books doesn't let different emails share files. But Google Docs/Drive is really good about allowing files to be synced and shared.

One solution might involve keeping the most recent epub/doc/pdf on a Google drive and let people manually transfer it to Google Play Books. (You could use a plugin like this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/drive-epub-pdf-book-to-go/fabbklgdcbijclhlffpmllpgnkalmbfd?hl=en-US ). But this still requires that each user make the manual step of connecting files from Google drive to Google Play Books.

If you can sync the file as a PDF or Word or ODT file, then you can stick the file onto your own G-drive (preferable in a separate EMPLOYEE DOCS shared folder), then each user could install the Google Docs/Drive app and then you could do a read only share with every user; that would let you always have a shared and synced copy of the file.

The only caveat about the Google solution is that might need employees to have offline access to these docs. I just checked and the Google Docs app has an option for each document which allows you to view the document offline. You would probably need to verify that Google would update a doc if an employee has chosen to make it viewable online.

(I suspect that MS Office might have a syncing method as well).

To summarize: Kindle doesn't seem to let you sync files among devices; it just lets you add new files. If the files you need to share can be PDFs/DOC files, then it would be easier to put them on the Google Drive and then share the files with users.


I found out that they have two kindle apps for windows. One that you download from their website and one from the windows store. the one on the windows store is the one I had problems with, the one I downloaded on the website works perfectly fine. This is more of a work around than a solution, but it works.


How to write a presentation slide using pdf

As Nathan Yegler already blogged: “it’s more fun to write programs to help you write slides than it is to write slides.”. There is a plethora of programs out there that allow you to make slides in many forms and there are books on the subject as well¹.

From personal experience I can recommend starting with a structured mark-up based format for editing that is then converted to PDF and your preferred ebook format (e.g. EPUB). Using mark-up instead of visual positioning will make it easier to keep the slides consistent. Sphinx, based on the reStructured Text markup, can generate both PDF and EPUB and an extension allows you to embed your slides on slideshare.net.

If your slides are going to contain mathematics formula, you might want to look at LaTeX and the slide generation package (beamer) for that instead.

¹ Edward Tufte has written a great essay on the problems with PowerPoint presentations, a must read for anyone making slides.


Moon+ Reader -- what kind of CSS support? formatting tips?

There is now a setting in MoonReader to disable publisher's CSS. But even when it's not checked, not all CSS is supported.
I've tested multiple Android Epub readers with a bilingual epub I made, where the two languages are distinguished by the background colour and the font style (the second language is in italics). Only the Gitgen Epub reader displays the background color and the font style properly.
According to my tests, these Android epub readers support font styles (bold and italics) but not background color:

Prestigio
Moon Reader
Pocketbook
Mantano
UB Reader

FB Reader did not even show italics.
I applied the CSS by selecting the class, using !important.


font color not showing up on color Nook for new eBook epub

This could be either the Nook reading system or a problem in the code. The first thing to check is if your device is overriding publisher styles. Nook in particular is quite insistent about that, and will by default override all styles with its own. I don't recall exactly what menu that's in, but you should be able to find it.

If that doesn't do the trick, then there's probably something up with the code—either the CSS that defines the styles or the XHTML that defines the structure that the styles are applied to. If you're still having problems after enabling publisher styles, feel free to update this post or make a new one with the relevant sections of code.


I can't connect my Kobo Glo to my Laptop

It's difficult to answer this in a format that's useful for Stack Exchange since it usually turns into a long comment thread of "Have you tried this?" so I'll try a more generic answer.

The sequence I follow when trying to debug things like these is to systematically swap out things to see what could affect it. You have already swapped the operating system which is a good thing - we know it's not a Linux kernel upgrade issue or something like that.

I would now swap out these things in the order of least-to-most amount of work:

Try a different USB port.
Try a different USB cable (I see now that you have already tried this).
Try a different USB device with a different USB cable.
If it works, try the new device with the old cable.
Try it in another computer.

If all of this fails, you can try to reset the device in two ways:

Try simply turning it off and on again. Sounds stupid, but for example my Kobo is essentially always on since I tell it to go to sleep mode when I close my case lid.
Factory reset. On my Kobo Aura ONE this is in the Settings>Device information menu.
I don't know how to do this, but it could be possible to force a firmware upgrade even if it's to the same version.

If none of the above helps, I would simply give up and declare it broken.


Legality of read-it-later services, most specifically Send to Kindle

If you use the "Send to Kindle" program/browser extension, you have already accessed the content from the remote website. You are simply sending the (already downloaded to your PC) data to Amazon, to have it available on your Kindle devices.

The Terms of Service are here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_bc_nav?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201238330

A different legal scenario is when a site owner incorporates the "Send to Kindle" button in her or his Web site. In that case, they accept these ToS: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?&nodeId=201139380?ref_=stk_wdg

Other similar services like Pocket have similar ToS.


Convert/Send Standalone EPUB from PC to Kindle via Menu/Command Line

You could use the Calibre ebook-convert command line utility. The following simple batch file should do the trick:

FOR %%f IN ("*.epub") DO (ebook-convert "%%~nf.epub" "%%~nf.azw3")
FOR %%f IN ("*.azw3") DO (copy "%%f" "E:\documents")

(The script assumes that your Kindle is mounted as the E: drive; change the drive letter if it isn't the E: drive.)

Copy the two lines to a text file, save it with a .cmd or .bat extension in the same folder as the .epub files and then double-click it.


Can I change the cover of a mobi/epub book?

Yes we can do that using opensource software like Calibre.

Install the Calibre software and start the program.
Copy the ebook.mobi file to your PC.
Drag the book onto the Calibre software UI. It will get imported.
Right click and select "edit metadata" for individual book you want to change.
There is option to browse and select the cover that you want.
Save the file.
Right click on the book and select open in directory, now copy the ebook.mobi file.
Go to kindle directory on your device and delete the original ebook.mobi file and paste copied file in that location.

The cover will be updated in your Kindle device. If its not updated try restarting the device. It will work after some time.

The steps for epub files are similar, you will just need to copy the file to a different directory.

(There are other programs like Cigil to edit epub files but Calibre can be used for both formats.)