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Making pdf ebooks for Kindle
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If anyone is interested, I recently played around with creating a pdf of a free ebook (like from Gutenburg) for my Kindle and was very happy with the results. I tried using Word and printing to CutePDF, but that did not work because it did not keep the page size I had set – it used the 8.5 x 11 letter size, and had the words in the middle of each page. I searched online and found that OpenOffice, which is basically the Linux version of Word and is free to download, will let you export to PDF and will keep the page size you set.
So for the the 6″ kindle screen, I set the page size to 3.5 by 4.75, with a margin of .25 all around. I like the Book Antiqua font, and I used font size 11, but I think a size 10 or 10.5 might be better. Originally I had page numbers in a footer, but found it wasn’t necessary as the Kindle displays the pdf’s page number in their progress bar.
Here is a pic of what it looks like, and it might be too small and fuzzy to see but the book came to 622 pages. A smaller font would, of course, make this less.
Thanks for sharing. Hubby has asked for one for Christmas and I think I might want one too. I found a lot of good stuff for free or way cheeper if I could use a kindle. Like for example some of the books on the book list here are like $10, but through the kindle they are $0.99
In the long run I think it might be a good investment. Plus we can take our books everywhere with us! How much do you use yours?
Well, we just got it two days ago, but we have used it a lot. 🙂 My oldest daughter and I are sharing it, and my husband will be taking it this weekend as he is going out of town and expects to be either flying or sitting at an airport for several hours tomorrow. I just purchased an inexpensive bible for it that has an easy search feature to jump directly to the verse you are searching for. We also downloaded two free word games that are fun and addictive.
The day it arrived, we went out later that night and I brought it along. The idea of carrying 40 books, with the potential for thousands, in my purse fills me with a sense of giddyness. lol
I have formatted a few books for my Kindle too. Mainly the Among the ______ People by Clara Pierson. I wonder if there is a way we can post the ones we’ve done for other people to use????? Then we wouldn’t have to duplicate books. I like to use a larger font so it’s easier for the kids to read.
Heather
Also, keep in mind that places like Project Gutenberg already have a lot formatted for the Kindle. Also, mobi format (with .prc or .mobi) work on the Kindle directly unless it has DRM protection on it.
To make Kindle books, you can look at mobipocket creator. (check http://www.mobipocket.com) It is a free program to make mobi books – which work on the Kindle. (Don’t buy books at http://www.mobipocket.com though, as they have the DRM protection and won’t work for you.)
I haven’t done a lot with the creator – but did create a book a few months ago (I used the free mobipocket reader program to read books on the computer), and it definately is good on the Kindle.
If you can get a Kindle specific file or mobi format file it will work much better on your Kindle. PDF files end up with the pages shrunk down to the Kindle screen. Depending on the original document, this can make the text very small and hard to read. Kindle or mobi format books reflow to your screen and also allow you to change the font size.
Although it is possible to convert from PDF to Kindle or mobi, none of the converters are able to do a really good job of it because of the nature of PDF files and the way they are constructed. If that’s all you have it’s passable, but it’s always better to grab one of the other formats if it’s available.
FYI, Just for fun I set up the SCM blog in the Kindle store so it can automatically be synced to your Kindle when new articles are posted. Unfortunately, Amazon won’t let us set the price and they have it at a $1.99 a month subscription. We think that is ridiculous and would prefer to to make if free, but they won’t let us. I doubt anyone will want to use it at that price but it’s there if you want to try it at least for the 14 day free trial.
That is really cool. Shame it can’t be free, although I guess they have to pay for the bandwidth to send it. Blogs aren’t available in Canada, so I can’t try it anyway.
Suggestion — get the magic catalog for Kindle. It’s truly magic!
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/tip-gutenberg-e-books-direct-to-kindle.html
http://www.freekindlebooks.org/MagicCatalog/magiccatalog.html
From this document on your Kindle, you can download (wirelessly) Gutenberg books.
Can you get downloaded kindle books off the Kindle PC on your computer onto the actual Kindle. I had Kindle for PC long before I had the Kindle – but don’t know how to get them from the PC into the Kindle – most of them were downloaded from Project Gutenberg – not Amazon. Linda
Yes (if you know what the file name is…)
2 choices….
email it to your kindle using the [whatevername]@free.kindle.com
or
hook up your kindle with the USB port, and move the book file into the “documents” folder on the Kindle. (The Kindle will show up like a drive…) – make sure you “eject” the Kindle when done with it – on Win 7, you right-click on the Kindle-drive and say Eject. On some versions of Windows I think it shows a little USB thing on the statusbar near the time/date area on the computer and you click on that to eject it – but not sure.
manybooks.com has tons of books (assc. with Gutenberg) in loads of formats–many more than Gutenberg. That site is a little more user friendly, although they do not have 100% of the books that are on Gutenburg.
I’m curious how large a file the 622 page book was you made, and how it compares to the space on the Kindle. I’ve done some stuff like this with Gutenburg books to read off my laptop. I am really looking into getting a Kindle…hoping someone plans that for my Christmas gift!
Thanks for posting about it!
Sorry, I’m just now seeing this.
I’m curious how large a file the 622 page book was you made, and how it compares to the space on the Kindle.
I just checked and the file is 1.15 MB.
I have a bunch of pdf books that just aren’t available for kindle yet. Is there any way to fix pdfs for a kindle so they are readable? I’m using a mac. I tried the calibre software conversion, but they just didn’t convert nicely at all – the text is smashed together with unpleasantly close letters and lines. Thanks in advance!
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