Have you ever purchased ebooks from vendors besides Amazon kindle? I did and I am sure you did the same thing as me. There are always some good deals and you can’t help to buy the discounted ebooks from various online ebook stores. When you get your ebooks, you find you cannot read them on your kindle because it is not supported by kindle. How can I convert any ebook to kindle format? Here I’ll share the easiest way to convert ebook to kindle format, no matter they are purchased from kobo, google play, or even nook.
Part 1. What is the Best Kindle File Format?
What is Kindle file format? Amazon use its proprietary formats on most of its published ebooks. There are different kinds of kindle formats, including mobi, prc, azw3, azw4, azw, kfx, kcr...and more. Among so many kindle formats, what's the best format for kindle? Before converting any ebooks to kindle format, let's make this clear at first.
| No. | Kindle Device or App | Supported Kindle Format |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kindle (firmware lower than 5.8) | prc, azw3, mobi, azw |
| 2 | Kindle (firmware higher than 5.8) | prc, azw3, mobi, kfx, azw |
| 3 | Kindle for PC | prc, azw3, mobi, kfx |
| 4 | Kindle for MAC | prc, azw3, mobi, kfx |
| 5 | Kindle for iOS v6.03 | prc, mobi |
| 6 | Kindle for Android v7.2 | prc, azw3, mobi, kfx |
| 7 | Kindle Previewer v2.94 | prc, azw3, mobi |
From above table, it is obvious that mobi, azw3, prc are supported by almost all kindle device and apps.
What is PRC and Mobi? Mobi is originally an extension of the PalmDOC format by adding certain HTML like tags to the data. Mobi and Prc are almost the same format but with different extensions. Actually, the prc format is mostly used in Android device and kindle fire tablet. When you add drm protection to .prc format, it still be in .prc format. But when you add drm protection to mobi format, it will changed to .prc or .azw3 format.
What is AZW3? Azw3, known as kf8 format, was released in 2011 and first applied to Kindle fire. Later it is supported by kindle eink devices and kindle desktop application. Compared with Mobi, it supports more fonts, styling and layouts.
After comparing these three kindle formats, mobi format is the most common used one while azw3 format is with more advanced features. These two formats can be assumed the best kindle formats.
Part 2. The Most Popular eBoook Stores that You'll Purchase eBooks
How did you get your ebooks? Usually, there are three main methods: purchasing from online ebook stores, downloading from online resource and borrowing from public library. Among these three methods, buying ebooks from online ebook stores is the most used method.
Here I have listed the main ebook stores, the epub format and DRM type they employed.
| eBook Store | eBook Formats | DRM Type |
|---|---|---|
| Google Play | ePUB, pdf, acsm | Adobe Adept DRM |
| Kobo | Epub,kepub, PDF | Adobe Adept DRM, Kobo DRM |
| Barnes and Noble | epub, pdf | Nook DRM |
| Apple Books | epub, pdf | Fairplay DRM |
| Smarshwords | epub, pdf, mobi | DRM free |
As for library ebooks, they employ a totally different DRM scheme and are not supported by our Epubor software.
For open source ebooks, most of them are DRM free ebooks.
According the the way to get your ebooks, you can tell whether your ebooks are drm free or not. This will help you understand what action you should take in the following process.
Part 3. How to Convert eBooks to Kindle Format
The process of converting ebooks to Kindle format are always the same, removing ebooks drm (if they have) and convert drm-free ebooks to Kindle format. Epubor Ultimate is highly recommended as it is the best DRM Removal as well as eBook Converter. With its assistance, you can remove DRM from any ebooks and convert them to kindle supported format. Let’s see how to it.
1 Download and install Epubor Ultimate.
2 Remove DRM from eBooks.
Launch Epubor Ultimate, drag and drop the ebooks to its main interface. The DRM will be removed automatically.
3 Convert eBook to Kindle format.
Select the output format as azw3 or mobi, then click on "Convert to ...". Your ebooks will be converted to kindle format.
Although the steps of converting ebooks are the same, you'll also learn how to convert google play, kobo and nook books to kindle respectively as blow.
Google Play books
How to Read Google Play Books on Kindle/Kobo/Nook will show you the details.
Kobo Books
Please read How to read Kobo books on Kindle to learn the detailed steps.
Nook Books
It will be slightly different for converting nook books to kindle. You will need the Nook DRM Removal, not the Epubor Ultimate. Please read The Easiest Way to Convert Nook to Kindle.
Apple Books
We are sincerely sorry to inform you that there is not any software can remove drm from apple books. So we cannot convert apples. If have any method to decrypt your apples, you can also follow the above-mentioned steps to convert apple books to kindle format.
Now you can read the converted ebooks with your kindle device or kindle app.
Iris Yan has been a passionate member of Epubor since 2017. Her mission is to enhance your ebook reading experience by sharing insightful tips and tricks. Join her on a journey towards reading excellence today!
