Kindle will now support Epub, the standard e-book format

Amazon Kindle device for reading e-books will receive the Epub format from August this year. This is a step towards adopting the standard in digital text that saves users time: no need to convert this type of files to pass them to the device.

The change is applied to the function “send to Kindle”, or “send to Kindle”, which lets you send the file to an email address assigned by Amazon to users. When you turn on the device, the sent book will appear at the beginning and can be read.

This function is widely used by those with Kindle because of the convenience it represents for downloaded files (those purchased in the store do not go through this process, because they appear directly).

Until now, Amazon has only accepted files in the Mobi format, a standard it purchased with the French company mobipocket in 2005. Since then, the company has developed the .Azw format, which is basically a.mobile Of the brand.

However, Sony, Barnes & Noble and other e-reader manufacturers have adopted the ePub format, which is ultimately the primary technical standard for the International Digital Publishing Forum.

For this reason, what it means in practice is that, over the past 15 years, if you wanted to put an Epub file on your Kindle e-reader, you would first had to convert typically using software Caliber.

Although this (free) software is very effective at doing this task, it is still an additional step for the user. In addition, the adoption of a standard means that more players in the ebook game can participate in the development of books for the Kindle.

But it all has another advantage: cheaper books. This is because publishers sell e-books directly to consumers more often, often at a cheaper price than Amazon can charge. Rakuten (Kobo) or Barnes & Noble.

In fact, smaller publishers have even made it as a selling point, as authors can sometimes get a larger share of a sale directly from the publisher than from a larger digital bookeller, so it can you better to “support” a favorite author purchase it directly from the publisher.

Epub, the standard format for ebooks

The Book Industry Study Group endorses EPUB 3 as the preferred format for packaged content and says that the global book publishing industry must unite around the same standard.

The EPUB format is implemented as an archive containing XHTML files, along with images and other supporting files. EPUB is the XML-based electronic book format (unlike PDF) which is more widely supported by vendors, that is, it is supported by almost all e-readers, but the Kindle has always remained in this dynamic.

The current version of EPUB is 3.2, starting May 8, 2019. From August, it will be different and Epub will be supported on Amazon devices.

SL