Need Someone with a Kindle or other EBook reader

[Guest Yachtsman1]

During our sailing days I wrote 4 books on our experiences, sold a few on CD's via Ebay & other sources but thought I would get into the 21st century by calling them ebooks & converting to PDF files. I tried to upload them to Amazon but something in the process stopped them up-loading, so I'm in conversation with Amazon. However in the meantime after reading the dire warning from Amazon about the file format & what they would like to receive, I thought if anyone with a Kindle would download a PDF version from Mediafire & let me know if it operated OK on their reader., the biggst is 17MB. if you PM me I'll send the link.

Yachtsman1

[stonemason]

Eric I have a Kindle and must say that for books in the native .mobi format they are great bits of kit. However to save some weight when I go away I have camera and phone manuals on the kindle in pdf format, and have to say they are not the easiest to read. Unless your book is graphics intensive, it may pay you to convert the original text file to mobi format using a programme such as Calibre (free wear)which would make it much more user friendly. I would be happy to take a look at the pdf file on my Kindle if you feel it would help, pm me a location if you wish to pursue that.

Regards

Geoff

[Gérard de Lux]

I have sent you a PM

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Thanks to Gerard & Geoff links sent.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[stonemason]

Eric I have loaded your book on my kindle, and my early findings confirm my comments above. When the page is viewed "full page" the text is quite tiny and difficult to read. If the size is increased, scroll bars appear on the Kindle screen as you have to scroll side to side to read the top half of the page, then scroll to the bottom and again side to side to read the bottom half of the page. Whilst this is OK for manuals, where perhaps one or at most two pages need to be read to answer a particular query, it would totally destroy any flow in reading a full book. As soon as I get time I'll convert the pdf to mobi format and let you know how that looks. Sorry to sound negative, but these are early observations, and I'll get back to you as soon as I've done the conversion.

Regards

Geoff

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric I have loaded your book on my kindle, and my early findings confirm my comments above. When the page is viewed "full page" the text is quite tiny and difficult to read. If the size is increased, scroll bars appear on the Kindle screen as you have to scroll side to side to read the top half of the page, then scroll to the bottom and again side to side to read the bottom half of the page. Whilst this is OK for manuals, where perhaps one or at most two pages need to be read to answer a particular query, it would totally destroy any flow in reading a full book. As soon as I get time I'll convert the pdf to mobi format and let you know how that looks. Sorry to sound negative, but these are early observations, and I'll get back to you as soon as I've done the conversion.

Regards

Geoff

Hi Geoff

I downloaded the Calibre software & managed to convert the Open Office Org version of the PDF you have got. My brain hurts trying to get to grips with it, but eventually did it. The Mobi version is not the same as the PDF, the picture sizes are much smaller & the picture titles all over the place. I'll have a try at converting the PDF version tomorrow when I've slept. Thanks for your help, I'll let you know how I go on. Presumably I can't edit the Mobi version?

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Gérard de Lux]

Hello Eric,

I have loaded your file on two devices: an original Kindle and a smartphone (Samsung Nexus S) having the Kindle application in it.

My findings:

On the Kindle:

Despite being in B&W, the color pictures render well. In portrait (vertical) mode, the normal or default viewing mode, the text is very small; as I have quite a good sight, I can read it but it's at the limit. If I use the zoom function, at 150% readability is much more comfortable but I have to scroll horizontally and vertically. If I switch the Kindle in landscape mode, then the size of the text is perfect for good readability but I see about only half a page each time... and some pictures are cut in half! Back in portrait mode, it's good to see the pictures in full and to have the full page layout; but I don't know if I could read 250 pages with such a small font.

On the smartphone through the Kindle app.:

It's good to see the color photographs in colour; and they look bright and sharp. As for the text, like on the Kindle, in full page display, the font is very small, and even smaller because of the smaller size of the screen; thus less readable than on the original Kindle. Here, the size can be increased much more easier than on the Kindle (two fingers movement), and scrolling is made with one finger.The text becomes very easy to read, because it is bigger, but the need to move permanently to the right and then to the left makes me doubt about the possibility to read 250 pages like that. Although this device has an automatic rotation function to switch to landscape mode, it doesn't seem to work with your PDF.

I have to add that I'm reading huge books (like the complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which I finished a few months ago, and the complete works of Emile Zola, which I'm about to finish) on these two devices without any difficulty. I think that PDF format isn't well adapted to e-books because it can't be adjusted in size dynamically, i.e. it's a picture and you can zoom in but you then loose words or lines on the borders and have to scroll. Whereas with a 'native' e-book format, the length of the text is adjusted according to the size of the font in order to always fill the screen.

I hope that my explanations have been clear enough and that you'll find another solution to have your book(s) published in e-book format !

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Thanks Gerard

I have the calibre software now suggested by Geoff. Tomorrow I will try converting the PDF version you have. I tried it with the Open office Org version, but the results were not good, see posts above.

Thanks for your help.

PS noticed you are from Luxembourg, was looking at this boat the other day on the net, if I crack the lottery this w/end I may buy it.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1

[Gérard de Lux]

PS noticed you are from Luxembourg, was looking at this boat the other day on the net, if I crack the lottery this w/end I may buy it.

I hope you will... and I'll volunteer to look after your boat if you leave it in Lux. !