7 Answers2025-07-01
When you add a book to Calibre, it sometimes copies the DRM from the ebook retailer’s server. If the book you’re adding has DRM and you haven’t removed it before, you won’t be able to add a new cover to a DRM-protected ebook. In fact, you won’t even be able to view the current cover of a DRM-protected ebook, and the conversion will probably appear to work but actually result in a mangled ebook with no cover. This happens because DRM-protected ebooks are essentially sealed envelopes — you can’t modify the contents of the ebook even if you appear to be doing so. The first step in adding a cover is therefore to remove the DRM from the book, and then to add the book to Calibre. If the book was purchased from Amazon, you will need to remove the DRM using a DeDRM plugin for Calibre, and if it was purchased from another store then the process will be similar to that for Amazon ebooks.
10 Answers2025-08-10
The 'Publisher' metadata field is often ignored, but can contain useful information for indie authors or web novel followers - I fill this in with 'RoyalRoad' or the Patreon name of the author for books that I have read online. This metadata does not transfer to the Kindle, but it is very useful for tracking books in your master library, and additional metadata fields such as 'Date Read', 'Rating' and 'Source' can be added to Calibre's views to aid in this. For tracking whether a book was read in EPUB format, as a scraped web novel or as an audiobook, I add a 'Format' column to the views. This metadata is stored in Calibre and is a very powerful database of all your reading for life.
11 Answers2026-07-27
So, I assume you got the free book from somewhere on the web and are now trying to transfer it to your eReader via email? That usually works just fine with the free books that authors and publishers offer on their own websites as promotional items. These are usually perfectly set up EPUB files, complete with perfect metadata and a lovely cover. But the files you download from less formal sources (like auto-generated by a web-crawler or created by some enthusiastic fan with no suitable software to do the job) tend to cause problems. And 80% of the problems with an EPUB go away if you start with a decent source file. A well-made EPUB is rather like a well-built house: it all fits together perfectly.
5 Answers2025-07-11
The majority of formatting problems that arise with eBooks arise from conflicts between an eBook’s CSS styles and the eBook reader’s default styles. Open your EPUB in an editor (such as the built-in editor in Calibre), open the eBook’s CSS file and simplify it by removing all declarations with ‘!important’ from them. Set the body margin to zero. Define a solid font-family stack. Make sure all your measurements are set up in ‘em’ or ‘%’ rather than fixed ‘px’. Because a Kindle book is read off of screens of varying sizes, using relative units to measure rather than fixed pixels is key to fix formatting issues such as having every other paragraph centered for no apparent reason as I encountered in my last upload.
12 Answers2026-07-27
I totally get the frustration when book covers don't show up properly. The first thing I'd check is whether the book file has an embedded cover. Some sideloaded books might not include cover images, so you might need to use tools like Calibre to fix this. Just open the book in Calibre, edit the metadata, and ensure the cover is properly attached.
Another common issue is the Kindle's cache. Sometimes, the device just needs a reset to refresh the display. Go to 'Settings,' then 'Device Options,' and hit 'Restart.' If that doesn't work, try removing the book from your device and redownloading it. Amazon's servers occasionally glitch, and a fresh download can fix the issue. For sideloaded books, converting the file to AZW3 or KFX format often helps, as these formats support better cover display than MOBI.
Lastly, if you're using Amazon's personal documents service, make sure the email you're sending from is whitelisted in your Kindle settings. Sometimes, covers get stripped during email transfers. If all else fails, contacting Amazon support might be your best bet—they can sometimes force a cover refresh on their end.
7 Answers2025-07-06
I resigned myself to buying a Kobo ebook reader. It can natively read PDFs, and handles them way better than Kindle does, outside of its walled garden. For the Kindle app on your own device, I'm guessing a full uninstall and then re-install would reset all your app preferences, and flush out all the caches it has built up. First, make sure all your Kindle books are up to date and in sync with your Amazon account though. Then, log in as you do normally, let it sync your library, and try and Send a simple PDF to your own device via the 'Send-to-Kindle' email address. If it works with that simple file, then the problem must have lain with your previous app installation somehow. If it doesn't work with that though, then the problem lies with the file or your Amazon account settings, not with the new instance of the app on your own device.
10 Answers2025-07-09
Many converted documents look terrible, even after a perfect conversion. Scan PDFs often require a lot of tweaking. I go into the 'Look & Feel' tab, turn on 'Smarten punctuation' and 'Remove spacing between paragraphs'. Then I change the 'Base Font Size' to something like 14pt to compensate for the Kindle's terrible zooming. Also, in the 'Processing' tab for PDF documents with footnotes, check if they were detected correctly and linking worked properly. It can take a lot of work to make a PDF look native on the Kindle, but it's worth it.
3 Answers2025-07-03
I’m pretty much just a reader looking to read my Kindle books on my tablet using the PDF app, so this question really resonates with me. Unfortunately, the DRM protection of Kindle books makes it extremely difficult to convert them to PDF. Amazon’s proprietary book format and the Kindle reading apps for iPad, etc. do not allow users to print or save to PDF. Using screenshots of individual pages would be extremely tedious and likely to be in contravention of copyright laws as well.
Instead of breaking the law, I work around it by checking the author’s website for free PDF samples or companion files, buying books in DRM-free ePUB format from retailers like Leanpub, borrowing PDF e-books from libraries that offer them through services like OverDrive, and checking if a classic book is already available in PDF format on sites like Project Gutenberg in various formats. Buying and supporting authors and retailers who sell DRM-free e-books is just one way to encourage authors to continue producing stories for us to read.
3 Answers2025-06-05
I love my e-reader but I sometimes miss the feeling of real paper under my fingers. It is easy enough to print a PDF from your Kindle if the eBook is in a DRM-free PDF format. You would need to connect your Kindle to a computer and find the PDF in the documents folder on your Kindle and print it from there. eBooks that are in Kindle book format (e.g. for purchase from Amazon.com) with DRM are trickier to print.
There are plenty of e-readers out there that handle PDFs better than a Kindle (Kobo, PocketBook etc.). If you’re techy enough, you could also use tools like Calibre to convert your Kindle books to print and then print them. However, be careful to check the copyright on any book you try to print out, as some publishers allow limited printing for personal use. You can always try to stick to PDFs that are DRM-free or buy print copies of your favorite books to avoid any hassle.
10 Answers2026-07-27
I just make the text larger in the original document before creating a PDF or printing it. If it's a Word document or a web page, I view it at 150% on my computer before printing or saving it to PDF. The resulting file has larger text on the physical page, which then becomes smaller when viewed on the Kindle screen, but is still readable. This method is simple, requires access to the original document, but does not introduce any conversion artifacts or change any of the original formatting. The text is simply larger from the start.