Filter
Top Products
| Digital Publication File Formats | 6
Digital Publication File Formats
Digital books, magazines and newspapers are published in a variety of file formats, but the Kindle Fire HD does not
support all of them.
Much fuss has been made over the fact that one of the world's top booksellers sells e-books in only its proprietary
AZW or KF8 (Kindle Format 8) file formats that can only be read using its Kindle e-reader computer software or
mobile device app. Amazon's failure to adopt the widely used EPUB file format, the free and open e-book standard
established by the International Digital Publishing Forum, or even support it on its Kindle and Kindle Fire devices is
especially galling to some bibliophiles.
However, the Kindle Fire HD supports more than just Amazon's AZW and KF8 file formats. It also comes ready to
open and display other widely used file formats:
• PDF
• DOC
• DOCX
• TXT
• MOBI*
• PRE*
*If files in these formats are protected by digital rights management (DRM) technologies, then the Amazon Kindle
Fire HD cannot open them.
Furthermore, if you already have e-book files in formats not supported by your Kindle Fire HD, you may be able
to convert them to another supported format and then put them on you device, either by sideloading or emailing the
converted files to your Kindle Fire HD's email address. Format conversion typically requires you to install on your
computer software that performs the conversion. One of the more popular conversion tools is calibre (www.calibre-
ebook.com).
The list below, taken from calibre's website, orders common e-book file formats by ease of conversion.
1.
LIT
2.
MOBI
3.
AZW
4.
EPUB
5.
AZW3
6.
FB2
7.
HTML
8.
PRC
9.
RTF
10.
PDB
11.
TXT
12.
PDF
Note: DRM technologies can limit an e-book file's ability to be converted into a format compatible with your
device.