Amazon currently accepts limited number of ebook formats that you can directly send to your Amazon Kindle. In this config we are going to show few Linux tools which may assist you with the conversion between various Document and eBook formats.
Based on your amazon Kindle type the supported formats may include:
- Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
- Rich Text Format (.rtf)
- HTML (.htm, .html)
- Text (.txt) documents
- Archived documents (zip , x-zip) and compressed archived documents
- Mobi book
- Portable Document Format PDF
- JPEGs (.jpg)
- GIFs (.gif)
- Bitmaps (.bmp)
- PNG images (.png)
ebook-convert
The first tool you might consider is ebook-convert. This tool is available on Fedora , CentOS, Redhat Linux under the package named ebook-tools. To install ebook-tools package run the command below:
# yum install ebook-tools
Once installed you can use ebook-convert to convert between various eBook formats such as PDF, ePub, Mobi or RTF. Few examples are listed below:
Convert ePub to Mobi
$ ebook-convert my-ebook.epub my-kindle.mobi
Convert PDF to Mobi
$ ebook-convert my-ebook.pdf my-kindle.mobi
Convert ePub to rtf
$ ebook-convert my-ebook.epub my-kindle.rtf
calibre
Another great tool to consider is calibre. calibre is available on any decent Linux distribution and can be installed by using the following linux command:
FEDORA/CENTOS/REDHAT # yum install calibre DEBIAN/UBUNTU # apt-get install calibre
calibre calibre supports multiple ebook formats such as MOBI, EPUB, PDB, AZW3 to name just few. To convert ebooks using calibre tool simply open a calibre application
$ calibre
Add and right click on the ebook you wish to convert:
Select convert ebooks, followed by the conversion output format such as mobi and hit OK button. Once the ebook is converted it will be saved into your previously predefined “Calibre Library” directory.
unoconv
unoconv tool allows you to convert between LibreOffice, PDF, TXT and Microsoft’s doc and docx document formats. To install unoconv on your distribution simply run:
FEDORA/CENTOS/REDHAT # yum install unoconv UBUNUT/DEBIAN # yum install unoconv
By default the unoconv command converts any supported document to PDF.
Convert ODF to PDF
For example to convert LibreOffice odt format to PDF you would run:
$ unoconv -d document my-doc.odt $ ls my-doc.odt my-doc.pdf
Convert ODT to DOCX
To convert to any other suported document format we need use --format option. For example next we are going to convert Libre Office document to Microsoft document:
$ unoconv -d document --format=docx my-doc.odt $ file my-doc.docx my-doc.docx: Microsoft Word 2007+
Convert ODT to DOC
Similarly we can convert for Microsoft doc format:
$ unoconv -d document --format=doc my-doc.odt $ file my-doc.doc my-doc.doc: Composite Document File V2 Document, Little Endian, Os: Windows, Version 1.0 ...