Types Of Format Supported By The Kindle

In this article you will find out which are the main formats supported by the Kindle , the most popular e-book reader in the world and what are the differences between them.

On the   Amazon Kindle Store there is the largest ebook library (Digital Books) in the world. Mainly online ebook stores distribute digital books in two formats:  PDF and EPUB . Instead in the Amazon Kindle Store you can find many ebook formats such as Mobi, PRC, AZW, AZW3  and others.

EPUB is not a Kindle supported format. We will clarify the various formats and see what the main differences between one format and another are.

Differences Between The Main Formats Supported By The Kindle

Let's start with  MOBI , the most compatible with Kindle, a type of open standard format , used for publishing eBooks. Digital books created with this format can have extensions. prc o. mobi . The MOBI supports indexing, advanced navigation commands, dictionaries and has a high level of compression. Most downloadable MOBI ebooks have no protection and are therefore viewable on any device.

Let's see then the  AZW format ,This is the most popular format for ebooks available in the Kindle Store because it was developed by Amazon. Most likely AZ stands for " Amazon " and the letter W for "Word" but Amazon has never officially confirmed the meaning of these initials. The AZW format has a DRM protection systemwhich limits the reading of ebooks exclusively in the device from which they were purchased. This is certainly a big limit, especially if you wanted to move the book from the Kindle to another ebook. However on the net it is possible to find several ebook converters that in addition to changing the format of the digital book are also able to remove DRM protection from the AZW file.

We then have the AZW3 format , a variation of the AZW format, also known as KF8. In the beginning it was supported only by Kindle Fire tablets but was later introduced in the fourth generation of Kindle and Kindle software for PC and Mac. AZW3 is more advanced than AZW and MOBI format because it supports more fonts, layouts and styles. This format will gradually replace MOBI ebooks.

Another ebook format available for Kindle devices is  TPZ (Topaz). These ebooks have a particular file and data structure, and in most cases often have no DRM protection. In fact, when a TPZ ebook is protected by DRM it takes on a new format called  AZW1 .

To date, these are the most popular formats supported by Kindle ebook readers . The Kindle allows, in addition to books, also the reading of files in other formats. The readable and recognized documents are: TXT, PDF, HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP.