(We did the same with the Preview book, so neither should cause problems anymore.) Converting the five or six largest images in the iTunes book to JPEG and then regenerating the Mobi file were all that was necessary to bring it down in size. However, screenshots that show the Mac’s Desktop or the iPad’s Lock screen, for instance, are essentially photos, and converting those PNG files to JPEG can drop the size significantly without a perceptible loss of quality. We take our screenshots in PNG format, which is ideal for images with large areas of solid color. Working around the 50 MB Problem - Now that we’re aware of the Send to Kindle 50 MB limitation, we’ll try to ensure that our books don’t exceed this size. Since most Mobi files are created from an EPUB source document by Amazon’s KindleGen tool, bundling two versions of the book into the same file means that the Mobi is generally roughly twice the size of the EPUB. Nowadays, a Mobi file contains the book in two formats, the original Mobipocket version (actually Amazon’s AZW format, which is very slightly modified Mobipocket) and Amazon’s KF8, also known as AZW3, which debuted alongside the first Kindle Fire tablet. Mobi: Mobipocket was purchased by Amazon in 2005 and has changed quite a bit since then. Many of its capabilities are also available in Acrobat Pro, albeit in a form that requires more manual intervention.) (PDF Enhancer hasn’t been updated in years, but it continues to work well for us. We use Apago’s PDF Enhancer to optimize our PDFs in a variety of ways while still keeping the quality high. Those capabilities are extremely effective, dropping the source PDF of the iTunes book from 28.2 MB to 6.4 MB, a savings of 77 percent. As a result, Adobe has long provided tools in Acrobat Pro to reduce the size of images automatically by downsampling and compressing them. PDF: Since PDF was first released in 1993, when networks were much slower and storage devices much smaller, reducing the size of PDF files was important.A little background about each format will explain the difference. “ Photos for Mac: A Take Control Crash Course” snuck under the wire at 49.6 MB.įile Format Background - Why were the Mobi files so large? The Mobi file for the iTunes book was 53.4 MB, but the EPUB was only 21.9 MB, and the PDF weighed in at a svelte 6.4 MB. Only three of our books had ever exceeded that size, with “ Take Control of Preview” and “ iOS 9: A Take Control Crash Course” joining the iTunes book. It turns out that 50 MB is the magic file size over which Amazon’s Send to Kindle app and Send to Kindle email service refuse to work. Could it really have been that much larger than our other books? Some research was necessary. Nonetheless, we were a little surprised recently to get email from a reader complaining that the Mobi version of “ Take Control of iTunes 12: The FAQ” was too big to copy to a Kindle. Since Mobi is our least used format, and since issues that affect the EPUB generally apply to the Mobi as well, we put less effort into checking and tweaking the Mobi version of each book. (These numbers are a bit rough because people can download multiple formats.) How popular would you expect each of these to be? We tracked some downloads recently and found that about 55 percent of the downloads were PDF, about 35 percent were EPUB, and about 8 percent were Mobi. Mobipocket, generally abbreviated to just Mobi, is similar to EPUB, but is relevant only for those who prefer to read on one of Amazon’s Kindle devices or apps. EPUB gained popularity after Apple’s release of iBooks, and it’s best for small-screen iOS devices because it reflows to match the screen and your desired font size. PDF is the format we started with back in 2003, and it remains the best option for reading on a computer or a large-screen iPad, since we put significant effort into keeping text and associated screenshots together on pages, avoiding widows and orphans, and creating an attractive two-column layout for our Crash Courses. We release all Take Control ebooks in three formats: PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket.
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