Araz Gholami

Complete Guide to Converting Right-to-Left Books for Kindle

After months of delay and anticipation, I finally had time today to write the guide I promised. I’ll get straight to the point. Overall, we have six types of Persian books, and each requires a different method for Kindle conversion. In this post, I’ll explain the conversion methods for all of them.

  • 0) English PDF and ePub books
  • 1) Scanned Persian PDF books
  • 2) Persian PDF books with encrypted text
  • 3) Persian PDF books with open text
  • 4) Persian ePUB and AW3 books
  • 5) Persian HTML (hypertext) books
  • 6) Fidibo, Taqche, and other platforms’ books

Contrary to popular belief, option 0 is the easiest to convert to Kindle format. Margins are cropped by tools, leaving just the text. The text may be slightly smaller and not zoomable, which is Amazon’s way of not supporting right-to-left languages fully. Options 1 and 2 are similar, except that if you copy encrypted text, it becomes unreadable. Option 4 is basically “plug and play” with no extra work. Option 5 requires minor source edits, and option 6 is nearly impossible. I included it here for those who ask.

0) Converting English PDF and ePub Books to Kindle

This is the easiest and hassle-free option. Just email your PDF or ePub file to your Kindle email with the subject “convert,” and Amazon will handle everything in the background, delivering the book to your Kindle.

In rare cases of formatting issues, you can use an alternative service: sendepubtokindle.

To view or change your Kindle email, visit the Devices section in your Amazon profile.

1) Converting Scanned Persian PDF Books to Kindle

A kind person has carefully documented the entire process. You can download the guide and follow it step by step. Thousands of ready-to-use books are also available on their blog.

2) Persian PDF Books with Encrypted Text

These are books with protected text that cannot be copied or edited. As a result, the text can’t be converted directly. The best approach is the first method: scan the pages and crop them for 6-inch screens.

3) Converting Open-Text Persian PDF Books to Kindle

You can identify these books by their ability to copy and paste the text correctly. Another friend created a tool to make this easy. Just input the PDF, get an HTML file, and then follow method 0 to send it to Amazon.

4) Converting Persian ePUB and AW3 Books to Kindle

Following this tutorial, you can convert standard versions of these books to a readable Kindle format. They can be converted directly or via PDF/HTML using a Calibre plugin developed by another friend.

5) Converting Persian HTML (Hypertext) Books to Kindle

Simply follow method 0 by emailing the file to your Kindle with the subject “convert.” Before sending, edit the page source and replace <body> with <body style="text-align:right;direction:rtl;">.

6) Converting Fidibo, Taqche, and Friends’ Books to Kindle

Practically impossible. You might access the web version via Kindle’s browser, but it’s not feasible for me because the Kindle’s processor is weak and struggles with heavy HTML pages. If you don’t know English books, I suggest buying Fidibo e-reader books instead for painless reading.

Update: With the latest Kindle OS update and browser version, you can now read web books just like on a smartphone. You can access Fidibo (if the web version hasn’t been removed) and Taqche books directly on Kindle.

Postscript:
If you read this in the future and some links are dead, I’ve saved all of them. Email me via the contact page, and I’ll send them to you.

Recommendation:
A friend converted 303 Persian books for Kindle. You can purchase them cheaply via their Telegram channel. Mention this post and get a 100,000 IRR discount.

Reflections:
11 Reasons to Buy a Kindle
Kindle and E-Readers Explained Simply

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