Chinese ebook format

[Flickserve]

Apologies if this sounds obvious.

If you buy a Chinese ebook, what format is it in? Is it easy to copy and paste it into other apps and then into an Anki card?

[Guest realmayo]

If you own a kindle and buy via amazon.cn then you can use a programme called Calibre, download an add-on to crack the DRM, and use Calibre to convert the book into text format, at which point you can copy and paste to your heart's content.

 

I presume though that this involves breaking some of amazon's terms & conditions.

 

As for paid ebooks from other Chinese ebook retailers, I don't know what format they come in, whether they're protected by DRM, or whether any such DRM is easy to crack. Previously I would have been extremely interested to know, but I've now accumulated more amazon.cn books than I'll ever find time to read.

[Luxi]

Flickserve, with etailers like Duokan, Douban, Google Play and others, you don't actually download the ebook as a file to keep in your hard disk. You read your ebooks in the etailer's own reader, which opens in your browser (if using a PC or laptop) or an app (if using a tablet) when you click on a book you own.

 

Amazon is the same too, but you can access the .mobi (or Amazon's own format, which works as a .mobi) file and copy it into your computer, but your Amazon library is actually in the Cloud.

 

Many apps allow you to read your books offline, so there must be a file saved somewhere in the disc but I've no idea where to find it or what format it is, in any case it'd be totally useless for most purposes.

 

The readers are very good, as good as if no better than a Kindle. In my opinion, much more convenient and easier on the eyes than paper books. If what you want to do is copy words, phrases, sentences or chunks of text for study or cards, that's very easy to do: you just highlight what you want to copy and paste it wherever you want to use it. I don't use Ankit, but I often paste selected text without any problems on Pleco (using the Cllipboard or text reader), Chinese Text Analyser, Office apps, Notebook/One Note, etc. 

 

What you won't be able to do, is use 'Ctrl A' and copy an entire book to paste on a text or word file. It will give you only a small amount of text (quite understandable since some Chinese books are > 4000 pages long), it's easier and better to highlight and copy in chunks.

 

If you're reading in a browser, you'll be able to use pop-up dictionaries, machine translators, or MBDG's Chinese Reader 8

 

Some of the readers in iOS or Android apps include their own dictionaries and options to translate into English, search for your selected expression on the web, etc.  Duokan's is very good, you'll see the options popping up when you highlight your text on the screen. I think Douban is also OK though the search and dictionary options are not very easy to find at first. As with a Kindle, you can also add notes, questions or comments as you read (it's all kept in the Cloud, I presume) and make them either private or shared with a group or public.

 

The best way to see how it all works or test your Anki connection, is: join up, choose a book and use the free trial read. Signing up is free and doesn't require any financial information. You can also sign in using Weibo or similar credentials. The apps are also free to download and you don't need to purchase a single book to use them.

 

Last but not least, both Duokan and Douban have many 免费 books. you  you can fill your e-bookshelves with free books without spending a penny. 

[Shelley]

You can get free chinese e-books from Project Gutenberg, they are all out of copyright and therefore old but it you want to read the classics or similar they are there.

 

Small sample of a quick search I did.  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=chinese&go=Go

 

You get the choice of what format when you select a book as here https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24156

 

If you choose Plain text you can do what you want with the text. If you use Calibre ( a must have tool and organiser for e-books) you can convert and save e-books in various formats. some formats convert better than others, I think they explain some of this in their help/tutorial file.

 

The format page I link to shows most of the popular formats.

 

Hope this helps.

[Flickserve]

Thanks for the replies. I was in Guangzhou yesterday and went to the bookshop. I bought a few books on learning English from Chinese sentences. They don't have these technical books in e book format as far as I can make out on Amazon.cn .

I haven't managed to go through duokan, douban yet.

I also bought a couple of magazines out of curiosity but I don't think they come in ebook format.