Kindle File Format

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
Kindle devices and apps are designed to use Amazon's e-book formats: AZW that is based on <a href="/facts/Mobipocket/SQDUJXBS">Mobipocket</a>; in fourth generation and later Kindles, AZW3, also called KF8; and in seventh generation and later Kindles, KFX.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a> Similar to <a href="/facts/EPUB/5K41t91V">EPUB</a>, Amazon's file formats are intended for <a href="/facts/Reflowable_document/HxnIr0fu">reflowable</a>, richly formatted e-book content and support <a href="/facts/Digital_rights_management/4AF8JmDt">DRM restrictions</a>, but unlike EPUB, they are <a href="/facts/Proprietary_format/9j6BjD7t">proprietary formats</a>. AZW files debuted with the first Amazon Kindle in 2007.
Software such as the <a href="/facts/Free_and_open_source/1cHtjLCB">free and open source</a> <a href="/facts/Calibre_(software)/HHFeh7Lf">Calibre</a>, Amazon's KindleGen,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a> and the email based Send-to-Kindle service are available to convert e-books into supported Kindle file formats. Kindle devices can also display some generic document formats such as <a href="/facts/Plain_text/TSlSSAg2">plain text</a> (TXT) and <a href="/facts/Portable_Document_Format/C9Mn1vYL">Portable Document Format</a> (PDF) files; however, <a href="/facts/Reflowable_document/HxnIr0fu">reflowing</a> is not supported for these file types.
In late 2011, the Kindle Fire introduced "Kindle Format 8" (KF8), also known as AZW3 file format.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a> AZW3 supports a subset of <a href="/facts/HTML5/HBAxEAr6">HTML5</a> and <a href="/facts/CSS3/tA90XBQo">CSS3</a> features,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a> while acting as a container for a backwards-compatible <a href="/facts/Mobipocket/SQDUJXBS">MOBI content</a> document.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a>
In August 2015, all the Kindle e-readers released within the previous two years were updated with a new typesetting and layout engine that adds <a href="/facts/Hyphen/2qtCxIGv">hyphens</a>, <a href="/facts/Kerning/BBIozGt4">kerning</a> and <a href="/facts/Typographic_ligature/urMIGfmN">ligatures</a> to the text; e-books that support this engine require the use of the "Kindle Format 10" (KFX) file format.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a> E-books that support the enhanced typesetting format are indicated in the e-book's description on its product page.
In 2017, Amazon released Kindle Create, a tool that can convert Microsoft Word files to Kindle file format.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a>
In 2022, while the <a href="/facts/Amazon_Kindle/cmCbmvEs">Send-to-Kindle service</a> only supported the original .mobi/.azw ebook formats (along with some other non-ebook file formats),<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a> Amazon announced removing this support in favor of <a href="/facts/EPUB/5K41t91V">.epub</a> which will be converted to Amazon's KF8 (.azw3) from late-2022.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a>

<h2 id="footnotes">Footnotes</h2>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">.azw expands into AmaZon Word <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">"AZW3 file - Zamzar - Free online file conversion". Archived from the original on 2019-04-18. Retrieved 2017-08-15. <a href="https://www.zamzar.com/fileformats/azw3" target="_blank">https://www.zamzar.com/fileformats/azw3</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">"Kindle Publishing Programs". Amazon.com. July 12, 2011. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011. Now via Internet Archive. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110815083555/http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20110815083555/http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">"KindleGen". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved February 7, 2019. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765211" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765211</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Kindle Format 8 Archived 2017-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, Amazon.com, October 2011. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000729511" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000729511</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">"List of supported HTML tags and CSS elements". Amazon. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2012. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_357613442_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000729901&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=1SMP3WA2ZFPE1V88B33V&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=1321300302&pf_rd_i=1000729511" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_357613442_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000729901&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=1SMP3WA2ZFPE1V88B33V&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=1321300302&pf_rd_i=1000729511</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Sabrina Ricci (March 6, 2012). "The New Kindle Format (KF8)". Digital Pubbing. Archived from the original on April 23, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2018. <a href="https://digitalpubbing.com/the-new-kindle-format-8-kf8" target="_blank">https://digitalpubbing.com/the-new-kindle-format-8-kf8</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">"Amazon Throws A Minor Curveball With HTML5-Powered Kindle Format 8" Archived 2017-08-15 at the Wayback Machine, TechCrunch, October 20, 2011. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/20/amazon-throws-a-minor-curveball-with-html5-kindle-8-format" target="_blank">https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/20/amazon-throws-a-minor-curveball-with-html5-kindle-8-format</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Kindle eBooks with Improved Typography Use New KFX File Format Archived 2019-04-18 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 11 August 2015 <a href="https://the-digital-reader.com/2015/08/11/kindle-ebooks-with-improved-typography-use-new-kfx-file-format" target="_blank">https://the-digital-reader.com/2015/08/11/kindle-ebooks-with-improved-typography-use-new-kfx-file-format</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">"Kindle Create: A New Ebook Conversion Tool". EpubSecrets. April 6, 2017. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020. <a href="http://epubsecrets.com/kindle-create-a-new-ebook-conversion-tool.php" target="_blank">http://epubsecrets.com/kindle-create-a-new-ebook-conversion-tool.php</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">"Learn About Sending Documents to Your Kindle Library". Amazon. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-04. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_pdoc_main_short_us?nodeId=200767340" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_pdoc_main_short_us?nodeId=200767340</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">Michael Kozlowski (April 30, 2022). "The Amazon Kindle will support EPUB in late 2022". Good E-Reader. Archived from the original on May 4, 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022. <a href="https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-support-epub-in-late-2022" target="_blank">https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-support-epub-in-late-2022</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">Michael Cavacini (2022-05-04). "Amazon Kindle Will Support EPUB Books, Abandoning MOBI Format". michaelcavacini.com. Archived from the original on 2022-05-04. Retrieved 2022-05-04. <a href="https://michaelcavacini.com/2022/05/04/amazon-kindle-will-support-epub-books-abandoning-mobi-format" target="_blank">https://michaelcavacini.com/2022/05/04/amazon-kindle-will-support-epub-books-abandoning-mobi-format</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">"Learn About Sending Documents to Your Kindle Library". Amazon. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-04. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_pdoc_main_short_us?nodeId=200767340" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_pdoc_main_short_us?nodeId=200767340</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Kindle File Format open-in-new

Kindle File Format