Amazon’s Kindle Convert turns paper books into digital ones

By Trevor Mogg February 4, 2015

amazons kindle convert turns paper books into digital ones — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Amazon has just released Kindle Convert, a piece of software that enables bookworms to convert their library of paper-based reading material to Kindle-compatible content.

However, depending on how many books you want to digitize, the process could take a while. Why? Because you – or your kids – will have to scan the books page by page, something that could take weeks (if not months) if you’re hell bent on getting those tomes onto your e-reader instead of paying out for them again via the Kindle Store.

Once on your Kindle reader, you’ll be able to adjust the text size, look up word definitions, and have it securely stored in the cloud. Support is also provided for Whispersync, which works to automatically synchronize bookmarks and annotations across Kindle devices.

Amazon says Kindle Convert offers “step-by-step guidance to turn your scans into a beautiful Kindle book,” and promises that the end result maintains the look and feel of the original material, though we’re not sure if such authenticity means that coffee stains and the like will also make it to your Kindle copy.

While those with large libraries of physical books will no doubt balk at the idea of spending their precious time sweating over a flatbed scanner, the software may come in handy for those with aging books and documents that they’d like to preserve on their Kindle before the fragile paper finally disintegrates into dust (though repeatedly spreading a decrepit book on a scanner will probably have a good chance of finishing it off).

Kindle Convert costs $19 and works on a PC running Windows 7 and up.

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