Scribe and Pen marking with sideloaded books

[maakies]

Hi,

I bought a kindle, didn't arrive on time. Got a refund. Arrived late, tried to use it but couldn't login. Amazon told me to keep or recycle it because it's blacklisted. I can pay for it, but it won't be the sale price I paid (got it for 190$ with trade-in, and stacked discounts).

I've read on this forum that PDFs via sendtokindle are the only option to mark directly with the pen.

Has there since been a workaround?

I could buy another one when it's on sale on prime day but it seems crazy not to make use of this.

Thank you

[tomsem]

Without Amazon services that come with registering, it will be severely crippled, no doubt.

Calibre and the KFX Input and KFX Output plugins will become close friends, if you want to use the pen for something.

Of course, you can side load and read any Kindle format.

If you convert to re-flowable KFX, you can add handwritten notes.

Using Kindle Create, you can create fixed layout content from PDF by converting its KPF output with KFX Output plugin. Comics/manga will lack any defined panel view, and print replica will lack text objects and hyperlinks, but you will be able to make pen annotations on them.

And you should be able to create notebooks.

Pen annotations (handwritten notes, print replica handwritten notes, and notebooks) can be exported to FXL ePub files with the annotations converted to SVG objects using KFX input plugin to convert the associated nbk file.

You can also backup the ./notebooks folder and if you get a Scribe in the future you should be able to recover notebooks (by overwriting an existing notebook nbk file with one from your backup).

So not entirely useless.

I don't suppose you had the option of undoing the refund and removing the blacklist.

[GeorgeYellow]

If you got a Kindle Scribe recently in Amazon's Father's Day sale, you very likely have an unit with older firmware.

As a bonus since you can't log into Amazon, you won't get firmware updates.

The best way to work around the "you must log in" is to find a wireless access point that requires a web page to work - these captive portals allow you to bring up the browser, and you can do the ';' commands in that browser.

[maakies]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Without Amazon services that come with registering, it will be severely crippled, no doubt.

Calibre and the KFX Input and KFX Output plugins will become close friends, if you want to use the pen for something.

Of course, you can side load and read any Kindle format.

If you convert to re-flowable KFX, you can add handwritten notes.

Using Kindle Create, you can create fixed layout content from PDF by converting its KPF output with KFX Output plugin. Comics/manga will lack any defined panel view, and print replica will lack text objects and hyperlinks, but you will be able to make pen annotations on them.

And you should be able to create notebooks.

Pen annotations (handwritten notes, print replica handwritten notes, and notebooks) can be exported to FXL ePub files with the annotations converted to SVG objects using KFX input plugin to convert the associated nbk file.

You can also backup the ./notebooks folder and if you get a Scribe in the future you should be able to recover notebooks (by overwriting an existing notebook nbk file with one from your backup).

So not entirely useless.

I don't suppose you had the option of undoing the refund and removing the blacklist.

Wow, thank you so much for the detailed and helpful message. I'll try all of this.

And no, I called them back about it but that ship has sailed. I'm half-sure that there is someone who can whitelist it or have me pay the original amount but after two calls and talking to a supervisor I think I'm out of luck.

But not entirely, your message definitely improved crummy morning.

I hate to bother you but I’d like to know a bit more from your post.

“Using Kindle Create, you can create fixed layout content from PDF by converting its KPF output with KFX Output plugin. Comics/manga will lack any defined panel view, and print replica will lack text objects and hyperlinks, but you will be able to make pen annotations on them.”

Could you please say this a bit differently? I don’t know what fixed layout contents print replica or text objects means in this context.

But if I understand you correctly, I can still write on PDFs like a notebook if I find the relevant plugins and do all of this in calibre?

And when you say severely crippled, what is it that I will not be able to unless there’s a jailbreak someday? Or someone brilliant figures out a whitelisting?

Thank you again, people like yourself on the internet is a tonic for our times.

[maakies]

Originally Posted by GeorgeYellow

If you got a Kindle Scribe recently in Amazon's Father's Day sale, you very likely have an unit with older firmware.

As a bonus since you can't log into Amazon, you won't get firmware updates.

The best way to work around the "you must log in" is to find a wireless access point that requires a web page to work - these captive portals allow you to bring up the browser, and you can do the ';' commands in that browser.

:/ Unfortunately I'm not one of the lucky ones. I'd have jailbroken it already. Funnily enough, I jailbroke my voyage two weeks ago.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by maakies

“Using Kindle Create, you can create fixed layout content from PDF by converting its KPF output with KFX Output plugin. Comics/manga will lack any defined panel view, and print replica will lack text objects and hyperlinks, but you will be able to make pen annotations on them.”

Could you please say this a bit differently? I don’t know what fixed layout contents print replica or text objects means in this context.

But if I understand you correctly, I can still write on PDFs like a notebook if I find the relevant plugins and do all of this in calibre?

And when you say severely crippled, what is it that I will not be able to unless there’s a jailbreak someday? Or someone brilliant figures out a whitelisting?

Thank you again, people like yourself on the internet is a tonic for our times.

Send to Kindle service converts PDF files to Kindle print replica format. This preserves the visual appearance of the PDF, any text that is in it, and converts PDF bookmarks (named navigation markers) to a table of contents structure. This format is the only one that lets you draw directly on it.

Kindle Create is an authoring tool for creating Print Replica, Comic/Manga, and Reflowable format for publishing on Kindle Direct Publishing.

But it doesn't generate Print Replica directly: it outputs KPF ('kindle publishing format').

KFX Output plugin is able to take a KPF file, feed it to Kindle Previewer, and generate a KFX file. However Kindle Previewer isn't equipped to handle Print Replica (or Comic Book/Manga) KPF features, and so the KPF it generates is flattened.

Of course if you had a second, registered Scribe, you could use Send To Kindle to generate print replica KFX document for it, and copy that off the registered Scribe to side load to the unregistered Scribe.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by maakies

And no, I called them back about it but that ship has sailed. I'm half-sure that there is someone who can whitelist it or have me pay the original amount but after two calls and talking to a supervisor I think I'm out of luck.

From what I've read, once the device is blacklisted it's a one-way change. This issue comes up here occasionally but I don't recall seeing that anyone was successful in getting it reverted.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

From what I've read, once the device is blacklisted it's a one-way change. This issue comes up here occasionally but I don't recall seeing that anyone was successful in getting it reverted.

Back in the day, if the original owner reported a Kindle missing/stolen, Amazon would blacklist it. The original owner could contact Amazon again to un-black list it, if they found their missing Kindle.

Amazon may have stopped that behavior, as they seem way less interested now in keeping customers happy.

[Quoth]

They have refused to un-blacklist found devices for years.

Who else does it for an ereader?

[maakies]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Send to Kindle service converts PDF files to Kindle print replica format. This preserves the visual appearance of the PDF, any text that is in it, and converts PDF bookmarks (named navigation markers) to a table of contents structure. This format is the only one that lets you draw directly on it.

Kindle Create is an authoring tool for creating Print Replica, Comic/Manga, and Reflowable format for publishing on Kindle Direct Publishing.

But it doesn't generate Print Replica directly: it outputs KPF ('kindle publishing format').

KFX Output plugin is able to take a KPF file, feed it to Kindle Previewer, and generate a KFX file. However Kindle Previewer isn't equipped to handle Print Replica (or Comic Book/Manga) KPF features, and so the KPF it generates is flattened.

Of course if you had a second, registered Scribe, you could use Send To Kindle to generate print replica KFX document for it, and copy that off the registered Scribe to side load to the unregistered Scribe.

I really appreciate you breaking it down and making it lucid.

The process seems arduous if you can only do a book at a time but the second
Scribe idea is fantastic. And I might just get one to convert and transfer 300+ books quickly.

Again, thank you.