Convert and email PDFs to Kindle

Feature requests
#1

I like to read papers on my Kindle, and each Kindle has a helpful feature: it has an email address you can mail documents to, which will be downloaded for reading.

However, raw PDFs look really bad on a Kindle, which is why there is an option to convert them. Attaching a PDF to an email sent to the Kindle address with the title “convert” will run Amazon’s own conversion process. It isn’t perfect, but it does a decent job. (A third-party script, k2pdfopt: http://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/ also exists.)

It would be great if I could select a bunch of papers on Paperpile and ship them off to Kindle in one step, especially with nice, easy to understand titles.

Obviously, I can do this on my own, but the convenience factor of a one-click option would be fantastic.

-Kevin

1 Like
#2

Hi Kevin,

That’s an interesting use case/workaround! What Kindle model are you using to read PDF’s?

As of now, this is not something that we have planned. Are there any others who use a Kindle to read PDF’s? If there is more demand we can think about that later.

1 Like
#3

I use kindle for PC a lot. I think you could make the utility generic, simply by loading the user’s default email server (I think windows has an API for that), attaching one or more documents (not sure if that is part of the API). The user could modify recipient (i.e., kindle), subject (i.e., convert) and body prior to sending.

That would have the benefit that you don’t have to ‘support’ kindle or the conversion process - you simply xfer docs to whoever the user requests.

In the help, you could suggest this as an option / example

#4

I use a Kindle Voyage to view my PDFs.

When the PDFs are on the Kindle, they’re listed by their filename. To get the PDFs off Paperpile, I either need to download them offline, in which case their initial filename is an unreadable hash code, or look through the backups on Google Drive, which can take time to find an individual file.

Even the ability to mass-download PDFs with useful filenames would be helpful. Personally, I find the title of a paper more useful in identifying it then the authors/years, which is how it’s stored on Google Drive.

-Kevin

#5

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll discuss this with the team and have added a under-review tag so it doesn’t get lost.

#6

I also read PDFs on Kindle; so the process is export from Paperpile, possibly rename file, then email to a special email that means it gets loaded on to Kindle. I would imagine that Paperpile could have a shortcut to email it direct after asking me for the personal Kindle email address.

#7

I use Movavi PDF Editor for editing pdfs (if I need to) and converting, my favorite app so far, besides, it’s possible to create documents here, so see for yourselves.

#8

@dzemila I have ordered a Kindle to help read/manage my books for the doctorate program I am in. I already use Paperpile and would love to be able to do both! I have the Kindle Paperwhite! :relaxed:

#9

I would use it if available. As far as I understand, Kindle is the largest non-Apple tablet market. There’s no apps on Kindle, of course, so the only possible use is to have it receive papers. i.e., instead of ‘view PDF’ (opening the paper in a new tab), the user could click on ‘send to kindle’ (perhaps a 2-sided button?)

1 Like