eBookBinder FAQ
eBookBinder and Mobipocket
For some time now, the kindlegen tool, which is required to create Mobipocket files with eBookBinder, is no longer offered by Amazon. In addition, the kindlegen tool only ran on 32-bit, which is no longer supported by the latest versions of macOS, as only 64-bit applications can be executed.
However, Amazon offers an alternative that contains an up-to-date kindlegen tool and, with a little work, can be used for eBookBinder.
The alternative is called Kindle Previewer and can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765261
Note: The file is fairly big with over 950MB.
After downloading and installing Kindle Previewer, the following steps are required to make the kindlegen tool accessible for eBookBinder.
- In Finder in the Application folder select the Kindle Previewer 3.app file and right-click on the menu item Show Package Contents.
- Enter kindlegen in the Finder search. Make sure that the search option is set so that the search only takes place in the Kindle Previewer 3.app folder. The kindlegen tool contained in the Kindle Previewer app should be displayed then.
- Copy the found file to the Application folder.
Once these steps have been completed, the kindlegen tool can be set up as usual via eBookBinder to create Mobipocket files.
The next version of eBookBinder will be able to directly access the kindlegen tool within the Kindle Previewer app, which means that the intermediate steps will then be omitted.
However, these intermediate steps are useful for those, who do not need the Kindle Previewer app, which takes up around 1GB on the hard drive. Since only the kindlegen tool itself is needed by eBookBinder, the Kindle Previewer app can be deleted afterwards.