How to read a PDF e-book on a Kindle
Updated
Short answer
Use Amazon's Send to Kindle — the app, the web page or your Kindle's own email address. The PDF arrives in your library and syncs to your devices. PDFs keep their page layout, so on a 6-inch screen text can be small; zoom, landscape mode or a larger Kindle helps.
Three ways to send it
Amazon calls all of them Send to Kindle, and they end in the same place: your Kindle library, synced to every Kindle device and Kindle app signed in to the same account.
- The Send to Kindle app on a Mac or Windows computer. Drag the PDF onto it, pick your devices, send.
- The Send to Kindle web page in a browser. Sign in with your Amazon account and upload the file.
- Email. Every Kindle has its own address, shown in your Amazon account under your devices. Attach the PDF and send it from an email address you have approved in the same settings page.
What a PDF looks like on a Kindle
A PDF is a fixed page. That is its strength — the book looks exactly as it was typeset, cover and all — and on a small screen it is its weakness, because the text cannot reflow to a bigger size the way a Kindle book does. On a 6- or 7-inch Kindle a full A5 page is readable but small.
- Turn the Kindle sideways. Landscape mode shows half a page at a time at a much larger size.
- Zoom with two fingers, then move around the page.
- Use a bigger screen if you have one — a larger Kindle, a tablet, or the Kindle app on a laptop shows the page at a comfortable size.
When a phone or tablet is simply better
For a book that was set as a PDF, a tablet is usually the most comfortable place to read it: the page fits at a natural size and nothing needs converting. If you mainly read on your phone, see reading a PDF on an iPhone or iPad or on Android.
Your Pills of Matrix edition can also be read in your account without downloading anything — the same text, laid out as a book you turn page by page, on any screen.
Questions people also ask
- Does Send to Kindle cost anything?
- No. Sending your own documents to your own Kindle library is free.
- Will my PDF sync between my Kindle and the Kindle app on my phone?
- Documents sent with Send to Kindle are stored in your library and appear on the devices and apps signed in to the same Amazon account.
- Can I make the text bigger in a PDF on a Kindle?
- Not by reflowing it — a PDF keeps its layout. You can zoom into the page or turn the Kindle to landscape, which shows the text noticeably larger.
- Is a PDF e-book the same as a Kindle book?
- No. A Kindle book reflows to any screen; a PDF keeps the exact page it was designed with. The trade-offs are set out in PDF or EPUB.
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