Tag Archives: Print Replica

Kindle Textbook Creator Ebook App Gets Video and Audio Enhancements

2015-04-21

Amazon Kindle Textbook Creator is a simple, but working PC application for converting PDF books into ebooks that can be read on Fire tablets and Kindle PC applications. The Textbook Creator was launched in January 2015, and now, three months later, Amazon has released an update to the application. The update is important: it lets you embed video clips, audio and pop up images into ebooks.

We tested the first version of the Textbook Creator, found it useful, and converted two books (Discussions on Electricity and Creo Parametric User Guide) that are on sale on Amazon Kindle Store.

Now, we tried out the new features in the new Kindle Textbook Creator 1.5. Specifically, we wanted to find out how to insert video clips and photographs into books. The results turned out to be a very different from, for instance, Apple iBooks Author.

First, you have to import a PDF book, or open an existing project. Then, you can simply insert any of the following multimedia elements into the book:
• Video: .mp4
• Audio: .mp3
• Images: .jpeg or .png

The Textbook Creator didn’t accept all MP4 files we tried to insert into the book, but we managed to get some video clips embedded. Here is the curious thing: the Textbook Creator shows only a small icon in the position where we inserted a video clip. Once the reader clicks/taps the icon, a video window opens for viewing the film.

Klaava Media has published many ebooks that include multimedia elements, such as a travel guide to Sweden and France, but we will wait how the Textbook Creator develops before processing them through the application.

Creo Parametric Guidebook Series Available at Amazon Kindle Store

2015-02-14

Jouni Ahola has conducted training courses on Creo Parametric 3D modeling software for many years in many countries across the world. He knows all the common pitfalls practically everyone new to the Creo Parametric will face and what are the most important features that everyone should master. His advice has been published as a book series that consists of four practical, hands-on user guides.

Now, the Creo Parametric book series is available at Amazon Kindle Stores.
Creo Parametric Modeling for Manufacturing v3
Creo Parametric Milling
Creo Parametric Basic Turning
Creo Parametric Mill-Turn

The books are published in Print Replica format which means that you can read them in any Kindle for PC and tablet application, and on any Fire tablet. The books can’t be read on Kindle ereaders (the models with black-and-white E ink screen).

The books are also available in PDF format. More information about the Creo Parametric book series here.

Amazon’s New Ebook Format Print Replica Looks Fine on a Tablet

2015-02-02

In late January 2015, Amazon announced a new application Kindle Textbook Creator that makes it possible to publish PDF-formatted books to the Kindle Store. After a quick test run of the app, I decided to try out what the final outcome would look like. I published one of Klaava Media’s PDF books to the Kindle Store, and downloaded the product from the store to my tablet just like any customer would do. The conclusion is that Amazon’s new ebook format, Print Replica, looks fine on a 10 –inch tablet.

The new Pages view (screen capture above) lets you quickly browse a book and find the page you are looking for.

Normal reading mode.

Pages at the bottom of the screen can be scrolled horizontally.

I viewed the Print Replica book on 9.7-inch Apple iPad. The screen size was fine for comfortably reading the book, but I would recommend trying out a sample first if you have a 7-inch tablet. Amazon supports Print Replica in Fire HD and Fire HDX –tablets and in all PC and tablet Kindle reading apps. The thing with Print Replica and PDF books is that if your screen is small, and you have to zoom in to read the text, a portion of the content may shift out of the frame. So, try a sample first.

The Print Replica book used as a sample copy in this article is titled Discussions on Electricity.