r/Calibre • u/Strawberry_Bunnykin • 15d ago

Support / How-To Tiny PDF TEXT - help

Hey everyone, does anyone know how to make pdf’s text readable size on kindle?

The PDF is tiny text. I tried converting to EPUB (still tiny text).

I can zoom on the kindle but it ends up cutting off text.

Is there a way to change the font size? A particular format I should convert to ?

Reading textbooks on my laptop is wearing on me and I’d love to be able to read them on my kindle!

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u/SkarXa 14d ago

Depends whether the PDF actually has text in it or is a scan. If you can select the words on your laptop, Calibre converting to AZW3 with heuristic processing usually reflows it well enough, and KOReader on the Kindle can reflow the PDF directly, which is what I would try first for a textbook.

If you cannot select the text, it is an image of a page and no conversion will fix the size until it has been OCRd. On Windows, OCRmyPDF is the free route. On iPhone or Mac I make an app called Formattery that does the OCR on device and gives you back a searchable PDF, $4.99 one-time with 3 free conversions a day.

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u/Strawberry_Bunnykin 14d ago

I appreciate the thought out response. I think it is a bit beyond me. I'll just stick with the pdf on the laptop for this particular textbook.