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I've heard that people read malayalam (മലയാളം) ebooks on kindle. Not the images placed in a PDF file. The file which we can read like normal ebook format (controlling the fontsize mainly).

I tried installing a few fonts. They failed too. Is there a good way that can easily get my kindle the ability to make reading malayalam ebooks possible on my kindle?

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  • `hey arun if you find out something post iam also trying to find something out to read the malayalam pdf files danny
    – user5860
    Dec 28, 2015 at 13:06
  • Sure Danny. I'll try it out and will keep you posted with something if I find. You can favourite the question and you'll get it when I post a comment.
    – Arun Anson
    Dec 28, 2015 at 13:33
  • Also check out this answer: ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/6715/…
    – Khalid Hussain
    Oct 30, 2017 at 18:30

2 Answers 2

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Is there a good way that can easily get my kindle the ability to make reading malayalam ebooks possible on my kindle?

  1. Create an ePub file with Calibre and/or find an existing ePub file. Make sure that the source epub file is properly encoded. (I.e., if you open it with Calibre, it must show Malayalam characters.)
  2. If it does, simply convert it to an AZW3 file (not a MOBI file) with Calibre, copy it to the documents folder of the Kindle and you're done.
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  • I'll try it and let you know the results.
    – Arun Anson
    Dec 27, 2015 at 17:50
  • No @Nemo XXX, this didn't work after transferring it to kindle. It shows some bogus characters like we don't have a font on the system. Do we need to install some font? I've tried and failed earlier on this matter.
    – Arun Anson
    Dec 30, 2015 at 14:55
  • A couple of questions: 1. Did you open the source ePub with Calibre and did it display OK? 2. Did you convert it to an AZW3 file? 3. Did you manually copy it to the Kindle using an USB cable?
    – user4665
    Dec 30, 2015 at 15:01
  • 1. Did you open the source ePub with Calibre and did it display OK? ( YES ) 2. Did you convert it to an AZW3 file? ( YES ) 3. Did you manually copy it to the Kindle using an USB cable? (I copied with KDEASY)
    – Arun Anson
    Dec 30, 2015 at 15:02
  • KDEASY might have re-converted the AZW3 file to the old format. Please connect the Kindle with an USB cable and manually copy the book to the Kindle documents folder (without using KDEASY).
    – user4665
    Dec 30, 2015 at 15:10
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Try adding malayalam fonts (use unicode fonts like Chilanka). See these instructions for adding fonts - http://www.epubor.com/how-to-add-fonts-to-kindle-paperwhite.html .

In case this doesn't work check if the text in the file is in unicode. Earlier there were many fonts around (like the old fonts used in Manorama website) that weren't unicode and not supported by most readers.

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  • Unfortunately, the instructions that you linked to only work with older Kindles. Also eInk Kindles use a special fallback font, code2000, to display alphabets not covered by the default fonts. (You can only change this font with a special font hack.) Theoretically, it's possible to embed fonts directly in Kindle books, but I had rendering problems when I tried to embed fonts that override alphabets covered by code2000. BTW, I'm pretty sure that OP made a mistake, because other Kindle users successfully converted books in Indic languages.
    – user4665
    Jul 1, 2016 at 12:35
  • I bought a Kindle Paperwhite last week. It was not showing the fonts I added for English. But fortunately for Malayalam it showed the font (Chilanka) I added. As you said, Malayalam might not have been covered by the default fonts. Thanks for the details.
    – Aravind
    Jul 22, 2016 at 14:39

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