Documentation

    Table of Content
    • 3D File Formats
      • 3D File Formats
      • 3D2
      • 3DS
      • 3MF
      • AMF
      • ASE
      • DAE
      • DRC
      • FBX
      • GLB
      • GLTF
      • IPT
      • JRXML
      • JT
      • OBJ
      • PLY
      • PRC
      • RVM
      • STEP
      • U3D
      • USD
      • USDZ
      • VRML
      • X
      • X3D
    • Audio File Formats
      • Audio File Formats
      • AAC
      • AC3
      • FLAC
      • M3U
      • MID
      • MKA
      • MP3
      • OGG
      • OPUS
      • RA
      • SDT
      • STAP
      • WAV
      • WMA
    • CAD File Formats
      • CAD File Formats
      • CF2
      • DC3
      • DGN
      • DWF
      • DWFX
      • DWG
      • DWT
      • DXF
      • HPGL
      • IFC
      • IGES
      • IGS
      • JVSG
      • NWC
      • NWD
      • NWF
      • PAT
      • PHJ
      • PLT
      • PSM
      • PSS
      • RVT
      • STL
    • Compression File Formats
      • Compression File Formats
      • 7Z
      • ARC
      • ARJ
      • BZ2
      • DAA
      • GZ
      • RAR
      • TAR
      • ZIM
      • ZIP
    • Database
      • Database File Formats
      • ACCDB
      • ACCDE
      • ACCDT
      • ACCFT
      • BAK
      • BCP
      • DDL
      • DTSX
      • LDF
      • MDB
      • MDF
      • MYI
      • NDF
      • NSF
      • SQL
      • SQLITE
    • EBook File Formats
      • EBook File Formats
      • AZW
      • AZW3
      • CBC
      • CBZ
      • EPUB
      • FB2
      • KFX
      • LRF
      • LRS
      • LRX
      • MOBI
      • TR
    • Email File Formats
      • Email File Formats
      • EDB
      • EML
      • EMLX
      • ICS
      • MBOX
      • MSG
      • OFT
      • OLM
      • OST
      • PST
      • TNEF
      • VCF - Virtual Contact File
    • Font
      • Font File Formats
      • CFF
      • CFF2
      • EOT
      • FNT
      • FON
      • JFPROJ
      • OTF
      • PFA
      • PFB
      • PFM
      • SFD
      • TTC
      • TTF
      • Type1
      • WOFF
    • GIS File Formats
      • GIS File Formats
      • E00
      • FileGDB
      • GeoJSON
      • GML
      • GPX
      • KML
      • KMZ
      • OSM
      • SHP
    • Image File Formats
      • Image File Formats
      • AI
      • APNG
      • AVIF
      • BMP
      • BPG
      • CDR
      • CMX
      • CPC
      • DCM
      • DIB
      • DICOM
      • DJVU
      • DNG
      • EMF
      • EMZ
      • EXIF
      • FLIF
      • FODG
      • GIF
      • ICO
      • J2C
      • J2K
      • JFIF
      • JP2
      • JPEG
      • JPF
      • JPM
      • JPX
      • JXR
      • ODG
      • OTG
      • PNG
      • PSB
      • PSD
      • SVGZ
      • TGA
      • TIFF
      • VDX
      • VSD
      • VSDM
      • VSDX
      • VSS
      • VSSM
      • VSSX
      • VST
      • VSTM
      • VSTX
      • VSX
      • VTX
      • WEBP
      • WMF
      • WMZ
    • Note Taking File Formats
      • Note Taking File Formats
      • ONE
      • ONETOC2
    • Page Description Language
      • Page Description Language
      • CGM
      • EPS
      • PCL
      • PS
      • SVG
      • SWF
      • TEX
      • XPS
      • XSLFO
    • PDF
      • PDF
      • PDF/A
      • PDF/E
      • PDF/UA
      • PDF/VT
      • PDF/X
    • Presentation File Formats
      • Presentation File Formats
      • ODP
      • OTP
      • POT
      • POTM
      • POTX
      • PPS
      • PPSM
      • PPSX
      • PPT
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      • PPTX
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      • TOML
      • VB
      • VBPROJ
      • VCXPROJ
      • YAML
    • Project Management File Formats
      • Project Management File Formats
      • MPP
      • MPT
      • MPX
      • XER
    • Spreadsheet File Formats
      • Spreadsheet File Formats
      • CSV
      • DIF
      • FODS
      • NUMBERS
      • NUMBERS-TEF
      • ODS
      • OTS
      • SXC
      • TSV
      • XLA
      • XLAM
      • XLM
      • XLS
      • XLSB
      • XLSM
      • XLSX
      • XLT
      • XLTM
      • XLTX
    • Video File Formats
      • Video File Formats
      • 3G2
      • 3GP
      • ASF
      • AVI
      • F4V
      • FLV
      • M4V
      • MJPEG
      • MK3D
      • MKS
      • MKV
      • MOV
      • MP4
      • MXF
      • QT
      • RM
      • RMVB
      • RV
      • SRT
      • VOB
      • VP6
      • WEBM
      • WMV
      • Xvid
    • Web File Formats
      • Web File Formats
      • ASP
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      • CHM
      • CSS
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      • XML
      • XOML
      • XSLT
    • Word Processing File Formats
      • Word Processing File Formats
      • DOC
      • DOCM
      • DOCX
      • DOT
      • DOTM
      • DOTX
      • MD
      • ODT
      • OTT
      • RTF
      • TXT
    • Reporting
      • RDL
      • RDLC
      • RPL
    1. Home
    2. EBook File Formats
    3. MOBI

    What's on this Page

      • What is a MOBI file?
      • Brief History
      • MOBI File Format
      • Format limitations
      • References

    What is a MOBI file?

    The MOBI file format is one of the most widely used ebook file format. The format is an enhancement to the old OEB (Open Ebook Format) format and was used as proprietary format for Mobipocket Reader. Like EPUB, it is supported by almost all modern e-readers specifically by mobile devices with low bandwidth. The format can be converted to several other formats such as PDF, EPUB and several other formats using publicly available software applications such as the Kindle app. There are several companies that offer free MOBI books such as Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, and Open Library.

    Brief History

    Amazon bought the company behind MOBI file format back in 2005. It was in 2011 when support for the MOBI file format was officially discontinued. Amazon’s current Kindle formats (AZW3, KF8 and KFX) are based on MOBI but have a different DRM scheme.

    Features have been added to the format from time to time and new files may have problems if you try to read them with a down level reader. Open eBook format is the present source to be followed by source files anyways.

    MOBI File Format

    Since MOBI is a proprietary file format, details about its format are not available publicly. It supports standard HTML and is one of the Open eBook Publication formats for eBook distribution.

    Format limitations

    MOBI file format has certain limitations as listed below.

    • Audio and Video contents are not supported
    • Images are not scalable with font size
    • Tables can be added individually and cannot be nested
    • Text can only have a hanging indent if it has no left margin
    • Blocks of text can never have a greater than normal margin on their right side

    References

    • MobiPocket File Format

    See Also

    • AVIF File Format
    • RA File Format
    • RM File Format
    • RV File Format
    • AAC - Advanced Audio Coding File