Read a PDF on your Kindle with text that fits the screen

Last updated 10 October 2026

A PDF keeps the pages it was printed on, so on a Kindle you read it by zooming and panning. Convert it to EPUB in Finepress first, then send the EPUB to your Kindle with Amazon's Send to Kindle. The text then flows to fit the screen and the type size you pick. Your PDF is not uploaded to Finepress.

Why does a PDF read badly on a Kindle?

A PDF fixes every line to a page made for paper. A Kindle screen is much smaller than that page, so the whole page shrinks to fit and the text becomes small.

• To read it you zoom in, then pan across and down each page.
• The lines belong to the page, so they cannot rewrap to fit the screen.
• A paper set in two columns makes this worse: you pan down one column, then back up for the next.

An EPUB holds the text without fixed pages. The reader lays it out for the screen, so the lines rewrap when you change the type size.

How do I convert the PDF to EPUB?

Add the PDF to Finepress, wait for it to convert, then download the EPUB from the book's details.

1. Open Finepress. You do not need an account or an install.
2. Press Add a book and choose the PDF, or drop the file anywhere on the page.
3. Wait while Finepress reads the pages. It removes running headers, footers and page numbers, puts columns in reading order, joins words split across lines, and rebuilds paragraphs, headings and chapters.
4. Press Open and look through the book before you send it.
5. Open the book's details on the shelf and press Download EPUB. The file goes to your browser's downloads.

If the PDF is a scan, Finepress reads it with OCR first. Convert a scanned PDF to EPUB explains how.

How do I send the EPUB to my Kindle?

Use Amazon's Send to Kindle. It adds the EPUB to the Kindle library of your Amazon account, and your Kindle downloads it from there.

• On the web: sign in at amazon.com/sendtokindle and upload the EPUB. The page allows files up to 200 MB.
• By email: attach the EPUB to an email to your Kindle's Send to Kindle address. Send it from an address on your Approved Personal Document Email List. One email can carry up to 25 attachments and 50 MB in total.
• From an app: Amazon also lists the Kindle app for iOS and Android, and Send to Kindle apps for Mac and Windows.

Amazon's list of supported files includes EPUB and PDF. MOBI is not on it. These details come from Amazon's Learn About Sending Documents to Your Kindle Library, Learn How to Use Your Send to Kindle Email Address and the Send to Kindle page, checked on 10 October 2026. Amazon can change them, so check there if a send fails.

What does Amazon do with the EPUB?

Amazon converts it. Amazon's help for the Send to Kindle email address says its conversion service converts the documents you send to the Kindle format.

So the book on your Kindle is Amazon's conversion of the EPUB Finepress wrote. Finepress takes no part in that step and sends nothing to Amazon. If something looks different on the Kindle, open the EPUB in Finepress to see whether the difference came from the conversion or from Amazon.

What about two-column papers?

Finepress reads the columns in order, one after the other, so the EPUB has one stream of text that reads straight through on the Kindle.

Some parts of a paper do not convert well. Check these before you send it:

• Tables are flattened into text.
• Equations are kept as text, not as mathematics, so expect them to be wrong.
• Figures are kept as images.
• Complex layouts, such as magazine pages, can come out in the wrong order.

Formats and limits lists what converts well and what does not.