Unlocking eBook Security: A Comprehensive Tutorial on Extracting and Transforming DRM PDBs Into PDF Format

How to Remove DRM from PDB and Convert PDB to PDF

Posted by Jonny Greenwood on 11/26/2018 5:35:46 PM.

If you got some eBooks with .pdb suffix, like me, and you want to read these books on iPad or Kindle, but you don’t know how to, then this article may help you.

In this post, I’m going to show you what’s a pdb file, and how to remove drm from pdb, how to convert pdb to pdf, epub, mobi, etc.

How to remove DRM from PDB Free with Calibre

How to Convert PDB to PDF with Epubor PDF Creator

What’s PDB File

The .pdb file is a database format used for the Palm OS platform (Palm Database). Palm Doc [.PDB], eReader [-er.PDB], Isilo [-is.PDB] are the three most common versions of the PDB format. We will get eBooks in PDB format if we purchase from ereader.com, Fictionwise.com or BN.com .

The format features RLE compression, and supports reflowable content. However it lacks some of the features compared with more modern eBook formats for example only providing a very basic contents table. And what’s more important, PDB is a format mostly used to view books on Palm mobile devices but not on Sony eReader or iPad or even more mobile devices. So as you known pdb is not so convenient if we want to read them on any devices.

The best resolution is to convert pdb to PDF or convert pdb to ePub.

But here comes another fetal problem. Most PDB books we purchsed and downloaded that aren’t free are encrypted with DRM–digital rights management–protection, a machanism that prevents you from using PDB on all your mobile devices. To reslove this problem, you should Remove DRM from PDB at first.

Tips:

Don’t know whether your PDB files are DRM protected or not? Click the link Check DRM of PDB books .

Here I introduce you how to remove drm from PDB Free with Calibre.

How to Remove DRM from PDB

Calibre DeDRM Plugin is a free DRM Removal tool. It can support both Windows and Mac OS X. Through Calibre Plugins you can also remove DRM from not only PDB but also PDF, AZW, MOBI, etc.

1Download Calibre

To be able to use the DeDRM plugin for calibre, it is necessary to install calibre first. The latest version can be downloaded from official site http://calibre-ebook.com/download

2Unzip DRM Removal Plugin file

UnZip the ZIP file you just downloaded. Open the folder called calibre and you should see a folder full of plugins. It contains all plugins required by Calibre to remove the DRM protection.

3Launch calibre

When it’s open, look at the icons on the top row. Click “Preferences” on the far right .

At the pop up window please select “Plugin” and run it.

Then in the center click “load plugin from file”.

And find the unzip file that you just decompressed. Here you just have to select the “eReaderPDB2PML_vXX_plugin.zip” plugin.

The calibre will warn you the security risk, click “Yes” to go on the left job. Finally you will see the success notification. And then back to the Plugin center you can see the PDB DRM Removal.

Just shut down calibre and launch it again. Next time when you add ebook, it will remove DRM automatically.

Now all your pdb books are DRM free. But if you want to read them on iPad or Sony eReader, you have to convert pdb to PDF or ePub because they are the most common ebook formats.

Of course you can continue to use Calibre to convert PDB to PDF, ePub, mobi, azw3, etc. For details you can refer to the article below the link.

How to Convert PDB to PDF Free with Calibre

And you can also convert pdb to pdf online. But here I will introduce you a good tool that you can have a try if you just want to convert pdb to pdf only on Windows with high quality.

How to Convert PDB to PDF with Epubor PDF Creator

Before the job you must ensure that your PDB files are un-protected (DRM free).

1Install PDB iSilo Reader

As iSilo is the best and free PDB Reader, it can read all the formats of pdb files. So at first please install iSilo on your computer.

Go to iSilo download page http://www.isilo.com/download/ and select your computer system. After installation completed you will find an icon on your computer as the image shows and you will find all your pdb files are with the icon.

2Install Epubor PDF Creator

Want to convert pdb to pdf, Epubor PDF Creator is a good PDF ebook converter. Epubor PDF Creator is a versatile PDF creator to convert all printable files (PDB, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, JPG, HTML, TXT, EPUB, etc.) into PDF.

Download the tool for free:

3Convert PDB to PDF

Open your PDB books with iSilo Reader. Click “File” -> “Print”.

Select “Epubor Virtual Printer” as defaulted printer and hit “Print”. Select “Add Printers” if “Epubor Virtual Printer” is not listed.

Wait a moment. Then please set the output path as you like and hit “Convert” button.

Once the conversion is completed, the converted pdf files will pop up. Or you can check the output PDF manually (Win 7: default output path: …\Documents\ …).

Download the tool for free:

Related article please come to how to convert PPT to PDF with PDF Creator .

Now I have shared all the information about PDB ebook format with you. Hope they could help you or give you some good advice. Waiting for your comment or sharing more about pdb file.

Jonny Greenwood joined Epubor since 2011, loves everything about eBooks and eReaders. He seeks the methods to read eBooks more freely and wants to share all he has got with you.

SHARING IS GREAT!

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3 Comments

red

Re:How to Remove DRM from PDB and Convert PDB to PDF

05/15/2014 12:27:18

all tutorial is excelent but without the correct “eReaderPDB2PML_vXX_plugin.zip” file is useless… where can i get that file? please

Re:red

09/8/2015 13:49:02

I’d recommend you to take a look at the site menu and click on the Resource link… you’ll find the plugin to download there ;)

SFY

Re:How to Remove DRM from PDB and Convert PDB to PDF

08/11/2020 08:40:34

This doesn’t work. It is impossible to convert an isilo pdb file to PDF. I have tried this method and every other method. If someone is able to figure it out, please share.

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Unlocking eBook Security: A Comprehensive Tutorial on Extracting and Transforming DRM PDBs Into PDF Format