Skip to content

Installation

Installing pipx

pipx creates isolated environments to avoid conflicts with existing system packages.

Run in the terminal:

brew install pipx
pipx ensurepath

First, ensure Python is installed.

python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath

First, install Python if it's not already installed.

python -m pip install --user pipx

Installing dictforge

Run in the terminal or command prompt:

pipx install dictforge

Installing Kindle Previewer

dictforge invokes Amazon's kindlegen utility to generate Kindle dictionaries. Install Kindle Previewer 3.

Launch Kindle Previewer once after installation to extract the embedded kindlegen binary.

In newer versions of Kindle Previewer 3, Amazon has stopped distributing kindlegen as a separate utility — it is embedded within Kindle Previewer itself and is not installed globally on the system.

Therefore, provide the path to kindlegen when running dictforge:

dictforge --kindlegen-path "/Applications/Kindle Previewer 3.app/Contents/lib/fc/bin/kindlegen" sr en

dictforge --kindlegen-path "%LocalAppData%\Amazon\Kindle Previewer 3\lib\fc\bin\kindlegen.exe" sr en

More details: Installing Kindlegen.