From print to ePub - how I did it.

[WV-Mike]

From print to ePub - how I did it.

Greetings,
I have a knack for posting in the wrong forum so I hope I got this one right.

I recently made my first eBook using Sigil.
The eBook was based on an HTML version of a book.

To get to the HTML version was time consuming but I could not think of another way.
If I had OCR software I could have eliminated some of the steps.

1.) Scan all the pages the book to images
2.) Save all the page images to a PDF
3.) Open and run the OCR tool in Acrobat 6
4.) Convert the PDFs to text using PDF24
5.) Run a script on the text file which added <p> tags to the text blocks
6.) Copy the text blocks into and HTML document.

I know, I know - this is not and HTML forum.

After I had the HTML ready I then copied and pasted each chapter into a Sigil document.
I then added a few scanned image into the Sigil project.
The results are here:

https://www.EpicRoadTrips.us/epub/

Questions:
What would make this process simpler and more efficient?

Thanks,
WV-Mike

[JSWolf]

For one, do not use PDF as an intermediary format. It will add all kinds of errors and Acrobat 6 is an old version and may not OCR all that well. Get a good OCR program and use that instead.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by WV-Mike

I recently made my first eBook using Sigil.

Fantastic! Congrats.

And welcome to the forum.

Originally Posted by WV-Mike

From print to ePub - how I did it.

[...]

What would make this process simpler and more efficient?

Boy, oh boy... Well, you've come to the right place.

I've been writing about this stuff extensively since 2012.

For some of the most recent topics, see:

• 2020: "OCRing + EPUBing my first book: Tips?"
• 2022: "Converting PDF to EPUB and automatically creating popup footnotes"

and, just last week, I wrote an even bigger summary here which linked to even more of the previous threads:

• 2023: "How to extract footnotes from pdf?"
  
  • About PDF->EPUB
    
  • + problems that crop up with footnotes -> ebooks, and how to deal with them.
    

That should hold you over on all OCRing + PDF->EPUB + DOCX->EPUB info for... oh, about 100 years.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It will add all kinds of errors and Acrobat 6 is an old version and may noot OCR all that well. Get a good OCR program and use that instead.

Yes, exactly.

I looked up the date, and looks like Adobe Acrobat 6 was from 2003! My gods, there has been multiple GENERATIONAL leaps in OCR quality since then.

Getting much more accurate OCR is one of the biggest and most important steps you can do, because EVERY further stage will be based on how clean your initial text is.

You can see the post I wrote about how important accurate OCR is:

• 2014: "Can you OCR the images inside of .pdf files?"

When you're creating ebooks... it's not JUST the raw text you have to worry about, but correctly recognizing all the formatting too:

• Bold / Italics
• Superscripts / Subscripts
• Lists
• Tables
• Images
• Headers / Footers
• [...]

[Karellen]

@Tex2002ans

In your 2020: "OCRing + EPUBing my first book: Tips?" link, you mention Scan Tailor Advanced.

The only release I could find that has an install file is v0.9.11.1 from 2014.
https://github.com/scantailor/scantailor/releases

Is this the same software you are referring to? It seems quite old, and you mention generational leaps to the OP, so I wonder if the same applies to this software.

There is a v0.9.12.1 from 2016, but there does not seem to be any install file associated with that release.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Karellen

In your 2020: "OCRing + EPUBing my first book: Tips?" link, you mention Scan Tailor Advanced.

The only release I could find that has an install file is v0.9.11.1 from 2014.
https://github.com/scantailor/scantailor/releases

The exact version of Scan Tailor Advanced I use is by 4lex4:

• https://github.com/4lex4/scantailor-advanced

v1.0.16 was the latest (in 2018).

- - -

Side Note: In September 2019 there was an "Early Access" version, and then it seems like there hasn't been much activity since.

I think, since the 2019 stall, some other person created another fork of it here:

• https://github.com/ScanTailor-Advanc...ailor-advanced

but I have no idea about that fork or what sorts of bugs/fixes have been done since.

- - -

Side Note #2: Looks like you linked to the original "Scan Tailor".

"Scan Tailor Advanced" took all the forks, pulled out all the best features, and combined them all into one super version.

The biggest features for me were:

• multi-core support (so it runs MUCH faster than the original)
• image formats besides TIFF

+ lots of other helpful things all listed on their Github.

- - -

Originally Posted by Karellen

It seems quite old, [...]

Doesn't matter. It's only used as a middle, pre-processing stage where you are cleaning up the raw images.

I don't foresee too much changing on that front any time soon.

• You feed it the raw photos/scans.
• it helps crop + fix the warping + normalize the B&W/grayscale/colors.
• then you shove those images into OCR.

You can see me apply it in:

• 2020: "Optimize PDFs from archive.org for E-Ink devices"

where I quickly:

• took an Archive.org PDF
• ran it through Scan Tailor Advanced
• OCRed it in Finereader
• Exported as (EPUB) + ran my regex on it.

You can compare my quickly-generated EPUB vs. the auto-generated Archive.org "EPUB".

Still, nowhere near as good as a manually corrected version, but WAY better quality than just spitting out raw text right out of the PDF.

Originally Posted by Karellen

[...] and you mention generational leaps to the OP, so I wonder if the same applies to this software.

Yes, generational leaps in the OCR.

Even on the free/open-source front, there's been a lot of action, but I haven't been following that too closely... Because those tools tended to:

• focus on generating only the raw plaintext, ditching all the important formatting!
• be commandline only.
  
  • (Or have really crappy GUIs.)
    
  • Okay if you are working on a small amount... but when you have to manually tweak/correct/mark pages, great GUI is key. It will save you so much pain further down the line.
    

[WV-Mike]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For one, do not use PDF as an intermediary format. It will add all kinds of errors and Acrobat 6 is an old version and may not OCR all that well. Get a good OCR program and use that instead.

Greetings,
I detected few, if any errors when using Acro 6.
I have been looking on Ebay for a newer version but haven't yet purchased one.

Thanks,
WV-Mike

[WV-Mike]

Whew! This is all a bit overwhelming.
I looked at 4lex4 / scantailor-advanced but I cannot see how to use it.
I am used to downloading a .msi or .exe for the installation.
I don't have a clue how to install scantailor-advanced or then use it.

I looked at https://github.com/4lex4/scantailor-advanced#readme
However, I saw no instructions for installing it.

Thanks to everyone for all this info.
As you say: I came to the right place.
WV-Mike

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Fantastic! Congrats.

And welcome to the forum.
Boy, oh boy... Well, you've come to the right place.

I've been writing about this stuff extensively since 2012.

For some of the most recent topics, see:

• 2020: "OCRing + EPUBing my first book: Tips?"
• 2022: "Converting PDF to EPUB and automatically creating popup footnotes"

and, just last week, I wrote an even bigger summary here which linked to even more of the previous threads:

• 2023: "How to extract footnotes from pdf?"
  
  • About PDF->EPUB
    
  • + problems that crop up with footnotes -> ebooks, and how to deal with them.
    

That should hold you over on all OCRing + PDF->EPUB + DOCX->EPUB info for... oh, about 100 years.

[WV-Mike]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

The exact version of Scan Tailor Advanced I use is by 4lex4:
where I quickly:
took an Archive.org PDF
ran it through Scan Tailor Advanced
OCRed it in Finereader
Exported as (EPUB) + ran my regex on it.

FineReader is now by subscription only. It seem they all are now.
I am still looking for a standalone program I can install from a .exe or CD.
Thanks,
WV-Mike

[Quoth]

Plenty of free and pay once OCR that's good. PDF is a terrible step to include. Better to have TIFF or png.
I use Tesseract OCR.

[WV-Mike]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Plenty of free and pay once OCR that's good. PDF is a terrible step to include. Better to have TIFF or png.
I use Tesseract OCR.

Can you name a few others which are "free and pay once"?
I have no idea how to use the github.com offerings.

Thanks,
WV-Mike

[jmurphy]

Originally Posted by WV-Mike

I looked at https://github.com/4lex4/scantailor-advanced#readme
However, I saw no instructions for installing it.

WV-Mike

Assuming you are using Windows, just download the .exe and double-click it.

https://github.com/4lex4/scantailor-advanced/releases

Under the heading "2019.8.16 Early Access", click "Assets" and download the installer.

[WV-Mike]

Originally Posted by jmurphy

Assuming you are using Windows, just download the .exe and double-click it.

https://github.com/4lex4/scantailor-advanced/releases

Under the heading "2019.8.16 Early Access", click "Assets" and download the installer.

Thanks.
Too be clear this software preps the images prior to running OCR software.
Is that correct?

WV-Mike

[Turtle91]

Yes.

It helps straighten an image if the capture/camera was slightly off-axis, or de-warp an image if there was any skew. That helps set the characters to the correct orientation and consistent sizing...which makes OCR much better.

Some OCR software will do this a little bit, with differing levels of success.

It is much better to get a very accurate image in the first place. Scantailor was originally designed for just that deskewing purpose...although it sounds like they have added more functionality. I'll have to check it out again!

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

The exact version of Scan Tailor Advanced I use is by 4lex4:

• https://github.com/4lex4/scantailor-advanced

v1.0.16 was the latest (in 2018).

That's great. Thank you @Tex2002ans
I've installed and a quick trial run on an image I was previously having poor results in, and it OCR'd almost perfectly. In the few minutes I fiddled around with it, it seemed pretty easy to use. But I'll spend some time understanding it better.
I just learnt that images OCR better when using a non-compressed / lossless format.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by WV-Mike

Can you name a few others which are "free and pay once"?
I have no idea how to use the github.com offerings.

Thanks,
WV-Mike

Try this OCR package... https://github.com/manisandro/gImageReader

As with all things Github, along the right side of the page you will see Releases. Click on that, look for the latest version which is usually at the top or second one down, expand the Assets button and download the appropriate installer.