mobi to epub conversion - odd font size...

[richrock]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is my fault, or the way the original mobi file was set up but I'm really confused and just want to do a simple change to my conversions.

I'm aware that base font can affect the output of a conversion, but for my reader (Sony PRS-505) it seems to make no difference.

I have a selection of mobi files imported from kindle, some free, some paid. I'd prefer to read on my Sony than the iPad so thought I'd be clever and get them imported. Did the dubious bit here we never talk about, then selected them to convert in Calibre (0.9.21).

The output is fantastic, both structurally and in general formatting - except the fonts are huge! I like small print, so was expecting to be smaller. The converted files seem like medium scale on my reader.

I tried again after some googling to set a base font, but this makes no difference to the output font scale.

Here's the output of one such file set to 12.0pt as recommended on a blog post elsewhere:

Convert book 1 of 1 (Ten Indictments against the Modern Church)
Resolved conversion options
calibre version: 0.9.20
{'asciiize': False,
'author_sort': None,
'authors': None,
'base_font_size': 12.0,
'book_producer': None,
'change_justification': u'original',
'chapter': u"//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., '\\s*((chapter|book|section|part)\\s+)|((prolog|pr ologue|epilogue)(\\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']",
'chapter_mark': u'pagebreak',
'comments': None,
'cover': u'C:\\Users\\blahblahblah\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\c alibre_0.9.20_tmp_ac9f3f\\uuygzk.jpeg',
'debug_pipeline': None,
'dehyphenate': True,
'delete_blank_paragraphs': True,
'disable_font_rescaling': False,
'dont_split_on_page_breaks': False,
'duplicate_links_in_toc': False,
'embed_font_family': None,
'enable_heuristics': False,
'epub_flatten': False,
'extra_css': None,
'extract_to': None,
'filter_css': u'',
'fix_indents': True,
'flow_size': 260,
'font_size_mapping': None,
'format_scene_breaks': True,
'html_unwrap_factor': 0.4,
'input_encoding': None,
'input_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x0000000004A9B860>,
'insert_blank_line': False,
'insert_blank_line_size': 0.5,
'insert_metadata': False,
'isbn': None,
'italicize_common_cases': True,
'keep_ligatures': False,
'language': None,
'level1_toc': None,
'level2_toc': None,
'level3_toc': None,
'line_height': 0.0,
'linearize_tables': False,
'margin_bottom': 5.0,
'margin_left': 5.0,
'margin_right': 5.0,
'margin_top': 5.0,
'markup_chapter_headings': True,
'max_toc_links': 50,
'minimum_line_height': 120.0,
'no_chapters_in_toc': False,
'no_default_epub_cover': False,
'no_inline_navbars': False,
'no_svg_cover': False,
'output_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.SonyReaderOutput object at 0x0000000004AAC160>,
'page_breaks_before': u"//*[name()='h1' or name()='h2']",
'prefer_metadata_cover': False,
'preserve_cover_aspect_ratio': False,
'pretty_print': True,
'pubdate': None,
'publisher': None,
'rating': None,
'read_metadata_from_opf': u'C:\\Users\\blahblahblah\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\c alibre_0.9.20_tmp_ac9f3f\\fykyic.opf',
'remove_fake_margins': True,
'remove_first_image': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size': 1.5,
'renumber_headings': True,
'replace_scene_breaks': u'',
'search_replace': '[]',
'series': None,
'series_index': None,
'smarten_punctuation': False,
'sr1_replace': None,
'sr1_search': None,
'sr2_replace': None,
'sr2_search': None,
'sr3_replace': None,
'sr3_search': None,
'start_reading_at': None,
'subset_embedded_fonts': False,
'tags': None,
'timestamp': None,
'title': None,
'title_sort': None,
'toc_filter': None,
'toc_threshold': 6,
'unsmarten_punctuation': False,
'unwrap_lines': True,
'use_auto_toc': False,
'verbose': 2}
InputFormatPlugin: MOBI Input running
on C:\Users\blahblahblah\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre_0 .9.20_tmp_ac9f3f\tpjcv_.mobi
Extracting text...
Adding anchors...
Extracting images...
Cleaning up HTML...
Parsing HTML...
Converting style information to CSS...
Creating OPF...
Parsing all content...
Parsing styles.css ...
Parsing CR!FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA.html ...
Forcing CR!FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA.html into XHTML namespace
Reading TOC from NCX...
Merging user specified metadata...
Detecting structure...
Flattening CSS and remapping font sizes...
Source base font size is 12.00000pt
Removing fake margins...
Found 14 items of level: div_1
Found 345 items of level: p_1
div_1 left margin stats: Counter()
div_1 right margin stats: Counter()
p_1 left margin stats: Counter({u'0': 345})
p_1 right margin stats: Counter({u'0': 345})
Cleaning up manifest...
Trimming unused files from manifest...
Trimming u'images/00002.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00001.jpg' from manifest
Creating EPUB Output...
Rescaling image from 741x1177 to 473x751 cover.jpeg
Splitting markup on page breaks and flow limits, if any...
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_0
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_1
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_2
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_3
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_4
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_5
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_6
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_7
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_8
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_9
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_10
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_11
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_12
Splitting on page-break at calibre_pb_13
Looking for large trees in CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA.html...
No large trees found
Split into 14 parts
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_001.html#f ilepos4008
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_002.html#f ilepos14258
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_003.html#f ilepos19841
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_004.html#f ilepos25376
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_005.html#f ilepos32881
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_006.html#f ilepos45504
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_007.html#f ilepos65559
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_008.html#f ilepos82316
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_009.html#f ilepos89239
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_010.html#f ilepos97581
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_011.html#f ilepos107254
Removing anchor from TOC href: CR%21FWGW1DQT7S27K6EWJ7ZTSVTB0VZA_split_012.html#f ilepos122040
EPUB output written to C:\Users\blahblahblah\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre_0 .9.20_tmp_ac9f3f\xdsea5.epub


As you can see, no errors, but I am really stumped as to how I can set a base font size I don't know, and why it's not changing?

Any advice would be great. There's a lot of posts here about converting epub to mobi, but I'm the wrong way round :-(

[JSWolf]

In the ePub, with the default conversion settings, the base font size is 1em which is the default font size if no font size is actually specified. So what's wrong with that?

[richrock]

It's huge! Compared to all my epubs (as native formats) it's like being on medium setting, even though I always have the reader on small. I hate reading large text sizes. I'd love to make it smaller, 3/4 to 1/2 the size would be awesome and readable to me. I read fairly quick so I'd be flipping pages every few seconds too.

[richrock]

Figured it - for some reason (unsure if this is a UI issue) but I made the assumtion I needed to set the Font Size Key - I left it blank and it has rescaled. I've got it much smaller to my liking now. At least for this ebook :-)