Colbert and Calibre - great together, but...?

oj829 · 02-14-2013, 12:34 PM

I can read Stephen Colbert's "America Again" book in Calibre's epub reader just fine - it's a very graphic-intensive book with some complicated-looking layouts on many pages but Calibre's reader (0.9.18) handles it perfectly.

But when I save the epub to disk and try to read in other epub-friendly programs on my tablets - Aldiko, Nook - it's simply hopeless. Text goes missing, only the barest number of graphic elements show up...

On my portable devices, only the Google Play reader (it's originally a Google Play book) directly from Google's servers, or PDF readers do the job. I tried doing an epub--epub conversion within Calibre and that didn't solve anything. Anyone have any suggestions or experience with this title?

Not a high priority since my portable PDF reading software is actually doing a good job, but I feel like I'm missing some basic nut of knowledge about dealing with books like this.

kovidgoyal · 02-14-2013, 10:55 PM

calibre's epub reader is a lot more powerful than most epub readers on devices. If an epub to epub converision isn't doing it for you, another thing you can do is an epub to pdf conversion (adjust the page size to be correct for the device you want to read on). Yet another alternative is an epub to mobi to epub conversion, which tends to dumb down the markup enough for some readers.

oj829 · 02-15-2013, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre's epub reader is a lot more powerful than most epub readers on devices.

Ah. Thanks. I think I've found a great test book for a software shootout, then. It's time to winnow down the number of readers on my portables.

Thanks also for making a piece of SW that handles the epub so smoothly. This book features some busy busy busy layout decisions.

02-14-2013, 12:34 PM	#1
oj829 Groupie Posts: 191 Karma: 574940 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo, Kobo Arc(32GB), Kobo Arc 7HD, Kobo Glo HD,NookHD	Colbert and Calibre - great together, but...? I can read Stephen Colbert's "America Again" book in Calibre's epub reader just fine - it's a very graphic-intensive book with some complicated-looking layouts on many pages but Calibre's reader (0.9.18) handles it perfectly. But when I save the epub to disk and try to read in other epub-friendly programs on my tablets - Aldiko, Nook - it's simply hopeless. Text goes missing, only the barest number of graphic elements show up... On my portable devices, only the Google Play reader (it's originally a Google Play book) directly from Google's servers, or PDF readers do the job. I tried doing an epub--epub conversion within Calibre and that didn't solve anything. Anyone have any suggestions or experience with this title? Not a high priority since my portable PDF reading software is actually doing a good job, but I feel like I'm missing some basic nut of knowledge about dealing with books like this.

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02-14-2013, 10:55 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre's epub reader is a lot more powerful than most epub readers on devices. If an epub to epub converision isn't doing it for you, another thing you can do is an epub to pdf conversion (adjust the page size to be correct for the device you want to read on). Yet another alternative is an epub to mobi to epub conversion, which tends to dumb down the markup enough for some readers.

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