Does Calibre keep the original formatting?

[JSWolf]

If I put an ePub into Calibre and then use Calibre to send that to my Reader, does Calibre do any conversion or does it go to my Reader unmodified?

[itimpi]

Simply sending the epub to a reader does not touch any of the contents (and thus formatting) of a book. It may update the cover image and metadata to match calibre, but that is all.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Simply sending the epub to a reader does not touch any of the contents (and thus formatting) of a book. It may update the cover image and metadata to match calibre, but that is all.

That is changing the contents of the ePub. What I want is to be able to use Calibre to manage my ePub without any changes being made. Is this possible?

[itimpi]

If you do not change the metadata in calibre, then the book will be unchanged.

Note that in the case I mentioned above, it is only the copy of the book that is sent to the device that has those changes applied, not the copy stored in calibre. To be honest, I cannot think of what reason you might have for not having such changes applied - otherwise why did you change the cover and/or metadata in calibre.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by itimpi

If you do not change the metadata in calibre, then the book will be unchanged.

Note that in the case I mentioned above, it is only the copy of the book that is sent to the device that has those changes applied, not the copy stored in calibre. To be honest, I cannot think of what reason you might have for not having such changes applied - otherwise why did you change the cover and/or metadata in calibre.

I think you've not read what I was asking. I was asking if I could put an ePub into Calibre and get it to my reader without any changes. I wasn't saying I was going to change the metadata or the cover.

[ldolse]

If you leave the metadata exactly as it was during import then Calibre won't make any changes during the transfer to the reader.

As far as covers goes, it's rare that Calibre actually successfully changes to a configured cover during the transfer, as it will only replace the cover if a semantically 'correct' cover exists in the ePub. Most commercial ePubs do not have semantically correct covers, they just have a image as part of the first flow - in these cases Calibre would only update the ePubs textual metadata if it's been changed during the transfer.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ldolse

If you leave the metadata exactly as it was during import then Calibre won't make any changes during the transfer to the reader.

As far as covers goes, it's rare that Calibre actually successfully changes to a configured cover during the transfer, as it will only replace the cover if a semantically 'correct' cover exists in the ePub. Most commercial ePubs do not have semantically correct covers, they just have a image as part of the first flow - in these cases Calibre would only update the ePubs textual metadata if it's been changed during the transfer.

I would disable all metadata sources to be sure nothing is ever found. There is still things that will cause the 'modified date' to change: Quality check, using Previous/Next in the Metadata editor...