Kobo Android (or other Kobo software) Feature request

[khahoon]

Hi

I have been testing out the Kobo reader on Android. It is all good but I am having one issue with epub formatted scanned pdfs. Some of the pdf based freebooks are not well formatted and converted into epubs. So why not allow user to download the original pdf file to the reader on Android or other Kobo softwares if they have the same issue?

Trying to read those epubs on Kobo reader is totally useless since it can really give you headaches while you try to decode to mistaken text conversions. I have downloaded at least 50 free books on my Library and most of them have those issues.

At least Kobo reader should let us download the pdfs or lets us open with an external pdf viewer.


thanks

[DNSB]

If you already have the PDFs of the scanned images, why not install the Adobe Reader for Android and use that to view them? For text based PDFs, I'd suggest EZPDF. There are quite a few other PDF reader applications for Android.

Regards,
David

[khahoon]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If you already have the PDFs of the scanned images, why not install the Adobe Reader for Android and use that to view them? For text based PDFs, I'd suggest EZPDF. There are quite a few other PDF reader applications for Android.

Regards,
David

David

That is not an issue of how to read pdfs. There are great pdf readers out there already.

What I am requesting is much more streamlined book reading / book browsing / book searching experience through Kobo library management. As of now the Kobo library is becoming fragmented since some formats suffer badly due to bad conversions and ocrs.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by khahoon

David

That is not an issue of how to read pdfs. There are great pdf readers out there already.

What I am requesting is much more streamlined book reading / book browsing / book searching experience through Kobo library management. As of now the Kobo library is becoming fragmented since some formats suffer badly due to bad conversions and ocrs.

We have a basic agreement on the pdf reader software available for Android. So why would you ask Kobo to put their resources into adding PDF reading capability when it is already available for Android (or iOS for that matter)?

As a matter of my curiousity, how many of those bad scans and ocrs that you have were either purchases or free downloads from the Kobo store? How many are of rather dubious provenance?

As for the Kobo library fragmentation? Kobo seems to be concentrating on epub2 and epub3 ebooks at this time. Since the Android and iOS apps don't have any cost associated with them, it's obvious that they are hoping to make money on purchases from their bookstore.

Regards,
David

[khahoon]

Originally Posted by DNSB

We have a basic agreement on the pdf reader software available for Android. So why would you ask Kobo to put their resources into adding PDF reading capability when it is already available for Android (or iOS for that matter)?

As a matter of my curiousity, how many of those bad scans and ocrs that you have were either purchases or free downloads from the Kobo store? How many are of rather dubious provenance?

As for the Kobo library fragmentation? Kobo seems to be concentrating on epub2 and epub3 ebooks at this time. Since the Android and iOS apps don't have any cost associated with them, it's obvious that they are hoping to make money on purchases from their bookstore.

Regards,
David

DNSB,

I am not directly asking them to implement a pdf reader really. If you read my op you will see that I asked for a way to access to the pdf version of the book that has bad epub conversion. All they have to add is a direct link in the reader to the pdf version of the book so that one does not need to go though hoops to relocate the pdf. Although naturally it would be amazing if the Kobo reader offers multiple formats when one clicks on a book that is offered with multiple formats (like, epub and pdfs as in the scanned books from google`s book project)

I mainly commented on the free books, not sure about purchases since I am pretty sure all are properly formatted. All the free epubs I have opened/added in the reader have bad formattings, bad type representations, mostly because I am mainly interested in accessing the old books. So epubs wont cut it as I see.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by khahoon

DNSB,

I am not directly asking them to implement a pdf reader really. If you read my op you will see that I asked for a way to access to the pdf version of the book that has bad epub conversion. All they have to add is a direct link in the reader to the pdf version of the book so that one does not need to go though hoops to relocate the pdf. Although naturally it would be amazing if the Kobo reader offers multiple formats when one clicks on a book that is offered with multiple formats (like, epub and pdfs as in the scanned books from google`s book project)

I mainly commented on the free books, not sure about purchases since I am pretty sure all are properly formatted. All the free epubs I have opened/added in the reader have bad formattings, bad type representations, mostly because I am mainly interested in accessing the old books. So epubs wont cut it as I see.

Hmmm... it sounds as if you want Kobo to find the pdf version of the epub and make it available to you. If you check the Kobo store, you can search for only the ebooks that have a .pdf version. If you just search for a book title without specifying the format, you will get all the formats they have available. Or simply search for the book title with .pdf added to the search string.

I've found the majority of the free ebooks I've downloaded from Kobo have very bland, generic formats. I wouldn't say they are perfectly proofed but they are pretty decent. A few minutes with Sigil makes them more than acceptable to my eyes. Which particular ones have you found that appear to have generated by OCRing a scanned image PDF file?

You could check Gutenberg -- a large number of free ebooks seem to have originated from there. Gutenberg does have multiple formats available and they seem to be very good at proofing their ebooks so I doubt many of the junk ebooks you mention are coming from there. There are also quite a few university sites that have scanned versions of older books freely available.

Part of your original message read: "So why not allow user to download the original pdf file to the reader on Android or other Kobo softwares if they have the same issue?"

Given that the Kobo readers on Android or iOS do not support PDF, why would allowing you to download the original pdf file help anything? And that is making a large assumption that Kobo even has an original PDF file. Kobo Writing Life does not support .pdf so no need to look at those self published books for original PDF versions. For most other books, if a PDF version is available, Kobo will list the PDF version in their catalog.

Regards,
David

[TechniSol]

Pardon my cutting to the chase, but why is a guy who only lists having a Kindle, in here complaining about the short comings of a free Kobo reader app and free Kobo books?

It seems a little ungrateful... Plus, the vast majority of the free titles floating around very likely originated with Gutenberg as suggested. Why not complain to the other organizations that have wronged you by giving you things for free?

Days like this I seriously ponder the future...

[khahoon]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

Pardon my cutting to the chase, but why is a guy who only lists having a Kindle, in here complaining about the short comings of a free Kobo reader app and free Kobo books?

It seems a little ungrateful... Plus, the vast majority of the free titles floating around very likely originated with Gutenberg as suggested. Why not complain to the other organizations that have wronged you by giving you things for free?

Days like this I seriously ponder the future...

Hi

I do not have a Kindle. That must be a mistake. I will see where I can change that.

As far as my op goes, Iw as not complaining. I asked a for a feature simply and the feature I asked was not even a complicated one. I merely asked for a way to be able to access to the pdf link in the ereader in case of bad conversion in epubs.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by khahoon

As far as my op goes, Iw as not complaining. I asked a for a feature simply and the feature I asked was not even a complicated one. I merely asked for a way to be able to access to the pdf link in the ereader in case of bad conversion in epubs.

Is this a epub or kepub you have downloaded from the Kobo ebook store? If so, if they have a pdf version, it will be listed in the middle column where you find the download options.

Download options: PDF | EPUB

Download options: Adobe DRM PDF

Download options: Adobe DRM PDF | Adobe DRM EPUB

Download options: EPUB (DRM-Free)

If it does not show PDF in that column, Kobo does not have that book in PDF form. Since the majority of their books are from 3rd parties, what you see is what you get. If you are truly unhappy with the formatting of an ebook, you can complain to Kobo. They have redone books based on customer complaints in the past.

Please note that books downloaded from those links, unlike .kepub books, are not automatically added to your device. You will need to use ADE for the DRMed ebooks and whatever method you like for the non-DRM ebooks. This is how a non-Kobo owner would get books onto their epub reader.

If the book is obtained from a 3rd party whether it be an ebook store, direct from publisher, link from a torrent site, download from Mobileread or however else you obtained the ebook, Kobo has nothing to do with the process and finding a PDF version is your problem. You can try checking the publisher site, using Google or other search engine, etc.

Regards,
David

[khahoon]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Is this a epub or kepub you have downloaded from the Kobo ebook store? If so, if they have a pdf version, it will be listed in the middle column where you find the download options.

Download options: PDF | EPUB

Download options: Adobe DRM PDF

Download options: Adobe DRM PDF | Adobe DRM EPUB

Download options: EPUB (DRM-Free)

Regards,
David

David

Thanks for explanation. The ereader does not give any link, it directly downloads whatever its native format which in general has the messed up pdf conversions of old/non english books. If one uses the Kobo web page to access the book then one can see the pdf version. And that is what I am asking precisely, just let us see that pdf link "in the ereader" itself not just in the web page of the book.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by khahoon

Thanks for explanation. The ereader does not give any link, it directly downloads whatever its native format which in general has the messed up pdf conversions of old/non english books. If one uses the Kobo web page to access the book then one can see the pdf version. And that is what I am asking precisely, just let us see that pdf link "in the ereader" itself not just in the web page of the book.

Thanks for the clarification. That appears slightly different from your original post. It now seems that what you want is for the bookstore connector within the app to display a choice of formats instead of going with its native epub/kepub format.

As for the free ebooks which many of the older books are available as, you run into the problem that many of them are not stored on the Kobo site. Taking a look at one ebook (A Vindication of the Right Reverend the Bishop of Exeter), the epub version is garbage but free garbage. The PDF version is better but neither come from the Kobo site -- the download links point off to

http://ia600504.us.archive.org/13/it...00oldiuoft.pdf

http://ia600504.us.archive.org/epub/...uoft&type=epub

I would have to agree with what you said as the epub version makes you wonder why anyone would OCR handwritten pages and not bother with cleaning up the results. They could have used an epub file to display the page image files. Not all that much work to doing so and definitely easier to read than the #$%^U OCR though it ends much the same size as the pdf version.

OTOH, since the Kobo app for Android does not support pdf format files, we come full circle to what I see as an oddity in wanting the Kobo app to be able to download a file it can not use when your Android device will have a web browser that will allow you to handle that task.

Regards,
David

[khahoon]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Thanks for the clarification. That appears slightly different from your original post. It now seems that what you want is for the bookstore connector on the ereader to display a choice of formats. Perhaps even a choice between kepub, epub and pdf? Remembering that the Kobo ereader will not deal with Adobe ADEPT DRM on board, you would need to download any DRMed books on a computer and use ADE to sideload them to your Kobo. As for the free ebooks which many of the older books are available as, you run into the problem that many of them are not stored on the Kobo site.

Regards,
David

David,

Yes you are right. I am asking a way to see the link to the the pdf or formatable versions of a book if the formatting does not seem to work for human reading. Actually that is what I have been asking from the start however my articulation might not have been the best when I explained the issue.

So I just ask for a link to whatever link that is on their website. I am not asking to read the pdf on the Kobo reader application, just a clickable link so that one can download it directly. The issue is that sometimes the user might wish to surf through books to see any interest. Providing a direct downlodable (to the file system not Kobo reader software) is the best way to streamline it if you will.


In any case I believe my feature request is minor in depth and use and it might not be needed by many. I am mostly interested in accessing really old books on the reader, which most of them are free and epubs cannot deal with them well.

[PeterT]

I'd love to see more options (or more configuration choices) on how to turn a page.

I often read in bed on a Nexus 7, holding the device in my left hand. I'd love the ability to tap the left side of the screen to page foreward.