Kindle 4 - Best method of converting PDF

superste2201 · 11-28-2011, 04:45 PM

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I have googled/searched for how to convert pdf to kindle format with a lot of different results (some working better than others).

All the methods I have tried (mobicreator, k2pdfopt, pdfread and just emailing myself @kindle.com) have been rather poor.

What is the best way to convert PDF to kindle?

thomass · 11-28-2011, 05:31 PM

Welcome

this depends on your pdfs structure.
briss? calibre?

dwig · 11-28-2011, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by superste2201

...

What is the best way to convert PDF to kindle?

There isn't one. Looking for a good way is futile; the best you can do is to look for the methods (and there are many and the vary from PDF to PDF) that are the least bad.

The bottom line is that it's a matter of trial-and-terror. With each original you'll find the least bad conversion requires a somewhat different technique than with any other. What works for one won't necessarily work well for the next.

Add calibre to you kit of tools and read the sticky in the calibre "conversion" forum here at MR and read through some of the threads. Also add Sigil, an ePub editor, as often the best approach involves converting the PDF to ePub and fixing the errors in Sigil before converting the repaired ePub to MOBI.

Rizla · 11-28-2011, 09:55 PM

Convert it to html, and then convert it to mobi (I guess) using calibre. I convert to epub but kindle doesn't support it. Strip out images if you can. They get in the way.

If the pdf is an image (i.e. non-text), what I do is dump the pdf to a series of jpgs, then zip them, then alter the suffix to .cbz and convert that in calibre. Again I convert to epub. Not sure how well it would work with mobi.

whoever · 11-28-2011, 10:01 PM

Book is a form of art, not lumps of alphabets. Convert to DX!

DiapDealer · 11-29-2011, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whoever

Book is a form of art, not lumps of alphabets. Convert to DX!

Great... another new format?

Blossom · 11-29-2011, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by superste2201

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I have googled/searched for how to convert pdf to kindle format with a lot of different results (some working better than others).

All the methods I have tried (mobicreator, k2pdfopt, pdfread and just emailing myself @kindle.com) have been rather poor.

What is the best way to convert PDF to kindle?

As others said there is no best way.

I find Acrobat Pro works 90% of the time. I can just export to html 3.2 and what doesn't work with it I use Mobipocket creator to make the html. Once I have a html file I then clean up the html document in Word to get a good readable copy.

If you have Abbyy 11 it does really good on OCR converting. You can use that method to get a good editable copy in Word.

Once it's cleaned up Calibre does the rest.

superste2201 · 11-29-2011, 03:55 PM

Thanks everyone,

Calibre is a really nice piece of software, and seems to format the best.

I only read books about web programming which have snippets of code that most software destroys the formatting of, but calibre seems to format them well.

AgiZ · 11-30-2011, 07:13 AM

I did a lot of research some half a year or a bit more ago.

What i found is to convert PDF into HTML with Mobipocket Creator then convert HTML into MOBI with Calibre.

I have done this with many books and got good results with next to no work.

Hope it helps

juandiegov · 12-01-2011, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AgiZ

I did a lot of research some half a year or a bit more ago.

What i found is to convert PDF into HTML with Mobipocket Creator then convert HTML into MOBI with Calibre.

I have done this with many books and got good results with next to no work.

Hope it helps

Did you have any problems with pictures or footnotes?

Ceuse · 12-01-2011, 09:38 AM

My way wich works Great in 99% of the time (some fonts somehow dont work with mobipocet creator i use abby finereader 9 wich takes way longer then mobipocketcreator but is just best with alot of pictures and stuff)
So my way is :

1.Bris : Crop that side Numbers

2.Mobipocket Creator : get a nice and clean Html File
3.Sigil : Ebook Editor. with Regular Expression and a bit Coding expierince you clean up ALOT of errors and get a almost perfect ebook in a few quick Steps. i list them at the bottom if your intrested in trying. Safe the Epub
4. Calibre Converting, 'Metadata Edititng, Transfering etc

Sigil Steps

1. open html
2. push F11 (Code view. dont leave it till the end)
3 push Ctrl+H
now check that the replace is set to REGULAR EXPRESSIONS. then just copy and paste the following commands and replace all

((\s*|\S*){1,15})
replacewith
\1</a>

((\s*|\S*){1,10})
replacewith
\1</a>

([^(.|?|!|<|>|«|"|:|“)])\s*
replacewith
\1SPACE
dont write out the space here, do it

([^(.|?|!|<|>|«|"|:|“)]) \s
replacewith
\1LEERZEICHEN

 
replacewith


5. Switch back to book view with F9 and watch what youve done (&and save it ^^)

Blossom · 12-01-2011, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ceuse

My way wich works Great in 99% of the time (some fonts somehow dont work with mobipocet creator i use abby finereader 9 wich takes way longer then mobipocketcreator but is just best with alot of pictures and stuff)
So my way is :

1.Bris : Crop that side Numbers

2.Mobipocket Creator : get a nice and clean Html File
3.Sigil : Ebook Editor. with Regular Expression and a bit Coding expierince you clean up ALOT of errors and get a almost perfect ebook in a few quick Steps. i list them at the bottom if your intrested in trying. Safe the Epub
4. Calibre Converting, 'Metadata Edititng, Transfering etc

Sigil Steps

1. open html
2. push F11 (Code view. dont leave it till the end)
3 push Ctrl+H
now check that the replace is set to REGULAR EXPRESSIONS. then just copy and paste the following commands and replace all

((\s*|\S*){1,15})
replacewith
\1</a>

((\s*|\S*){1,10})
replacewith
\1</a>

([^(.|?|!|<|>|«|"|:|“)])\s*
replacewith
\1SPACE
dont write out the space here, do it

([^(.|?|!|<|>|«|"|:|“)]) \s
replacewith
\1LEERZEICHEN

 
replacewith


5. Switch back to book view with F9 and watch what youve done (&and save it ^^)

Thanks for the regex! You should upgrade to Abbyy 11 it works so much better then version 9. I upgraded for like $99 and it's wonderful!

Now it hardly ever makes a mistake. the OCR engine v11 has is amazing! I use it on my topaz books because it works so much better then the other method.

DiapDealer · 12-01-2011, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blossom

You should upgrade to Abbyy 11 it works so much better then version 9. I upgraded for like $99 and it's wonderful!

I must say I'm very impressed with Abbyy v11 compared to the v9 I was using. I've noticed a huge decrease in scannos.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ceuse

now check that the replace is set to REGULAR EXPRESSIONS. then just copy and paste the following commands and replace all

I can work out what most of your regular expressions are designed to achieve, but you might want to consider adding notes as to what they're designed to correct. I can't recommend anybody clicking "replace all" on untested regex.

Some of those look handy (thanks), but I don't think I'm nuts about this one:

Code:

<br />
replacewith
</p><p>

There's a lot of valid 's in my code that I wouldn't want to eliminate. That one looks like potential disaster to me.

Ceuse · 12-02-2011, 04:30 AM

Those Regex work only realy well when the html was created with MobiConverter. there are others for abby finereader

also i just copy/pasted those regex from another thread i found wich has bunch of methods for converting (also regex for abby converted Files and with omnipage).

Problem is that its a german forum/thread so i just copied the regex without the descriptions or anything

if you are able to read german / are willing to use a translator on it heres the Link were i shamlessly stole everthing

http://www.boerse.bz/boerse/dokument...umwandeln.html

Ps : the thread is a bit tricky structured, you need to klick like 2 links to get to the regex, and to be able to click on the links you need to be loged in

so here is the direct direct link to the regex for mobipocketcreator with german descriptions http://www.boerse.bz/boerse/dokument...ml#post3117619

PPS : also heres the (german) description i use with Finereader 10

it has a lot of pictures so i think this one will work well for you guys too

https://docs.google.com/document/pub...3OS6r6LUf5nSN0

To aby finereader 11 : the thread guy said abby fine reader 11 does not work well at the moment because acording to thread guy finereader recocnises in version 11 difrent fonts and text passages wrong wich kills his regex operations

Noughty · 12-02-2011, 08:42 AM

I use pdftoepub by DNAML. It is good for removing headers, footers. Result looks nice. Easy to use, there are some optional steps for advanced users. It's free now.

The only downside would be that you need to convert individual files.

I used finereader a lot for school work. It's a great program if you need to have text from pictures/scans. But it does make a lot of mistakes. Maybe with English language it works better, less complicated characters.

Will have to check it out again.

11-28-2011, 04:45 PM	#1
superste2201 Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle 4 NT	Kindle 4 - Best method of converting PDF Hi everyone, This is my first post. I have googled/searched for how to convert pdf to kindle format with a lot of different results (some working better than others). All the methods I have tried (mobicreator, k2pdfopt, pdfread and just emailing myself @kindle.com) have been rather poor. What is the best way to convert PDF to kindle?

12-01-2011, 09:38 AM	#11
Ceuse Member Posts: 24 Karma: 2016 Join Date: Oct 2011 Device: Kindle 4 Non Touch & Kindle Keyboard	My way wich works Great in 99% of the time (some fonts somehow dont work with mobipocet creator i use abby finereader 9 wich takes way longer then mobipocketcreator but is just best with alot of pictures and stuff) So my way is : 1.Bris : Crop that side Numbers 2.Mobipocket Creator : get a nice and clean Html File 3.Sigil : Ebook Editor. with Regular Expression and a bit Coding expierince you clean up ALOT of errors and get a almost perfect ebook in a few quick Steps. i list them at the bottom if your intrested in trying. Safe the Epub 4. Calibre Converting, 'Metadata Edititng, Transfering etc Sigil Steps 1. open html 2. push F11 (Code view. dont leave it till the end) 3 push Ctrl+H now check that the replace is set to REGULAR EXPRESSIONS. then just copy and paste the following commands and replace all (<p class="( \|sgc-\d){0,3}">(\s\|\S){1,15}</p>) replacewith \1</a> (<b>(\s\|\S){1,10}</b></p>) replacewith \1</a> ([^(.\|?\|!\|<\|>\|«\|"\|:\|“)])</p>\s*<p> replacewith \1SPACE dont write out the space here, do it ([^(.\|?\|!\|<\|>\|«\|"\|:\|“)])<br />\s replacewith \1LEERZEICHEN <br /> replacewith </p><p> 5. Switch back to book view with F9 and watch what youve done (&and save it ^^)

12-02-2011, 04:30 AM	#14
Ceuse Member Posts: 24 Karma: 2016 Join Date: Oct 2011 Device: Kindle 4 Non Touch & Kindle Keyboard	Those Regex work only realy well when the html was created with MobiConverter. there are others for abby finereader also i just copy/pasted those regex from another thread i found wich has bunch of methods for converting (also regex for abby converted Files and with omnipage). Problem is that its a german forum/thread so i just copied the regex without the descriptions or anything if you are able to read german / are willing to use a translator on it heres the Link were i shamlessly stole everthing http://www.boerse.bz/boerse/dokument...umwandeln.html Ps : the thread is a bit tricky structured, you need to klick like 2 links to get to the regex, and to be able to click on the links you need to be loged in so here is the direct direct link to the regex for mobipocketcreator with german descriptions http://www.boerse.bz/boerse/dokument...ml#post3117619 PPS : also heres the (german) description i use with Finereader 10 it has a lot of pictures so i think this one will work well for you guys too https://docs.google.com/document/pub...3OS6r6LUf5nSN0 To aby finereader 11 : the thread guy said abby fine reader 11 does not work well at the moment because acording to thread guy finereader recocnises in version 11 difrent fonts and text passages wrong wich kills his regex operations Last edited by Ceuse; 12-02-2011 at 04:39 AM.

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11-28-2011, 05:31 PM	#2
thomass Wizard Posts: 1,669 Karma: 2300001 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Türkiye Device: Kindle 5.3.7	Welcome this depends on your pdfs structure. briss? calibre?

11-28-2011, 09:55 PM	#4
Rizla Member Retired Posts: 3,183 Karma: 11721895 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Nook STR (rooted) & Sony T2	Convert it to html, and then convert it to mobi (I guess) using calibre. I convert to epub but kindle doesn't support it. Strip out images if you can. They get in the way. If the pdf is an image (i.e. non-text), what I do is dump the pdf to a series of jpgs, then zip them, then alter the suffix to .cbz and convert that in calibre. Again I convert to epub. Not sure how well it would work with mobi.

11-28-2011, 10:01 PM	#5
whoever Enthusiast Posts: 45 Karma: 5046 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: Windows XP	Book is a form of art, not lumps of alphabets. Convert to DX!

11-29-2011, 03:55 PM	#8
superste2201 Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle 4 NT	Thanks everyone, Calibre is a really nice piece of software, and seems to format the best. I only read books about web programming which have snippets of code that most software destroys the formatting of, but calibre seems to format them well.

11-30-2011, 07:13 AM	#9
AgiZ Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Nook	I did a lot of research some half a year or a bit more ago. What i found is to convert PDF into HTML with Mobipocket Creator then convert HTML into MOBI with Calibre. I have done this with many books and got good results with next to no work. Hope it helps

12-02-2011, 08:42 AM	#15
Noughty Addict Posts: 352 Karma: 103850 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: Kindle NT	I use pdftoepub by DNAML. It is good for removing headers, footers. Result looks nice. Easy to use, there are some optional steps for advanced users. It's free now. The only downside would be that you need to convert individual files. I used finereader a lot for school work. It's a great program if you need to have text from pictures/scans. But it does make a lot of mistakes. Maybe with English language it works better, less complicated characters. Will have to check it out again.