ABBYY forces me to use reduced image quality

[u238110]

On this dialog, whenever I change any of the settings, if I go back to the dialog they've all been reverted to the default (and the defaults is that of reducing images to 150 DPI). That the EPUB is not assuming the higher quality image settings is apparent in the saved file. Now, if I change that option of EPUB version 2.0.1/EPUB v. 3.0, that sticks. If I revisit the dialog, the last thing I had chnaged it to is still set.

I actually have habit of revisiting dialogs after i change settings. Just to make sure that such changes were made. My redundant habit has come in handy this time. Every time I use ABBYY FineReader, I've suspected that my image quality settings are not saving. Now that I saw the stark contrast between the original PDF version of particular cover image and the ABBYY EPUB version, it's apparent that ABBYY is discreetly rejecting my specifications for some reason.

[Toxaris]

1. ePUB output from ABBYY is mediocre at best. The scan will have various OCR results and will make a mess out of the styles.
2. You can always save the output also as HTML with images at best quality and then replace the images in the ePUB with these images.

[u238110]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

2. You can always save the output also as HTML with images at best quality and then replace the images in the ePUB with these images.

What about simply saving as an HTML and importing into Calibre and converting to EPUB?

And if I went with your option, what would be the most efficient way to go about doing that? I know that Calibre's editor displays all the images in a book in a list... How does one update an image by replacing it with a different version?

[Toxaris]

I don't work with the Calibre editor, but I do use Sigil. You can do the same there. Just load the HTML and the images will also load.

I would do the replace differently to be honest. Just open op the ePUB in for example 7-zip and just replace the images there by the other versions. Then fire up your editor by choice and check.

Myself I do neither. I do use the images from the HTML export, but from ABBYY I save in Word format. Then I cleanup the document to fix all the OCR errors and alike. Why in Word? Because my tools work as an addin in Word and that fixes a lot of errors for me.

[eschwartz]

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/edit...eplacing-files

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by u238110

On this dialog, whenever I change any of the settings, if I go back to the dialog they've all been reverted to the default (and the defaults is that of reducing images to 150 DPI). That the EPUB is not assuming the higher quality image settings is apparent in the saved file.

I have noticed this also happening on the latest version of Finereader 12 (12.0.101.382). I believe this bug began occurring after the latest patch, because it was DEFINITELY working properly when I first purchased 12 (and I had zero problems with this in Finereader 11).

I will have to gather a little bit more intel/testing, and I will submit a bug report to ABBYY.

I only noticed this in the EPUB export (because that is what I use), although it may be effecting some of the other formats.

Originally Posted by u238110

And if I went with your option, what would be the most efficient way to go about doing that? I know that Calibre's editor displays all the images in a book in a list... How does one update an image by replacing it with a different version?

Hmmm, well to get around this bug, I do what Toxaris said.

I export the EPUB version (this has that 150dpi bug), and then I export an HTML version (images set to "source quality"). I then plop in the HTML images into the EPUB using 7-zip (or any zipping program), and then edit the EPUB using Sigil to remove the height="###" and width="###" from the <img> tags.

Originally Posted by u238110

What about simply saving as an HTML and importing into Calibre and converting to EPUB?

Bleh. The HTML export from Finereader carries over a ton of font cruft that isn't needed in an ebook. And mixing Calibre conversion on top of that will absolutely mangle everything.

I would recommend either of these workflows:

• Finereader -> EPUB -> Edit everything in Sigil or Calibre's Editor.
  • This is the method I prefer.
  • Although there are still a few bugs with Finereader EPUB output. The one that bugs me the most I call "phantom footnotes". Some footnote text poofs into thin air, so you have to pay close attention and double-check the footnotes.
    • I believe this bug occurs because Finereader tries to shift/move footnotes to the "end of chapter" and auto-number + link back/forth for you.
• Finereader + export as Word (Formatted text) + Clean in Microsoft Word (using Toxaris's EPUB Tools) or LibreOffice (using Writer2EPUB or similar plugins) + export to EPUB and clean using Sigil or Calibre's Editor.
  • This is the method that Toxaris prefers.
  • This method DOES export all of the text though, and I don't see disappearing footnotes.

The pros/cons of each method have been written about elsewhere though, I won't write them out again here.

[u238110]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

I will have to gather a little bit more intel/testing, and I will submit a bug report to ABBYY.

Thank you for being so proactive! It's nice to know I'm not the only one who's experiencing this issue.

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

I export the EPUB version (this has that 150dpi bug), and then I export an HTML version (images set to "source quality"). I then plop in the HTML images into the EPUB using 7-zip (or any zipping program), and then edit the EPUB using Sigil to remove the height="###" and width="###" from the <img> tags.

Why is it necessary to remove the height and width things and I imagine it can be done swiftly using search and replace?

[u238110]

Whoa, wait a minute. If you save your ABBYY file as both an HTML and an EPUB and you switch out the EPUB images for the HTML images, aren't you only putting raw images into the EPUB — isn't that a clean substitution? There would be no need to remove any HTML elements from the EPUB...

[Toxaris]

In theory. However, I do not know how ABBYY exports images to ePUB since I do not use that. If they put in things like height and width, you are usually better off in removing that, because it can give distortion. All in all the OCR quality of ABBYY is IMHO not good enough to warrant an ePUB export. There is too much cleaning and fixing to be done to get the text and formatting to my quality levels.

[u238110]

You use Microsoft Word, right? Have you written a guide for your process?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by u238110

You use Microsoft Word, right? Have you written a guide for your process?

@u238110 - If you follow the Epub_Tools link in Toxaris' signature, you'll find the manual - or a link to it at least.

@Toxaris - assuming it's possible, you should highlight the links in your signature - its not obvious to me that each line contains a link.

And, I was skimming the EPUB wiki just now, I didn't see any mention of your various gadgets

BR

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@Toxaris - assuming it's possible, you should highlight the links in your signature - its not obvious to me that each line contains a link.

And, I was skimming the EPUB wiki just now, I didn't see any mention of your various gadgets

BR

Good idea, I will look into that. The wiki I do not know, but I am in the tools list in the ePUB thread.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Good idea, I will look into that. The wiki I do not know, but I am in the tools list in the ePUB thread.

that's better, the links that is.

Here is the Wiki page where I did not see your gadgets ==>> Wiki EPUB,

IMO they should probably be in section 5. I'm not sure how you would bring that about, I assume a Green Moderator would know

Added : actually you can change the Wiki - see Main Page (link in left sidebar) for details.

BR