Conversion walkthrough needed

[bigbro69]

Hi.
New here and absolutely unaware on how to proceed with calibre. Scripting and how to read them gives me headaches
I have my 7" tablet and have figured out how to convert pdf to epub. Yiha. So far so good. Unfortunately a lot of content fx tables gets all screwed up in the conversion. So it must be possible to convert/crop a pdf file to a readable size new pdf file, but I just don't know how to do that. Any advice would be highly appreciated; hints, links or better yet an easy-to-use walkthrough. Thx

[BetterRed]

Why dont you want to read the PDF's on your tablet ?

If they won't fit it might be better to get a PDF writer and create a resized PDF rather than converting to ePUB - converting PDF's is a pain if your PDF's aren't simple novel style text - ie they have embedded pictures, graphs, tables etc.

And have you read this sticky thread - Read this before Posting PDF Questions

BR

[bigbro69]

Well, the pdf fonts on my tablet are quite small for these old eyes. If I zoom in on the text I will have to pan left and right for every line read. Annoying or what!!!
And yes I have read the sticky but didn't understand it all. Translation issues.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by bigbro69

Well, the pdf fonts on my tablet are quite small for these old eyes. If I zoom in on the text I will have to pan left and right for every line read. Annoying or what!!!
And yes I have read the sticky but didn't understand it all. Translation issues.

Feel free to ask for 'clarification' on the sticky in this thread. Are the Translation issues Jargon or Language

The PDF format was designed for page layout formats - think of a magazine.
The mainstream E-Book formats were designed for flowable text - think paperback novel.

There is such a thing as flowable PDF, thus a typical ebook can be converted to flowable PDF. But if your PDFs have multiple columns, embedded images, tables, graphs, wrap around text etc then they are almost certainly fixed format PDF, getting a good conversion to epub whilst retaining the 'look and feel' of the original isn't easy. There are people who will do it - for $3-$10 a page.

I can sympathise with your old eyes and abhorrence to horizontal scrolling, my solution was to give my e-ink reader to a friend and get a 10" netbook. Today I'd probably get a tablet, but back then the iPad was all there was, the 10" netbook was south of $300, the Ipad was north of $1,000 - 'nuff said.

BR

[bigbro69]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Feel free to ask for 'clarification' on the sticky in this thread. Are the Translation issues Jargon or Language

The PDF format was designed for page layout formats - think of a magazine.
The mainstream E-Book formats were designed for flowable text - think paperback novel.

There is such a thing as flowable PDF, thus a typical ebook can be converted to flowable PDF. But if your PDFs have multiple columns, embedded images, tables, graphs, wrap around text etc then they are almost certainly fixed format PDF, getting a good conversion to epub whilst retaining the 'look and feel' of the original isn't easy. There are people who will do it - for $3-$10 a page.

I can sympathise with your old eyes and abhorrence to horizontal scrolling, my solution was to give my e-ink reader to a friend and get a 10" netbook. Today I'd probably get a tablet, but back then the iPad was all there was, the 10" netbook was south of $300, the Ipad was north of $1,000 - 'nuff said.

Problem solved. Thx for your time and info BetterRed, not that I understood everything you wrote but the part about upgrading the tablet suites me fine. Got myself a 9.7" tablet.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by bigbro69

Problem solved. Thx for your time and info BetterRed, not that I understood everything you wrote but the part about upgrading the tablet suites me fine. Got myself a 9.7" tablet.

Excellent solution - wish they were all that easy!

BR