Problems converting PDFs to Ebook

Yellow Peril · 02-07-2013, 10:02 AM

I have been asked to convert a couple of books (one I just designed the cover for and the other I designed and produced the whole thing). The first I'm guessing was produced in Word and the second in QuarkXpress, both then converted to high res PDFs.

I'm a Calibre virgin, watched the intro video and followed the instructions (the ones I could understand). I converted the Meta file details and imported the correct covers with no problems. However I still suffered various problems, such as; Pages don't break in the same places as the originals and some headings, rather than running across the page, break into single characters per line and run vertically.

I'm converting to ebook as the client initially asked for kindle, I guess the generic should work across multiple platforms?

All help gratefully appreciated.

theducks · 02-07-2013, 10:26 AM

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118605

JSWolf · 02-07-2013, 11:06 AM

In order to go from PDF > ePub, you just have to do it. Every piece of software that converts PDF will generate errors. There are none that will do it error free.

After you have the ePub, load it into Sigil and A/B compare the PDF to the ePub. You have to do this 100%. Every character, every space, every punctuation mark, everything has to be checked. Once that is done, you can then format the ePub and clean up the code.

There are no shortcuts. There is no easy way out. You have to do the full A/B compare or you will have a poorly made eBook. PDF is just a terrible format to convert from. If you can get the original Word documents, it's still going to be a bit of work to convert, but not as much as from PDF.

The resulting ePub can be used to make Kindle KF8 & Mobi eBooks.

02-07-2013, 10:02 AM	#1
Yellow Peril Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2013 Device: none	Problems converting PDFs to Ebook I have been asked to convert a couple of books (one I just designed the cover for and the other I designed and produced the whole thing). The first I'm guessing was produced in Word and the second in QuarkXpress, both then converted to high res PDFs. I'm a Calibre virgin, watched the intro video and followed the instructions (the ones I could understand). I converted the Meta file details and imported the correct covers with no problems. However I still suffered various problems, such as; Pages don't break in the same places as the originals and some headings, rather than running across the page, break into single characters per line and run vertically. I'm converting to ebook as the client initially asked for kindle, I guess the generic should work across multiple platforms? All help gratefully appreciated.

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02-07-2013, 10:26 AM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,778 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118605

02-07-2013, 11:06 AM	#3
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,887 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	In order to go from PDF > ePub, you just have to do it. Every piece of software that converts PDF will generate errors. There are none that will do it error free. After you have the ePub, load it into Sigil and A/B compare the PDF to the ePub. You have to do this 100%. Every character, every space, every punctuation mark, everything has to be checked. Once that is done, you can then format the ePub and clean up the code. There are no shortcuts. There is no easy way out. You have to do the full A/B compare or you will have a poorly made eBook. PDF is just a terrible format to convert from. If you can get the original Word documents, it's still going to be a bit of work to convert, but not as much as from PDF. The resulting ePub can be used to make Kindle KF8 & Mobi eBooks.

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