Sony epub conversion issues

[nikev]

Hi,

I have been experimenting with customizing some of the eBooks I found in the MR uploads section, but I ran in to some conversion issues going from LRF to epub.

i) It seems that if you run the conversion in Calibre multiple times (eg, didn't like the result the first time), then any extra CSS gets appended multiple times as well. I found this happened specifically with new font declarations -- the HTML files had the same font declarations added again with each conversion. Is this a bug, or is it meant to work this way for some reason?

ii) There seems to be some inconsistency between the way that Calibre interprets HTML and renders the file as compared to how it is rendered by the Sony Reader software and the actual PRS reader. For instance, Calibre seems to put in links (eg in the toc) entries that point to things like

<content src="72.xhtml#196"/>

and the links work but these tags get munged in the Sony interpretation. For some reason clicking on the corresponding link in the Sony rendered table of contents doesn't actually resolve to 72.xhtml#196; it goes somewhere else, in fact in a different file. If I remove the #196 and just point to 72.xhtml, all works well. Is there some way to make Calibre render the same way Sony does?

Thanks in advance,

Nike

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by nikev

i) It seems that if you run the conversion in Calibre multiple times (eg, didn't like the result the first time), then any extra CSS gets appended multiple times as well. I found this happened specifically with new font declarations -- the HTML files had the same font declarations added again with each conversion. Is this a bug, or is it meant to work this way for some reason?

Are you running LRF->ePub multiple times, or are you running LRF->ePub once and then doing ePub->ePub?

ii) There seems to be some inconsistency between the way that Calibre interprets HTML and renders the file as compared to how it is rendered by the Sony Reader software and the actual PRS reader. [...] Is there some way to make Calibre render the same way Sony does?

No. The Calibre ebook viewer is not intended to act as a simulator for any device. It will render ebooks as it sees fit, with no regard to device specifics.

[user_none]

ii) Every device (and viewer app) will render differently depending on how much of the EPUB spec they implement and how they interpret it.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by nikev

Hi,

ii) There seems to be some inconsistency between the way that Calibre interprets HTML and renders the file as compared to how it is rendered by the Sony Reader software and the actual PRS reader. For instance, Calibre seems to put in links (eg in the toc) entries that point to things like

<content src="72.xhtml#196"/>

and the links work but these tags get munged in the Sony interpretation. For some reason clicking on the corresponding link in the Sony rendered table of contents doesn't actually resolve to 72.xhtml#196; it goes somewhere else, in fact in a different file. If I remove the #196 and just point to 72.xhtml, all works well. Is there some way to make Calibre render the same way Sony does?

I have a vague memory that names/ids in <a> tags need to begin with an alpha character not a digit.

[nikev]

Originally Posted by Manichean

Are you running LRF->ePub multiple times, or are you running LRF->ePub once and then doing ePub->ePub?



No. The Calibre ebook viewer is not intended to act as a simulator for any device. It will render ebooks as it sees fit, with no regard to device specifics.

About the first point: I am running ePub --> ePub multiple times, to get the eBook the way I like it. I guess Calibre doesn't know conversion has been run before, but it would be nice to not have the extra code appended multiple times. Perhaps a toggle switch here would be nice, eg update versus add.

As for the second, I understand why one would want to have Calibre be device independent, but it makes it hard to convert books to look nice on a particular device if you can't see how it will be interpreted. It might be nice to have a preference for Calibre that calls an external reader (eg Reader Library or Kobo software or whatever) for viewing so that you can see how it will look on your particular device.

Cheers,

Nike

[nikev]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I have a vague memory that names/ids in <a> tags need to begin with an alpha character not a digit.

Thanks for this. I will check it out.

Nike

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by nikev

It might be nice to have a preference for Calibre that calls an external reader (eg Reader Library or Kobo software or whatever) for viewing so that you can see how it will look on your particular device.

If you go to Preferences - Behavior you can choose to use calibre's internal viewer or to use any external viewer as specified by whatever is the default for the OS for a particular file type.

Alternatively you can use the Open With plugin to open a book with any specific viewer you wish.

[nikev]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

If you go to Preferences - Behavior you can choose to use calibre's internal viewer or to use any external viewer as specified by whatever is the default for the OS for a particular file type.

Alternatively you can use the Open With plugin to open a book with any specific viewer you wish.

I don't see anything in Preferences -- Behavior that will accomplish this. It seems to be more for setting priorities between formats. Am I missing something? I am on 7.50 Mac version of Calibre.

Thanks,

Nike

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by nikev

I don't see anything in Preferences -- Behavior that will accomplish this. It seems to be more for setting priorities between formats. Am I missing something? I am on 7.50 Mac version of Calibre.

Two windows, the window on the left is the preferred input format order the window on the right is a window that says Use internal viewer for: if you uncheck using calibre's internal viewer for a particular format then calibre will use whatever your system default is to open that particular format.

[nikev]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Two windows, the window on the left is the preferred input format order the window on the right is a window that says Use internal viewer for: if you uncheck using calibre's internal viewer for a particular format then calibre will use whatever your system default is to open that particular format.

Thank you. That cleared it up nicely.

[JSWolf]

Go LRF > ePub and then edit the ePub instead of trying to convert it over and over. That's the best way to do it that will work.