epub Margins in iBooks on iPhone/iPod Touch

[alwright1]

The margins for uploaded epubs in iBooks are way too large for comfortable reading on such a small device. I know that I can use the tweak epub tool to access the CSS and edit the parts that are causing these giant margins on a small screen, but I would have to do this for each individual book in my library of over 100 ebooks.

Is there anyway to strip the CSS from my books all at once? Is there a way to create an epub iPhone/iPod Touch Output for the converter that will reset the margins? Could someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

EDIT TO ADD: I have tried epub to epub conversions to get rid of the margins without luck. epub>txt>epub worked, but it lost the ToC. epub>lit>epub didn't.

(I apologize if this should have been a reply to an earlier post about this problem, but when I went to reply the forum suggested that the post was too old to expect a reply there. Also, most of those posts have had no response other than "edit the css.")

[user_none]

There is not way to remove the CSS entirely though conversion other than by converting to a format that doesn't support CSS (such as TXT). As you found this doesn't always produce the best results.

Have you tried an EPUB to EPUB conversion and changed the margin settings in "Page Setup"?

[alwright1]

Thanks for trying to help. I did try the epub>epub conversion with zero margins with no luck.

I've fixed the problem. What I ended up doing was using Sigil to change the CSS on the ebooks one at a time. However, since most of the ebooks had come from the same source, most had the same CSS, so I was able to correct the CSS once and then use find and replace feature to correct the rest of the books. I still had to do it to each file individually, but I didn't have to correct the CSS myself every time.

[Perkin]

What I've been doing lately, if a book is fairly simple (no pics/ limited style), I convert it to TXT with markdown (preserves stuff like bold/italics), doing a quick read-through in a text editor fixing some small errors, then converting that back to epub.

I'm quite happy with results, and if any need further editing, I can either use Sigil on the epub, or as I'm doing more, using a text editor on the TXT and adding further markdown and formatting and then re-converting back to epub.

Edit:
(I'm actually using the Textile addition to the TXT as this allows more formatting - sub/superscript and paragraph justification)

[Techn]

Originally Posted by alwright1

Thanks for trying to help. I did try the epub>epub conversion with zero margins with no luck.

I've fixed the problem. What I ended up doing was using Sigil to change the CSS on the ebooks one at a time. However, since most of the ebooks had come from the same source, most had the same CSS, so I was able to correct the CSS once and then use find and replace feature to correct the rest of the books. I still had to do it to each file individually, but I didn't have to correct the CSS myself every time.

How do you edit this in Sigil?

I found a bit in sigil that said sound about 'margins 5.00000pt', i changed it to 0pt but still nothing

I've been trying everything to edit the margins of my epub's on calibre for ipod use. But as has been said nothing works other than converting to txt, but that ruins the format.

[dwig]

I don't have the hardware to test with but you might try ePub>MOBI>ePub using the "Ignore Margins" option on the MOBI output tab when doing the ePub>MOBI conversion.

[Techn]

Originally Posted by dwig

I don't have the hardware to test with but you might try ePub>MOBI>ePub using the "Ignore Margins" option on the MOBI output tab when doing the ePub>MOBI conversion.

Thanks for the reply, the result seemed almost the same as converting to txt, so i stuck with that.

it all seems fine, bar the occassionally poor formated paragraph or extra long spaces between some words.