Suggestions: PDF to What?

tcv · 11-09-2008, 11:10 PM

Hi there,

I have a PDF document w/o DRM. It's a book that clocks in at 170 pages or so.

I wouldn't mind to be able to do the following with it:

1. Read it in FBReader.
2. Read it in Stanza.
3. Read it in MobiPocket on my Blackberry.

I played around with Calibre earlier on my Ubuntu machine and was able to easily convert to LRF, but that doesn't really get me anywhere. I am happy to do some line editing if necessary.

Cheers,

Mike...

wallcraft · 11-10-2008, 12:04 AM

You could try importing it into Windows MobiPocket Reader. It will convert simple PDFs to MOBI. The result will end up in your default MOBI directory (usually My Documents\My eBooks).

kovidgoyal · 11-10-2008, 12:09 AM

you can convert it to epub in calibre which will allow you to read it in fbreader, stanza, etc

wallcraft · 11-10-2008, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

you can convert it to epub in calibre

The resulting ePub can then be imported into Windows MobiPocket Reader to make a MOBI for your BlackBerry. I don't know if Calibre will do a better PDF conversion that MobiPocket, I suggest trying both ways.

tcv · 11-10-2008, 11:54 AM

I think, though, that any unmodified conversion would result in improperly broken lines, right? At least it did when I viewed Calibre's LRF. I would think, then I'd need to be able to edit the resulting text.

Am I on the wrong track with this thinking?

kovidgoyal · 11-10-2008, 12:11 PM

depends, both conversion software try to remove unneccessary hard line breaks. How succesful they are varies from file to file.

nrapallo · 11-10-2008, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcv

I think, though, that any unmodified conversion would result in improperly broken lines, right? At least it did when I viewed Calibre's LRF. I would think, then I'd need to be able to edit the resulting text.

Am I on the wrong track with this thinking?

I've used Mobipocket Creator to convert .pdf (originally produced from a Word .doc) to .prc with great success! Any images get separated from the text and the resulting .html has text that has been OCR'ed with great accuracy.

For this output, look in:

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\{your login name}\My Documents\My Publications\

If the original .pdf was produced from a series of images/pictures, then the resulting .html will be just a bunch of images and not be what you want!

tcv · 11-10-2008, 01:54 PM

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that Calibre had done a bad job. Knowing what I know about PDFs, I was very pleased. I just thought I should be able to edit the text in order to assuage by anal-retentiveness. Sounds like Mobipocket creator will work.

nrapallo · 11-10-2008, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcv

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that Calibre had done a bad job. Knowing what I know about PDFs, I was very pleased. I just thought I should be able to edit the text in order to assuage by anal-retentiveness. Sounds like Mobipocket creator will work.

Converting .pdf to "anything" for use with ebook readers is what doesn't work well!

Each conversion tool (Calibre, Mobipocket Creator/Reader, PDFRead (plug), ...) has its strengths and weaknesses and it is wonderful that we have such varied choices to attack the common enemy: Converting .pdf for use on ebook readers!

11-09-2008, 11:10 PM	#1
tcv Addict Posts: 330 Karma: 596 Join Date: Oct 2006	Suggestions: PDF to What? Hi there, I have a PDF document w/o DRM. It's a book that clocks in at 170 pages or so. I wouldn't mind to be able to do the following with it: 1. Read it in FBReader. 2. Read it in Stanza. 3. Read it in MobiPocket on my Blackberry. I played around with Calibre earlier on my Ubuntu machine and was able to easily convert to LRF, but that doesn't really get me anywhere. I am happy to do some line editing if necessary. Cheers, Mike...

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11-10-2008, 12:04 AM	#2
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	You could try importing it into Windows MobiPocket Reader. It will convert simple PDFs to MOBI. The result will end up in your default MOBI directory (usually My Documents\My eBooks).

11-10-2008, 12:09 AM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,857 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	you can convert it to epub in calibre which will allow you to read it in fbreader, stanza, etc

11-10-2008, 11:54 AM	#5
tcv Addict Posts: 330 Karma: 596 Join Date: Oct 2006	I think, though, that any unmodified conversion would result in improperly broken lines, right? At least it did when I viewed Calibre's LRF. I would think, then I'd need to be able to edit the resulting text. Am I on the wrong track with this thinking?

11-10-2008, 12:11 PM	#6
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,857 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	depends, both conversion software try to remove unneccessary hard line breaks. How succesful they are varies from file to file.

11-10-2008, 01:54 PM	#8
tcv Addict Posts: 330 Karma: 596 Join Date: Oct 2006	Oh, I didn't mean to imply that Calibre had done a bad job. Knowing what I know about PDFs, I was very pleased. I just thought I should be able to edit the text in order to assuage by anal-retentiveness. Sounds like Mobipocket creator will work.