Calibre only Converts Part of a book

eddiez · 12-31-2010, 03:43 PM

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and new to e readers. What an interesting piece of gear. I live on a small sailboat and this is just great for reducing space and weight on board.

My Question---
I have a book in PDF form that I tried to convert to epub. Calibre handled it beautifully except for one thing----the book is 125 pages long and Calibre only converted three pages.

What am I missing here------

I got everything I wanted except the entire book.

Thanks
Ed

itimpi · 12-31-2010, 03:46 PM

If the PDF is largely a set of scanned images with some OCR'ed text behind it then Calibre will have converted the text and discarded the images. You may find that for a book in this format you are better of keeping the PDF, or alternatively find a copy of the book in a format other than PDF.

mrmikel · 01-01-2011, 06:11 AM

You might be able to confirm itimpi's thought by running it through MobiPocket Creator which is a free download.

It will take the PDF and create an HTML file. You can look at the resulting files. You will probably find as I did just yesterday for a book from the Air Force Historical Section that the resulting HTML file is about 6 kb long and there is an image for every single page in the book.

If you are either compulsive or determined, you can go and download freeocr. It will allow you to optically recognize every single image page in the book, one by one. Odds are they will take some cleaning up.

You might look at books which are available here in another forum, archive.org, or gutenberg.org where the work or most of it will have already been done for you.

In ebooks we are still on the wild frontier. Strangers can walk into town without being shot these days, but the streets are dirt and there is the occasional cow pie.

eddiez · 01-02-2011, 02:05 PM

Thanks to all of you for this---I agree with you about the wild frontier---one of these days the bugs will be worked out--

What I think happened is that the book has A LOT of sketches, Maps etc and I think Calibre hit the first one of those and stopped.

All I am (was) trying to do is to convert that book(PDF) into something that would allow me increase font size and make it easier for these old eyes to read--
Why dont they just allow you to zoom in on something---that would be nice.
Thanks again
Ed

12-31-2010, 03:43 PM	#1
eddiez Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Nook wi fi	Calibre only Converts Part of a book Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and new to e readers. What an interesting piece of gear. I live on a small sailboat and this is just great for reducing space and weight on board. My Question--- I have a book in PDF form that I tried to convert to epub. Calibre handled it beautifully except for one thing----the book is 125 pages long and Calibre only converted three pages. What am I missing here------ I got everything I wanted except the entire book. Thanks Ed

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12-31-2010, 03:46 PM	#2
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	If the PDF is largely a set of scanned images with some OCR'ed text behind it then Calibre will have converted the text and discarded the images. You may find that for a book in this format you are better of keeping the PDF, or alternatively find a copy of the book in a format other than PDF.

01-01-2011, 06:11 AM	#3
mrmikel Color me gone Posts: 2,089 Karma: 1445295 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Central Oregon Coast Device: PRS-300	You might be able to confirm itimpi's thought by running it through MobiPocket Creator which is a free download. It will take the PDF and create an HTML file. You can look at the resulting files. You will probably find as I did just yesterday for a book from the Air Force Historical Section that the resulting HTML file is about 6 kb long and there is an image for every single page in the book. If you are either compulsive or determined, you can go and download freeocr. It will allow you to optically recognize every single image page in the book, one by one. Odds are they will take some cleaning up. You might look at books which are available here in another forum, archive.org, or gutenberg.org where the work or most of it will have already been done for you. In ebooks we are still on the wild frontier. Strangers can walk into town without being shot these days, but the streets are dirt and there is the occasional cow pie.

01-02-2011, 02:05 PM	#4
eddiez Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Nook wi fi	Thanks to all of you for this---I agree with you about the wild frontier---one of these days the bugs will be worked out-- What I think happened is that the book has A LOT of sketches, Maps etc and I think Calibre hit the first one of those and stopped. All I am (was) trying to do is to convert that book(PDF) into something that would allow me increase font size and make it easier for these old eyes to read-- Why dont they just allow you to zoom in on something---that would be nice. Thanks again Ed

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