Cybook & Ebook Studio .pdb files

[adelheid]

I believe someone mentioned he was able to open pdb files on the Cybook, which were created with Ebook Studio (Palm Digital Media).

I have tried, but the 2 pdb files I made (1 with plain text and without any chapter tags added, 1 with a chapter tag added) both generated an error message on the Cybook ('there was an error opening the file').

Could anyone with Ebook Studio experience tell me what I have to do (or leave out) within Ebook Studio to generate a Cybook-compatible pdb file?

Thanks!

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by adelheid

I believe someone mentioned he was able to open pdb files on the Cybook, which were created with Ebook Studio (Palm Digital Media).

I have tried, but the 2 pdb files I made (1 with plain text and without any chapter tags added, 1 with a chapter tag added) both generated an error message on the Cybook ('there was an error opening the file').

Could anyone with Ebook Studio experience tell me what I have to do (or leave out) within Ebook Studio to generate a Cybook-compatible pdb file?

Thanks!

Hmmm.... I've been quite successful in reading pdbs created with Ebook Studio. However, given that Book Designer is free and you can download it from links over in the Sony Reader section of these forums, (get all of them up to the 7/30/2007 update and install in order of creation) I wonder why you're not using that. BD also does a great job of creating PRC/Mobi files.

Derek

[adelheid]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

However, given that Book Designer is free

I have a Mac. I would prefer to be able to create my ebooks without having to start my virtual Windows machine. And I have Ebook Studio anyway, so would like to get that to work.

[adelheid]

I can read pdb files which I downloaded from the net. But my own creations are unusable. Perhaps there is some difference in the output from Ebook Studio for Windows and for the Mac.

Edit: No, no difference in output. I downloaded Dropbook for Windows (same as Ebook Studio, but freeware), made a book and output is the same, error on Cybook is the same.

Derek, could we exchange some test files perhaps?

[wallcraft]

Many different e-book formats can come in .pdb files, see PDB in the wiki.

What Bookeen says in their Cybook specs:

PalmDoc is the historical eBook file format for Palm digital assistant.
PalmDoc are encapsulated in PDB files. eReader PDB files are not supported.

I don't know if Ebook Studio can produce standard PalmDoc files, but it presumably produces eReader PDB files by default.

[adelheid]

Hi Wallcraft,

Yes I read that too, but I understood that Derek had been able to read Ebook Studio pdb's on his Cybook. So I am curious what I would have to do to make it work for me too. It would be great if I could make my ebooks on the Mac instead of having to revert to Windows all the time.

[HarryT]

Does eBook Studio give you a choice of output formats? The only PDB format that the CyBook will handle is basic "PalmDoc" - plain text, no formatting.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Does eBook Studio give you a choice of output formats? The only PDB format that the CyBook will handle is basic "PalmDoc" - plain text, no formatting.

Are you sure about that? The files with extension prc is normally in pdb format and not in the resource database format so I would be very surprised if plain text was all it could handle. Or what do you mean by PDB format?

[HarryT]

Sorry - I mean "the only file with a PDB extension" (as opposed to a PRC extension). Perhaps you CAN create MobiPocket books with "PDB" extensions but, if so, I've never seen one.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sorry - I mean "the only file with a PDB extension" (as opposed to a PRC extension). Perhaps you CAN create MobiPocket books with "PDB" extensions but, if so, I've never seen one.

I assumed that if you take a MobiPocket book and rename it with a pdb extension that it will work but I have not tested it. Also when you create a Palm DOC (TEXtREAd) file by just packing a HTML file then that will be a PDB file but for some reason the file is usually named with a prc extension. That is what Book Designer does. And that will work on the Gen3.

[HarryT]

I've just tried it and, yes indeed, Windows MobiPocket Reader will happily open a Mobi book renamed from "PRC" to "PDB", so I stand corrected on that matter.

Both PalmDOC (TEXTREAD) and "real" Mobi (BOOKMOBI) books work fine, but there are of course a number of other eBook formats encapsulated in PDB files (most notably, perhaps, eReader) which certainly WON'T work.

[adelheid]

Then I must have misunderstood Derek, who (I thought) mentioned he could read pdb files created with Ebook Studio (from eReader).

[HarryT]

Hi Adelheid,

What I was asking is whether the "EBook Studio" program gives you a choice of book formats to create? The Gen3 definitely can't read books in "eReader" format, but perhaps "EBook Studio" can also create PalmDoc or MobiPocket books, which it can read?

[adelheid]

Ebook Studio has only one option: 'Make Book', which creates a pdb file. It also generates a pml file, which I can open, where all the specific coding can be seen for chaptering, special coding to represent accents etc.

So I don't have a choice in the output format.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by adelheid

Ebook Studio has only one option: 'Make Book', which creates a pdb file. It also generates a pml file, which I can open, where all the specific coding can be seen for chaptering, special coding to represent accents etc.

So I don't have a choice in the output format.

I really *HATE* not having my fully-updated Cybook at hand. The one I currently have is broken in that the SD card slot won't function and thus it is stuck at version 0.91 of firmware. But I know I've created .pdb ebooks and read them on mine - using eBook Studio.

However, and I *keep* pointing this out in various threads, BookDesigner *WILL* create .prc files as well as *basic* Palmdoc .pdb files so what's the problem? It's *FREE* and if you scoot over to the Sony Reader part of these forums, you'll find download links to it.

Derek