Some formatting issues with ePub...

[CTgreen]

Hi all, I've got a few issues I'm hoping the community can help me with...

I'm attempting to convert .Mobi ebooks into .ePub files, and despite all the settings I've played with in Calibre's conversion screen I can't seem to get things quite right. I'm viewing my (ePub) ebooks on a Nook Simple Touch using the stock reader "app", function, or whatever; and viewing the .mobi files with the Kindle app for android (the Nook's been rooted). Please let me know if further background info is necessary.

So, my issues are --

First - So many words are hyphenated now! Almost every other line ends in a hyphenated word, which is obviously quite annoying. Even words like 'num-ber' or 'real-ize' which are (at least in my opinion) too short to be broken up. This does not occur until I go to read the ePub file. How can I just make is send the word to the next line? I've tried the justify text option, the heuristic unwrap lines option (even though I'm not sure what that does), and the heuristic remove unnecessary hyphens option. All to (seemingly) no effect at all; everything appears exactly the same.

Second - Any time there is a 'properly' italicized word (as in, done by the publisher, not Calibre) it double spaces the line. Kinda weird. Also tried a few of the options in the conversion process to fix; all to no avail.

Third - A minor complaint, but if someone knows a fix I'd be happy to hear it; the Nook's ability to adjust the spacing between each line seems to be taken away by the Calibre-created ePubs. Margins, fonts, and text size are all still adjustable. At this point, I stopped trying to fix things on my own, and... well, here I am. xP

Sorry if this stuff in not explained in a concise, intelligent, or technical enough sort of way, but my English isn't great and my technical knowledge is negative 3 on a scale of one to ten. This is all kind of over my head, so I would appreciate the "like you're talking to a child" kind of step by step explanations, please. =)

Thank you!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by CTgreen

First - So many words are hyphenated now! Almost every other line ends in a hyphenated word, which is obviously quite annoying. Even words like 'num-ber' or 'real-ize' which are (at least in my opinion) too short to be broken up. This does not occur until I go to read the ePub file. How can I just make is send the word to the next line? I've tried the justify text option, the heuristic unwrap lines option (even though I'm not sure what that does), and the heuristic remove unnecessary hyphens option. All to (seemingly) no effect at all; everything appears exactly the same.

If the hyphens are always at the end of the line it is the ereading software that is placing the hyphens not calibre. You could always set Text justification during conversion to "Left align" and all end of line hyphens would disappear. You also ought to be able to turn off hyphenation in your ereader software.

[CTgreen]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

You could always set Text justification during conversion to "Left align" and all end of line hyphens would disappear. You also ought to be able to turn off hyphenation in your ereader software.

Sorry, I guess I should have said 'I tried *justification* options' instead of 'justified'... Setting the text to Left Align seemed to have no effect.

Also, on my Nook, there is no option/setting for hyphenation that I am aware of; and I've looked through every setting I could find. Notta.

Are my other issues just normal effects of conversion? Or unsolvable?

Thanks for the input! =)

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by CTgreen

Sorry if this stuff in not explained in a concise, intelligent, or technical enough sort of way, but my English isn't great and my technical knowledge is negative 3 on a scale of one to ten. This is all kind of over my head, so I would appreciate the "like you're talking to a child" kind of step by step explanations, please. =)

After doing the conversion, look at the ePub in the calibre viewer. If the problems you're seeing on your nook don't appear in the calibre viewer, they might be errors with the nook rather than the ePub.

[CTgreen]

*facepalm*

Thanks pdurrant, for some reason that didn't occur to me. =P

I'll be sure to try that.

If the problem is with my Nook (which may well be, based on what I found in other threads) how can I turn off hyphenation and try to prevent some of these weird behaviors?

[AnemicOak]

Assuming the Simple Touch uses the same RMSDK as the Color them you might find some answers in this thread...
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=131028

[CTgreen]

Thank you Brian,

I had looked at that thread, but don't understand either solution;

Originally Posted by Timur

I can not stand books that are not fully justified and hyphenated, but if you prefer to stop hyphenation the following tip might help.

Mobile ADE libraries in Nook STR(1.0.1 update) have a bug that shuts down the hyphenation engine until the device is turned off and on again. If the Nook Color uses the same library code, maybe you can (ab)use this bug to turn off hyphenation.

Here is how:

1. Prepare a dummy EPUB (or acquire a free one from gutenberg, feedbooks etc.)
2. Extract OPF file from it.
3. Change the language to "UND".
4. Put it back into the EPUB overwriting original one.

When you open the resulting book in Nook STR, the hyphenation engine seems to be getting shut down and all your other books are rendered without hyphens as well. This behavior persists through sleep. The engine starts running properly again after the device is turned off and on.

PS. Since this is a bug abuse, do not expect it to work indefinitely. A patch in a future update might fix this behavior.

Unfortunately, I'm running 1.1.0 so I don't know if this will work for me. Also, I don't know what any of the technical stuff means or how to do it. =P If someone cares to explain what and OPF is and how to extract, I'd appreciate it. And I don't have any language conversion software. =/

And the solution:

Originally Posted by Jim Lester

1.2 included an update to RMSDK 9.2 which improves the typography by including (among a lot of other things) a hyphenation engine. If for your epubs you don't want the hyphenation engine (and the better typography, etc...), you can force RMSDK 9.2 to use the 'old' 9.1 text engine by adding adding the css attribute 'adobe-text-layout: optimizeSpeed;' to a body selector ie

body {
    ... other attributes ...
   adobe-text-layout: optimizeSpeed;
}

...well, I just don't know how to do that. How can I add code to the ePub during conversion?

Sorry for being such a noob. xD

[CTgreen]

I looked at my ePub in Calibre's viewer, and sure enough no out-of-place hyphens to be found. Guess my awesome Nook ST isn't as awesome as I thought... =/

Can someone help me implement any of the suggested fixes, please?

Thanks!

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by CTgreen

I looked at my ePub in Calibre's viewer, and sure enough no out-of-place hyphens to be found. Guess my awesome Nook ST isn't as awesome as I thought... =/

Can someone help me implement any of the suggested fixes, please?

Thanks!

My advice is to root your device and use coolreader on your nook touch. It gives a lot more control over formatting etc. It even supports mobi format so you might not even need to convert your files in the first place.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

My advice is to root your device and use coolreader on your nook touch.

Good Advice. Since he has already rooted his device installing the coolreader app should be easy.

[CTgreen]

*GASP!*

You, DopedAngel, deserve some kind of award! And reward! Not only did CoolReader solve all of my problems (and, as you said, give me lots of cool options to play with ^^), now I don't have to deal with the hassle of converting my entire eLibrary!

[dances around like an idiot; nook in hand]

You have my sincere thanks! I'd given up trying to find an app that would take care of reading after ruling out the Kindle, Moon, Nook, and a few other android reading apps didn't provide a satisfactory experience. CoolReader is far and away the best I've used.

Thank you! Thank you!

And thanks to everyone else who also offered to help me find suitable solutions. I appreciate everyone's input. =)