Converting text to jpegs for visualizing on frames/players

Fallingwater · 05-24-2013, 11:20 AM

I have an eBook I'd like to read on a media player and possibly an old picture frame. Neither has a feature for reading text files.

I unpacked the epub using Calibre and I manually had at the HTML code with a metaphorical chainsaw. All <p> tags were replaced by two carriage returns (ctrl+enter in EditPad's search-and-replace tool), all italic tags were replaced by slashes, and all bold tags by asterisks. Everything else was stripped. The result is one big standard ASCII .txt file that still reads perfectly fine.

I'm aware of two ebook-to-jpg programs: Zune eBook creator and EBook to Images.

I tried the trial version of the former, and it converted all of ONE line, leaving everything else completely blank. Woopty-doo.

The latter does the conversion, but entirely skips all carriage returns, resulting in a condensed wall of text that is very hard to read.

Is there a better way of doing this? Another program perhaps? Or can I just convince Ebook to Images to respect the paragraph spacing somehow? According to screenshots I've seen it should do this natively, but for some reason doesn't.

I've been Googling for the best part of the afternoon, but all it returns are online converters that don't let me specify a resolution and office converters that only do A4 pages, not to mention a lot of useless spammy sites.

John F · 05-24-2013, 12:11 PM

Maybe Ghostscript?

Use Calibre to generate a PDF. Than use ghostscript to export the pages as images?

Good luck.

ApK · 05-24-2013, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John F

Maybe Ghostscript?

Use Calibre to generate a PDF. Than use ghostscript to export the pages as images?

Good luck.

If he ends up with a PDF with appropriate pages, then there are far simpler tools than Ghostscript for exporting pdf pages as images, unless you already have GS setup and know how to use it

For that matter, if it's a short book (and who's going to read a long book on a picture frame?) then you could just view the epub in any reader app and manually use a screen snipping tool to grab the images.

fjtorres · 05-24-2013, 01:38 PM

Adobe Acrobat and Powerpoint both allow the export of documents/presentations as folders of jpegs. Libre Office has simillar capabilities under "export" (and it's free).

Also, years ago, there were a whole bunch of text to jpeg converters for the Sony Paystation portable.
This one seems halfway decent:
http://download.cnet.com/Psp-Ebook-C...-10499628.html

Fallingwater · 05-26-2013, 03:26 PM

Thanks, I will try these.

In the meantime, do you know why would Ebook to Images behave like that? This problem has irritated me enough that I've raised it to a question of principle and now really want to beat the silly thing into submission.

curtw · 05-26-2013, 07:42 PM

Rats! I was looking for help on this a few weeks ago, and got no responses. Did not realize that Powerpoint would do it.

{EDIT} Well, Powerpoint did not pick up on page breaks. Tried to fit 20 pages of text onto a single slide. Of course, most of it overflows the slide, and then does not make it into the image.

Fallingwater · 05-27-2013, 10:30 AM

I tried getting Ebook to Images to convert the native un-textified html. No change.

teh603 · 05-27-2013, 11:02 AM

Thought about looking at how the Txtr Beagle does its rasterization? The stupid thing is basically a 16-gig picture frame that can only hold four ebooks because it rasterizes each page into a separate jpeg image.

Fallingwater · 07-02-2013, 12:01 PM

I thought I'd mention I finally tracked down the problem that caused EBook to Images to misbehave, for anyone who might happen to have the same problem.

If you're using a third-party text editor (specifically Editpad, but it might happen with others) and getting the same problem, copypaste the whole of the document in Wordpad and save it as .txt. The converter obviously expects carriage return characters different from those Editpad uses.

teh603 · 07-02-2013, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fallingwater

If you're using a third-party text editor (specifically Editpad, but it might happen with others) and getting the same problem, copypaste the whole of the document in Wordpad and save it as .txt. The converter obviously expects carriage return characters different from those Editpad uses.

Could be a platform issue? For example, a Linux text editor expects Linux line endings, so I have to set my text editors to use Windows line endings instead. Minor, but potentially game breaking.

05-24-2013, 11:20 AM	#1
Fallingwater Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 4132 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Bookeen Cybook Opus	Converting text to jpegs for visualizing on frames/players I have an eBook I'd like to read on a media player and possibly an old picture frame. Neither has a feature for reading text files. I unpacked the epub using Calibre and I manually had at the HTML code with a metaphorical chainsaw. All <p> tags were replaced by two carriage returns (ctrl+enter in EditPad's search-and-replace tool), all italic tags were replaced by slashes, and all bold tags by asterisks. Everything else was stripped. The result is one big standard ASCII .txt file that still reads perfectly fine. I'm aware of two ebook-to-jpg programs: Zune eBook creator and EBook to Images. I tried the trial version of the former, and it converted all of ONE line, leaving everything else completely blank. Woopty-doo. The latter does the conversion, but entirely skips all carriage returns, resulting in a condensed wall of text that is very hard to read. Is there a better way of doing this? Another program perhaps? Or can I just convince Ebook to Images to respect the paragraph spacing somehow? According to screenshots I've seen it should do this natively, but for some reason doesn't. I've been Googling for the best part of the afternoon, but all it returns are online converters that don't let me specify a resolution and office converters that only do A4 pages, not to mention a lot of useless spammy sites. Last edited by Fallingwater; 05-24-2013 at 11:25 AM.

05-26-2013, 07:42 PM	#6
curtw Outside of a dog Posts: 863 Karma: 4457646 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston, TX Device: Kindle Voyage	Rats! I was looking for help on this a few weeks ago, and got no responses. Did not realize that Powerpoint would do it. {EDIT} Well, Powerpoint did not pick up on page breaks. Tried to fit 20 pages of text onto a single slide. Of course, most of it overflows the slide, and then does not make it into the image. Last edited by curtw; 05-26-2013 at 08:09 PM.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Problem with image converting to text	GOGGS75	Conversion	7	09-23-2012 02:21 PM
Converting audio to text files	pschmid	enTourage Archive	5	11-22-2010 09:49 PM
Converting certain punctuations from text to epub	greenapple	Calibre	2	05-28-2010 08:27 PM
Converting OCR Text files	jedavis1	Workshop	10	10-01-2009 10:09 PM
Converting text to PDF with a2ps	chrylis	iRex	7	11-23-2007 11:46 AM

05-24-2013, 12:11 PM	#2
John F Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,149 Karma: 63458771 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo Glo HD	Maybe Ghostscript? Use Calibre to generate a PDF. Than use ghostscript to export the pages as images? Good luck.

05-24-2013, 01:38 PM	#4
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	Adobe Acrobat and Powerpoint both allow the export of documents/presentations as folders of jpegs. Libre Office has simillar capabilities under "export" (and it's free). Also, years ago, there were a whole bunch of text to jpeg converters for the Sony Paystation portable. This one seems halfway decent: http://download.cnet.com/Psp-Ebook-C...-10499628.html

05-26-2013, 03:26 PM	#5
Fallingwater Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 4132 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Bookeen Cybook Opus	Thanks, I will try these. In the meantime, do you know why would Ebook to Images behave like that? This problem has irritated me enough that I've raised it to a question of principle and now really want to beat the silly thing into submission.

05-27-2013, 10:30 AM	#7
Fallingwater Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 4132 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Bookeen Cybook Opus	I tried getting Ebook to Images to convert the native un-textified html. No change.

05-27-2013, 11:02 AM	#8
teh603 Autism Spectrum Disorder Posts: 1,212 Karma: 6244877 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Coastal Texas Device: Android Phone	Thought about looking at how the Txtr Beagle does its rasterization? The stupid thing is basically a 16-gig picture frame that can only hold four ebooks because it rasterizes each page into a separate jpeg image.

07-02-2013, 12:01 PM	#9
Fallingwater Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 4132 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Bookeen Cybook Opus	I thought I'd mention I finally tracked down the problem that caused EBook to Images to misbehave, for anyone who might happen to have the same problem. If you're using a third-party text editor (specifically Editpad, but it might happen with others) and getting the same problem, copypaste the whole of the document in Wordpad and save it as .txt. The converter obviously expects carriage return characters different from those Editpad uses.

Advert

Advert