EPUB Overlapping Text - Please Help

[coaver]

For Calibre:

Converted my entire ebook collection to EPUB and ended up with books that have overlapping text. I have tried changing the font sizes and line spacing but nothing seems to fix it. Please help.

Attached - actual EPUB file and 2 screen shots

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by coaver

Converted my entire ebook collection to EPUB and ended up with books that have overlapping text. I have tried changing the font sizes and line spacing but nothing seems to fix it. Please help.

Usually I have Line Height set to 0.0pt but when I run into this I just make sure the Line Height is set 1.5pt higher then my base font. See attached.

[coaver]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Usually I have Line Height set to 0.0pt but when I run into this I just make sure the Line Height is set 1.5pt higher then my base font. See attached.

That fixed the title and chapter section but the actual text of the book is still overlapping. Any other suggestions? Settings tweaks?

[JSWolf]

I had a look at your book and it is a real mess. I deleted all the line-height lines in the CSS and that fixed the problem of the lines running into each other. But the formatting is still awful. Readable but awful.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by coaver

That fixed the title and chapter section but the actual text of the book is still overlapping. Any other suggestions? Settings tweaks?

Open the file up in Sigil (forum here) and fix it.

Here's an example from your file. When you look at the code view of your main body of text, most of your paragraphs are <p class="cotx">. When you look at the style.css file cotx looks like this:

.cotx { border-bottom: 0;
border-top: 0;
display: block;
font-size: 0.70588em;
line-height: 0.1em;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-top: 0;
padding-bottom: 0;
padding-top: 0;
text-align: justify;
text-indent: 0
}

Changing line-height to 1.1em fixes most of your text.

Now just find the other areas that are still messed up and see what code handles that element and change the css until it works. There seems to be a lot of areas that need fixing.

Good Luck

[coaver]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Open the file up in Sigil (forum here) and fix it.

Here's an example from your file. When you look at the code view of your main body of text, most of your paragraphs are <p class="cotx">. When you look at the style.css file cotx looks like this:

.cotx { border-bottom: 0;
border-top: 0;
display: block;
font-size: 0.70588em;
line-height: 0.1em;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-top: 0;
padding-bottom: 0;
padding-top: 0;
text-align: justify;
text-indent: 0
}

Changing line-height to 1.1em fixes most of your text.

Now just find the other areas that are still messed up and see what code handles that element and change the css until it works. There seems to be a lot of areas that need fixing.

Good Luck

I have about 600 books formatted like this. Any advice on bulk reformatting via Calibre?

[JSWolf]

Can you post the original of the book you've posted in ePub so we can see what can be done to reconvert it into ePub?

[coaver]

Sure - here are several files for you to look at.

My husband took my whole ebook collection and reformatted the EPUB files with Calibre and they all have the text that overlaps. Obviously he seriously messed up my files.

I have about 600 books that turned out like this. When I read them on my Android phone using Aldiko they are fine but viewing them on our Nook or via the Calibre ebook viewer shows the overlapping text.

for any help you can provide.

[JSWolf]

Do you still have the original ePub before he messed them up?

I know Calibre doesn't touch the original files if you use the GUI. So maybe you still have them. If you do, you can save them in place of these messed up ones. Then you can make sure your hubby has very good life insurance for when you hire the hit man to kill him for his dastardly deed.

What wah was wrong with the originals that they needed to be fully converted from ePub to ePub?

[coaver]

Nope, no originals. He wiped the folder and then replaced everything with the new ones. He was trying to correct the margins for the Nook.

Yes, I am going to have to kill him. I have been building this collection for about 8 years now. I started reading ebooks on my Palm M100 back around 2002.

I am trying to find a way to make it look like an accident but anyone who knows us will know it was me.

I was able to test a few files for correction with the Kobo EPUB bulk fixer. Looks promising but I don't have time to mess with it any more today. I will have to follow up tomorrow after work.

I am thinking if I fix the files (strip the CSS info) with the KOBO program then run them through Calibre for reformatting that might take care of most of the files. What do you think? I prefer to do it all in Calibre but I am beginning to think that will not be possible.

I think I am going to have to take up drinking. It is as good a time as any to start...

[JSWolf]

One more problem is that he managed to lose all of your indents.

[kovidgoyal]

Convert them from epub to epub again, puttin the following in extra css

.calibre, .calibre1, .calibre2, .calibre3, .calibre4, .calibre5, .calibre6, .calibre7, .calibre8, .calibre9, .calibre10, .calibre11, .calibre12, .calibre13, .calibre14, .calibre15, .calibre16, .calibre17, .calibre18, .calibre19, .calibre20, .calibre21, .calibre22, .calibre23, .calibre24, .calibre25, .calibre26, .calibre27, .calibre28, .calibre29, .calibre30, .calibre31, .calibre32, .calibre33, .calibre34, .calibre35, .calibre36, .calibre37, .calibre38, .calibre39, .calibre40, .calibre41, .calibre42, .calibre43, .calibre44, .calibre45, .calibre46, .calibre47, .calibre48, .calibre49, .calibre50, .calibre51, .calibre52, .calibre53, .calibre54, .calibre55, .calibre56, .calibre57, .calibre58, .calibre59, .calibre60, .calibre61, .calibre62, .calibre63, .calibre64, .calibre65, .calibre66, .calibre67, .calibre68, .calibre69, .calibre70, .calibre71, .calibre72, .calibre73, .calibre74, .calibre75, .calibre76, .calibre77, .calibre78, .calibre79, .calibre80, .calibre81, .calibre82, .calibre83, .calibre84, .calibre85, .calibre86, .calibre87, .calibre88, .calibre89, .calibre90, .calibre91, .calibre92, .calibre93, .calibre94, .calibre95, .calibre96, .calibre97, .calibre98, .calibre99{ line-height: 1.1em }

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I had a look at your book and it is a real mess. I deleted all the line-height lines in the CSS and that fixed the problem of the lines running into each other. But the formatting is still awful. Readable but awful.

Deleteing all of the line-height lines from the css did indeed work to fix the overlap.

Originally Posted by coaver

My husband took my whole ebook collection and reformatted the EPUB files with Calibre and they all have the text that overlaps. Obviously he seriously messed up my files.

Even without seeing the original books I can tell you that these files did not meet my own minimum acceptable formatting standards, which are lax by most folks accounts.

Removing the line-height entries from the style.css in each book with create a book with the same approximate formatting as the originals.

I'm sorry I don't have the skillset for creating a batch process to accomplish this.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Convert them from epub to epub again, puttin the following in extra css

Adding that into the extra css worked great for:

1. 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time

But not so much for:

2. The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives

I converted the above two files to LRF then back to Epub (with standard default settings) and that removed all overlapping of lines.

[coaver]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Convert them from epub to epub again, puttin the following in extra css

.calibre, .calibre1, .calibre2, .calibre3, .calibre4, .calibre5, .calibre6, .calibre7, .calibre8, .calibre9, .calibre10, .calibre11, .calibre12, .calibre13, .calibre14, .calibre15, .calibre16, .calibre17, .calibre18, .calibre19, .calibre20, .calibre21, .calibre22, .calibre23, .calibre24, .calibre25, .calibre26, .calibre27, .calibre28, .calibre29, .calibre30, .calibre31, .calibre32, .calibre33, .calibre34, .calibre35, .calibre36, .calibre37, .calibre38, .calibre39, .calibre40, .calibre41, .calibre42, .calibre43, .calibre44, .calibre45, .calibre46, .calibre47, .calibre48, .calibre49, .calibre50, .calibre51, .calibre52, .calibre53, .calibre54, .calibre55, .calibre56, .calibre57, .calibre58, .calibre59, .calibre60, .calibre61, .calibre62, .calibre63, .calibre64, .calibre65, .calibre66, .calibre67, .calibre68, .calibre69, .calibre70, .calibre71, .calibre72, .calibre73, .calibre74, .calibre75, .calibre76, .calibre77, .calibre78, .calibre79, .calibre80, .calibre81, .calibre82, .calibre83, .calibre84, .calibre85, .calibre86, .calibre87, .calibre88, .calibre89, .calibre90, .calibre91, .calibre92, .calibre93, .calibre94, .calibre95, .calibre96, .calibre97, .calibre98, .calibre99{ line-height: 1.1em }

Thank you for the suggestion bu this did not seem to help the files. I appreciate your help. I ended up using the Kobo Bulk File Fixer to strip the CSS and then import the file back in to Calibre. That seemed to fix almost all the files. The ones that it did not fix I used Calibre to convert from epub to epub but selected the option to add a line at paragraph marks. I think the files are going to be ok now. I am going through to spot check them.

I just have to say you all have been a great help and I appreciate all your advice and suggestions.

I also need to mention that I love Calibre and I don't know how I would manage my ebook collection without it. I use it almost every single day!

Now, does anyone want to flog my husband for me?