Help with stylesheets in Calibre

hikerguy · 03-27-2015, 08:27 PM

I'm still learning Calibre and have very minimal knowledge of stylesheets. My take on css styles is that they kind of work like Word's Styles. With Word's Styles, you assign attributes (like Heading1, Heading2 etc.) and any text that has, say, Heading1 applied to it can be changed "en masse" by changing the Heading1 attributes. Am I somewhat close on this?

My issue right now is I'm cleaning up a lot of the "garbage" that Calibre brings into the book when it's first converted for editing (e.g. <p class="xxxxx" </p>.

I noticed during the course of my cleanup that I seemed to have blown out all of the info in the stylesheet.css. I tried adding one piece of info to it as a test. So, here's what's in the titlpage.xhtml file:

====================

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">

<head>
<meta name="calibre:cover" content="true"/>
<title>Cover</title>
@page {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
body {
text-align: center;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
<link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheet.css">
</style>
</head>

<body>

<div>

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="1.1" width="100%" height="100%" viewBox="0 0 1200 1600" preserveAspectRatio="none">
<image width="1200" height="1600" xlink:href="cover_image.jpg"/>
</svg>

</div>

</body>

</html>

=====================

As I was playing around, I added the following line to the above:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheet.css">

I then went into the stylesheet.css and added this line:

p {
color: green;
}

I expected all of my text with the paragraph tag to turn green, but they didn't. What am I doing wrong here?

Ultimately, I want to create a stylesheet so I can tweak the heading, body, paragraph, etc. tags. Can someone help with this, or should I break down and learn HTML before I attempt to edit the html? I don't need to make major changes, so I'm hoping I can just get by with minimal html/css knowledge. I can look at basic html info and pretty figure out what's going on. CSS is new to me though.

Thanks,

Andy

hikerguy · 03-27-2015, 08:37 PM

I was just tinkering some more and noticed that if I put the following just before the <body> tag of each file that I can control the font color:

<style>
p {color:green}
</style>

<body>

I know there must be a way to put this and other info I want used throughout all of the files created by Calibre into a stylesheet, then somehow reference that style sheet. And I'm guessing there must be some way to make this a global thing without having to reference the stylesheet in every file. So, that's what I really need help with I guess.

Section8 · 03-27-2015, 10:14 PM

To link text file(s) to a stylesheet in the editor, select the ones you want to link in the Files Browser, right-click, and choose "Link stylesheets".

hikerguy · 03-28-2015, 08:26 AM

Section8,

Thank you VERY much!! That was a big help. The more I use Calibre, the more I like it. Pretty amazing app.

Andy

eschwartz · 03-29-2015, 08:54 PM

Note: calibre's Edit E-Book can open DOCX files and convert them into EPUB for editing -- this is to be preferred over converting in the library and then editing the resulting EPUB, since standard conversion will "flatten CSS" and the Open DOCX as new book option in the editor does not.

Flatten CSS is the thing that changes all the style names.

signum · 03-31-2015, 04:31 PM

Small side issue:

When I try to "save as" a file in Libre Office, I have a choice of two different .docx's (both extensions spelled the same): 1) Microsoft Word 2007/2010 XML (.docx) and 2) Open Office XML Text (.docx). Which format should I choose if my intent is to convert it to an epub? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each? I'm assuming there's *some* difference between the two.

BetterRed · 03-31-2015, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by signum

Small side issue:

When I try to "save as" a file in Libre Office, I have a choice of two different .docx's (both extensions spelled the same): 1) Microsoft Word 2007/2010 XML (.docx) and 2) Open Office XML Text (.docx). Which format should I choose if my intent is to convert it to an epub? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each? I'm assuming there's *some* difference between the two.

Word 2007 & 2010 do not conform 100% to the ECMA Open Office XML standard (even though MS wrote the draft), see Office Open XML

I doubt that the differences are very significant, for what its worth I convert several Word 2007 DOCX's every day - albeit most are simple. So, I'd go with the 2007/2010 format because I know it works.

If you're inclined, then save both, unzip the two DOCX files, and then do a file compare on the contents with something like WinDiff or Beyond Compare.

Kovid is the only person who can give a definitive answer on what calibre handles best.

BR

kovidgoyal · 03-31-2015, 07:40 PM

I have no idea, I developed calibre's docx engine from reading the spec and looking at docx files created by Word 2007. I've never really investigated *Office's docx output.

signum · 04-01-2015, 02:30 AM

Thank you both for your replies. Since the docx engine was developed from Word 2007 specs and examples, looks to me like that's my best choice when using Libre Office.

03-27-2015, 08:27 PM	#1
hikerguy Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2015 Device: Kindle	Help with stylesheets in Calibre I'm still learning Calibre and have very minimal knowledge of stylesheets. My take on css styles is that they kind of work like Word's Styles. With Word's Styles, you assign attributes (like Heading1, Heading2 etc.) and any text that has, say, Heading1 applied to it can be changed "en masse" by changing the Heading1 attributes. Am I somewhat close on this? My issue right now is I'm cleaning up a lot of the "garbage" that Calibre brings into the book when it's first converted for editing (e.g. <p class="xxxxx" </p>. I noticed during the course of my cleanup that I seemed to have blown out all of the info in the stylesheet.css. I tried adding one piece of info to it as a test. So, here's what's in the titlpage.xhtml file: ==================== <?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> <head> <meta name="calibre:cover" content="true"/> <title>Cover</title> @page { padding: 0; margin: 0; } body { text-align: center; padding: 0; margin: 0; <link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheet.css"> </style> </head> <body> <div> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="1.1" width="100%" height="100%" viewBox="0 0 1200 1600" preserveAspectRatio="none"> <image width="1200" height="1600" xlink:href="cover_image.jpg"/> </svg> </div> </body> </html> ===================== As I was playing around, I added the following line to the above: <link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheet.css"> I then went into the stylesheet.css and added this line: p { color: green; } I expected all of my text with the paragraph tag to turn green, but they didn't. What am I doing wrong here? Ultimately, I want to create a stylesheet so I can tweak the heading, body, paragraph, etc. tags. Can someone help with this, or should I break down and learn HTML before I attempt to edit the html? I don't need to make major changes, so I'm hoping I can just get by with minimal html/css knowledge. I can look at basic html info and pretty figure out what's going on. CSS is new to me though. Thanks, Andy

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03-27-2015, 08:37 PM	#2
hikerguy Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2015 Device: Kindle	I was just tinkering some more and noticed that if I put the following just before the <body> tag of each file that I can control the font color: <style> p {color:green} </style> <body> I know there must be a way to put this and other info I want used throughout all of the files created by Calibre into a stylesheet, then somehow reference that style sheet. And I'm guessing there must be some way to make this a global thing without having to reference the stylesheet in every file. So, that's what I really need help with I guess.

03-27-2015, 10:14 PM	#3
Section8 Addict Posts: 254 Karma: 2092424 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Arlington, TX Device: Kindle PW4, Moon+ Reader on a cheap Android tablet	To link text file(s) to a stylesheet in the editor, select the ones you want to link in the Files Browser, right-click, and choose "Link stylesheets".

03-28-2015, 08:26 AM	#4
hikerguy Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2015 Device: Kindle	Section8, Thank you VERY much!! That was a big help. The more I use Calibre, the more I like it. Pretty amazing app. Andy

03-29-2015, 08:54 PM	#5
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	Note: calibre's Edit E-Book can open DOCX files and convert them into EPUB for editing -- this is to be preferred over converting in the library and then editing the resulting EPUB, since standard conversion will "flatten CSS" and the Open DOCX as new book option in the editor does not. Flatten CSS is the thing that changes all the style names.

03-31-2015, 04:31 PM	#6
signum Zealot Posts: 119 Karma: 64428 Join Date: Aug 2011 Device: none	Small side issue: When I try to "save as" a file in Libre Office, I have a choice of two different .docx's (both extensions spelled the same): 1) Microsoft Word 2007/2010 XML (.docx) and 2) Open Office XML Text (.docx). Which format should I choose if my intent is to convert it to an epub? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each? I'm assuming there's some difference between the two.

03-31-2015, 07:40 PM	#8
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	I have no idea, I developed calibre's docx engine from reading the spec and looking at docx files created by Word 2007. I've never really investigated *Office's docx output.

04-01-2015, 02:30 AM	#9
signum Zealot Posts: 119 Karma: 64428 Join Date: Aug 2011 Device: none	Thank you both for your replies. Since the docx engine was developed from Word 2007 specs and examples, looks to me like that's my best choice when using Libre Office.