Built-in viewerand PDF files

ddjohn · 01-12-2011, 12:28 AM

One of of my digital magazine subscriptions is published in PDF format. I added two years of this magazine to my library. The built-in viewer couldn't display the document correctly. It had stripes across the image. Does this mean there are PDF formats that are not compatible with Calibre?

I just went to pull up one as an example while writing this and found all of these magazines are listed in the library and have meta-data, but no actual document. We've had two upgrades since the last time I read one of these magazines. And the other PDF publications in this library are just fine.

Any ideas what might have gone wrong with the viewer and with the missing documents?

ldolse · 01-12-2011, 03:34 AM

Calibre doesn't view pdfs natively - it attempts to convert them to an ebook before displaying them. Many pdfs don't convert very well, as you've just discovered. You can configure Calibre to launch an external pdf viewer instead under the preferences.

As far as documents being listed and not having actual files - there have been some bugs in past releases where this has happened - changes have been made over time to reduce the chance of it happening, and hopefully it's fixed, but no one has been able to come up with reproduction steps to verify 100%.

Lady Fitzgerald · 01-12-2011, 03:58 AM

As Idolse said, calibre converts PDFs to a more conventional ebook format. Not all forms of PDFs convert well and/or won't convert at all. All my PDF books and magazines are image only (the magazines are searchable PDFs) and I have no idea if they will convert or not since I never had the patience to wait on them.

If you have the file associations in your computer set to open PDFs in a non-calibre viewer, such as Adobe Reader, Foxit Reader, etc., just go into Preferences in calibre and, under Behavior, uncheck PDF form the Internal Viewer selections. Now, when you open a PDF book in calibre, it will open in the viewer your computer file association is set for. I use Adobe Acrobat Standard to read my PDFs.

DoctorOhh · 01-12-2011, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddjohn

Any ideas what might have gone wrong with the viewer and with the missing documents?

As already pointed out calibre's viewer tries to convert the file to html before viewing. This works better for some formats then others. Set calibre to not use the internal viewer for these pdfs.

There are only a couple of ways for documents to go missing and they all include the user deleting or moving them.

If you send them to your device via the dropdown arrow one of the choices is to send the book to the device and remove from calibre. Another possibility the user going behind the scenes and forgetting the file structure is actually calibre's library. If you physically moved, deleted or renamed the files then they would no longer be seen by calibre.

You can click the dropdown arrow next to the library icon go to Library maintenance and select check library. This will let you know if there are files in calibre's library directory that calibre's database is not aware of.

ddjohn · 01-12-2011, 10:06 AM

Thanks everyone for the tip about linking my PFD format ebooks to the external reader. That works out very well.

The missing ebooks were in a library that was moved. The .opf files are still in the library, just no ebooks or covers. "Check Library" does not report the ebooks as missing, and it does report extra authors. Looking at the Windows Explorer revealed folders that do not show up in Calibre's lists.

I can easily get these ebooks replaced from the publisher. What method would be best for putting the ebooks back into their folders? Should I copy the ebooks to the file folders (Windows Explorer) and then run some sort of maintenance? Or better to "remove" the existing reference to the ebook using Calibre, and start fresh with new "add books"?

Is there a detailed user guide for the maintenance functions?

Thank you so much for your help.

itimpi · 01-12-2011, 10:10 AM

If you still have an entry in Calibre, then you can formats to it via the Edit Metadata dialog.

ddjohn · 01-12-2011, 11:11 PM

It is very slow work to add books using the"Edit Metadata" screen. But it seems to be an acceptable method for Calibre's database functions. Glad it only involves the first 38 issues that I had put into the library. Thanks for the information.

DoctorOhh · 01-12-2011, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddjohn

It is very slow work to add books using the"Edit Metadata" screen. But it seems to be an acceptable method for Calibre's database functions. Glad it only involves the first 38 issues that I had put into the library. Thanks for the information.

You can drag and drop formats to that window.

ddjohn · 01-13-2011, 03:18 PM

Well, drag and drop to the "edit metadata" sounded like a nice simple solution. But running maintenance on the library reports extra titles, extra authors, extra covers. It seems like my easiest route at this juncture is to "remove" all of the offending entries and put them back in one by one the old fashioned way. I do thank everyone for their efforts.

DoctorOhh · 01-13-2011, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddjohn

Well, drag and drop to the "edit metadata" sounded like a nice simple solution. But running maintenance on the library reports extra titles, extra authors, extra covers. It seems like my easiest route at this juncture is to "remove" all of the offending entries and put them back in one by one the old fashioned way. I do thank everyone for their efforts.

Something seems wrong, you have to drag and drop the missing formats to the available formats section of the edit metadata window (see attached). If this is what you were doing then I agree with you.

ddjohn · 01-13-2011, 07:48 PM

That's exactly what I was doing. Open the "edit metadata" screen and drag the file onto the "formats" frame. So, back to square one.

01-12-2011, 12:28 AM	#1
ddjohn Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Palm TX; Pandigital-7W	Built-in viewerand PDF files One of of my digital magazine subscriptions is published in PDF format. I added two years of this magazine to my library. The built-in viewer couldn't display the document correctly. It had stripes across the image. Does this mean there are PDF formats that are not compatible with Calibre? I just went to pull up one as an example while writing this and found all of these magazines are listed in the library and have meta-data, but no actual document. We've had two upgrades since the last time I read one of these magazines. And the other PDF publications in this library are just fine. Any ideas what might have gone wrong with the viewer and with the missing documents?

01-12-2011, 03:34 AM	#2
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	Calibre doesn't view pdfs natively - it attempts to convert them to an ebook before displaying them. Many pdfs don't convert very well, as you've just discovered. You can configure Calibre to launch an external pdf viewer instead under the preferences. As far as documents being listed and not having actual files - there have been some bugs in past releases where this has happened - changes have been made over time to reduce the chance of it happening, and hopefully it's fixed, but no one has been able to come up with reproduction steps to verify 100%. Last edited by ldolse; 01-12-2011 at 10:14 AM.

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01-12-2011, 03:58 AM	#3
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	As Idolse said, calibre converts PDFs to a more conventional ebook format. Not all forms of PDFs convert well and/or won't convert at all. All my PDF books and magazines are image only (the magazines are searchable PDFs) and I have no idea if they will convert or not since I never had the patience to wait on them. If you have the file associations in your computer set to open PDFs in a non-calibre viewer, such as Adobe Reader, Foxit Reader, etc., just go into Preferences in calibre and, under Behavior, uncheck PDF form the Internal Viewer selections. Now, when you open a PDF book in calibre, it will open in the viewer your computer file association is set for. I use Adobe Acrobat Standard to read my PDFs.

01-12-2011, 10:06 AM	#5
ddjohn Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Palm TX; Pandigital-7W	Thanks everyone for the tip about linking my PFD format ebooks to the external reader. That works out very well. The missing ebooks were in a library that was moved. The .opf files are still in the library, just no ebooks or covers. "Check Library" does not report the ebooks as missing, and it does report extra authors. Looking at the Windows Explorer revealed folders that do not show up in Calibre's lists. I can easily get these ebooks replaced from the publisher. What method would be best for putting the ebooks back into their folders? Should I copy the ebooks to the file folders (Windows Explorer) and then run some sort of maintenance? Or better to "remove" the existing reference to the ebook using Calibre, and start fresh with new "add books"? Is there a detailed user guide for the maintenance functions? Thank you so much for your help.

01-12-2011, 10:10 AM	#6
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	If you still have an entry in Calibre, then you can formats to it via the Edit Metadata dialog.

01-12-2011, 11:11 PM	#7
ddjohn Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Palm TX; Pandigital-7W	It is very slow work to add books using the"Edit Metadata" screen. But it seems to be an acceptable method for Calibre's database functions. Glad it only involves the first 38 issues that I had put into the library. Thanks for the information.

01-13-2011, 03:18 PM	#9
ddjohn Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Palm TX; Pandigital-7W	Well, drag and drop to the "edit metadata" sounded like a nice simple solution. But running maintenance on the library reports extra titles, extra authors, extra covers. It seems like my easiest route at this juncture is to "remove" all of the offending entries and put them back in one by one the old fashioned way. I do thank everyone for their efforts.

01-13-2011, 07:48 PM	#11
ddjohn Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Palm TX; Pandigital-7W	That's exactly what I was doing. Open the "edit metadata" screen and drag the file onto the "formats" frame. So, back to square one.