[GUI Plugin] Count Pages

[kiwidude]

It should finish eventually - remember that it is all about the book formats, and that if you aren't dealing with ePubs then it has to convert to ePub which is where 99% of the time will be spent.

I do intend (once I get feedback on my changes to Extract ISBN) to apply similar changes to this plugin to break up into batches. So if for instance it is batches of 100 books by default then in this case you would presumably be able to have 900 of your results applied and then cancel the last batch which has the problem books in it to subdivide and isolate the problem one(s).

[JSWolf]

Can you make the plugin such that if the eBook is not ePub, it ignores it? If it's not ePub, I don't care about page numbers for it and if I get page numbers based on a conversion to ePub, then I'm getting an incorrect page number as that's not how the book will be if I read it.

[kiwidude]

No I am not going to do that - you can do it yourself with a search of formats:epub.

[GeckoFriend]

@kiwidude

All 1000 books are epubs so conversion isn't the problem. I definitely like the idea of batches.

Update: The job finally finished after 9.5 hours. I guess posting solved the problem.

[cryzed]

Hey there, this might sound stupid, but what is the best "counting algorithm" so I get page counts fitting for the Kindle screen with the default font sizes? Short info: I'm using a Kindle 4 with font size 3/8, Typeface: regular, Line Spacing: medium, Words per Line: default.

Currently I am using APNX but it doesn't seem to "work" properly, sometimes I have to trigger the next-page button a few times until the page count finally increases. I know that it probably can't be 100% accurate unless the Kindle device implements a dynamic page count, but what is the closest approximation?

[kiwidude]

@cryzed - there is no magic algorithm to give you what you want, as has been said many times in this thread algorithms like APNX can only approximate based on some variables and assumptions around average paragraph lengths, number of lines etc. All of which becomes moot given users can choose different line spacings, font sizes, margins, screen sizes, CSS attributes... There is *no* amount of "twiddling" with these will get you anything more satisfactory across more books (or indeed across an entire book).

The only reliable way to solve this problem would be something in the Kindle firmware to compute the page turns. But presumably that requires a fair amount of computation which would impact the performance and battery life of the device so they don't do it either.

[rlh3]

Is there a way to get this plugin to just count the number of pages in a PDF, without making the conversion to epub? I have a large number of academic history books that I need to keep in PDF format (and preserve the existing pagination of) that I would love to have page counts for.

Thanks for a very useful plugin.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by rlh3

Is there a way to get this plugin to just count the number of pages in a PDF, without making the conversion to epub? I have a large number of academic history books that I need to keep in PDF format (and preserve the existing pagination of) that I would love to have page counts for.

I'm not kiwidude, but Adobe Reader (acroread) gives accurate page counts and those page numbers can be manually added.

[rlh3]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

I'm not kiwidude, but Adobe Reader (acroread) gives accurate page counts and those page numbers can be manually added.

I was hoping to automate the process, as i have several thousand books that I would like to do this for. If it is a real pain to get the plugin to do it, I will go this route, but it would be a whole lot less painful to be able to click a button (and a lot cooler)

[kiwidude]

As of a few versions ago this plugin *always* uses the exact PDF page count and does not try to convert it to ePub. It is only if you have other statistics enabled (like word count or reading ease) that a conversion is required for PDFs. As such the algorithm choice for PDF format is ignored.

[rlh3]

Thanks, KiwiDude. The problem I was having was that word count was also enabled, and it was taking forever to do anything.

Thanks for the fast response.

[mbovenka]

I ran into a cosmetic bug today. If the plugin fails to get a page count due to the books being DRM-infested, it still says it computed a statistic for it ('Count Pages plugin found 1 statistics').

The log correctly says it didn't due to DRM, and the custom column doesn't get updated, so it still works fine, but it shouldn't be counted in the popup, I guess.

[szweiner2]

If I use Goodreads as my only Metadata download, can anyone explain the steps I would have to incorporate into Calibre Plugin to download the goodreader page count automatically during the metadata update?

Sandy

[kiwidude]

@szweiner2 - quite simply you can't. Metadata download plugins can't return values for custom columns. Hence why this plugin is completely separate and must be run separately.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by szweiner2

If I use Goodreads as my only Metadata download, can anyone explain the steps I would have to incorporate into Calibre Plugin to download the goodreader page count automatically during the metadata update?

Sandy

In most cases, the page number for an eBook on Goodreads is actually wrong. That's why whenever I add an eBook to my library, I have to request it be fixed.