I want an output format I can print

[vlbrown]

I want to convert MOBI, EPUB, what-have-you to an output format I can print on letter-size paper. I want to turn off the magic page breaks.

Filing a feature enhancement.

"Thanks" to everyone who told me that a book with page breaks at chapters is a "garbage" book. (It's not)

[PeterT]

One option might be to convert from ePub / MOBI etc to RTF format, and then open that format in a word processing program on the Mac and print from it.

[eschwartz]

What about printing directly from the calibre ebook-viewer?

[vlbrown]

Originally Posted by PeterT

One option might be to convert from ePub / MOBI etc to RTF format, and then open that format in a word processing program on the Mac and print from it.

Yes, I did try that already

The RTF was so far from being readable that it was almost funny.

Also, this doesn't give me what I want, which is a menu option for "printable" copy. I'm not asking for a clumsy workaround. I have that now.

[vlbrown]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

What about printing directly from the calibre ebook-viewer?

It prints but by definition it doesn't print properly. The page breaks are (by definition) all wrong. The page size is, again by definition, all wrong.

I'm not just trying to put the result on paper. I'm trying to put it on paper efficiently, withouth a lot of wasted white space.

[vlbrown]

.....

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by vlbrown

I want a FEATURE ENHANCEMENT.

Moderator Notice
This is a community forum 'staffed' by volunteers - who don't appreciate being shouted at.

The place to make an official request for an enhancement to calibre is at ==>> Bugs : calibre

If you have no luck there then you can download the source and do it yourself - this is a good place to start ==>> calibre - Get Involved

BR

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by vlbrown

Yes, I did try that already

The RTF was so far from being readable that it was almost funny.

Also, this doesn't give me what I want, which is a menu option for "printable" copy. I'm not asking for a clumsy workaround. I have that now.

Funny... I just did a conversion of a book to RTF, opened it in MS Word and to me, it's fine to print.

It even has styles applied to portions of the book corresponding to the original markup, so I can either change the style or associate a new style set to the whole document to get a different look and feel.

Have you considered that it's a case of GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT?

Additionally I tried converting to PDF; worked like a charm. I got letter sized pages, just as I wanted, the only breaks were each chapter started a new page which is not that big a deal. I even added page #'s at the bottom of each page; 124 pages.

I presume you did bother going through all the option pages on an ePub to PDF conversion, including those on the PDF output section where you can override the paper size to ... letter? Do see http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conv...verting-to-pdf for some help with this.

[eschwartz]

And then again, for purely printing, you can always just do it straight from ebook-viewer.

I went ahead and checked a bunch of books, and they all print just fine, without leaving any more than the margins blank. Then again, I expected as much.

Garbage In, Garbage Out. I agree the ebook is the probable problem.

[phossler]

I want to turn off the magic page breaks.

The CSS could possibly generating a 'hard' page break, and each html file will also cause a new page.

Use the Editor and merge all the html files into a single one and make sure that the CSS doesn't have things like 'page-break-before'. Try PDF output with that file

[JSWolf]

Don't convert to RTF. Too many bugs in the output such a section breaks getting lost. Best is to convert to HTMLZ, unzip the the HTMLZ file and load the HTML into a word processor such as Word and print from there. However you might want to put in your own page breaks before you print.

[vlbrown]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Don't convert to RTF. Too many bugs in the output such a section breaks getting lost. Best is to convert to HTMLZ, unzip the the HTMLZ file and load the HTML into a word processor such as Word and print from there. However you might want to put in your own page breaks before you print.

Thank you.

Someone who provided a suggestion without being rude or telling me that my book was GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT. (Or is that shouting, oh volunteer moderator?)

It's an O'Reilly book. I sincerely doubt it's garbage (in or out).

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by vlbrown

Thank you.

Someone who provided a suggestion without being rude or telling me that my book was GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT. (Or is that shouting, oh volunteer moderator?)

It's an O'Reilly book. I sincerely doubt it's garbage (in or out).

Is it by any chance Fixed-Format then? Because fixed-format books might very well have that abundance of page-breaks previously mentioned.


Consider:
Jon advised you that RTF is an unwise workflow. That is not the direction of discussion anyone else targeted.
Jon also advised you to check your book for page breaks


If you are determined to believe everyone is being rude to you, that is your prerogative.
Aggressive behavior does not encourage anyone to desire to help you.

Books in general seem to work fine, there is empirical evidence to that. It follows, therefore, that any issues will be resident in the code of your books -- they are doing something odd, possibly in a deliberate manner.

Look, I don't mean to diss your superior books or whatever... but if these O'Reilly books were constructed in a manner conducive to printing the way you wish, it seems they have failed. Many publishers fail in interesting and creative ways. Including many who you'd think (based on whatever arbitrary standard, I do not know) would be competent enough to produce ebooks that are a paragon of virtue.


And I think I am finished with this thread...

[vlbrown]

Jon also advised you to check your book for page breaks


I believe I made it extremely clear in my first post that the book has page breaks. The page breaks in the book are the reason I am having issues.

A problem with Open Source programs is that you're sent to the "community forum" if you have an issue, a bug, a desire for a feature...

But a problem with Open Source "community forums" is that if they can't reproduce your issue with their data, they decide you're wrong. ("I've never needed that, therefore, it is not needed.")

Problem 2 with Open Source "community forums" is that if you keep at it, they tell you "the source is available, fix it yourself". (If I could do that, don't you think I would?)

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by vlbrown

Jon also advised you to check your book for page breaks


I believe I made it extremely clear in my first post that the book has page breaks. The page breaks in the book are the reason I am having issues.

Then since you are apparently in agreement with us that your book has page breaks it shouldn't have for undoubtedly very good reasons, which cause troubles when printing, why all the fuss?
"that which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet"

A problem with Open Source programs is that you're sent to the "community forum" if you have an issue, a bug, a desire for a feature...

But a problem with Open Source "community forums" is that if they can't reproduce your issue with their data, they decide you're wrong. ("I've never needed that, therefore, it is not needed.")

Problem 2 with Open Source "community forums" is that if you keep at it, they tell you "the source is available, fix it yourself". (If I could do that, don't you think I would?)

Problem three with open source -- they get all offended when you perfectly reasonably demand they fix something for free, which you have not purchased or paid for in any way.
And then get extra indignant when you perfectly reasonably insist that you are not wrong, without explaining why.

Now continue renovating the thread, by all means.