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Old 07-29-2010, 05:00 PM   #23
Diodato
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Diodato began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 7
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Device: Kindle DXG
Quote:
Originally Posted by AdrianM View Post
But how good is the ePub to Mobi conversion in Calibre really? Does it ever fail or mess up the formatting badly often/sometimes/never?
This thread started drifting off-topic. So coming back to your original question let me share with you all my experiences with ePub vs Mobi/PRC.
Calibre does a pretty good job converting. Occasionally you might need to refine the TOC.
The biggest problem with Mobi is that it is quite restrictive with formatting. One has to various tricks to impose the margins, but there is currently no way to change the right margin. Also text-flow around images is very limited - only if the image has the height not bigger than one text line... To me that is unacceptable. I can live with other restrictions.
I accept all the replies Amazon gives for not (yet) supporting ePub - it's all about business. After all, thy invested in Mobipocket. And let's not forget that the true money comes from selling e-books, not readers.
In the attached images you can see one of the worst examples of converting ePub in Mobi - take a look at the original thread Jerome, Jerome K.: Three Men in a Boat (illustrated) v6 07 april 2010 where the beautiful work of zelda_pinwheel gets lost.
And it's not the converter's fault (I used Calibre), just the Mobi's formatting restrictions.
Hope this helps you.

[Left two images are ePub, the other two Mobi; screen captures from Caliber]
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