MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

markpearl · 06-23-2011, 11:53 AM

I'm converting a number of my epubs to mobi for my new Kindle using Calibre, ver. 0.8.6.

After the conversion, the dashes (en- or em- dashes, not sure) in the epub come out as squares in the mobi version. I've checked off "Transliterate unicode characters to ASCII" which has worked in the past -- but this only results in question marks appearing in brackets instead of the square [?] for the dashes.

It's a commercial epub I purchased and this is the first time it's happened. For all other books, checking the "Transliterate" function solves this problem.

Help!! It's an expensive ebook and I don't want to re-purchase it again -- any solutions? or is this a known bug with Calibre?

Thank you in advance!

Mark

Edit: Just for the heck of it, I tried running the same epub-to-epub in Calibre with the "Transliterate unicode characters to ASCII" option and the "converted" epub came out with the bracketed question marks substituted for dashes. When I ran it epub-to-epub without this option, the epub was just fine -- bit the problem persists when converting to mobi.

Last edit

!!

Well, it turns out the problem was NOT with Calibre but with Amazon's Kindle for PC viewer. When I viewed the converted mobi (with no Transliterate option), through Calibre's viewer, all the dashes were in their place and no squares. And when I transferred the file to my Kindle, also no problem. All is well.

For those having similar issues, check your conversions out with Calibre's viewer to see if they go away. I learned a valuable lesson...hopefully someone else will benefit from my experience.

Bless you, Calibre!! (donation on the way

06-23-2011, 11:53 AM	#1
markpearl Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 576732 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle	Epub to mobi problem with dashes I'm converting a number of my epubs to mobi for my new Kindle using Calibre, ver. 0.8.6. After the conversion, the dashes (en- or em- dashes, not sure) in the epub come out as squares in the mobi version. I've checked off "Transliterate unicode characters to ASCII" which has worked in the past -- but this only results in question marks appearing in brackets instead of the square [?] for the dashes. It's a commercial epub I purchased and this is the first time it's happened. For all other books, checking the "Transliterate" function solves this problem. Help!! It's an expensive ebook and I don't want to re-purchase it again -- any solutions? or is this a known bug with Calibre? Thank you in advance! Mark Edit: Just for the heck of it, I tried running the same epub-to-epub in Calibre with the "Transliterate unicode characters to ASCII" option and the "converted" epub came out with the bracketed question marks substituted for dashes. When I ran it epub-to-epub without this option, the epub was just fine -- bit the problem persists when converting to mobi. Last edit!! Well, it turns out the problem was NOT with Calibre but with Amazon's Kindle for PC viewer. When I viewed the converted mobi (with no Transliterate option), through Calibre's viewer, all the dashes were in their place and no squares. And when I transferred the file to my Kindle, also no problem. All is well. For those having similar issues, check your conversions out with Calibre's viewer to see if they go away. I learned a valuable lesson...hopefully someone else will benefit from my experience. Bless you, Calibre!! (donation on the way Last edited by markpearl; 06-23-2011 at 12:50 PM.