[theboyk]

Hello.

I just purchased a Kobo Touch the other day and have a couple questions regarding ePub > ePub conversions. First, a little background:

I had previously been using my iPhone as an eBook reader. I didn't have an issue with the size of the screen, but I didn't like the backlight for reading (so really, I never used it — just read "oldschool" paper-based books. <G> Anyway, I tested out the Kobo Touch and just really liked how the screen looked for reading, so decided to get one as a dedicated eBook reader.

First thing I did was purchased a book, via wifi, from the store, and so far, no major complaints. For basic reading, the device does the job quite well. Then, I loaded up a "generic" ePub I had kicking around (from when I first tried reading on my iPhone) and while the Touch displayed the file, it didn't do a great job (I don't blame the Touch, it was just a random ePub file, obviously not formatted for the Kobo device).

So, I fired up Calibre and did an ePub > ePub conversion on the file and it looked a heck of a lot better. So, I spent an hour or so tweaking the Calibre settings, converting, testing on the device, tweaking some more, converting, and so on. In the end, I ended up with a pretty well working file on the Touch — not perfect, but pretty darned good. That said, below are some observations/questions in the hopes that I can fine-tune this process further.

For the ePub > ePub conversion, for Page Setup, I used the "Default Input Profile" (as I have no idea what the source actually was) for the input profile, and for the output profile, I choose Kobo Reader.

After converting, using the default settings, I found that the resulting ePub file, when loaded onto the device, didn't respond to the Kobo Touch setting to change the margins. They seemed stuck at the 5pt Margins (set in Calibre via Page Setup). The eBook I purchased from the Kobo Store didn't have this issue and responded to margin changes (via Kobo Touch settings options). So, back in Calibre, I loaded up the file again and this time I set Look & Feel > Filter Style Information > Margins to "checked". I converted and loaded the file back onto the Touch. Now, the margins setting on the touch worked fine. So, I assume that by default, Calibre is setting the margins via CSS, and the Touch can't override this. None-the-less, setting the Filter Style Information to remove the Margins CSS fixed this.

Along the same line, I also found that the resulting converted file, when viewed on the device, wouldn't respond to line-spacing changes (when modified via the Kobo settings to increase/decrease line-spacing). So, I'm wondering if anyone knows how I'd solve this issue? It looks like Calibre is setting these values, again, via Look & Feel (and again, as CSS, I assume), but I'm unsure how to "remove" this so the Touch can actually modify line-spacing? Any suggestions?

This only other, minor issue, I have is with respect to the page count. On the ePub that I purchased, when I view the book, along the footer it displays "Page X of Y" with regards to how many pages there are in the current chapter (Y) and what page I'm on (X), this updates with each page turn, and dynamically changes depending on margin size, font size, etc. But, when I view a generic ePub file, while it still displays "Page X of Y", it looks like "Y" is the actual number of pages the book originally had and "X" is the overall page I'm on — so, depending on margin size, font size, etc., "X" only updates every 3-4 virtual page-turns (which, I assume, equal a "real" page of the original text). Is there any way, via Calibre, to make the generic ePub act more like a Kobo ePub in this respect?

That's about it for now. If anyone has any suggestions on the above, or any other advice with regards to conversions for the Kobo Touch, it'd be appreciated!

Thanks,
k.