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Old 01-10-2022, 05:11 PM   #8
Tex2002ans
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Posts: 2,306
Karma: 13057279
Join Date: Jul 2012
Device: Kobo Forma, Nook
Quote:
Originally Posted by bleopaskom View Post
I use Abbyy to convert PDFs to EPUB, and the conversions are almost perfect.
For Non-Fiction? With footnotes? Doubt it.

Perhaps for simple stuff like Fiction, you may be able to get near-perfect PDF->EPUB output from Finereader...

But with complicated Non-Fiction (footnotes/tables/charts), you'll need to manually correct lots of little issues.

See my response in 2017: "Converting pdf file of a scanned book to epub format":

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tex2002ans View Post
Depending on the export format, Finereader does try to do its best, but it botches the "linking back/forth footnotes" pretty badly. The only way to handle it is properly is to manually correct them.

There are some tools to kind of help speed up the process though:

[...]
You may also want to check out some of the other threads:

or do a search for:

Code:
footnotes PDF tex2002ans site:mobileread.com
footnotes EPUB tex2002ans site:mobileread.com
Footnotes have been discussed to death.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bleopaskom View Post
Do I have to do something in Abbyy first?

[...]

There was maybe something about exporting to Word and fixing it there, or using Sigil, or just making use of Toxaris ePUB-Tools, but I don't really understand how to do it.
I'm still on Finereader 12, but I doubt much changed in 15.

Depending on the book, it might be easier to go:
  • Finereader PDF
  • -> Save As "Formatted Text" DOCX
  • -> Word + Toxaris's EPUB Tools
  • -> EPUB.

This will avoid some of the worst Finereader EPUB problems, because:
  • Finereader's DOCX export is less buggy
    • The EPUB export sometimes randomly eats text, especially in footnotes.
  • Toxaris's EPUB Tools was designed for stripping/cleaning/fixing a lot of Finereader's cruft.

Toxaris's tools will also generate a MUCH cleaner EPUB file for you to work from, saving you tons of time.

See my posts in 2020: "OCRing + EPUBing my first book: Tips?" (especially Post #15 where I explain some of that).

Quote:
Originally Posted by bleopaskom View Post
Converting PDF to EPUB and automatically creating popup footnotes
See my posts from 2020 in "I have a DOCX with footnotes that I wanna turn to pop-up notes in ePub on Kobo Forma"...

But there are lots of Finereader footnote issues that you're going to hit, like:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tex2002ans View Post
  • While many footnotes were detected properly, many weren't.
    • On top of that, the problem with PDF->DOCX "automated footnotes" is... the numbers may now be thrown way off. If 1-4 + 6-10 were detected fine... Word will only think there are "9 actual footnotes". 5 will be floating in the text, and 6-10 will now be off by 1.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bleopaskom View Post
Is there a Calibre addon that can help link them automatically?
No.

Learn regular expressions. They'll be your best friend.

Depending on the book/errors that crept in, it may be just as simple as changing:

Code:
<sup>5</sup>
into

Code:
<a href="#fn5" id="ft5">[5]</a>
but, much more likely, you'll have to renumber (+manually move) all your footnotes again.

Finereader may have automatically detected 90% footnotes, but accidentally missed 10%, leaving them in the text itself.

When Finereader exports to other formats, it links + "helpfully" renumbers all your footnotes for you.

Original PDF:

Code:
As studies show,<sup>1</sup> brown cows do not
produce brown milk.<sup>2</sup>

This is another sentence with a footnote.<sup>3</sup>

- - -

<sup>1</sup> One. The studies.

<sup>2</sup> Two. They produce white milk.

<sup>3</sup> Three. More footnote.
Let's say Finereader correctly detected Footnotes 1+3, but missed 2:

Finereader EPUB:

Code:
<p>As studies show,<a id="footnote1"></a><sup><a href="#bookmark1">1</a></sup> brown cows do not
produce brown milk.<sup>2</sup></p>

<p>This is another sentence with a footnote.<a id="footnote2"></a><sup><a href="#bookmark2">2</a></sup></p>

<p><sup>2</sup> Two. They produce white milk.</p>

[...]

- - -

<p><a id="bookmark1"></a><a href="#footnote1">1</a> One. The studies.</p>

<p><a id="bookmark2"><a href="#footnote2">2</a> Three. More footnote.</p>
Whoops, now you have to correct all the numbering. AND you have to manually move footnote 2 into its proper location.

... No automated tool can magically find/correct this stuff. You have to manually spot and fix this.

(There are a few tricks/speedier ways, but it's still a lot of manual legwork + various methods you have to stitch together. Every single book is going to have completely different issues crop up.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by bleopaskom View Post
A step-by-step guide would be appreciated.
Doesn't exist.

There's too many variables.

All the individual pieces have been explained on MobileRead though, in extreme depth.

Whatever problem you have, you can usually type this in your favorite search engine:

Code:
type out your exact problem Tex2002ans site:mobileread.com
type out your exact problem Hitch site:mobileread.com
and me and/or Hitch probably answered it already.

But what you want: a simple PDF->EPUB, one-button-press, turnkey solution... it just doesn't exist.

Last edited by Tex2002ans; 01-10-2022 at 05:40 PM.
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