[GUI Plugin] TextDiff - Version 1.3.1 - 09-27-2025
A Calibre GUI plugin for finding text differences in two book formats.
Main features:
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This plugin shows the differences between two selected book formats.
The formats are first converted to text format (even if the source format is already text) with Calibre's convert utility (
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/gen...k-convert.html).
If the conversion fails, the format has no text content (as scanned PDF files) or Calibre cannot find an appropriate conversion tool (as Microsoft wordconv).
Then the text files obtained this way are read into memory and possibly edited (removing blank lines, soft hyphens, ...).
Then the compare is done with Python's DiffLib (
https://docs.python.org/3/library/difflib.html).
The ratio gives a measure for the similarity of the two texts. 1.0 means the texts are identical, a value near 0.0 means that the texts are complete different.
The last thing may also occur, when the source format has no text content (as scanned PDF files). Then one should create a new book format (text) with an extra OCR process.
The detailed workflow is as follows:
1. Select a book with at least two formats or two books with at least one format each to compare.
2. Chose two formats.
3. Chose the output format and other comparison options.
4. Hit "Compare".
5. The formats are converted and compared and the result is displayed in the output window. A ratio is also computed and displayed.
6. If wished, copy the comparison output to the clipboard and/or save it to a file and/or save it as book with an suitable format (HTML or text).
If you want to compare other formats, repeat step 1 and hit the "Refresh formats" button. Then repeat steps 2 - 5.
The "Compare"-Dialog is modeless, what permits to move it around and touch the Calibre screen.
Limitations:
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- The converted formats are stored as strings in memory, so extreme large formats may run out of memory.
Version History:
Installation:
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Download the attached zip file and install the plugin as described in the plugins thread on mobileread.
You need to add the calibre path to your $PATH variable.
To report Bugs and suggestions:
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If you find any issues or have suggestions, please report them on GitHub or in the MobileRead Forum.