MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - ePub to ePub

ChristopherTD · 01-15-2010, 03:52 AM

I am experimenting with how to get ePub books to render nicely on my Sony PRS-600. This isn't a problem with format shifted titles as the Calibre conversion with some Custom CSS works nicely.

However, books purchased natively in ePub format are very variable and don't yield nicely to a simple fix. Looking further at a particularly obstinate title (Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson) I turned on the debug option and looked at the various stages. It occurred to me that the simplest way to influence the appearance was simply hand editting the CSS in the "input" folder and then rebundling up the book from there. This works nicely and has the advantage that it hasn't been "translated" (just in case that subtly alters something).

So...

Is it feasible to have 2 extra options in Calibre?

Extract CSS - to extract the CSS from an ePub book and pop it into the directory where Calibre stores the book

Replace CSS - to reinsert the CSS from that (following edit) into the book?

Is there even a standard name/location for CSS? If there was and these two options were available it would dramatically simplify messing with the appearance of an ePub book, without altering the actual book content?

Vaguely possible or wildly improbable?

01-15-2010, 03:52 AM	#1
ChristopherTD Addict Posts: 343 Karma: 1010002 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: London. UK Device: Marvin Reader on iPad Air (via Calibre)	ePub to ePub - just replace CSS? I am experimenting with how to get ePub books to render nicely on my Sony PRS-600. This isn't a problem with format shifted titles as the Calibre conversion with some Custom CSS works nicely. However, books purchased natively in ePub format are very variable and don't yield nicely to a simple fix. Looking further at a particularly obstinate title (Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson) I turned on the debug option and looked at the various stages. It occurred to me that the simplest way to influence the appearance was simply hand editting the CSS in the "input" folder and then rebundling up the book from there. This works nicely and has the advantage that it hasn't been "translated" (just in case that subtly alters something). So... Is it feasible to have 2 extra options in Calibre? Extract CSS - to extract the CSS from an ePub book and pop it into the directory where Calibre stores the book Replace CSS - to reinsert the CSS from that (following edit) into the book? Is there even a standard name/location for CSS? If there was and these two options were available it would dramatically simplify messing with the appearance of an ePub book, without altering the actual book content? Vaguely possible or wildly improbable?