[DoctorOhh]

Ignorance Alert!

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Instead of expressing anger, how about trying to educate yourself on the processes involved in converting files.

As I stated above you should really try and educate yourself on ebook formats. Your ignorance of ereaders/ebooks and how the document flows is apparent throughout your post.

Originally Posted by DVC

First, .doc is not supported so that route is closed.

The format .doc is not an ereader format, but if you save as filtered html (trashing most of the garbage it places in a HTML file) it can be a good place where beginners can gain some control over there ereader documents.

Originally Posted by DVC

Second, converting to HTML will destroy a book's format. The result will be as bad as a web-page. I know, I've used Word to make HTMLs.

Most ereader formats are at their core html. Since html is their core, converting first to html is a sensible first step in any conversion process. This does not destroy a book's format, this is the books format. (My own ignorance alert, html, xml some sort of ml )

The format for ereaders is a reflowable format which is critical to have books look good across various size devices and html does this very well.

Originally Posted by DVC

LIT? What the hell is that?

Until the epub standard .lit (Microsoft) and .mobi (MobiPocket) seemed to be the standard in digital reader formats. To talk about what an ereader/management/conversion package should and shouldn't be able to do but have no clue about one of the widest available formats for digital books is very telling.

Originally Posted by DVC

In reality, PDF is the only input format needed for making eBooks.

PDF is a poor input format for ebooks made/sold to read on most ereaders. Most ereaders will read PDF files but they have to contort themselves to do it. Generic PDF documents will be fine for larger devices but unless specifically formatted to be viewed on an ereader, the PDF format is currently limited as a preferred ereader format.

From Adobe:

PDF represents a fixed-page view and gives the publisher complete control over page layout and presentation. The reader consumes content exactly as the publisher intended. EPUB allows digital publication text to reflow according to screen size, enabling the publisher to distribute and the reader to consume digital publications on a variety of screen sizes.

Adobe did release a reflowable text Software Development Kit early last year to start to address the fact that PDF sucks for ereaders is severely limited for various size devices due to being primary a print/layout format designed before ereaders existed.

Originally Posted by DVC

Why list RTF if it can't convert an RTF with pictures.

... ~~~ ... ~~~ ...

What's so radical about JPEGs?

My reader supports JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP. I'm guessing that Calibre supports these standards in RTF files too.

Originally Posted by DVC

And, since EPUB is designed for BOOKS -- the comments that one cannot expect to convert BOOKS kind of defeats the purpose of a CONVERTER TO EPUB.

Properly formatted lit, html, mobi, and epub are all html based formats that can be converted from one to the other easily enough within Calibre.

PDF books and magazines are for the most part designed to be printed or read in the exact layout they were created. To expect to easily convert those books to a format that can be read on anything from a iPhone to a Kindle is ludicrous.

Originally Posted by DVC

Now, were there a way to interactively edit the EPUB output so one could fix conversion problems -- it would be acceptable given the likelihood of conversion errors. But, there isn't. The Debug feature is a joke -- a folder full of .jpegs.)

A html editor of your choice is fine to interactively edit the EPUB output. Just change the extension from epub to zip and unzip it. Of course if you looked around this forum there is an interactive epub editor called Sigil in development. Once Sigil reaches a certain level of maturity it wouldn't surprise me to see it either integrated into Calibre or be able to be called from within Calibre.

Originally Posted by DVC

Sorry, to be so negative, but Caliber simply doesn't make eBooks than can be sold.

You aren't so much negative as you are laughable.

Calibre isn't a ebook development platform, but there are companies who do use Calibre to create alternate formats for purchase from their original HTML source.

Originally Posted by DVC

So, I'm not sure why it was written. Converting LIT to EPUB. Why?

Maybe you should start here.

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Like everyone I will make incorrect statements, but I try my best not to embarrass myself by speaking in areas that I am ignorant. I'll ask questions to help myself overcome my ignorance, but I will not stand up proudly and shout my ignorance at the top of my lungs.

If you really want to make the most of your iphone as an ereader, shed your ignorance and start the process of educating yourself on ebook formats.