Thread: If I convert an epub to .txt with Calibre, what does it look like?
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Old 10-29-2010, 10:24 AM   #2
bill_mchale
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Quote:
Originally Posted by theusualuser View Post
I don't have a Jetbook, Jetbook lite or Jetbook Mini yet (waiting for the time to strike on ebay), but I was wondering what it would look like when I convert a bunch of disinfected (no more drm) .epubs to .txt to read. Do they (generally) keep all the paragraphs and indents and quotation marks so that they still look like a book, or do they just end up looking like garbage? I'm wondering because I'm seriously considering buying some sort of Jetbook (including the Jetbook Mini for the sexy form factor). Also, it's just good to know, since I've read the forums a little bit and have noticed that a lot of people either seem to like .epub, .txt or .rtf.

Thanks in advance for the help, guys!
Well, if you get the Jetbook or Jetbook-Lite, there is no reason to convert to .txt. They handle epubs, even DRM'd epub just fine.

An epub to text conversion will essentially replace all the special characters with ascii equivalents. Thus a medium or long dash will be replaced with "--", likewise if they use special open and close quotes, they will get replaced with the generic '"' you get when you are typing in a text editor.

I think what you really loose those is special formatting to indicate emphasis. Italics and bold text are completely gone. In many, indeed most books, this won't matter, but it will in some. If I were willing to compromise and get a Jetbook Mini, I think I would convert most of my books to .fb2 and hope that Calibre does a good job of it (It generally does a good job at conversions, but I have no experience with it doing .fb2).

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Bill
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