MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - ePub creation tools : what's missing ? wishlist / dialogue

Mcnaz · 04-22-2009, 07:22 AM

Hi all.

Sorry to jump into this thread at this late stage but I stumbled in from Google whilst doing research on an EPUB Maker type application I am working on.

Brief Background.

I am a Book Designer (BD)/PRS-505 fan but got very frustrated with the inability to customise my own searches/replaces though advanced RegEx.

I've started coding an APP in Delphi that presents the user with a Rich Edit (based in RichEd20.dll V3) control which gives some semblance of WYSIWYG (i.e. bolding and simple formatting).

The goal is to have a BD type tool that is able to import from various formats (lit, pdf and so on) convert to html (using clit, pdf2html and so on),
clean the HTML and present to the user.

ATM I am at the import and clean HTML phase (using a few LIT -> clit.exe) examples and the produced HTML is dreadful! I am resorting to stripping all the HTML and rebuilding paragraphs. HTML stripping is done via loading the html into an IE COM object and saving as text... not ideal so I am looking at LIBXML2 implementation instead

I can see one obstacle ahead and that is that internally the document is stored as RTF (for the WYSIWYG) and this will need to be converted into HTML/XML when exporting to EPUB. I am currently researching the ability to embed control characters into RTF (i.e. chapter 1, heading, subheading) for use during the export.

I've read the first few pages of this thread and although a few interesting features are mentioned my goal is primarily to develop a tool that is aimed more towards importing/converting/tarting up then EPUB output as opposed to a full blown publishing platform (maybe in version 4!).

Again, suggestions/help will be welcome (I will lurk here for a while)

I will keep the thread updated on my progress

Cheers.

04-22-2009, 07:22 AM	#64
Mcnaz Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: PRS-505	I am Working an EPub Maker Hi all. Sorry to jump into this thread at this late stage but I stumbled in from Google whilst doing research on an EPUB Maker type application I am working on. Brief Background. I am a Book Designer (BD)/PRS-505 fan but got very frustrated with the inability to customise my own searches/replaces though advanced RegEx. I've started coding an APP in Delphi that presents the user with a Rich Edit (based in RichEd20.dll V3) control which gives some semblance of WYSIWYG (i.e. bolding and simple formatting). The goal is to have a BD type tool that is able to import from various formats (lit, pdf and so on) convert to html (using clit, pdf2html and so on), clean the HTML and present to the user. ATM I am at the import and clean HTML phase (using a few LIT -> clit.exe) examples and the produced HTML is dreadful! I am resorting to stripping all the HTML and rebuilding paragraphs. HTML stripping is done via loading the html into an IE COM object and saving as text... not ideal so I am looking at LIBXML2 implementation instead I can see one obstacle ahead and that is that internally the document is stored as RTF (for the WYSIWYG) and this will need to be converted into HTML/XML when exporting to EPUB. I am currently researching the ability to embed control characters into RTF (i.e. chapter 1, heading, subheading) for use during the export. I've read the first few pages of this thread and although a few interesting features are mentioned my goal is primarily to develop a tool that is aimed more towards importing/converting/tarting up then EPUB output as opposed to a full blown publishing platform (maybe in version 4!). Again, suggestions/help will be welcome (I will lurk here for a while) I will keep the thread updated on my progress Cheers.