PDF to EPUB

[yuxi_kelly]

when i convert a PDF to EPUB by using Adobe indesign CS5, but it comes out images for every page.
i want to konw what is wrong?
and how can i get it in text format?

[DonaldL.]

I don't know much about the pdf file format, but I do know that some pdf files are just image files strung together into one file. Your pdf seems to be one of those.

OCR software be what you are looking for.

[Mostly Math]

Calibre will convert from PDF to epub http://calibre-ebook.com/

I also have had some success with http://www.online-convert.com/

[CazMar]

I know what you mean - but I think the problem is with the PDF file, not the converter. Some scanning is done as image files, other PDF files are produced by converting a text document (ie Word or RTF etc). If someone is scanning an old book then what they produce are image files of each page. If you use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software you may be able to extract the text, BUT, if the original document was old, badly marked, had underlining and notes scribbled in the margin, the poor old OCR software is going to have a bad time! A lot of Google books have been converted this way and the epub files can be a bit strange - lots of gobbledygook (or should that be googlygook?)

[wannabee]

Yuxy, I'm currently converting a printed book to ePub and couldn't get the original InDesign or Quark file. I only had the print ready PDF. After exporting it many ways, doc, rtf etc I kept getting paragraph returns at the end of each line. Search and replace left me with one giant paragraph. What I did was export it as HTML with CSS1 and open it in the browser. From the browser I cut and paste into InDesign. You lose the styles which actually, for me, is a good thing because I'm using standard styles across a couple of books.
If you end up with each page as an image you'll need to take CazMar's advise.

[AshleyWilis]

hi, I am new here.. Well I think you should reinstall the converter and try once again if you are confident about the file content..

[wannabee]

You know I had read so many bad reports at how calibre converts pdfs I hadn't tried it but Mostly Maths comment made me get of my backside. The result is that it converted each page as a chapter which although now fragmented I think you could just cut and paste the code in an editor. I've played a bit with sigil and I think that would work. Although I'd need to learn how to fly the sigil toc editor. I couldn't reproduce the instruction manual's advise but I'm sure it can be done with the right instruction.
It added all the pics, kept the headers and footers and the tables are a mess.
Though I've seen a lot worse conversion out of acrobat.
You learn something new here every day.
Thanks MostlyMath.

@AshleyWilis which converter? I was using EXPORT

[wannabee]

BTW welcome to MR Ashley.

[yuxi_kelly]

no no no, my pdf is ok ,i can copy text out from my PDF to a Microsoft word.

and i tried ,every PDF, I convert them to EPUB by indesign, it comes out images for every page.

is indesign always works in this way? is indesign "looks" PDF as images only?

[wannabee]

I don't know Yuxi because I didn't try that method because I assumed it was just too complicated a way of getting an ePub from PDF. Did you try ORIGINAL from the IMAGES selection when exporting from InDesign? FORMAT will turn any placed image in InDesign to whatever the selected output is . . . GIF, JPEG or AUTO all become images at the same size they display in InDesign. Because that's what FORMAT does it converts placed images in InDesign into ePub readable images at the size they are displayed in InDesign.

So I'm sure InDesign is treating the placed PDFs as images because they are, after all, in an images box. You could try ORIGINAL and see what result you get. I've not tried this because I hadn't thought that Adobe would have a converter for PDF built into the export feature when they don't even supply an input field for the date metadata.

Having not actually solved your problem others may be searching for similar reasons so I'll mention a few other things I've gleaned.

Another step I'd try if you can cope with the page as a resizable image is opening the PDF in Illustrator and converting the file to SVG. However this wasn't as simple as I thought. I had to track down a third party supplier that has an Illustrator plug in for SVG support as it's not a standard Adobe supplied format any more.

SVG opened up a whole new can of worms for me because every post I found on using SVG on Mobile Read was by people that could actually write SVG and were writing it into there XHTML files or using it for scientific glyphs embedded in text. I'm more of a cut and paste guy and code at the end when I have absolutely no choice.

I have only been successful with SVG from InDesign for my needs while treating it as an image. So, from Illustrator, I converted all text as outlines and treated the converted PDF as an image.

I know we have come full circle with PDF as images, but at least they are scalable images (on an iPad - or futurePad) which are perfectly readable.

It's great on an iPad. Double tap and the image explodes and you scroll around the image. However not searchable. Also any jpg, tiff or similar image in the PDF which converts to SVG is lost. People that can really code xhtml and svg together can put them back together but I can't and just getting my head around basic xhtml to make ePubs is filling my little teacup to overflowing.

Boy would I like to see lots of replies to your problem because it's certainly going to help me too.

To finish and to quote those that precede me

There's the hard way and there's hard way. (you know who you are, I'm new and still getting my head around this like Yuxi)

[yuxi_kelly]

thank you so much for telling me a lot. i am really appreciate it.

my problem is: i only have PDF(including text, pictures, table, index ,all kinds styles), and i do not have indd files, but i want to use adobe indesgin to convert PDF to EPUB and it should be text format.

my PDFs are in text format, and i can copy every thing out from my PDF to Microsoft Word.

can you tell me exactly how should i place a PDF into Adobe indesgin and keep it in text format?

can i convert a PDF to indd files, and then convert it to epub?

[eping]

I am afraid there's no excellent PDF to ePub solution till now.

There're a lot of PDF to ePub converters, commercial or free, but none
can be satisfying, that may due to the born difference between PDF and ePub,
two formats on different thoughts from the bottom.

If you have the source file before PDF creation, it should be better.

[KLUTCH]

Originally Posted by Mostly Math

Calibre will convert from PDF to epub http://calibre-ebook.com/

I also have had some success with http://www.online-convert.com/

online-convert.com uses calibre to do it's conversions.

---
stunjelly.com
ebook formatting and repairs

[wannabee]

Yuxi, Yes InDesign looks at PDF as images only. When InDesign exports PDF to ePub you can select ORIGINALS or FORMATTED in the IMAGES window while exporting. If you select ORIGINAL all it does is put the PDF inside the images folder in the ePub and point the reading devise to the PDF because all devises can read PDF. If you select FORMATTED it converts the PDF into a JPG or GIF depending upon which one is selected. If left selected to AUTO InDesign chooses one for you.

If you import a PDF into InDesign it seems that it can only exported to ePub as an image or a PDF. So you need to extract the text from the PDF before you put the text into InDesign.

[Rizla]

I believe it is best to convert PDF to HTML, then in Calibre convert the HTML to EPUB. As I understand it, Calibre is happier dealing with HTML.

Most of the time I simply use the PDF.