Calibre Conversion for iPad / iPod

[Archon]

Hey all,

I am loading my Calibre with hundreds of book files and converting them to epub as I go.

Does anyone have any good tips on how to setup Calibre for epub conversion that will look the best on iPad / iPod?

I am using Stanza as a reader as it seems to have the best options and utilizes the whole screen.

Some books look good and others have formatting problems that I am wondering if I just need to check some boxes on Calibre to correct.

I can experiment a lot but wondered if someone had a good basic setup for the formatting when converting to epub for iPad.

Thanks in advance for your thoughtful help.
Archon

[itimpi]

There is no magic formula for this. The defaults do for most conversions, but depending on both the source format and the quality of the source format you may need to make tweaks for individual books.

On the iPad my favourite epub readers are iBooks (which has excellent Calibre integration) and QuickReader (MegaReader) which integrates with the Calibre Content Server. I have given up on Stanza as it appears to have been abandoned in terms of any further development and support since Amazon took over LexCycle (the Stanza authors).

[snipenekkid]

there are a couple options but best I've found is to keep Stanza installed so you can read epub books. Then you can download direct to your PC then drag and drop into or out of iTunes where you can bring it into Calibre. This way you can download direct to your iPod/iPhone or your PC via Stanza for sites has support it anyway.

It's sort of kludgy and far from transparent but hey this is the great family of devices every just haaaaas to have. Don't get me wrong here, I actually LOVE reading on my Touch and find it more useful every day but the penalty is the system is too locked down for content. It builds "loyalty" via forced-compliance. Jobs seems to have learned his craft at the feet of the IRS where forced compliance is patriotic.

Thought I would add this page from Webscriptions which is where I learned how to use Stanza as a work around for the issue:

http://www.webscription.net/t-iphone.aspx

It actually offers several potential solutions. If I missed anything, sorry, I've only owned my first Apple device, the Touch 4th Gen. since this past Saturday so not even a week yet.

[JMikeD]

Originally Posted by itimpi

TI have given up on Stanza as it appears to have been abandoned in terms of any further development and support since Amazon took over LexCycle (the Stanza authors).

They released an update for the iPad/iPhone last June, quite awhile after being purchased by Amazon. I don't think we can call them abandoned just yet. But they are pretty slow about updates.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by JMikeD

They released an update for the iPad/iPhone last June, quite awhile after being purchased by Amazon. I don't think we can call them abandoned just yet. But they are pretty slow about updates.

I disagree here. Since their support staff have not visited their own support forum (that they created) for over 6 months that is a bit more than a "slow update" problem.

[itimpi]

nippenekid: I used to use Stanza, but have switched to mainly using iBooks. If you do not want iBooks then there are other epub handling ereader applications such as Quickreader and Bluefire that are still actively being developed and that support OPDS compatible catalogs (such as calibre Content server can provide) for over-the-air book downloading.

It is worth pointing out that the latest iBooks update added support for downloading epub format books via Safari into iBooks. This means you can now get books from the Calibre Content server into iBooks "over-the-air" which was one of the big advatnages other ereadering software had. There is also the fact that iBooks loading via itunes is well integrated into Calibre itself.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by itimpi

It is worth pointing out that the latest iBooks update added support for downloading epub format books via Safari into iBooks. This means you can now get books from the Calibre Content server into iBooks "over-the-air" which was one of the big advatnages other ereadering software had. There is also the fact that iBooks loading via itunes is well integrated into Calibre itself.

You can also now open ebooks in iBooks from an email message attachment, very handy.

G

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by GRiker

You can also now open ebooks in iBooks from an email message attachment, very handy.

G

I guess that is another side-effect of the fact that iBooks now registers itself as being able to handle an epub file type. In fact It goes further in that any apoplication that does handling of files and offers a "open in" function will now normally offer iBooks as an option for epub files (along with any other epub capable applciations installed).

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by itimpi

nippenekid: I used to use Stanza, but have switched to mainly using iBooks. If you do not want iBooks then there are other epub handling ereader applications such as Quickreader and Bluefire that are still actively being developed and that support OPDS compatible catalogs (such as calibre Content server can provide) for over-the-air book downloading.

It is worth pointing out that the latest iBooks update added support for downloading epub format books via Safari into iBooks. This means you can now get books from the Calibre Content server into iBooks "over-the-air" which was one of the big advatnages other ereadering software had. There is also the fact that iBooks loading via itunes is well integrated into Calibre itself.

oh, cool. Thanks for that info. All this Apple stuff has me more confuzzled than normal. But am loving the iPod for sure.