Comic Formatting for Kindle

[BRGriff]

I download comics from Comics.com and Arcamax using Starson17's recipes. I have no problem with the recipe downloading the comics and I'm grateful for all the work Starson17 has put into the matter (especially with Arcamax).

Here is my issue and question: When I open the downloaded comics in the Kindle, it shows one comic per page. But if I open the same download in the Calibre viewer, it shows multiple comics per page. I assume (never a good thing to do!!!) that Calibre is structured to remove white spaces between the strips. Is there any way to replicate this in the Kindle mobi conversion?

Hope I have made sense of what I am asking.

Thank you,
Randy

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by brgriff

When I open the downloaded comics in the Kindle, it shows one comic per page. But if I open the same download in the Calibre viewer, it shows multiple comics per page.

Hmmm. All the comics recipes I've written, including comics.com, gocomics and Arcamax work the same way. Each comic strip (the comic strip published on a single day) is fetched as a single article, and each should appear on one (or more pages). I've never seen multiple strips on a single page. Are you perhaps asking about multiple pages per comic strip? I've looked at all my recipes in the calibre viewer and can't recall ever seeing multiple comics on a single page.

[BRGriff]

When I download the comic strips and double click them in the Calibre library, the Calibre Viewer opens and I get multiple comics per page. I have attached a screen capture to show how the comics appear. See if you get the same results.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by brgriff

When I download the comic strips and double click them in the Calibre library, the Calibre Viewer opens and I get multiple comics per page. I have attached a screen capture to show how the comics appear. See if you get the same results.

No, I don't see that. I'm pretty sure it's because you have set your default device to a Kindle and are converting to mobi format, not epub. The recipe system does special processing to remove the navbar and other navigation features, including the link to the page where the comic was downloaded (the Kindle has its own nav control and has no browser to follow the link).

I create normal EPUBs, not MOBI and unlike the Kindles, my devices are all internet browser capable, so I want the external links.

I don't like multiple strips on a single page. I put all comic strips on my handheld with custom recipe code that turns wide comic strips on their side so I can use the maximum space. It makes them much more readable. That code is posted in the code sticky here in the recipe forum.

[kovidgoyal]

The calibre viewer does not support page breaks in MOBI. Open your file on the Kindle or using Kindle Previewer.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The calibre viewer does not support page breaks in MOBI. Open your file on the Kindle or using Kindle Previewer.

If I understood him correctly:

1) he sees no page breaks with the viewer (that makes sense, as I assume he's viewing mobi and you say the calibre viewer doesn't support them),
2) he does see breaks on the Kindle, and
3) he wants to not see those breaks on the Kindle (so that the Kindle view looks like the calibre view).

This sounds like a Kindle question - is it possible to turn off page breaks so that it looks like the calibre viewer?

[BRGriff]

You indeed understand me correctly Starson17! You have stated my case much better than I was doing! Thank you.

[kovidgoyal]

I know of no way to do that.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I know of no way to do that.

Nor do I. If it's possible to do, this isn't the best forum to ask about it.

The other approach would be to rewrite the comic recipes to put multiple strips on a single page.

I'm not interested in doing it:

1) The structure of the recipe would have to be drastically changed. With the current structure, each date is a single article and you can use the TOC to go directly to the date of interest. I do that a lot. Switching to a single page for multiple strips means treating multiple days as a single article.

2) This would use up the space that is currently used to rotate images.

[BRGriff]

In the Calibre Preferences/Conversion/Common Options, there is a setting for "Remove spacing between paragraphs". Why can there not be an item for "Remove page breaks"? Since the Calibre Viewer does that, why can it not be done in the conversion process? Just inquiring! Thank you.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by brgriff

In the Calibre Preferences/Conversion/Common Options, there is a setting for "Remove spacing between paragraphs". Why can there not be an item for "Remove page breaks"? Since the Calibre Viewer does that, why can it not be done in the conversion process? Just inquiring! Thank you.

In the output from the comics recipes, these aren't simple page breaks. It's a directory structure of dozens of folders, each with html files, images, etc. The TOC is a first html file with links to multiple other html files, one for each author's comic, and each of those html files links to multiple other html files, one for each strip date, and each of those pages has pointers to an image file for the specific date of that strip.

Removing whitespace between paragraphs works on a single file at a time, which is relatively easy. That's not to say that something like collapsing multiple files into single pages can't be done, but it's a lot different from removing whitespace between paragraphs.

[BRGriff]

I am not suggesting the approach to my inquiry is to change the "recipe". As I understand it, there are three steps to a book conversion: use an input file; transform that to an XHTML file; and finally create an output file. A recipe creates the input file and after that, Calibre takes over. It is the Calibre transformation and outputting process where I believe the page breaks can be deleted if that option were made available in the conversion settings.

I hope I am not being a bother, but I do appreciate the time and input you are giving to this matter. Thank you!!!

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by brgriff

I am not suggesting the approach to my inquiry is to change the "recipe". As I understand it, there are three steps to a book conversion: use an input file; transform that to an XHTML file; and finally create an output file. A recipe creates the input file and after that, Calibre takes over. It is the Calibre transformation and outputting process where I believe the page breaks can be deleted if that option were made available in the conversion settings.

I hope I am not being a bother, but I do appreciate the time and input you are giving to this matter. Thank you!!!

The description I gave applies to the XHTML and EPUB output. All recipes create that structure of multiple html files in a tree of folders - the deepest corresponding to an individual article. I was explaining why deleting page breaks is not like deleting paragraph breaks. They aren't page breaks, even though they produce page-break like behavior in an e-reader.

[BRGriff]

It is apparent I have a lot to learn and think it would behoove me to do more reading and learning and less posting. Thank you for your courtesy, time and effort.