Problem with converting PDF's

[LaaurenTaaylor]

When I download a PDF from the internet and put it into Calibre, everythings fine and the conversion process works. I then put the book onto my Kindle and everythings wonderful. However, with some books, when I have converted it from a PDF to a MOBI file, when put onto my kindle, the layout is really odd. It'll put paragraphs after every line so the format of the text looks really disjointed and hard to read.
Any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong?? Have found an amazing site with books on and only some of the are in the right layout on my Kindle.
Please help if you can.

Thanks,
Lauren

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by LaaurenTaaylor

Any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong??

You're not doing anything wrong. PDF is the worst format to use as a source for conversion. Read the sticky post at the top of this forum titled "Read this before Posting PDF Questions" for more information.

Originally Posted by LaaurenTaaylor

However, with some books, when I have converted it from a PDF to a MOBI file, when put onto my kindle, the layout is really odd. It'll put paragraphs after every line so the format of the text looks really disjointed and hard to read.

Try adjusting the Line unwrap-factor (under pdf input in the conversion options) during conversion to smooth out this particular problem.

[LaaurenTaaylor]

I may have actually solved the issue!
It may only be for the layout, but when converting the pdf, I checked the Heuristic processing box and then unchecked the ones I didn't want.
Seems to fit fine on the screen now.

Thank you for your help anyway!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by LaaurenTaaylor

I may have actually solved the issue!
It may only be for the layout, but when converting the pdf, I checked the Heuristic processing box and then unchecked the ones I didn't want.
Seems to fit fine on the screen now.

Thank you for your help anyway!

Just because you had success this time with PDF, the 'It is a bad format to start with' rule still applies. PDF's with both Images and Text will almost always fail to match (even be close to) the original.

[LaaurenTaaylor]

Most of the books I plan to read don't have images in anyway, so it's not a huge problem for me

[BetterRed]

@LaaurenTaaylor if you use Windows:-

Then, if ever you have a pdf which Calibre doesn't convert satisfactorily, try using the MobiCreator tool - there's a link in the "Read this ..." sticky.

It creates a PRC which you can then Calibre convert to Epub, Mobi etc. My experience is that it normally does a better job than Calibre at PDF conversions. And because PRC is 'more-or-less' the same as MOBI, then Calibre should convert PRC very 'faithfully' to your preferred target format.

Don't look for any 'tweaks' in MobiCreator, there are none, apart from output destination and a couple of other such settings. I think there's a How To Use video on YouTube.

BR