Bulk Change CSS in mutiple ePubs

[icallaci]

I realize this is a long shot, but thought I'd ask anyway: the Quality Check plugin has identified ~500 epubs in my library where the CSS contains "line-height: 1;" or "line-height: 1em;". I'd like to change all of these to "line-height: 0;" but the thought of editing 500+ files one at a time is daunting. I've searched for a Windows utility that will do a batch search and replace but after downloading and trying six of them without finding one that will do the job, I'm about to give up. Does anyone know of a Windows utility (preferably free) that will search and replace the text inside epub files? I've tried grepWin, FAR, FNR, TextCrawler, and others without luck. Of course, I'd love it if the Quality Check plugin would allow a simple search and replace (since it already does the search part so quickly and reliably), but I also realize that's not likely to happen. So...can't hurt to ask, right? Thanks.

[kovidgoyal]

Use

calibre-debug --expode-book file.epub

which will unpack file.epub into a temp dir and then wait for you to type y after making your changes and then recreate the epub from the temp dir.

You can automate it by using something like expect to pass in the y automatically after running the replace tool.

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Use

calibre-debug --expode-book file.epub

which will unpack file.epub into a temp dir and then wait for you to type y after making your changes and then recreate the epub from the temp dir.

You can automate it by using something like expect to pass in the y automatically after running the replace tool.

Yes! Thank you! I was so focused on finding a grep-like tool to parse through the files that I couldn't see any other possible solutions. I'll give that a try tomorrow after a good night's sleep. Thanks again.

[kovidgoyal]

And this change https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...b4ef814c4ad0ea

should make it much simpler to automate.

[BeckyEbook]

This commit is great gift for me!
--explode-book and --implode-book with specified folders – that's what I was looking for!
Now I will be able to unpack the ebook, pass it through my edits/changes and pack it back.
Thank you!

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

And this change https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...b4ef814c4ad0ea

should make it much simpler to automate.

Oh, this is PERFECT! I woke up and it was Christmas morning. Thank you so much.

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

And this change https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...b4ef814c4ad0ea

should make it much simpler to automate.

Kovid, just wanted to let you know that this works beautifully. You have saved me so much time and effort. Thanks a million.

[kovidgoyal]

You're welcome

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by icallaci

I realize this is a long shot, but thought I'd ask anyway: the Quality Check plugin has identified ~500 epubs in my library where the CSS contains "line-height: 1;" or "line-height: 1em;". I'd like to change all of these to "line-height: 0;" but the thought of editing 500+ files one at a time is daunting.

Removing the line-height might work but setting it to 0? That is going to give rather interesting results -- the line-height is multiplied by the font size to generate the line height.

I've attached two screen shots, one from ADE 4.5 on my PC and the other from my KA1. Just a titch unreadable, IMNSHO.

[BetterRed]

Moderator Notice
Far as I can tell these posts have nothing to do with the Quality Check plugin, so I moved them into a new thread.

BR

[icallaci]

I always remove any line-height properties except for initial capitals and superscripts/subscripts, which I had been setting to 1. I've found that 0 works better for those. If I remove line-height from paragraph styles, I don't run into the problem you show in your images at all. So the only line-height properties remaining in my epubs are for <span> or <sup>/<sub> and 0 works great for those.

[theducks]

IMHO line-height: 1 is non-standard and not friendly to older eyes (even those that can read at normal font size). 1.2 is standard

I also set the line height in <body> and then only for Exceptions like icallaci has outlined

I do use a big line height (2-3) for chapter numbers with titles to control spacing

<h3 class="chapno">1 <br /> A Chapter w/Title</h3>

(This single heading way also includes the title in the TOC without having to resort to title="" in the H3 tag )

[JSWolf]

Given that icallaci reads with a Kobo, you don't want line-height in <body>. In fact, you want line-height removed where possible because Kobo has a line-height slider in the Aa settings.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by icallaci

I always remove any line-height properties except for initial capitals and superscripts/subscripts, which I had been setting to 1. I've found that 0 works better for those. If I remove line-height from paragraph styles, I don't run into the problem you show in your images at all. So the only line-height properties remaining in my epubs are for <span> or <sup>/<sub> and 0 works great for those.

The following is what I use for sub/superscripts without having extra space added between lines. I put line-height: 1.2; in the body class since I find it the easiest on my eyes. For chapter headings and other text where I want the white space, I use various margins. For initial/dropcaps, I have several styles to choose from depending on what appearance I want using various margin values to align the capital with the text.

sub {
  font-size: 0.675em;
  vertical-align: sub;
  vertical-align: -20%;
}

sup {
  font-size: 0.675em;
  vertical-align: super;
  vertical-align: 35%;
}

[icallaci]

Even when I read on Android, removing the line-height seems to default to whatever leading or line-height is built into the font itself, so I've never run into a problem with this. But, yes, I mostly read with a Kobo, which allows me to set the line-height for a font if I don't like the default spacing between lines. Works for me, and Kovid's super-duper --explode-book/--implode-book duo is fantastic!