Epub3->PDF failing in odd way

ghmerrill · 11-30-2020, 09:18 PM

This is goofy. I'll appreciate any insight into it.

I'm in the final stages of publishing a book on Amazon and my Sigil-made Epub3 file passes the Epub validator with no errors, uploads to Kindle, converts perfectly and displays on all the devices and viewers I have available to me. Now I need to generate the PDF for the print version. I suck it into Calibre, set what seem to be reasonable parameters, convert it to PDF. I look at it in Acrobat Reader and it has frequent rendering errors -- which appear to be characterers overlaid on one another. Large chunks of it are fine, but it looks like someone just scattered random wrong characters all over. This Epub3 book contains 20 XHTML files and is about 140K words. I've spent all day tracking this down, and whittled it down to a test case consisting of only two short XHTML files (my Copyright and my Preface) that exhibits the same problem.

The first file is rendered perfectly in PDF. The second file is mostly rendered fine, but the first header (e.g., <h1> or <h2>) is render incorrectly, and then seemingly random words are rendered incorrectly. It doesn't matter which order the files are in, it's always the second (and subsequent) file in the order that exhibits the problem. For example, in the "<h1>Preface</h1>" tag, what appears is an upper case P followed by a space, then an "e", an "f" overlaid with an "a", and the final "e". The first letter of the following sentence begins with "This", but has the "T" and "h" overlaid. The rest of that paragraph is fine, but half-way through the following paragraph there is another overlay of "t" and "h" in what should be "the".

Multiple header tags in the first file are rendered without any problems.

I have not yet tried converting this to Epub2 to see if that would make a difference. I'm just trying to convert my book to PDF so I can submit that format to Amazon for the print version.

Any ideas?

kovidgoyal · 11-30-2020, 09:45 PM

It's caused bya bug in Qt https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...e0daad174b5578

either downgrade to 5.5 or wait for th enext release.

ghmerrill · 11-30-2020, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

It's caused bya bug in Qt ...

Ah ... been there. Thanks. Saves me a lot of effort. I'll probably try downgrading. Waiting is not an option at this point. So I'll either get the older version to work or try a different route.

bkantique · 12-01-2020, 06:23 AM

Hi

Just ready to send a message about the same issue I am happy to see that's a bug and not something else save me a lot of time

If I may how long do we have to wait for the next release ?
I am not in a hurry so I can wait but depending of the answer I'll proceed to a downgrade if too long

thanks
BKantique

kovidgoyal · 12-01-2020, 07:30 AM

calibre is released every two weeks.

ghmerrill · 12-01-2020, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre is released every two weeks.

Yes, impressive release cycle. But I think I'll downgrade, try it, and then upgrade when the new release comes out. I just don't want to lose my forward momentum at this point.

bkantique · 12-01-2020, 08:06 AM

2 weeks for me it's OK I can wait till then

thanks
BKantique

11-30-2020, 09:18 PM	#1
ghmerrill Connoisseur Posts: 72 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Central NC Device: Various	Epub3->PDF failing in odd way This is goofy. I'll appreciate any insight into it. I'm in the final stages of publishing a book on Amazon and my Sigil-made Epub3 file passes the Epub validator with no errors, uploads to Kindle, converts perfectly and displays on all the devices and viewers I have available to me. Now I need to generate the PDF for the print version. I suck it into Calibre, set what seem to be reasonable parameters, convert it to PDF. I look at it in Acrobat Reader and it has frequent rendering errors -- which appear to be characterers overlaid on one another. Large chunks of it are fine, but it looks like someone just scattered random wrong characters all over. This Epub3 book contains 20 XHTML files and is about 140K words. I've spent all day tracking this down, and whittled it down to a test case consisting of only two short XHTML files (my Copyright and my Preface) that exhibits the same problem. The first file is rendered perfectly in PDF. The second file is mostly rendered fine, but the first header (e.g., <h1> or <h2>) is render incorrectly, and then seemingly random words are rendered incorrectly. It doesn't matter which order the files are in, it's always the second (and subsequent) file in the order that exhibits the problem. For example, in the "<h1>Preface</h1>" tag, what appears is an upper case P followed by a space, then an "e", an "f" overlaid with an "a", and the final "e". The first letter of the following sentence begins with "This", but has the "T" and "h" overlaid. The rest of that paragraph is fine, but half-way through the following paragraph there is another overlay of "t" and "h" in what should be "the". Multiple header tags in the first file are rendered without any problems. I have not yet tried converting this to Epub2 to see if that would make a difference. I'm just trying to convert my book to PDF so I can submit that format to Amazon for the print version. Any ideas?

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11-30-2020, 09:45 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,354 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	It's caused bya bug in Qt https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...e0daad174b5578 either downgrade to 5.5 or wait for th enext release.

12-01-2020, 06:23 AM	#4
bkantique Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2017 Device: none	Hi Just ready to send a message about the same issue I am happy to see that's a bug and not something else save me a lot of time If I may how long do we have to wait for the next release ? I am not in a hurry so I can wait but depending of the answer I'll proceed to a downgrade if too long thanks BKantique

12-01-2020, 07:30 AM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,354 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre is released every two weeks.

12-01-2020, 08:06 AM	#7
bkantique Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2017 Device: none	2 weeks for me it's OK I can wait till then thanks BKantique

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