Fixing ePub format of downloaded free book to look better in Kobo?

[davidk64]

I have an ePub book that looks like attached screenshot in Calibre reader and similar in Kobo. I'm wondering if there is a way of batch converting (fixing) the file so that formatting is better?

I'm thinking of the strange empty lines and line breaks.

[Sirtel]

Not really. That looks like a poor conversion from PDF. You could try heuristic processing in the conversion settings, which may or may not help.

[davidk64]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Not really. That looks like a poor conversion from PDF. You could try heuristic processing in the conversion settings, which may or may not help.

Thanks for the suggestion. I gave it a go but unfortunately it didn't help much. Since then I found this site https://standardebooks.org/ and am going to try some of these instead. Cheers David

[Karellen]

I've had a look at your book and I had a few minutes spare, so I did a quick fix over it. It should be looking a bit better. You just need to read the book and fix any scanning spelling errors. Attached below.

[JSWolf]

Forget that copy. It's garbage.

Download the ePub from https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28215. This is the one you want. pg28215-images-3.epub.

You can clean up the poor formatting from there. This one is not a botched PDF conversion.

[davidk64]

Originally Posted by Karellen

I've had a look at your book and I had a few minutes spare, so I did a quick fix over it. It should be looking a bit better. You just need to read the book and fix any scanning spelling errors. Attached below.

Thanks for taking a look at it! It's better than I was able to do.

[davidk64]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Forget that copy. It's garbage.

Download the ePub from https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28215. This is the one you want. pg28215-images-3.epub.

You can clean up the poor formatting from there. This one is not a botched PDF conversion.

Thanks. May I ask how I could've found that version unaided? Or is it a secret

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by davidk64

Thanks. May I ask how I could've found that version unaided? Or is it a secret

I searched for some of the text in your screen grab. One of the results was to Project Gutenberg.

[davidk64]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I searched for some of the text in your screen grab. One of the results was to Project Gutenberg.

Ah okay. I tried the same approach and the link came up second in list. But when I tried a random line from Titus Groan I had no luck. I hoped there was an interface to Project Gutenburg that produced better versions in general. Perhaps your search worked in this instance because you knew a better version existed. It would never have occurred to me to search on some text from the book rather than the book title and author!

[gbm]

A better link for Project Gutenburg version.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28215

Link for Clifford D. Simak Project Gutenburg

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/25185
bernie

Originally Posted by davidk64

Ah okay. I tried the same approach and the link came up second in list. But when I tried a random line from Titus Groan I had no luck. I hoped there was an interface to Project Gutenburg that produced better versions in general. Perhaps your search worked in this instance because you knew a better version existed. It would never have occurred to me to search on some text from the book rather than the book title and author!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by davidk64

Ah okay. I tried the same approach and the link came up second in list. But when I tried a random line from Titus Groan I had no luck. I hoped there was an interface to Project Gutenburg that produced better versions in general. Perhaps your search worked in this instance because you knew a better version existed. It would never have occurred to me to search on some text from the book rather than the book title and author!

I had no idea a better version existed. I hoped I could find a better version.

When someone posts text from a book and I want to identify the book, I'll look for some text. It doesn't always work. Bur it does sometimes.

[davidk64]

Finally I've worked out my elementary mistake! Thanks to you all

Failing to properly comprehend what I was seeing on the attached screenshot, I saw the reference to Kindle and thought "Oh I don't have a Kindle so I must need to download the older E-readers version". If I'd downloaded the EPUB3 file from the start I'd have been away.