adding a book in zip format

[tsolignani]

For some reasons, I need to keep 2 versions of a book into PDF: same book, different pdf files.

Calibre does not allow to keep more than one format of the same kind into the library, so I had thought I had found a workaround: zip the second pdf file and add to the record.

I did it with one book and everything went smooth: now the record shows 2 formats, PDF and ZIP. The zip is good for me for the first pdf is a matter of fact a copy without any changes, straight out from the scans, for backup purposes, a copy I get only if something goes wrong with the other one, to restore the file.

Well, after that book I tried to insert another one; I put first the pdf, and then the zip. This time, instead of adding the zip to the record as a new format of the same book, I just plain overwrite the other pdf with the one contained into the zip... Shit ;-) I guess Calibre recognizes the zip as a pdf for its content, unwrap it and accomodate into the record, deleting the old one. Correct, I guess, but not I would like it to do.

So I wonder how come in the first book it did not go that way and wether there is a way to reach what I want.

Thank you.


–
cordialmente,

[Promotion deleted - MODERATOR]

[BetterRed]

Calibre will process zips and rars as ebooks if they conform to certain structures. For purposes such as yours I avoid zip & rar and use another archive format such as 7z.

However if I have two pdf's (e.g. English and French) of the same book, as you appear to have, then before adding the second book I will rename it to '<whatever>.PDF2'. I then have to do the add via Add files to selected book. And in the OS I associate .PDF2 with my normal PDF reader

There are some things I can't do with the PDF2 from within the Calibre GUI, such as conversion, for which I would use the CLI; but many other operations such as send to device, save to disk etc should work. I also put a note in Comments to remind me what the PDF2 is - eg it's in French.

If you use Spotlight you might have to tell it to handle PDF2 files like PDF files.

I use 7z containers for things like multi file audio-books

BR

[itimpi]

Calibre treats ZIP/RAR files containing a single ebook as though they were the unzipped version of the book. If you add some other dummy file to the ZIP/RAR so it contains files for more than a single book then it will leave it unchanged.

Just a bit of advice - you might be better off using RAR as your archive format. Calibre uses ZIP as a way of storing HTML based books (which typically consist of multiple files). It is therefore a good idea (although not mandated) to reserve ZIP for this type of book. I must admit I have no idea what would happen if you tried to add a HTML book (which Calibre puts into a ZIP) if you already have a ZIP containing books not in HTML format - my guess is it will replace them which will not be what you want.

[tsolignani]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Calibre treats ZIP/RAR files containing a single ebook as though they were the unzipped version of the book. If you add some other dummy file to the ZIP/RAR so it contains files for more than a single book then it will leave it unchanged.

Just a bit of advice - you might be better off using RAR as your archive format. Calibre uses ZIP as a way of storing HTML based books (which typically consist of multiple files). It is therefore a good idea (although not mandated) to reserve ZIP for this type of book. I must admit I have no idea what would happen if you tried to add a HTML book (which Calibre puts into a ZIP) if you already have a ZIP containing books not in HTML format - my guess is it will replace them which will not be what you want.

Understood. I guess I would add a readme.txt files to the zip, then.

Have a nice day, thanks again.


–
cordialmente,

[Promotion deleted - MODERATOR]

[tsolignani]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Calibre will process zips and rars as ebooks if they conform to certain structures. For purposes such as yours I avoid zip & rar and use another archive format such as 7z.

However if I have two pdf's (e.g. English and French) of the same book, as you appear to have, then before adding the second book I will rename it to '<whatever>.PDF2'. I then have to do the add via Add files to selected book. And in the OS I associate .PDF2 with my normal PDF reader

There are some things I can't do with the PDF2 from within the Calibre GUI, such as conversion, for which I would use the CLI; but many other operations such as send to device, save to disk etc should work. I also put a note in Comments to remind me what the PDF2 is - eg it's in French.

If you use Spotlight you might have to tell it to handle PDF2 files like PDF files.

I use 7z containers for things like multi file audio-books

BR

But I use several different machines (accessing my book collection via the web server) and changing file associations in everyone of them would be a bit of a nuisance. I better go using different archive formats or inserting some other files.

Thank you.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by tsolignani

Understood. I guess I would add a readme.txt files to the zip, then.

To understand some testing might be in order. In the example cited an extra file might not help. Using 7zip to give your files a .7z ext might be the safest method.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by tsolignani

But I use several different machines (accessing my book collection via the web server) and changing file associations in everyone of them would be a bit of a nuisance. I better go using different archive formats or inserting some other files.

Understood

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

To understand some testing might be in order. In the example cited an extra file might not help. Using 7zip to give your files a .7z ext might be the safest method.

The problem with spoofing a zip or rar by adding an extraneous file so that it does not conform to Calibre's normal usage of zips and rars is:- how will you know at glance that you did that on a case by case basis; whereas if its another archive type, eg 7z, it will be quite obvious.

BR

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Understood




The problem with spoofing a zip or rar by adding an extraneous file so that it does not conform to Calibre's normal usage of zips and rars is:- how will you know at glance that you did that on a case by case basis; whereas if its another archive type, eg 7z, it will be quite obvious.

BR

I did not think that Calibre had a 'normal usage' for .rar files. The only time I ever see them is if I add a .rar file which does not contain a single book format so Calibre adds it unchanged as it does not know what format to use.

One reason for preferring .rar over something like .7z is that .rar is recognised as valid for drag-and-drop whereas .7z s not, which makes the .7z format more cumbersome to use.

[kovidgoyal]

calibre never creates rar files, it cannot since there is no open source implementation of the rar encoder and I have better things to do that write one

The most it will do with rar is unwrap single ebook files inside RAR when adding and also automatically import rar as cbr if the rar file is jsta collection of images.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

... and also automatically import rar as cbr if the rar file is jsta collection of images.

That's handy to know - saves me doing the rename

And as I just discovered calibre will also "automatically import" a zip full of images as a CBZ.

EDIT :

Just remembered why I started to use 7z for 'extra' things.

RAR will appear in the Conversion->Input from list. One time I wanted to convert an RTF file, so I pressed 'C' followed by an 'R', and discovered Calibre won't convert a RAR that contains a dozen or so URL and shortcut files :lol:

Lack of drag drop doesn't bother me, although it would be nice to have a tweak that would allow user to set the file type selector - I would set it to All files.

BR

[tsolignani]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

To understand some testing might be in order. In the example cited an extra file might not help. Using 7zip to give your files a .7z ext might be the safest method.

Right. I did some tries and with a readme txt file everything went ok. But I understand I could fail sometimes. Thank you.

[tsolignani]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The problem with spoofing a zip or rar by adding an extraneous file so that it does not conform to Calibre's normal usage of zips and rars is:- how will you know at glance that you did that on a case by case basis; whereas if its another archive type, eg 7z, it will be quite obvious.

BR

The matter is that I use Macs and 7z seems badly supported (there is a couple of software whose latest version is from 2008). Is there some other archive format I could try?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by tsolignani

The matter is that I use Macs and 7z seems badly supported (there is a couple of software whose latest version is from 2008). Is there some other archive format I could try?

The 7zip program itself runs on Mac, I know other Mac users who use Keka and Peazip which will both support 7z - I downloaded latest Peazip on July 23 2013.

What archive formats can you create natively on the Mac, I have a memory that might support gzip - if so then I'd go with that. Then you'll be able to create and read them on each of the Macs that you use, without any need to install 3rd party programs on each of them.

gzip comes from BSD Unix, there's a lot of BSD under the covers of OS/X ?

BR