Kindle and Nook to Kobo Glo HD

[Giles Marchand]

Hey guys, so I've bought books from both Nook and Kindle to identical results. I add them to my Calibre library with the Alf Apprentice plugin installed. Now with the Nook format epubs I don't have to worry about conversion, with the Kindle format I do. Basically after it's been added to my library I copy the files to a folder called "Books" on my Kobo alternatively with Kindle I convert to epub and do the same. Both give me an identical document, in which the font size is atrociously large. The page numbers usually last for two page turns. I understand why the page has been divided into two parts because of the large font size. I've played with the font settings and algorithms when converting the Kindle documents.

What am I missing, is there a way to get these documents working like a normal Kobo book? Ideally I would like to lower the font size without having to adjust the settings on my Kobo and maybe have the progress tracked as well as having it count the number of pages left in the chapter instead of the book. Eventually I'd like to tidy up the layout etc. Is there an update I don't have? A general tool? A plugin? Is there a better program that simplifies all of this? Or will I just need to experiment with the available settings?

[davidfor]

Kobo's support epubs and Kobo's own format usually called "kepub". It's basically epub, but uses a different render and expects certain things in the book code. One of the annoyances about the difference is that kepubs render fonts larger than the equivalent epub. That means the with the identical code in both will mean you have to adjust the font when you swap between them.

There isn't much you can do about this except to add something in the stylesheet that sets the relative font size so that you don't need to adjust them. Or send the books as kepubs. As you also want page numbering per chapter, that's probably the thing to do. The simplest way to achieve this is to install the KoboTouchExtended driver. This will automatically convert epubs to kepubs when you send them to the device. There is also an output plugin that you can do the conversion in calibre and send the book later, but that is mainly if you want to have more control over the conversion.

I'm not sure about what you mean by "have the progress tracked". The Kobo devices track your reading progress for all book formats and stores statistics for them. But, only the progress for kepubs from Kobo will be synced to their server and other devices. If you mean the in-book progress graphs, these are also a kepub only thing, but are shown for sideloaded kepubs as well as purchased ones.

[Giles Marchand]

The plugin worked like a charm! Thanks for the info!