Faulty ePub to mobi conversion

troubledMan · 06-27-2016, 09:28 AM

Hi all,

I normally use kindlegen to make the conversion from epub to mobi in files previously ddrmed, in Spanish language. From time to time, I find that the conversion is far to be perfect: every accented word is not correctly converted, displaying accented vowels by weird symbols. The same epub is flawlessly converted by Calibre, however. I use both programs using the defaults. And that is baffling me ¡a lot!
I am on a MacBook Pro running 'El Capitan', DeDRM ver 6.4.3, kindlegen V 2.9 build 1028-0897292 and calibre 2.60.
I'd like to know the reason for this, as I'd like to be as far as possible from calibre (for the purpose of conversion) and keep on using kindlegen.

Thank very much in advance and forgive me: English is not my mother tongue.

Check these snapshots, kindlegen conversion (left), calibre conversion (right)

Doitsu · 06-27-2016, 11:35 AM

That looks like an encoding issue. Try the following:

Open the book with Sigil and re-save it. That should fix all encoding issues.

BTW, there's also a Sigil KindleGen plugin (which I wrote) that allows you to generate books with Kindlegen.

troubledMan · 06-27-2016, 11:56 AM

It functions like a charm. Thanks, Doitsu!

Anyway, do you know how to do it without Sigil, just using an editor and Kindlegen? TIA

Doitsu · 06-27-2016, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troubledMan

Anyway, do you know how to do it without Sigil, just using an editor and Kindlegen? TIA

That depends on the original encoding of the epub and whether the (X)HTML files are properly encoded.
You'd either have to unpack each epub, open each (X)HTML file and save it as utf-8 or use a script to unpack the epub and resave it as utf-8
Calibre also has command line tools that allows you to do an epub-to-epub conversion.

troubledMan · 06-27-2016, 04:29 PM

Quote:

You'd either have to unpack each epub, open each (X)HTML file and save it as utf-8

That's one of the strangest things: when I unpack the epub, every page is utf-8 encoded, unix format... Everything seems to be OK, but the conversion is as shown in the attachment.
Well, I'll not lose any more time with this annoyance. Again, thank you very much.

Doitsu · 06-27-2016, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troubledMan

That's one of the strangest things: when I unpack the epub, every page is utf-8 encoded, unix format... Everything seems to be OK, but the conversion is as shown in the attachment.

Maybe the HTML pages are missing the proper HTML declaration.

Sigil usually adds the following for epub2 files:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

troubledMan · 06-28-2016, 03:44 AM

Quote:

Maybe the HTML pages are missing the proper HTML declaration.

Exact! That was the problem, a missing proper HTML declaration.

Notjohn · 06-29-2016, 10:15 AM

I've never had a problem uploading epubs to the KDP. They convert just fine, though it's best not to include a cover in an epub. Once in a rare while, you wind up with a double cover.

But then, I create my epubs with Sigil.

06-27-2016, 09:28 AM	#1
troubledMan Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: In a city that is Real (for real) Device: KPW SE 12	Faulty ePub to mobi conversion Hi all, I normally use kindlegen to make the conversion from epub to mobi in files previously ddrmed, in Spanish language. From time to time, I find that the conversion is far to be perfect: every accented word is not correctly converted, displaying accented vowels by weird symbols. The same epub is flawlessly converted by Calibre, however. I use both programs using the defaults. And that is baffling me ¡a lot! I am on a MacBook Pro running 'El Capitan', DeDRM ver 6.4.3, kindlegen V 2.9 build 1028-0897292 and calibre 2.60. I'd like to know the reason for this, as I'd like to be as far as possible from calibre (for the purpose of conversion) and keep on using kindlegen. Thank very much in advance and forgive me: English is not my mother tongue. Check these snapshots, kindlegen conversion (left), calibre conversion (right) Attached Thumbnails

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06-27-2016, 11:35 AM	#2
Doitsu Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,726 Karma: 24031401 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Kindle PW2	That looks like an encoding issue. Try the following: Open the book with Sigil and re-save it. That should fix all encoding issues. BTW, there's also a Sigil KindleGen plugin (which I wrote) that allows you to generate books with Kindlegen.

06-27-2016, 11:56 AM	#3
troubledMan Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: In a city that is Real (for real) Device: KPW SE 12	It functions like a charm. Thanks, Doitsu! Anyway, do you know how to do it without Sigil, just using an editor and Kindlegen? TIA

06-29-2016, 10:15 AM	#8
Notjohn mostly an observer Posts: 1,519 Karma: 987654 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Kindle	I've never had a problem uploading epubs to the KDP. They convert just fine, though it's best not to include a cover in an epub. Once in a rare while, you wind up with a double cover. But then, I create my epubs with Sigil.

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