Convert online book to Epub?

[nlundberg]

Hi,

I have not found a working way of converting online books (html with hyperlinks) to epub. What is the best way? I am on a mac btw.

Thanks!

[Doitsu]

Try dotepub.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Try dotepub.

Looks interesting. I have a wiki page for Dotepub.

Dale

[nlundberg]

Thanks, but does it really include linked pages? I want to convert books that have each page on a separate html page.

[Quoth]

I copy & paste into a wordprocessor and then fix styles, image sizes etc, Save As Docx (I use LO Writer, but MS Word is the same process), import to Calibre and convert to epub2. Then other formats are converted from the epub2.

If the styles, heading, TOC, image resizing are all done correctly in the WP, no need to edit CSS/HTML etc.

[nlundberg]

Hm, do you automate this process or du you copy by hand? I am talking about 300 pages, I prefer not to klick, copy and paste all that. :/

[Quoth]

Every website is different.
There maybe loads of links that are not the "next page".
The formatting / styling and images can be an issue.
So despite over 30 years of programming and a couple of programs like Pocket, I don't believe it's possible to automatically convert an arbitrary number of separate web pages into one ebook or document, other than a mirrored copy using something like "wget".

So if you want the arbitrary sized document on multiple web pages the options are:

• wget, create a local mirror copy of that part of a website
• copy and paste a page at a time
• Contact author and buy a copy

Also there is the legal and moral issue with a mirror copy or making an ebook, is the content in the Public Domain? If not is your copy purely for your own consumption (may be fine depending on your country)?

Disclaimer
I know an author that used to serialise twice a week. He'd be happy with a copy and paste for your own use. No automated program would be able to "fetch" a complete story from his site. He does offer an ebook version.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Quoth

So if you want the arbitrary sized document on multiple web pages the options are:

• wget, create a local mirror copy of that part of a website
• copy and paste a page at a time
• Contact author and buy a copy

The OP could also use DownThemAll.

[nlundberg]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

The OP could also use DownThemAll.

Thanks, that could be the solution!

Regarding legal and moral issues, the purpose is to be able to read on my e-reader instead of my laptop. Not fiction, often open source. Sometimes downloadable as a pdf but with too small text for my e-reader. I am not making perfect e-books, they can be totally messy and ugly as long as they are comfortable to read and browse.

[najgori]

Considering legality...
I was surprised to see John Dos Passos works at Gutenberg dot org.
Mobileread.com is hosted in Germany with simple +70 copyright laws so there is no way for any of his books to be shared here.
Is there +70, Europe safe Gutenberg site?

[Quoth]

Some countries it's life + 50, some it's 75 and in some Corporate works are 95 from creation. Blame Disney.
Also a living author can license their copyright work any way they want. Creative Commons is just one such licence. If an author places a work in "the public domain", then they have given up all rights. An author offering a work free, but not in the Public Domain, still has rights and control over how the work is used.

The USA may have the broadest interpretation of "Fair Use" but may also have the strictest copyright laws and DRM is not part of copyright, but the USA originates the strictest laws on that. Not Germany or Switzerland.