PDF printer offset (revisited) Amazon problem

[rjwse@aol.com]

I am converting an EPUB to PDF with calibre which lets me set offset inner margin. It does this with CropBox. To get the correct-looking output of (1) 6x9 (2) inner 1 inch margin (3) 1/2 inch other 3 margins you have to do the following: (1) set book at 6.5x9 (2) top and bottom at 1/2 inch (3) left and right at 1 inch (4) tell it to offset half inch. The output looks correct. However, the internals of PDF are not the same. Amazon does not recognize CropBox.

To solve this I instructed calibre to make a PDF without offset with top and bottom 1/2 inch, side margins at 3/4 inch. The output looks good, but without desired inner margin offset. To get that I have to reprocess this PDF with a Linux terminal command using PDFJAM (which has no GUI). The command is:

#script below makes 6x9 with 3 half-inch and inner one-inch margins. 1.pdf (with 3/4 inch side margins) outputs 1-inner.pdf in same directory. Run terminal in same directory.

pdfjam --twoside --papersize '{6in,9in}' --suffix inner --offset '.25in 0in' ~/1.pdf

The calibre conversion method for creating an offset margin states not all software accepts cropbox. It may be that Amazon is too unforgiving or it might be better if calibre's way of doing this were changed.

images show calibre insturctions both ways and resulting outputs. Amazon will accept the PDFs but the margins will not work.

Best regards, Pop

[kovidgoyal]

not using cropbox would make things very complex, as such I am not motivated to do it just for amazon, patches welcome.

[rjwse@aol.com]

Thanks for your quick reply. The PDFJAM solution works good. I can upload to Amazon now with a book whose inside margins are deep. The Amazon software creates a minimal, almost invisible, additional gutter unless you give them a file whose gutter is larger. They do not offer a customizable gutter option.
I solicit help from anyone/everyone to make a patch. My own skill level is beneath making a patch and, indeed, am not aware if this is but a moment's work or if this is a monumental undertaking.
Best regards, Pop

[Quoth]

Export to epub to Word or LO Writer, format & style and then export a PDF.

It's madness creating PDF files for POD from an epub.