[Guide] Fixing Google Docs EPUBs

[axu2]

Google Docs provides an EPUB download option. But it has tons of problems when used on various readers like Apple Books or Kindle.

Specifically:
1) extremely weird image formatting/squishing (presumably due to Google Docs being fixed layout.)
2) the colors looking terrible on eink, especially if the google doc has a background color
3) and more...

The other download options like docx, MD, have even more problems.

So here's how to fix the Google Docs EPUB output so it works well in many readers like Kindle, iBooks, etc. You can set these settings as Calibre default if you want. If you have feedback please share!

* Download EPUB from Google Docs
* Import into Calibre
* Update Title and Author metadata.
* Convert books (in bulk if doing many books)
* Set Output format to EPUB.
* Change these Conversion settings:
** Look and Feel
*** Styling
**** Extra CSS

img {
  width: auto !important;
  height: auto !important;
  max-width: 100%;
  display: block;
}

This makes all images responsive instead of fixed size like in a Google Doc. display: block adds a line break after images.
*** Filter Style Information
**** Check Colors and font and padding (this removes Google Docs background color/custom fonts)
*** Transform HTML
**** if tag is span remove attribute style
**Page Setup
*** Select tablet output profile at bottom so images aren't reprocessed
** EPUB output
*** Select EPUB 3, default is EPUB 2, so formatting isn't lost.

and finally add your covers. To get calibre to show in library, bulk edit metadata, update cover from e-book file.

Now you have a perfectly formatted epub that looks great in iBooks or Send to Kindle.

Video version (slightly outdated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWNql6iJbiA

Changelog since video:

1) added remove fonts checkbox to fix changing fonts.
2) don't remove spans entirely, only the inline style. Was accidentally removing bold/underline/italics previously.
3) added remove padding checkbox to fix chapter heading spacing.

[Quoth]

Export the Google Docs as a docx. Fix the styles, links, chapters/headings, footnotes etc in LO Writer (or a local MS-Word if you must), because Styling in Google Docs is "broken". Only edit as odt. Have the Navigation/outline windows and and Style browser windows open in either.
A final extra Save As in docx as well as odt and convert using Calibre. Never re-edit the docx, but the odt.


A total waste of time to do anything else. Also you know Google "steals" it for their AI? Google Docs should only be used for real time collaboration, though there are now other options.


So no-one should use that guide.

[axu2]

Thank you for your feedback. Looks like I was missing some context in my guide.

I wanted to read about thirty 200-page novels in Google Docs written by various fan-translators. I don't have any control over the source format.

Fix the styles, links, chapters/headings, footnotes etc in LO Writer (or a local MS-Word if you must), because Styling in Google Docs is "broken". Only edit as odt. Have the Navigation/outline windows and and Style browser windows open in either.

Thanks for telling me about LO Writer, I'll look into it. But it looks like just the LibreOffice version of Word. It sounds more manual and tedious than loading up Calibre, importing 30 epubs, and running a bulk convert that essentially removes the broken styling.

[Quoth]

If you want decently formatted ebooks there is no alternative to fixing styling. Calibre can't really fix styles, (formatting), only remove. I do remove "line-height" and "white-space" automatically on every ebook from every source as those CSS are inappropriate for any reflowable ebook.

LO Writer is now better than Word 2007 for most things.

I also have had to use documents from Google Docs in the past. Fortunately I can now avoid it.