Multipe books of the same format

[Sweetpea]

I know Calibre supports only one file per format per book. I don't ask that that be changed, but I'm asking for a creative solution to my problem. Please think with me!

The situation. I create my own PDF files (using LaTeX). These are made up specifically for my 5" BeBook Mini. Recently, I bought myself a gift: a Pyrus Mini. This is a 4.3" reader and I find the 5" PDF's are slightly too large (as in: the fonts will become slightly too small to read comfortably).

So, I created another template for my PDF generation to generate a new PDF, specifically for that 4.3" screen. But I also want to keep the 5" versions for my BBMini....

I wonder what would be the best way to save both versions. Should I create a new Library, with only those 4.3" PDF's? Or should I add them in my current Library as a second book, with the same metadata? Or should I not put them in Calibre anyway and go back to my old system of having a folder I'll copy to that Pyrus? Any ideas?

[Adoby]

My personal choice would be to not use the pdf format at all... 8)

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I know Calibre supports only one file per format per book. I don't ask that that be changed, but I'm asking for a creative solution to my problem. Please think with me!

The situation. I create my own PDF files (using LaTeX). These are made up specifically for my 5" BeBook Mini. Recently, I bought myself a gift: a Pyrus Mini. This is a 4.3" reader and I find the 5" PDF's are slightly too large (as in: the fonts will become slightly too small to read comfortably).

So, I created another template for my PDF generation to generate a new PDF, specifically for that 4.3" screen. But I also want to keep the 5" versions for my BBMini....

I wonder what would be the best way to save both versions. Should I create a new Library, with only those 4.3" PDF's? Or should I add them in my current Library as a second book, with the same metadata? Or should I not put them in Calibre anyway and go back to my old system of having a folder I'll copy to that Pyrus? Any ideas?

You can have duplicate titles (just creates a second line item), then to differentiate between the dupes create a column that tells you 5" or 4.3".

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by alansplace

You can have duplicate titles (just creates a second line item), then to differentiate between the dupes create a column that tells you 5" or 4.3".

A second line item? What's that?

[Ripplinger]

A simpler solution that I'd probably use is if a book had multiple copies for specific devices, I would add that in the file name, so I was also sure I transferred the correct copy to the correct device. Such as "The Shining 4.3" and "The Shining 5". If there was only one copy, it would stay as "The Shining", so again I'd know it's not the correct format for the 4.3" device.

By a second line item, I'm pretty sure he just means the book will be listed twice, but you'll have created a custom column which will show 5" or 4.3". With my solution, you'd have pretty much the same, a second line for the books, but no custom columns.

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

The situation. I create my own PDF files (using LaTeX). These are made up specifically for my 5" BeBook Mini. Recently, I bought myself a gift: a Pyrus Mini. This is a 4.3" reader and I find the 5" PDF's are slightly too large (as in: the fonts will become slightly too small to read comfortably).

That's the whole reason why PDF is generally unsuitable as an eBook format. Pour the text into an epub container, let the device and user be in control of page and font size.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

That's the whole reason why PDF is generally unsuitable as an eBook format. Pour the text into an epub container, let the device and user be in control of page and font size.

I started using PDF because I don't like the epub implementation on my BBMini. And I don't like it on the Pyrus Mini either. Especially as that one doesn't support included fonts.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

A second line item? What's that?

[fidvo]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

That's the whole reason why PDF is generally unsuitable as an eBook format. Pour the text into an epub container, let the device and user be in control of page and font size.

exaltedwombat is exactly right. If you're going to use PDF, you have to assume that you'll need a different copy of the book for each device you want to read it on. Sometimes you can use shortcuts, but you're going to be fighting the format in each case. Also, make sure you don't lose the original LaTeX files because if you ever need your books in another format, PDF is a horrible starting format.

(end rant)

So you have a choice, and you're going to have to sacrifice something either way. Either go with epub and accept that you're not going to like how it looks on the device, or go with PDF and accept that you're not going to have a clean library in Calibre, because the only way to store two different PDF copies of a book is to have two book entries.

If you decide to go with PDF, I would recommend using a custom column to distinguish between the two formats. That way you can easily filter on the column when you want to send books to your device. If you store the format as part of the title as Ripplinger suggests, you lose the ability to filter, which I would consider a necessary part of the process.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by fidvo

exaltedwombat is exactly right. If you're going to use PDF, you have to assume that you'll need a different copy of the book for each device you want to read it on. Sometimes you can use shortcuts, but you're going to be fighting the format in each case. Also, make sure you don't lose the original LaTeX files because if you ever need your books in another format, PDF is a horrible starting format.

(end rant)

First, my source is HTML, which I use to create my epubs, mobi's and PDF's... And it works perfectly on three of my four e-ink devices.

Originally Posted by fidvo

So you have a choice, and you're going to have to sacrifice something either way. Either go with epub and accept that you're not going to like how it looks on the device, or go with PDF and accept that you're not going to have a clean library in Calibre, because the only way to store two different PDF copies of a book is to have two book entries.

If you decide to go with PDF, I would recommend using a custom column to distinguish between the two formats. That way you can easily filter on the column when you want to send books to your device. If you store the format as part of the title as Ripplinger suggests, you lose the ability to filter, which I would consider a necessary part of the process.

It looks like I'll simply make a shadow library, containing the smaller PDF version...

[kovidgoyal]

I suggest you convert on the fly. Convert to pdf manually immediately before sending to device, with the appropriate page size. The pdf will replace your old pdf, but you dont care since you have the source html.