Anyway to make calibre epub viewer show the same format as device

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by mahal48

Yes I have gone to Preferences-Behaviour. I can see the "use internal viewer for:" option. So now I do understand the use internal viewer thing. Still have no idea what Emulation refers to, since that word does not appear there.

I think the ducks means the kindle app/viewer or the Sony app/viewer or the Kobo app/viewer. These should display the book much the same as the device they emulate.

If your default viewer for mobi in Windows (assuming you use windows) is Kindle for PC and you uncheck the box preferences>behavior for kindle formats then when you click view in calibre it will use the kindle for PC program to display the books. Same with Sony, Kobo is a bit more complicated I think, but can be done and Sony is much the same for epubs.

Helen

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by mahal48

Yes I have gone to Preferences-Behaviour. I can see the "use internal viewer for:" option. So now I do understand the use internal viewer thing. Still have no idea what Emulation refers to, since that word does not appear there.

BlueStacks is an example of an (Android) emulator: a totally separate program with nothing to do with calibre, which mimics Android on your PC to allow you to run Android apps on your PC.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by mahal48

Yes I have gone to Preferences-Behaviour. I can see the "use internal viewer for:" option. So now I do understand the use internal viewer thing. Still have no idea what Emulation refers to, since that word does not appear there.

Emulation is not a Calibre function

Emulators (viewers) are supplied by the device manufacturers

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I think the ducks means the kindle app/viewer or the Sony app/viewer or the Kobo app/viewer. These should display the book much the same as the device they emulate.

..

Helen

yes, but only if you size the PC app window to approximate the device. e.g. if I open a book in Sony reader for PC it will default to a 2 pages at once view, like an open paper book. I can shrink to window until it changes to a sinle page view & then it looks more like a Sony e-reader, but the "xxxx for PC " apps assume, not reasonably that you want to read the book ON A PC SCREEN so they optimise for that ( much like calibre viewer does actually)

you could of course shop around for a 6 or 7 inch PC monitor- that may give a more realistic experience

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I think the ducks means the kindle app/viewer or the Sony app/viewer or the Kobo app/viewer. These should display the book much the same as the device they emulate.

If your default viewer for mobi in Windows (assuming you use windows) is Kindle for PC and you uncheck the box preferences>behavior for kindle formats then when you click view in calibre it will use the kindle for PC program to display the books. Same with Sony, Kobo is a bit more complicated I think, but can be done and Sony is much the same for epubs.

Helen

Kindle 4 PC and other reader PC apps are NOT emulators, they are merely yet another viewer that is integrated into a certain bookstore. They will NOT display things the same as the dedicated readers will.

They are another option, though.

[cybmole]

Kindle for PC does not look anything like actual Kindle, UI is different, I suspect fonts are also different.... it is possible to tweak background colour & line length AFAIK but like I said before it does not emulate the Kindle experience, it delivers kindle format books optimised for a PC window. there's no concept of "next e-page" - it's one long scroll, like the calibre viewer.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Kindle 4 PC and other reader PC apps are NOT emulators, they are merely yet another viewer that is integrated into a certain bookstore. They will NOT display things the same as the dedicated readers will.

They are another option, though.

I did not say they were emulators. I just said what I thought theducks meant based on his post.

If you want to see Emulation, It is best to get the manufacturers Emulator and:
Set up a Open With (plugin setting) for alternate viewing using <specific> viewer.

And some of them do display a pretty good facsimile, for example the same fonts, page numbers/locations etc. even aspect ratios, but I know that they are not going to turn your computer into an Eink device.

Like I said I think theducks meant a manufacturers viewer as he referred to viewers. Could be wrong of course.

Helen

[theducks]

You were not wrong

I assumed the manufactures viewer made an attempt to emulate the experience as well as show content that was infested with their DRM.

So Hitch's solution is THE ONLY ONE. Get THE device if you want to test.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by theducks

You were not wrong

I assumed the manufactures viewer made an attempt to emulate the experience as well as show content that was infested with their DRM.

So Hitch's solution is THE ONLY ONE. Get THE device if you want to test.

And an emulator running the actual app IS the device (that is, app) and will provide the genuine experience. Hence emulators.

Strictly for Android apps, of course. I don't think anyone has emulated the Kindle/Kobo/iPad/Nook.

And of course, the manufacturer PC apps do an excellent job -- showing how people will see it in the manufacturer PC apps.

[ShellShock]

The Sony Reader Library PC app did a pretty good job of emulating my Sony ereaders when I used to use it. If you used the same fonts settings etc then the display in the app was usually identical to what would appear on the device. It was very useful for checking formatting in an epub before uploading it to the ereader, thus saving time. I wished the Kobo PC app had a similar feature.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

The Sony Reader Library PC app did a pretty good job of emulating my Sony ereaders when I used to use it. If you used the same fonts settings etc then the display in the app was usually identical to what would appear on the device. It was very useful for checking formatting in an epub before uploading it to the ereader, thus saving time. I wished the Kobo PC app had a similar feature.

sony replaced that software with "reader for PC"- the older program will not recognise T2, T3 readers. The new program, as I said previously, looks nothing like what you see on the reader, as it opens to a default 2 page view.

To nitpick further: unless the app/emulator comes with its own fonts, you are going to have a mismatch between the devices own "original" font ( which is probably copyright and not available to Windows) and the windows/ Mac/whatever fonts which your app uses in-place-of.
SO once you are in the realms of foreign/special characters, something may look OK on the big screen but appear as a ? or blob on the reader, because it is not in the reader's defaul font set.

[ShellShock]

I remember with the Sony you hack it to make sure the fonts were consistent:

Copy fonts from PC to ereader.
Copy fonts from ereader firmware to PC.
Copy fonts to Sony Reader Library app and hack the app to use these fonts.

Those were the days ;-)

[cybmole]

the latest readers are not not hack-able & the T3 font is redesigned I think to take advantage of the higher resolution screen.
With the x50 range there was prs+ custom firmware but no ones ported that to T1, T2, T3.

Personally I'm not that fussed about fonts, just threw it into the debate- which is a kind of pointless debate anyway IMHO

unless you are a developer, does it really matter that your PC does not look exactly like your e-reader, & if you are a developer then go buy one of everything & do proper testing... I know that ADE on PC behaves like the sony firmware so if I need to debug a faulty book which is crashing my Sony then I can use that for quick tests... that's all I need ofr me own use.

[phossler]

@mahal48

sort of a sideways answer, but I like to use the Calibre plugin 'Open With' to launch a AZW3 file with the Kindle Previewer PC program, or ADE for epub files.

If there's a viewer program for your device you might link that in with the plugin