Help with Calibre editor

[G2B]

ebooks that are converted from .txt or .pdf files have way too many line breaks, which often make it very unpleasant to read those files.

Removing ALL linebreaks causes everything to be bunched up without any visual separations. That makes an ebook imo difficult to read.

In large files, removing line breaks selectively to have a visually pleasing separation of paragraphs takes forever.

Is there any way that the Calibre editor can get back to the original layout by removing the extra linebreaks, without also removing the ones between the original paragraphs?

Q1: Can this be done during the conversion from TXT o PDF to epub?
If yes, please explain how, or refer to an article where explained.


Q2: I have a number of files that I did convert to epub and have deleted the source txt file. If Q1 is answered positively, I guess I could convert those back to TXT and then again to epub with the fix.

If that is not possible, can this be fixed in the Calibre EPUB editor without having to waste days of my time on manually fixing a single book?

TIA

[sjfan]

Originally Posted by G2B

ebooks that are converted from .txt or .pdf files have way too many line breaks, which often make it very unpleasant to read those files.
...
Is there any way that the Calibre editor can get back to the original layout by removing the extra linebreaks, without also removing the ones between the original paragraphs?

Q1: Can this be done during the conversion from TXT o PDF to epub?
If yes, please explain how, or refer to an article where explained.

It's not easy. You can often get 90% of the way there by using heuristics (when you convert from PDF/text, click on "Heuristic Processing" on the left, and the check the "enable heuristic processing" box and play with the options there). But you're going to have to proofread it fully to get things 100% right in general.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by G2B

ebooks that are converted from .txt or .pdf files have way too many line breaks, which often make it very unpleasant to read those files.

When converting from a text file having your paragraph style or formatting style (in the text input settings) set to auto doesn't always work. Here is a link to the text input setting for conversion found in the manual. If you select correctly, it is rare that text files don't fall into one of the settings and convert correctly without any heuristics selected at all.

[Divingduck]

In addition for PDF:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=17

[G2B]

Originally Posted by sjfan

It's not easy. You can often get 90% of the way there by using heuristics (when you convert from PDF/text, click on "Heuristic Processing" on the left, and the check the "enable heuristic processing" box and play with the options there). But you're going to have to proofread it fully to get things 100% right in general.

That is pretty much my experience. I did figure out the heuristic processing , and am experimenting with the 'search/replace" function during conversion.




Is there a way to use regular expressions in the editor as well? I have tried that, doesn't seem to work.

[Terisa de morgan]

Yes, in the search zone select Regex instead of Normal of Function.

[G2B]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Yes, in the search zone select Regex instead of Normal of Function.

Thanks, I'll try that.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by G2B

ebooks that are converted from .txt or .pdf files have way too many line breaks, which often make it very unpleasant to read those files.

Try Aiseesoft's PDF-to-ePUB converter, which in my experience does a better job than anything else I've come across. It recognises italics and para breaks and removes page headers/footers almost perfectly, apart from anything else. You sometimes have to join or split paras across PDF page boundaries, but it gets it right a lot of the time.

It's commercial-ware but fairly cheap, and there's a time-limited trial version you can download from their website. (NB: I have no connection to Aiseesoft, but I was impressed enough that I bought a copy after playing around with the trial version. I'm still impressed.)

[G2B]

Thank you. I'll look into that.

[Ecuaman]

Originally Posted by G2B

Thank you. I'll look into that.

Hi, also struggling with this. I signed in to this forum today. The first post I noticed was yours G2B, funny I had the same problem
Right now I'm into the "Heuristic Processing" backward and forward...
Trying to get the conversion notice the "Chapters" and centered headlines etc.
Did you test the "PDF-to-ePUB converter"?

[Ecuaman]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Try Aiseesoft's PDF-to-ePUB converter, which in my experience does a better job than anything else I've come across. It recognises italics and para breaks and removes page headers/footers almost perfectly, apart from anything else. You sometimes have to join or split paras across PDF page boundaries, but it gets it right a lot of the time.

It's commercial-ware but fairly cheap, and there's a time-limited trial version you can download from their website. (NB: I have no connection to Aiseesoft, but I was impressed enough that I bought a copy after playing around with the trial version. I'm still impressed.)

Thanks "Phssthpok" I bought the "PDF-to-ePUB" software... Very good advice, first I just converted in the easy-auto presetted mode, almost perfect
Now I'm trying with advanced settings...

[G2B]

Originally Posted by Ecuaman

Did you test the "PDF-to-ePUB converter"?

No, I did not. I downloaded it, but have not needed it so far. The majority of what I do is cleaning up files that already have been converted to PDF without concern for readability, meaning I'm starting with EPUB format.
I do use the heuristic processing first; the rest is mostly working in the editor with regular expressions to filter out the remaining garbage.