Sigil OPF to MOBI Pocket Creator

[crutledge]

Has anyone tried modifying the Sigil OPF to use with Mobipocket Creator? I can get a readable MOBI file but not good enough to release.

Totally off the wall?

[st_albert]

I have had good results taking the epub from sigil and running it through calibre's ebook-convert program.

There is also a free-as-in-beer epub to mobi conversion utility available from Kindle, (kindlegen) but I think calibre does a better job.

[crutledge]

Originally Posted by st_albert

I have had good results taking the epub from sigil and running it through calibre's ebook-convert program.

There is also a free-as-in-beer epub to mobi conversion utility available from Kindle, (kindlegen) but I think calibre does a better job.

I also use Calibre. It's just that Calibre produces a file readable by Mobi systems but is not a true MOBI file and cannot or does not make full use of MOBI reader capabilities.

[st_albert]

I did not know that. The files I've converted seem to display just as I expect them to in Mobipocket reader and kindle previewer on windows, and mobipocket on Palm.

They have working TOCs, Font size changes work, interpretation of CSS seems to be no more quirky than ADE, for example.

What am I missing?

[crutledge]

Originally Posted by st_albert

I did not know that. The files I've converted seem to display just as I expect them to in Mobipocket reader and kindle previewer on windows, and mobipocket on Palm.

They have working TOCs, Font size changes work, interpretation of CSS seems to be no more quirky than ADE, for example.

What am I missing?

All other possible entries in the contents menu, for one thing. Start Reading, Copyright, Preface, etc.

I may be overly critical, but the purpose of a reverse engineering is to mimic the original.

[st_albert]

Hmm, so far I've seen everything I put into the "guide" section of the epub (using sigil to add semantics) shows up in the mobi reader or kindle viewer -- except "acknowledgements" and that may not be in the correct form in the <guide>. At least, FC complains about it. Don't know if that's sigil's fault or FlightControl's.

The other thing is that the "first page" link goes to the title page, not the first page of "text" listed in the guide (the latter behavior being what I would expect, though I could be wrong about that). But then ADE doesn't do that either on the original epub.

All this is very interesting. If I get time I may try kindlegen to convert an epub, and see if it does any better.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by st_albert

Hmm, so far I've seen everything I put into the "guide" section of the epub (using sigil to add semantics) shows up in the mobi reader or kindle viewer -- except "acknowledgements" and that may not be in the correct form in the <guide>. At least, FC complains about it..

Known bug, has been fixed already in trunk.

Originally Posted by st_albert

Don't know if that's sigil's fault or FlightControl's.

*cough* FlightCrew *cough*

[crutledge]

Originally Posted by st_albert

Hmm, so far I've seen everything I put into the "guide" section of the epub (using sigil to add semantics) shows up in the mobi reader or kindle viewer -- except "acknowledgements" and that may not be in the correct form in the <guide>. At least, FC complains about it. Don't know if that's sigil's fault or FlightControl's.

The other thing is that the "first page" link goes to the title page, not the first page of "text" listed in the guide (the latter behavior being what I would expect, though I could be wrong about that). But then ADE doesn't do that either on the original epub.

All this is very interesting. If I get time I may try kindlegen to convert an epub, and see if it does any better.

Attached are two files: The ePub with chapters marked with semantics and the mobi generated by calibre. None of the semantics shows up in the mobipocket reader menu. The semantics do show up in the sigil OPF <guide> section.

What have I done different from you?

[crutledge]

The final answer to the Sigil to MOBI question.

From crutledge.
The following is extracted from a Sigil OPF.


Code:
<guide>
<reference type="cover" title="Cover" href="Text/COVER.xhtml"/>
<reference type="title-page" title="Title Page" href="Text/TITLE_PAGE.xhtml"/>
<reference type="loi" title="List Of Illustrations" href="Text/LIST%20OF%20ILLUSTRATIONS.xhtml"/>
<reference type="preface" title="Preface" href="Text/PREFACE.xhtml"/>
</guide>

When the ePub is converted to MOBI by Calibre, The Title page shows up as both Title Page and as First Page in the Mobipocket Reader "Contents Menu."

Neither the "List Of Illustrations" or "Preface" appear.

Others have told me that all Sigil "Semantics" work except "Text."

I am obviously doing something wrong. Can someone point me to the correct methods?

From KOVIDGOYAL: calibre doesn't support the rest of the semantics. It's a MOBI specific feature that I would suggest you not rely on when creating your files.

If anyone has tried modifying an ePub to run Mobipocket Creator, I would like to hear from you,

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by crutledge

The final answer to the Sigil to MOBI question.

If anyone has tried modifying an ePub to run Mobipocket Creator, I would like to hear from you,

Hi,

You might try PMing "pdurrant" on this site. If I am remembering things correctly, Paul has worked with using one single source to create both epubs and mobis. He is also the author of the MobiUnpack script (only works with non-DRM mobis). I think he tweaks the opf file to get it to work for Kindlegen/ Mobipocket Creator and epubs at the same time.

He's a good guy and quite helpful.

KevinH