Small print

[Broadback]

When I download a book in pdf and check it, it is fine. However when I convert to MOBI, so that I can read it on my Kindle, the print becomes so small that even when I use the largest available print option it is very difficult to read. this is true if I use the Kindle or clibre to read. What am I doing wrong please?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Broadback

When I download a book in pdf and check it, it is fine. However when I convert to MOBI, so that I can read it on my Kindle, the print becomes so small that even when I use the largest available print option it is very difficult to read. this is true if I use the Kindle or clibre to read. What am I doing wrong please?

To start with you're converting a PDF. Have you read the Read this before Posting PDF Questions sticky post on the subject?

My guess (emphasis on guess) is you are converting a image based PDF, resizing a full page image down to a Kindle size image would create very small print.

[Broadback]

Thanks dwanthy, it does not solve my problem I am sad to say. The PDF file is a book from which I have stripped the DRM using Adobe Digital Editions, at this point it is fine, though obviously still in PDF format. It is after converting to MOBI that the print reduces, as I have done this before, I cannot understand why this has happened, repeatedly, with this book.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Broadback

It is after converting to MOBI that the print reduces, as I have done this before, I cannot understand why this has happened, repeatedly, with this book.

Not every book is created the same. Do you have the same problem if you convert to ePub?

[Broadback]

Yes, having just done that I can confirm that it is exactly the same.

[itimpi]

As was said it looks as if you have an image based PDF. For such files there is normally no point in converting to another format as it is the fact that it is an image that is a limiting factor.

If you have converted to ePub you could try loading the book into Sigil which should clear up whether this is the case or not.

[Broadback]

Fell at the Sigil hurdle, all that displays is the image of the cover. All I wish to do is download a library book, strip the DRM then copy the file to calibre. To this point all is fine, but when I convert from PDF to another the print is small. I feel that I am doing something wrong, probably the set up of calibre.

[frostschutz]

when you view the (converted) epub in calibre, can you read the text / select single words in the text?

if you end up selecting an image of text then you need OCR

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Broadback

Fell at the Sigil hurdle, all that displays is the image of the cover.

Did you look in all folders on the left side pane?

Originally Posted by Broadback

All I wish to do is download a library book, strip the DRM then copy the file to calibre.

You shouldn't need to strip the DRM to read the book on your device or to transfer to calibre.

Originally Posted by Broadback

To this point all is fine, but when I convert from PDF to another the print is small.

You can say this in every post and it won't help you. If you aren't interested in our responses, why ask?

Originally Posted by Broadback

I feel that I am doing something wrong, probably the set up of calibre.

You can try setting your output profile to tablet, but I don't believe any setting in calibre is going to help you with this problem.

Good Luck.

[Broadback]

I am sorry if I offended, I obviously know too little to understand the answers, so I will bow out. Many thanks for all the attempts to help me.

[kiwidude]

@Broadback - imagine taking a screenshot of this forum page. That is what your particular PDF contains - an image of the text. So when you try to display that image in an EPUB or MOBI, it gets scaled down to fit on the smaller page size, and hence everything becomes unreadable.

Instead what you really want is the raw text, not an image of the text. Your particular PDF book was undoubtedly made by someone scanning the pages of a hardcopy version. What they have not done is the next step of OCR - turning that image into text, that can be reflowed and resized (hence making it potentially convertible to another format). There is software out there to do an OCR conversion of a PDF, but then you will hit all the issues of OCR errors (where it can't quite recognise certain letters etc) let alone issues of graphics, tables etc for some books. So then you have a whole proofing and reformatting step required.

All of which points back to why the PDF sticky exists - basically PDF is the worst possible format to try to convert from. In many/most cases, it is just not worth attempting to even try to, unless you are prepared to spend the many hours sorting out the mess. Either get the book in the format your device natively supports, or get a tablet reader with a large screen which can make reading PDFs more tolerable (and hence not requiring a conversion).

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Broadback

I am sorry if I offended, I obviously know too little to understand the answers, so I will bow out. Many thanks for all the attempts to help me.

I didn't intend for you to bow out. Questions are always welcome and sometimes it take many folks answering the question many different ways before it ends up in a format that the Original Poster might understand.

kiwidude did a good job at explaining the problem you seem to be facing. If you still don't understand what is going on please continue to ask questions here in the forum. Don't let someone like myself (or anyone else for that matter) intimidate you into not asking for further clarification.

[Broadback]

As I wrote earlier, thanks to you all for trting to set me straight. Kiwidude has set me right, I will not attempt to conver PDF books in the futuer, ot if I do accept that the result may not be satisfactory.