DRM alters formatting? [Ans: No, Kobo does]

melchizedek · 05-04-2012, 07:03 AM

I'm curious: I bought an epub book yesterday and was sad to see it was atrociously formatted. Unnecessary spaces between every paragraph, random breaks in text mid-sentence, no paragraph indenting, etc. I was considering sending it back, but I really wanted the book, so I decided to manually edit it using Sigil.

First, I stripped out the DRM. I then loaded it into Calibre -- just to make sure the DRM had been removed -- and to my surprise, the book was correctly formatted. The spaces were gone, as were the breaks in text, and the paragraph indentations were back.

My question is: has anyone known this happen before, and is it possible that DRM actually screws up the formatting of books? For reference, I tried the original DRM file in my ereader, in Adobe digital editions, and in Kobo's own reading app, and the formatting was rubbish in all three. I removed the DRM... it was perfect in all three.

Any thoughts?

HarryT · 05-04-2012, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melchizedek

My question is: has anyone known this happen before, and is it possible that DRM actually screws up the formatting of books?

No, it is not possible. ePub DRM is totally unrelated to the content of the book.

TheSFReader · 05-04-2012, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, it is not possible. ePub DRM is totally unrelated to the content of the book.

I'm all FOR Watermarkings against hard DRMs, but in Watermarking case, they CAN have an impact on formatting.

HarryT · 05-04-2012, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSFReader

I'm all FOR Watermarkings against hard DRMs, but in Watermarking case, they CAN have an impact on formatting.

Yes, but not in the case of the type of DRM (the ADE kind) that the OP is talking about.

MikeB1972 · 05-04-2012, 08:18 AM

Sigil does some automatic mods to the html (if you have html tidy turned on)

So if you opened it in sigil and saved it that's probably what did it.

melchizedek · 05-04-2012, 08:58 AM

That's the thing: I didn't actually get around to using Sigil. My intention was to use Sigil to sort out the formatting problems. But, as soon as I'd stripped out the DRM -- and opened it in Calibre to make sure the DRM was gone -- it didn't need reformatting. Everything seemed fine. I didn't get a chance to use Sigil.

I think I probably need to replicate the process, just to see what's happening here. Maybe I opened it in ADE first, and then used the stored version from Adobe to strip of DRM. I'll check.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

pdurrant · 05-04-2012, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melchizedek

My question is: has anyone known this happen before, and is it possible that DRM actually screws up the formatting of books? For reference, I tried the original DRM file in my ereader, in Adobe digital editions, and in Kobo's own reading app, and the formatting was rubbish in all three. I removed the DRM... it was perfect in all three.

I can't think of any way that this could happen.

elemenoP · 05-04-2012, 11:22 AM

So where were you looking at it when you saw the atrocious formatting? On your Kobo?

eP

HarryT · 05-04-2012, 11:23 AM

Did you by any chance do a conversion of the book in Calibre? That could certainly clean up formatting issues.

ApK · 05-04-2012, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I can't think of any way that this could happen.

OP, you can take the above response from that respondent as somewhat authoritative.

bill_mchale · 05-04-2012, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melchizedek

I'm curious: I bought an epub book yesterday and was sad to see it was atrociously formatted. Unnecessary spaces between every paragraph, random breaks in text mid-sentence, no paragraph indenting, etc. I was considering sending it back, but I really wanted the book, so I decided to manually edit it using Sigil.

Spaces between paragraphs and no paragraph indenting? Well, the first thought occurs to me that it could be a style sheet issue (standard html skips a line between paragraphs and does not indent (which is actually a short hand for skipping a line) unless a style sheet overrides that and since an ePub xml is built on top of html...). The breaks in mid-sentence seems to suggest that somehow or other your reader was either ignoring the mark-up tags or that somehow a literal tag was set.

Quote:

First, I stripped out the DRM. I then loaded it into Calibre -- just to make sure the DRM had been removed -- and to my surprise, the book was correctly formatted. The spaces were gone, as were the breaks in text, and the paragraph indentations were back.

My question is: has anyone known this happen before, and is it possible that DRM actually screws up the formatting of books? For reference, I tried the original DRM file in my ereader, in Adobe digital editions, and in Kobo's own reading app, and the formatting was rubbish in all three. I removed the DRM... it was perfect in all three.

Any thoughts?

This is all very weird. I could see DRM accidentally corrupting a style sheet, but stripping DRM off should not in any way shape or form restore that corrupted style sheet.

I suppose there could be some really weird bug in Adobe's software to decrypt the file that resulted in the book ignoring the style sheets. Only way to be sure would be if I could see the raw uncompressed files.

--
Bill

pdurrant · 05-04-2012, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ApK

OP, you can take the above response from that respondent as somewhat authoritative.

Well, I wouldn't go that far. If it has happened, then it's something I haven't thought of!

But my guess would be that what has been reported isn't quite what has happened. (But not on purpose. I don't doubt the OP's sincerity.)

AnemicOak · 05-04-2012, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melchizedek

First, I stripped out the DRM. I then loaded it into Calibre -- just to make sure the DRM had been removed -- and to my surprise, the book was correctly formatted. The spaces were gone, as were the breaks in text, and the paragraph indentations were back.

What did you view the DRM'd copy with (I'm assuming ADE)? Did you view the de-DRM'd copy with the same viewing software (I sounds like you used Calibre's viewer)? Different viewers can display books differently & ADE can be pretty picky on CSS and stuff.

bill_mchale · 05-04-2012, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, it is not possible. ePub DRM is totally unrelated to the content of the book.

I am hardly an expert on Adobe DRM, but DRM does encrypt the content of the book, so it is possible (granted unlikely) that in rare instances, Adobe's software might mess up a markup tag or style sheet directive during decryption... of course that would require the DRM stripping tool not to have that bug if it were to fix the problem.

--
Bill

ApK · 05-04-2012, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

What did you view the DRM'd copy with (I'm assuming ADE)? Did you view the de-DRM'd copy with the same viewing software (I sounds like you used Calibre's viewer)? Different viewers can display books differently & ADE can be pretty picky on CSS and stuff.

Pretty sure he accounted for that:

Quote:

Originally Posted by melchizedek

I tried the original DRM file in my ereader, in Adobe digital editions, and in Kobo's own reading app, and the formatting was rubbish in all three. I removed the DRM... it was perfect in all three.

Best way to find an answer is to try it again, taking note of exactly what you're doing in Calibre. Maybe send some screen shots.
If I had to bet sight unseen, I'd put some money on Harry's guess.

05-04-2012, 07:03 AM	#1
melchizedek Member Posts: 24 Karma: 14244 Join Date: May 2012 Device: Kobo Touch	DRM alters formatting? [Ans: No, Kobo does] I'm curious: I bought an epub book yesterday and was sad to see it was atrociously formatted. Unnecessary spaces between every paragraph, random breaks in text mid-sentence, no paragraph indenting, etc. I was considering sending it back, but I really wanted the book, so I decided to manually edit it using Sigil. First, I stripped out the DRM. I then loaded it into Calibre -- just to make sure the DRM had been removed -- and to my surprise, the book was correctly formatted. The spaces were gone, as were the breaks in text, and the paragraph indentations were back. My question is: has anyone known this happen before, and is it possible that DRM actually screws up the formatting of books? For reference, I tried the original DRM file in my ereader, in Adobe digital editions, and in Kobo's own reading app, and the formatting was rubbish in all three. I removed the DRM... it was perfect in all three. Any thoughts?

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05-04-2012, 08:18 AM	#5
MikeB1972 Gnu Posts: 1,222 Karma: 15625359 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: UK Device: BeBook,JetBook Lite,PRS-300-350-505-650,+ran out of space to type	Sigil does some automatic mods to the html (if you have html tidy turned on) So if you opened it in sigil and saved it that's probably what did it.

05-04-2012, 08:58 AM	#6
melchizedek Member Posts: 24 Karma: 14244 Join Date: May 2012 Device: Kobo Touch	That's the thing: I didn't actually get around to using Sigil. My intention was to use Sigil to sort out the formatting problems. But, as soon as I'd stripped out the DRM -- and opened it in Calibre to make sure the DRM was gone -- it didn't need reformatting. Everything seemed fine. I didn't get a chance to use Sigil. I think I probably need to replicate the process, just to see what's happening here. Maybe I opened it in ADE first, and then used the stored version from Adobe to strip of DRM. I'll check. Thanks for the replies, guys.

05-04-2012, 11:22 AM	#8
elemenoP Wizard Posts: 1,717 Karma: 3790058 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: NYC Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Sony 650	So where were you looking at it when you saw the atrocious formatting? On your Kobo? eP

05-04-2012, 11:23 AM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Did you by any chance do a conversion of the book in Calibre? That could certainly clean up formatting issues.