Touch .kepub.epub

davidfor · 10-09-2012, 01:14 AM

This is something I haven't seen mentioned before...

Apparently, if an ePub on the Touch is renamed to the "double extension" of ".kepub.epub" it will treated as a kepub instead of an epub. This means that the book will be opened using the kepub reader. That will give you the page per chapter that some people like.

The next question of course is how to get the files onto the device like this. If you use calibre, it does not support this. But, you could change your save template to add ".kepub" to the end of the name. I just tried with:

Code:

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}.kepub

This affects all files, so if you want some to be treated as kepubs and some not, then you need something else. The template could use some metadata in the library to decide whether to put the ".kepub" in or not.

With my brief testing, it works but the Touch did not generate covers for the books I tried.

This came from a bug reported against the driver in calibre. The request there is to not lose the .kepub for Japanese books that come with that in the first place.

As I said, I haven't seen this mentioned before. But, I am sure someone will point to the thread about it in the next couple of minutes

PeterT · 10-09-2012, 01:37 AM

What I'm not sure about is exactly WHICH rendering engine this uses. I'm not sure whether it uses the original kepub engine or the new ACCESS based engine that Kobo is using for ePub3 / Japanese (or whether the old engine even exists now).

davidfor · 10-09-2012, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterT

What I'm not sure about is exactly WHICH rendering engine this uses. I'm not sure whether it uses the original kepub engine or the new ACCESS based engine that Kobo is using for ePub3 / Japanese (or whether the old engine even exists now).

The bug report is from a Japanese user with FW2.1.1. The real problem is the lack of Japanese support in the epub engine in 2.1.1. As doing this displayed the Japanese book correctly, it must be using the ACCESS engine. I suppose it could choosing the engine based on the contents as well. But, I hope not.

Mrs_Often · 10-09-2012, 04:36 AM

Interesting and very clever!

Now for it to start syncing the kepub.epubs between devices

And, for it to give the option to not display numbers per chapter...

mapline · 10-09-2012, 05:41 AM

Hi
See post:
07-28-2012, 04:08 PM #4
dsandrei
Don't know if you are still interested in this but if so you can take a look at my post http://dsandrei.blogspot.fr/2012/07/koboish-ebooks.html where I describe how to fix the covers and the annotations. Actually you get most of the things you described in your first post

All my epubs are now kobofied and work fine with 1.9, 2, 2.1 and now 2.1.4.

I change epubs with calibre "search & replace changes" and then use dsandrei modified "modiy epub".

Now not bothering to change covers as I delete book after reading. But if anyone can take it further that will be great.

davidfor · 10-09-2012, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mapline

Hi
See post:
07-28-2012, 04:08 PM #4
dsandrei
Don't know if you are still interested in this but if so you can take a look at my post http://dsandrei.blogspot.fr/2012/07/koboish-ebooks.html where I describe how to fix the covers and the annotations. Actually you get most of the things you described in your first post

All my epubs are now kobofied and work fine with 1.9, 2, 2.1 and now 2.1.4.

I change epubs with calibre "search & replace changes" and then use dsandrei modified "modiy epub".

Now not bothering to change covers as I delete book after reading. But if anyone can take it further that will be great.

As I said, I was sure someone would point it out the previous post. What's worse, when I looked at it, I remembered reading it before.

mdclements · 10-09-2012, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

This is something I haven't seen mentioned before...

Apparently, if an ePub on the Touch is renamed to the "double extension" of ".kepub.epub" it will treated as a kepub instead of an epub. This means that the book will be opened using the kepub reader. That will give you the page per chapter that some people like.

The next question of course is how to get the files onto the device like this. If you use calibre, it does not support this. But, you could change your save template to add ".kepub" to the end of the name. I just tried with:

Code:

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}.kepub

This affects all files, so if you want some to be treated as kepubs and some not, then you need something else. The template could use some metadata in the library to decide whether to put the ".kepub" in or not.

With my brief testing, it works but the Touch did not generate covers for the books I tried.

This came from a bug reported against the driver in calibre. The request there is to not lose the .kepub for Japanese books that come with that in the first place.

As I said, I haven't seen this mentioned before. But, I am sure someone will point to the thread about it in the next couple of minutes

This is not a supported method of reading ePUBs. While it may render correctly the software may not interact with the book in the correct way since kepub.epub books come from the Kobo servers.

davidfor · 10-09-2012, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdclements

This is not a supported method of reading ePUBs. While it may render correctly the software may not interact with the book in the correct way since kepub.epub books come from the Kobo servers.

I know that, and apart from trying it for curiosities sake, I have no intention of using it. I really don't like the page number on a per chapter basis. I'll point to your post if anyone has issues

But, the original bug report is from a Japanese user. Is there any chance they are getting .kepub.epub books in a different manner? And what is with the double extension? The only books I have seen like this are the welcome guides. Any book I have from Kobo has what appears to be a GUID as the name and no extension. Under what circumstances would I see a .kepub.epub?

zavidos · 12-17-2012, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mapline

Hi
See post:
07-28-2012, 04:08 PM #4
dsandrei
Don't know if you are still interested in this but if so you can take a look at my post http://dsandrei.blogspot.fr/2012/07/koboish-ebooks.html where I describe how to fix the covers and the annotations. Actually you get most of the things you described in your first post

All my epubs are now kobofied and work fine with 1.9, 2, 2.1 and now 2.1.4.

I change epubs with calibre "search & replace changes" and then use dsandrei modified "modiy epub".

Now not bothering to change covers as I delete book after reading. But if anyone can take it further that will be great.

I try to use your method to have cover of my kepub back, but it doesn't work for my kobo glo, the image size is always the same?

mapline · 12-28-2012, 03:51 PM

Hi zavidos
Seen your post but I've found covers only displayed to version 2.1.5.
Don't know why its stopped after that. ie what changes Kobo have made.
The books still work as kepubs!

kerb · 12-30-2012, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mapline

Hi

All my epubs are now kobofied and work fine with 1.9, 2, 2.1 and now 2.1.4.

I change epubs with calibre "search & replace changes" and then use dsandrei modified "modiy epub".

Thanks very much for that post Mapline. I haave not been able to use SQSpyLite to have my cover back however. So I was wondering if you could explain what you mean by:

"I don't actually use this as it requires you to unpack the book, repack and so on and that's to much work for me so I just modified kiwidude's Modify Epub plugin for calibre to do this for me."

Is that version of Modify ePub available somewhere? or is it just specific settings? Also, would that fix the problem with annotations?

Many thanks

stewacide · 12-30-2012, 03:06 PM

Sorta worried about Kobo moving to NetFront as a rendering engine, since my experience with Netfront in Japanese consoles (Sega, Sony, and Nintendo have all used it) is that it's garbage / the sort of software that only survives because insular Japanese companies want a Japanese browser supplier.

kerb · 01-18-2013, 08:09 AM

Thanks so much to Joel Goguen. He has published a driver which sorts out the problem of covers for kobofied files. I'm so happy now!!! Just follow the instructions

https://github.com/jgoguen/calibre-kobo-driver#readme

he published a comment here too (by the very end) http://dsandrei.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...19243870487287

davidfor · 01-20-2013, 08:41 AM

For the last few days I have been thinking about whether to integrate Joel's code into the calibre driver. I have not been complete convinced it was a good idea as Kobo do not really support this. Also, it isn't something I personally need. While I do buy books from Kobo, I generally read the sideloaded ePub version. A lot of that is because I do fiddle with the formatting to get them how I want to read them.

But, after reading a few things and trying a couple of others, I have decided to do it. One of the big reasons to do it is the support for RTL languages. Another is ePub3 support. Kobo seem to be moving ahead with this, and at the moment this is the only way to use it for sideloaded books.

Having said that, don't hold your breath. It won't be done this week. The changes aren't that hard, but I need to test them to make sure they work, don't break anything else and aren't a performance problem. Plus, if I find a problem with this, I might stop. And other things, fixing bugs in the driver, work, family, reading, sleep (not necessarily in that order) will take precedence.

davidfor · 01-20-2013, 08:48 AM

For those who are missing the covers when the use ".kepub.epub" books, there is a "simple" fix. For a couple of reason, today I loaded some ePub3 books. These had to be .kepub.epub to use the kepub reader. I was surprised when the books turned up in the library with a cover. I opened up the files to see how the cover was specified. The OPF file, in the <manifest> section, had the following line:

Code:

<item media-type="image/jpeg" id="cover" href="cover.jpg" properties="cover-image"></item>

When I looked at an ePub2, the equivalent line didn't have the "properties". I added this to the epub, copied it to the device, changed the extension and disconnected. The cover image was extracted and displayed correctly.

An interesting thing is that the cover image is used directly. For epubs, the device generates the first page of the book and uses that as the cover image. With the above, the it seems the image is extracted from the file and used.

With the usual "don't try this at home", "make sure you know what you are doing", "it's not my fault if you mess it up", to add this in calibre:

- Select the book
- Right click on it and select "Tweak Book"
- On the dialog that opens, press "Explode book". A window will open with the contents of the book.
- Find the OPF file. It is usually called "package.opf" or "content.opf". This file contains XML.
- Edit the OPF file. In Windows I use Notepad++ but Notepad should be OK.
- Find the "<manifest>" section.
- Somewhere before the "<manifest>" line, should be a line similar to above or the following.

Code:

<item href="Images/cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" />

- Add properties="cover-image" within the tag. THe above would then look like:

Code:

<item href="Images/cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" properties="cover-image" />

- Save the changes and close the window with the files in it.
- On the calibre window, press the "Rebuild Book" button.

The epub is now ready to be put on your Kobo device with the appropriate extension.

10-09-2012, 01:14 AM	#1
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	.kepub.epub This is something I haven't seen mentioned before... Apparently, if an ePub on the Touch is renamed to the "double extension" of ".kepub.epub" it will treated as a kepub instead of an epub. This means that the book will be opened using the kepub reader. That will give you the page per chapter that some people like. The next question of course is how to get the files onto the device like this. If you use calibre, it does not support this. But, you could change your save template to add ".kepub" to the end of the name. I just tried with: Code: {author_sort}/{title} - {authors}.kepub This affects all files, so if you want some to be treated as kepubs and some not, then you need something else. The template could use some metadata in the library to decide whether to put the ".kepub" in or not. With my brief testing, it works but the Touch did not generate covers for the books I tried. This came from a bug reported against the driver in calibre. The request there is to not lose the .kepub for Japanese books that come with that in the first place. As I said, I haven't seen this mentioned before. But, I am sure someone will point to the thread about it in the next couple of minutes

10-09-2012, 05:41 AM	#5
mapline Enthusiast Posts: 44 Karma: 31594 Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Essex,UK Device: Kobo Touch	Hi See post: 07-28-2012, 04:08 PM #4 dsandrei Don't know if you are still interested in this but if so you can take a look at my post http://dsandrei.blogspot.fr/2012/07/koboish-ebooks.html where I describe how to fix the covers and the annotations. Actually you get most of the things you described in your first post All my epubs are now kobofied and work fine with 1.9, 2, 2.1 and now 2.1.4. I change epubs with calibre "search & replace changes" and then use dsandrei modified "modiy epub". Now not bothering to change covers as I delete book after reading. But if anyone can take it further that will be great. Last edited by mapline; 10-09-2012 at 05:53 AM. Reason: Addittion

01-20-2013, 08:41 AM	#14
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Driver changes For the last few days I have been thinking about whether to integrate Joel's code into the calibre driver. I have not been complete convinced it was a good idea as Kobo do not really support this. Also, it isn't something I personally need. While I do buy books from Kobo, I generally read the sideloaded ePub version. A lot of that is because I do fiddle with the formatting to get them how I want to read them. But, after reading a few things and trying a couple of others, I have decided to do it. One of the big reasons to do it is the support for RTL languages. Another is ePub3 support. Kobo seem to be moving ahead with this, and at the moment this is the only way to use it for sideloaded books. Having said that, don't hold your breath. It won't be done this week. The changes aren't that hard, but I need to test them to make sure they work, don't break anything else and aren't a performance problem. Plus, if I find a problem with this, I might stop. And other things, fixing bugs in the driver, work, family, reading, sleep (not necessarily in that order) will take precedence.

01-20-2013, 08:48 AM	#15
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Getting covers back For those who are missing the covers when the use ".kepub.epub" books, there is a "simple" fix. For a couple of reason, today I loaded some ePub3 books. These had to be .kepub.epub to use the kepub reader. I was surprised when the books turned up in the library with a cover. I opened up the files to see how the cover was specified. The OPF file, in the <manifest> section, had the following line: Code: <item media-type="image/jpeg" id="cover" href="cover.jpg" properties="cover-image"></item> When I looked at an ePub2, the equivalent line didn't have the "properties". I added this to the epub, copied it to the device, changed the extension and disconnected. The cover image was extracted and displayed correctly. An interesting thing is that the cover image is used directly. For epubs, the device generates the first page of the book and uses that as the cover image. With the above, the it seems the image is extracted from the file and used. With the usual "don't try this at home", "make sure you know what you are doing", "it's not my fault if you mess it up", to add this in calibre: - Select the book - Right click on it and select "Tweak Book" - On the dialog that opens, press "Explode book". A window will open with the contents of the book. - Find the OPF file. It is usually called "package.opf" or "content.opf". This file contains XML. - Edit the OPF file. In Windows I use Notepad++ but Notepad should be OK. - Find the "<manifest>" section. - Somewhere before the "<manifest>" line, should be a line similar to above or the following. Code: <item href="Images/cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" /> - Add properties="cover-image" within the tag. THe above would then look like: Code: <item href="Images/cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" properties="cover-image" /> - Save the changes and close the window with the files in it. - On the calibre window, press the "Rebuild Book" button. The epub is now ready to be put on your Kobo device with the appropriate extension.

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10-09-2012, 01:37 AM	#2
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,698 Karma: 79983758 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	What I'm not sure about is exactly WHICH rendering engine this uses. I'm not sure whether it uses the original kepub engine or the new ACCESS based engine that Kobo is using for ePub3 / Japanese (or whether the old engine even exists now).

10-09-2012, 04:36 AM	#4
Mrs_Often Wizard Posts: 1,775 Karma: 2694823 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: The Netherlands Device: Kobo Touch, Glo, Clara HD	Interesting and very clever! Now for it to start syncing the kepub.epubs between devices And, for it to give the option to not display numbers per chapter...

12-28-2012, 03:51 PM	#10
mapline Enthusiast Posts: 44 Karma: 31594 Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Essex,UK Device: Kobo Touch	Hi zavidos Seen your post but I've found covers only displayed to version 2.1.5. Don't know why its stopped after that. ie what changes Kobo have made. The books still work as kepubs!

12-30-2012, 03:06 PM	#12
stewacide Groupie Posts: 197 Karma: 1086780 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Kobo H2O Ed. 2, Glo HD, Glo, Touch, Clara HD	Sorta worried about Kobo moving to NetFront as a rendering engine, since my experience with Netfront in Japanese consoles (Sega, Sony, and Nintendo have all used it) is that it's garbage / the sort of software that only survives because insular Japanese companies want a Japanese browser supplier.

01-18-2013, 08:09 AM	#13
kerb Nameless Being	Thanks so much to Joel Goguen. He has published a driver which sorts out the problem of covers for kobofied files. I'm so happy now!!! Just follow the instructions https://github.com/jgoguen/calibre-kobo-driver#readme he published a comment here too (by the very end) http://dsandrei.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...19243870487287