Conversion from ePub to PDF almost perfect, but...

goldenhair · 08-16-2011, 09:42 PM

Hey everyone!

So I've been trying to find a way to get neat PDFs when converting from an e-reader friendly format, like lit, epub or mobi. I've reached a pretty decent result but there's still something bugging me: I can't seem to add margins on the top and bottom of the PDF. I'm going to tell you what I do so you can hopefully tell me where I go wrong.

First, in the Look & Feel section, I change the base font size to 18,0 pt and put this:

Quote:

body {
font-family:Times New Roman, Georgia, serif;
margin-top:50px;
margin-bottom:50px;
margin-left:50px;
margin-right:50px;
}

under "Extra CSS".

Then, in the Page Setup section (and I suspect this is where it somehow goes wrong), I select iPad as the Output Profile because I've found it's one of the only profiles that doesn't produce a giant font.
I then put every margin (top, bottom, left and right) at 50px and convert.

I get a pretty good result, and I've found I can change the left and right margins as I please, but no matter what I do the top and bottom margin remain the same (ie: nearly non existent).
Interestingly enough, if I delete the margin info in the extra CSS section, the result is the same.

Any ideas?
Thank you!

ldolse · 08-16-2011, 10:13 PM

Calibre doesn't support margins in pdf output. You're probably better off converting to htmlz, and then unzip that file and open it in Open Office or Word, set your document margins the way you want and then use a pdf printer with the page size you want.

goldenhair · 08-16-2011, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ldolse

Calibre doesn't support margins in pdf output. You're probably better off converting to htmlz, and then unzip that file and open it in Open Office or Word, set your document margins the way you want and then use a pdf printer with the page size you want.

Damn. I could change the left and right margin, so I thought the others were just a glitch.
Okay, I've converted my book to htmlz, but I'm a little clueless as to how I'm supposed to unzip it. My usual unzipping program doesn't recognize it, and google wasn't very helpful... :/

ldolse · 08-17-2011, 01:19 AM

change the extension from .htmlz to .zip

goldenhair · 08-17-2011, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ldolse

change the extension from .htmlz to .zip

Thank you! It works perfectly. I've lost the chapter marks, but oh well.

EditorOne · 07-03-2013, 10:29 PM

I followed the instructions given here, but in the unzipped folder, there are the following: image folder, the cover.jpg, index.html, metadata.opf, styles.css, none of which open in Word or Open Office. The zip file will not open, of course, with Word. If I try to save the HTMLZ file to my computer I get a message that it can corrupt my Calibre library.

theducks · 07-03-2013, 11:00 PM

index.html, metadata.opf, styles.css

All these are really ordinary Text files and you can open them with Notepad.exe .

Word will mangle these if you choose to open them AND then SAVE them

index.html is the body of your document
styles is the Stylesheet that is used WITH the HTML file

You would be better off opening the EPUB directly with something like Sigil which is designed to work with All those pieces (they are a inter linked set)

07-03-2013, 10:29 PM	#6
EditorOne Jus' Learnin' Posts: 50 Karma: 5618 Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Tucson, AZ Device: none	Which unzipped file can be opened with Word? I followed the instructions given here, but in the unzipped folder, there are the following: image folder, the cover.jpg, index.html, metadata.opf, styles.css, none of which open in Word or Open Office. The zip file will not open, of course, with Word. If I try to save the HTMLZ file to my computer I get a message that it can corrupt my Calibre library.

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08-16-2011, 10:13 PM	#2
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	Calibre doesn't support margins in pdf output. You're probably better off converting to htmlz, and then unzip that file and open it in Open Office or Word, set your document margins the way you want and then use a pdf printer with the page size you want.

08-17-2011, 01:19 AM	#4
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	change the extension from .htmlz to .zip

07-03-2013, 11:00 PM	#7
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 30,909 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	index.html, metadata.opf, styles.css All these are really ordinary Text files and you can open them with Notepad.exe . Word will mangle these if you choose to open them AND then SAVE them index.html is the body of your document styles is the Stylesheet that is used WITH the HTML file You would be better off opening the EPUB directly with something like Sigil which is designed to work with All those pieces (they are a inter linked set)