Wanting to convert Sigil-made EPUB to PDF

[Gregg Bell]

Found Go4Epub.com (asked in the Writer2Epub forum too because that seemed similar, at least the logos did) but it only works once out of every seven or eight tries. When it does work I like the conversion,though. Anybody know if there's anyway to get it to work better? Or should I download a Epub-->PDF converter? And if so, any suggestions? Thanks a lot!

[Jellby]

You could try Prince, with this little script (needs python and pyQt)

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by Jellby

You could try Prince, with this little script (needs python and pyQt)

Thanks Jellby. I was reading that thread before. Unfortunately it's a little more involved than I'm looking to do. (Not familiar with python etc.) It sounds good though! Thanks for answering.

[GrannyGrump]

DELETE--never mind, it was a senior moment.

OK, let's try again. Calibre might do what you need, it can optimize the page-size for small-screen readers if that is what you need, or use "tablet" as the target reader for larger pages. All the settings options *look* complicated, but it is pretty easy, and very fast.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks Jellby. I was reading that thread before. Unfortunately it's a little more involved than I'm looking to do. (Not familiar with python etc.) It sounds good though! Thanks for answering.

Fair enough. But maybe you misunderstood a bit. It needs to have python and pyQt installed, but you do not need to know anything about them. At least, I'm assuming that once those are installed, you just double-click on the epubutils.py script.

What you might need to know is some CSS in order to adapt the output PDF to your wishes (page size, font, margins), but still, the defaults should be a good starting point.

[latepaul]

Calibre ebook-viewer print to one of the print-to-PDF programs?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Found Go4Epub.com (asked in the Writer2Epub forum too because that seemed similar, at least the logos did) but it only works once out of every seven or eight tries. When it does work I like the conversion,though. Anybody know if there's anyway to get it to work better? Or should I download a Epub-->PDF converter? And if so, any suggestions? Thanks a lot!

No such thing. (a ePUB-->PDF converter). Not one that works a damn, depending on what you want. If all you want is a PDF, and don't really care what the end product looks like, use Calibre. If your problem is, book reviewers want PDF's, and you do care about what it looks like, you'll have to make it yourself (n.b.: I haven't tried the Prince program in a few years. Jellby knows his stuff, so don't rule it out).

If you're trying to make a PDF for POD, fuhgeddabout any type of automated process. You'll have to make the whole thing from the ground up, and make sure you use a layout program, not Word. Word does many things very, very well; PDF layout for print isn't one of them. Word has a bug/glitch/whatever that prevents it from actually printing to the correct size for a PDF (it will print the page to 8.5" x 11", not, say, 6" x 9"). Then you have to send the resulting PDF to someplace like CS which shrinks or enlarges or ? the resulting mess.

Hitch

[st_albert]

Originally Posted by Hitch

If you're trying to make a PDF for POD, fuhgeddabout any type of automated process. You'll have to make the whole thing from the ground up, and make sure you use a layout program, not Word. Word does many things very, very well; PDF layout for print isn't one of them. Word has a bug/glitch/whatever that prevents it from actually printing to the correct size for a PDF (it will print the page to 8.5" x 11", not, say, 6" x 9"). Then you have to send the resulting PDF to someplace like CS which shrinks or enlarges or ? the resulting mess.

Hitch

I certainly agree that Word is not what you want to use to produce a "camera ready" pdf for a POD printer. If you're an apple person, use Quark. If you're a Windows person, (you have my sympathies - I am one also in this situation) use InDesign. If you're a linux / unix person, you're SOL basically, but you can try scribus-ng.

That said, though I don't use Word except under duress, I have been told that there is no problem producing, for example, a pdf scaled to 6"x9" screen size, if you set those dimensions in the word doc before you hit the "print to pdf" button. The user that tells me this has Adobe Acrobat (full version, not just the reader) installed, so YMMV.

However I do know from personal experience that LibreOffice, out-of-the-box install, will produce a pdf that is properly scaled to whatever dimensions you set for the page.

Depending on where you fit on Hitch's scale of needs, you may well be able to find a solution that doesn't require boatloads of money.

All the best,
Albert

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by st_albert

I certainly agree that Word is not what you want to use to produce a "camera ready" pdf for a POD printer. If you're an apple person, use Quark. If you're a Windows person, (you have my sympathies - I am one also in this situation) use InDesign. If you're a linux / unix person, you're SOL basically, but you can try scribus-ng.

That said, though I don't use Word except under duress, I have been told that there is no problem producing, for example, a pdf scaled to 6"x9" screen size, if you set those dimensions in the word doc before you hit the "print to pdf" button. The user that tells me this has Adobe Acrobat (full version, not just the reader) installed, so YMMV.

However I do know from personal experience that LibreOffice, out-of-the-box install, will produce a pdf that is properly scaled to whatever dimensions you set for the page.

Depending on where you fit on Hitch's scale of needs, you may well be able to find a solution that doesn't require boatloads of money.

All the best,
Albert

One sec:

I should say, any reasonably determined MS Windows user should be able to produce a camera-ready (man, am I dating myself, or WHAT?) PDF using MS Publisher. If you've ever used INDD or ye olden Pagemaker, it's fairly intuitive. Take a few hours, take a few toots, and you're off and running. Works mucho better than Word. And it's a crapload less money, if you don't already have it in Office Pro, than INDD. (Or you can use INDD on the cloud, but, crappity, the learning curve for a new person is pretty steep.)

Yes: if you import a Word file to Acrobat Pro, you can make a 6x9, but seriously, Word does have an actual bug that prevents it from creating a properly-sized PDF file for anything that isn't 8.5" x 11". Not making that up.

Of course, we still don't know what type of PDF he wants. We could be barking up a non-existent tree, Albert. ;-)

Hitch

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by st_albert

I certainly agree that Word is not what you want to use to produce a "camera ready" pdf for a POD printer. If you're an apple person, use Quark. If you're a Windows person, (you have my sympathies - I am one also in this situation) use InDesign. If you're a linux / unix person, you're SOL basically, but you can try scribus-ng.

That said, though I don't use Word except under duress, I have been told that there is no problem producing, for example, a pdf scaled to 6"x9" screen size, if you set those dimensions in the word doc before you hit the "print to pdf" button. The user that tells me this has Adobe Acrobat (full version, not just the reader) installed, so YMMV.

However I do know from personal experience that LibreOffice, out-of-the-box install, will produce a pdf that is properly scaled to whatever dimensions you set for the page.

Depending on where you fit on Hitch's scale of needs, you may well be able to find a solution that doesn't require boatloads of money.

All the best,
Albert

In Windows Framemaker can do a good job with PDF for POD.

Dale

[Gregg Bell]

Thanks everybody. Luke (and Granny) in the Word2epub forum said to try Calibre and I did. It was a little tricky at first getting the print size right and to fill the whole page but then when I figured it out, it was pretty easy. Not doing POD. Just doing some excerpts from ebooks. And even that is kind of a pain though because I have to copy what I want from the ebook, start a new ebook with just that, and then remove (the non-existent--because I've already removed it from the epub) cover in Calibre. But it's not that big a deal and maybe I can refine the process as I go along. Thanks so much for the help. It's always appreciated (and you guys are so interesting!).