PDF to ePub

[Jim2100]

First I hope that I am posting this in the right area. If not please advise and I will change it, as this is my first post here.

Here is my dilemma.
I have a new Galaxy Tab S tablet, with Moon+Reader Pro installed. I have loaded three books on it after much difficulty figuring it out. I had to upload to Drop Box then download onto my tablet. Two of the books are fine. they are in E pub format. The third is not available originally as an eBook. So when I found it, it was in PDF. I converted it to e Pub with Claibre. But the problem is, the pages do not display as you would expect a book to be rendered. Instead I get two tiny pages on the screen. I can expand them with two fingers to make larger, but then the type is not the best. And needless to say, this is not a comfortable way to read. This is my first attempt at using an e reader.

Thanks

Jim

[fjtorres]

PDFs are a plague upon e-reading humanity.
They are roach motels for information:good stuff goes in, nothing comes out.
PDF was not intended as an ebook format originally but rather as digital paper for archival use.

Some pdfs are little more than a bunch of image files of scanned pages so it might be that those images got reduced in size during the conversion process. Doing a halfway decent conversion of those kinds of pdf files usually requires professional OCR software like Abbey or Nuance.

Best suggestion is dig out the original pdf and load it into REPLIGO or some other pdf reader app for Android. That will let you read it about as good as it gets.

[burnafterreading]

um, if you have a tablet and want to read a PDF, why not just install the Adobe PDF reader for those types of files??? seems silly to try to convert it to some other format and/or try to read it in some other 3rd party app. if this was an eink reader with limited functions, then maybe, but this is a tablet and a PDF. install Adobe and get reading.

oh, and PS: a tablet is NOT an ereader, it's a tablet. an ereader is a kindle paperwhite or a kobo aura or something like that.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by burnafterreading

oh, and PS: a tablet is NOT an ereader, it's a tablet. an ereader is a kindle paperwhite or a kobo aura or something like that.

Well, crap... I've been doing it wrong for ages, cause I've been using my Fire 8.9 as an ereader for a long time. Thanks for setting me straight.

[JaneD]

Originally Posted by burnafterreading

um, if you have a tablet and want to read a PDF, why not just install the Adobe PDF reader for those types of files??? seems silly to try to convert it to some other format and/or try to read it in some other 3rd party app. if this was an eink reader with limited functions, then maybe, but this is a tablet and a PDF. install Adobe and get reading.

oh, and PS: a tablet is NOT an ereader, it's a tablet. an ereader is a kindle paperwhite or a kobo aura or something like that.

Gotta second the suggestion to get the Adobe PDF reader app. It works great on my tablet (Nexus 7 2013), and it has a cloud feature too, so you can save your pdf to the Adobe cloud and have it instantly appear in the app.

Have you also downloaded the Calibre Companion app? It's the only reason I bought a tablet, and just a fantastic convenience if you have a large calibre library.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Well, crap... I've been doing it wrong for ages, cause I've been using my Fire 8.9 as an ereader for a long time. Thanks for setting me straight.

Yeah, it's sorta like that drug ad where the actor says "I'm not a doctor; I just play one on TV...". A Fire, or my Dell Venue 8 Pro, isn't an eReader per se, but with the right software it sure mimics one well enough.

With a tablet you aren't limited to a fixed app for reading everything. You can install the best for each format rather than trying to work with one "jack of all trades but master of none".

[Apache]

Apache

[Apache]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Well, crap... I've been doing it wrong for ages, cause I've been using my Fire 8.9 as an ereader for a long time. Thanks for setting me straight.

I seem to be in the same boat as you.
Apache

[fjtorres]

It's mostly semantics but a sore point in some circles, especially with that crappy "ereaders mess up your circadians" paper floating around.

Desktop and laptop PCs can be used to read ebooks, too. But few people call them ebooks readers just as few people refer to cellphones as cameras no matter how many pictures they take with them.

Terms like camera, media player, and yes, ebook reader, are best reserved for the single function devices, to avoid confusion. Nobody is going to beat you up for saying a tablet is *your* ebook reader because it is a valid use of a tablet. And a common one, just like taking pictures or listening to music with a phone. But it is somewhat helpful to keep the devices separate in conversation.

If nothing else, for the sake of the children... and newbies.

In this case, if we were talking about a dedicated ebook reader, the only possible answer would be "copy over the original PDF and pray it opens".

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It's mostly semantics but a sore point in some


In this case, if we were talking about a dedicated ebook reader, the only possible answer would be "copy over the original PDF and pray it opens".

Well no. I am sure the geeks in this forum will explain how to convert from the PDF as supplied to a more suitably formatted PDF or just how to use a e-reader in landscape mode.

Also a PDF, I am informed, is three different formats in one package so quite a lot can be done.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Well no. I am sure the geeks in this forum will explain how to convert from the PDF as supplied to a more suitably formatted PDF or just how to use a e-reader in landscape mode.

Also a PDF, I am informed, is three different formats in one package so quite a lot can be done.

The *specific* pdf he describes is a bundle of page images. As I pointed out initially, getting something useful out of that requires professional OCR software.

What can be done with other pdfs (in the abstract) doesn't have much bearing here: trying to read image-only pdfs on eink readers is a crapshoot...assuming they even load. Fortunately for the OP, he has an Android tablet so all he needs is a PDF viewer and a bit of luck.

[crich70]

You might find post #15 in this thread of use: PDf to Epub

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Best suggestion is dig out the original pdf and load it into REPLIGO or some other pdf reader app for Android. That will let you read it about as good as it gets.

Evidently REPLIGO is no longer available on the Android.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Evidently REPLIGO is no longer available on the Android.

Apparently not.
Pretty recently, too.
It's not available for sale at Amazon, where I got my copy.


It's available here, from what remains of the publisher website:

http://m.cerience.com/reader/

Here's a bunch of other options:

http://www.androidauthority.com/12-b...ndroid-366394/

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Apparently not.
Pretty recently, too.
It's not available for sale at Amazon, where I got my copy.


It's available here, from what remains of the publisher website:

http://m.cerience.com/reader/

Here's a bunch of other options:

http://www.androidauthority.com/12-b...ndroid-366394/

Thanks, the publisher website has it for blackberry, not windows. I was more interested in a way to convert from pdf to epub, so I'll keep looking for a better way than calibre.