Trouble with a large fixed-layout ePub

[ownedbycats]

I downloaded a 699 mb ePub (source) but when I opened it in the Calibre ebook viewer it didn't render right -- I think it might be a fixed-layout.

I thought that converting it to PDF might work, but it stalled out at 47% ('Removing fake margins...') and I'm not sure if it would even work anyways.

Does anybody have any suggestions on what to do?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I downloaded a 699 mb ePub (source) but when I opened it in the Calibre ebook viewer it didn't render right -- I think it might be a fixed-layout.

I thought that converting it to PDF might work, but it stalled out at 47% ('Removing fake margins...') and I'm not sure if it would even work anyways.

Does anybody have any suggestions on what to do?

Basically, it's an epub3 fixed layout produced using InDesign and aimed at an iPad or similar 2048x1536 screen resolution device.

I tried it on my Kobo Sage and the text and images looked pretty decent but trying to use the multimedia features did not work. See the attached images for what two of the pages looked like.

Sigil will open it and let you view the content, play the multimedia, etc. but you are going to need a 4K monitor to fit that 2048x1536 viewport.

[ownedbycats]

The conversion eventually went through (it took over an hour) but it came out pretty badly:



Good to know about Sigil, even though my monitor is wayyyy too small.

[Doitsu]

You could read the book with the free Azardi reader desktop app.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

You could read the book with the free Azardi reader desktop app.

Would it display correctly in Azardi if the monitor is not 4k? Would the viewport be too large?

[ownedbycats]

I tried Azardi and the epub gave me an error.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I tried Azardi and the epub gave me an error.

I only tried the Windows version, which worked fine. Apple Books worked fine, too.

[ownedbycats]

I figured out what happened: it was the length of the filepath. I shortened the title and it opened properly.

I'll see if I can find a way to report it to the developers -- though it looks like it hasn't been in development for a few years.

In any case I've added AZARDI to my Open With menu.

[DNSB]

Another suggestion for viewing the epub is the Thorium reader. It scales the viewport to fit. I tested the epub under Windows and Linux and looks pretty much identical under both. See Thorium Reader for the download and other information.

[ownedbycats]

Sadly, Thorium reader gave me an error about the OPDS feed and wouldnt open it.

[PeterT]

I downloaded the Epub and had no problems adding it to Reasily and reading it there.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ab.app.reasily

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Sadly, Thorium reader gave me an error about the OPDS feed and wouldnt open it.

Hmmm... I just downloaded the file and dropped it on Thorium. I only checked Thorium's OPDS capability once by connecting to calibre's web server and it worked after I disabled users in the preferences.

Edit: My setup used http://127.0.0.1:9231/opds since Thorium and calibre were on the same computer. Once I clicked on the catalog, it popped up the various selection options. I opened a entry in the newest and clicked import and it imported without issue. See the image for the error when I had checked require username and password to access the content server.