Parameters for comics conversion without stretching

[MaitreNicodeme]

Hello,

I would like to convert CDZ/CBR/PDF files to ePUB/KePUB format.

I'm using Calibre's conversion feature. I get an ePUB/KePUB file, but the images are stretched.

What settings should I change to maintain the page proportions, please?

Thanks in advance

[kovidgoyal]

Use the keep aspect ratio setting under comic input.

[MaitreNicodeme]

Hello, and thank you for your reply.

I do see this option when I try to convert a document (e.g., CBR/CBZ) to PDF.

However, when I try to convert a PDF to ePUB, I don't get a comics entry. I only get a PDF entry, which doesn't contain an option to preserve the document's aspect ratio.

Or am I mistaken?

[kovidgoyal]

Change the input format in the top left to CBZ

[MaitreNicodeme]

I don't have the option to do this.
The document is a PDF, and I'm trying to convert it to ePUB. Calibre correctly detects the input format as PDF and won't let me change it (PDF is the only possible value in the drop-down list at the top left).

[kovidgoyal]

PDF is not a recognized format for comics. Use some other tool to extract the images from the PDF and zip them up into a CBZ and convert that.

[MaitreNicodeme]

I'll give it a try. Thx !

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by MaitreNicodeme

I'll give it a try. Thx !

Kindle Create (Comic/Manga option) or KCC will take 'comic' PDF as input. Of course PDF should contain only images for that to work correctly.

KCC will export ePub and CBZ as well as AZW3.

Kindle Create exports .kpf, which KFX input plugin can convert to KFX, which can be converted to ePub by the plugin.

I prefer using KC when I get comics in PDF format, since it lets me preview the comic to ensure page spread pages (if any) wind up on the correct side, add ToC, and maybe remove pages that are superfluous (e.g. previews or ads for other comics). And often I want to read it with a Kindle or the Kindle app, so KFX is useful for side-loading.

KC also lets you combine PDFs into a single book, for example if the PDFs represent issues in a volume, crop and resize pages, add a ToC, etc.

Both are good to have around.

For example, KCC has a useful 'split pages' function which can help with comics that have not been formatted correctly. I have gotten a number of them from amazon which consist only of 'spread' pages with 2 single pages merged. Even spreads that contain continuous artwork across left and right can be split if reading order of panels is not relevant.

So I can use KCC to split spread images, export to CBZ, and import those images to KC for final tuning (selectively replace images that should not have been split etc.).