LibreOffice Style Formatting Question

mdpeterson42 · 01-23-2026, 12:16 PM

I wrote my first book in HTML and had several issues creating the epub to pass the checks. I got it figured out, thanks to a lot of help from people on this forum, but it took weeks. Several people said it was easier to just format in styles and convert on Calibre. I am going to try that, but there are a couple points of which I am unsure.

First, in HTML, I set it so that the book would use whatever font the reader preferred. My LibreOffice style has a font, obviously. How do I make that conversion?

Second, similarly, my HTML did not dictate font size, other than that chapter headings were comparatively larger than the text. How do I set that up?

Third, some of the text will be "redacted." Will setting up a style with black highlighting accomplish that? Or will that run afoul of people who like dark mode? Is there a style that actually redacts?

Thank you all!

Karellen · 01-23-2026, 07:33 PM

I'll get the ball rolling with my thoughts...

You will not get a perfect conversion from from .odt to epub, so I wouldn't stress about making the settings perfect. Even after conversion the CSS will end up with so many styles that you will be sitting there scratching your head wondering where they all came from.

Make sure you use Styles in LibreOffice so everything is correctly tagged then fix the styling in the epub.

Your questions:
Font - Change the font entry in the CSS to font-family: serif; after conversion
Size - In the CSS, set the font size to font-size: 1em; in the body {}.
Redacted - Probably use strikethrough in odt, then change that to the <del> tag in the epub and your css would be...

del {
text-decoration: line-through;
text-decoration-thickness: 1em;
}

mdpeterson42 · 01-24-2026, 12:09 AM

Awesome, thank you!

Karellen · 01-24-2026, 01:58 AM

You are welcome.

One correction though, as I misread your intent.
Font - Delete any font-family: entries to ensure users can select a font that is provided by their reader.
Only use a font-family entry where you want to force a particular font style. eg in headings or maybe tables depending on what data they are displaying.

01-23-2026, 12:16 PM	#1
mdpeterson42 Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2024 Device: Kindle	LibreOffice Style Formatting Question I wrote my first book in HTML and had several issues creating the epub to pass the checks. I got it figured out, thanks to a lot of help from people on this forum, but it took weeks. Several people said it was easier to just format in styles and convert on Calibre. I am going to try that, but there are a couple points of which I am unsure. First, in HTML, I set it so that the book would use whatever font the reader preferred. My LibreOffice style has a font, obviously. How do I make that conversion? Second, similarly, my HTML did not dictate font size, other than that chapter headings were comparatively larger than the text. How do I set that up? Third, some of the text will be "redacted." Will setting up a style with black highlighting accomplish that? Or will that run afoul of people who like dark mode? Is there a style that actually redacts? Thank you all!

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01-23-2026, 07:33 PM	#2
Karellen Wizard Posts: 1,754 Karma: 9501034 Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2	I'll get the ball rolling with my thoughts... You will not get a perfect conversion from from .odt to epub, so I wouldn't stress about making the settings perfect. Even after conversion the CSS will end up with so many styles that you will be sitting there scratching your head wondering where they all came from. Make sure you use Styles in LibreOffice so everything is correctly tagged then fix the styling in the epub. Your questions: Font - Change the font entry in the CSS to font-family: serif; after conversion Size - In the CSS, set the font size to font-size: 1em; in the body {}. Redacted - Probably use strikethrough in odt, then change that to the <del> tag in the epub and your css would be... del { text-decoration: line-through; text-decoration-thickness: 1em; }

01-24-2026, 12:09 AM	#3
mdpeterson42 Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2024 Device: Kindle	Awesome, thank you!

01-24-2026, 01:58 AM	#4
Karellen Wizard Posts: 1,754 Karma: 9501034 Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2	You are welcome. One correction though, as I misread your intent. Font - Delete any font-family: entries to ensure users can select a font that is provided by their reader. Only use a font-family entry where you want to force a particular font style. eg in headings or maybe tables depending on what data they are displaying.