sony and epub - Page 2

SCION · 02-02-2010, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garbanzo

i think i'll convert everything to rtf, fix them, and store them. then, once i figue out which format works best on my reader, i can convert from there. rtf is an easy and intuitive format for me - i'm no good at scripts!

Sounds like a plan!

Squirsier · 02-02-2010, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garbanzo

i'm not so sure. the more i download, the more apparent it is that formatting is all over the place.

The LRX files from the Sony eReader Store also had formatting that was all over the place. Seems like publishers are struggling with a default that would work nicely for everyone.

jissa · 02-02-2010, 07:31 PM

Quote:

i think i'll convert everything to rtf, fix them, and store them. then, once i figue out which format works best on my reader, i can convert from there. rtf is an easy and intuitive format for me - i'm no good at scripts!

For some reason I've found that Calibre seems to convert better from html than rtf, so if you're converting a bunch to your preferred standards, I'd save them as html.

Now, I'm not sure if you've tried this much, but Calibre does a pretty good job of fixing a lot of the formating problems with books if you tell it to convert to epub, and tweak the settings to your liking (for instance, I tell it to remove extra lines after paragraph and add a 1.5 em indentation to each paragraph). This can be a great first step for the epub editing. After that, I've quite liked using Sigil to tweak the books into the perfect formatting.

garbanzo · 02-03-2010, 12:00 AM

thanks for the tips jissa. i didn't realize calibre could do that much editing during the conversion, i'll have to take a closer look.

i'm not to keen on html. it is a weird format to me, not very intuitive and hard to edit.

as for Sigil, well, i've tried it on several different epubs and found it to be so debilitatingly slow that it's not even worth considering as an option.

what i really want to know is how RTF looks on the reader. just text, chapter headings, maybe a simple title page - nothing fancy.

astra · 02-03-2010, 04:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jissa

For some reason I've found that Calibre seems to convert better from html than rtf, so if you're converting a bunch to your preferred standards, I'd save them as html.

Now, I'm not sure if you've tried this much, but Calibre does a pretty good job of fixing a lot of the formating problems with books if you tell it to convert to epub, and tweak the settings to your liking (for instance, I tell it to remove extra lines after paragraph and add a 1.5 em indentation to each paragraph). This can be a great first step for the epub editing. After that, I've quite liked using Sigil to tweak the books into the perfect formatting.

Do you mean you edit Calibre created epub in Sigil?

garbanzo · 02-03-2010, 05:10 AM

i've just tried Atlantis and it does a lovely job converting RTF to epub. so i think i'm going to start converting my library to RTF for storage. once i get my Reader i can decide if i prefer RTF or epub output...

i read in a thread here that you can add a line to the RTF header that will force full justification on a Sony Reader. can anyone confirm whether or not this works on the 300?

perversity · 02-03-2010, 11:56 AM

The whole lack of justification on my PRS600 has sort of disregard the device. When I first bought the thing I championed it to everyone I knew. Now that everything is epub and looks like crap, I hardly use my reader, and I hope to God that Sony gets off it's duff and fixes this

astra · 02-03-2010, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by perversity

The whole lack of justification on my PRS600 has sort of disregard the device. When I first bought the thing I championed it to everyone I knew. Now that everything is epub and looks like crap, I hardly use my reader, and I hope to God that Sony gets off it's duff and fixes this

Use lrf for now and let's hope they will do f/w upgrade.

garbanzo · 02-03-2010, 12:32 PM

the more i play with conversions in Calibre, the more i am satisfied with LRF. even ugly lit files convert to nicely justified text with a slight indent and no gaps between paragraphs.

of course, i don't have my Reader yet, so i have no idea how well Calibre's display approximates what i will see on the actual hardware...

jswinden · 02-03-2010, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garbanzo

what i really want to know is how RTF looks on the reader. just text, chapter headings, maybe a simple title page - nothing fancy.

RTFs created in MS Word 2007 look good on my 300. No calibre conversion necessary. I haven't tried RTFs on my 900 yet.

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02-03-2010, 12:00 AM	#19
garbanzo bean Posts: 82 Karma: 338 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Boox Nova 2	thanks for the tips jissa. i didn't realize calibre could do that much editing during the conversion, i'll have to take a closer look. i'm not to keen on html. it is a weird format to me, not very intuitive and hard to edit. as for Sigil, well, i've tried it on several different epubs and found it to be so debilitatingly slow that it's not even worth considering as an option. what i really want to know is how RTF looks on the reader. just text, chapter headings, maybe a simple title page - nothing fancy.

02-03-2010, 05:10 AM	#21
garbanzo bean Posts: 82 Karma: 338 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Boox Nova 2	i've just tried Atlantis and it does a lovely job converting RTF to epub. so i think i'm going to start converting my library to RTF for storage. once i get my Reader i can decide if i prefer RTF or epub output... i read in a thread here that you can add a line to the RTF header that will force full justification on a Sony Reader. can anyone confirm whether or not this works on the 300?

02-03-2010, 11:56 AM	#22
perversity Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 20 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Sony PRS-600	The whole lack of justification on my PRS600 has sort of disregard the device. When I first bought the thing I championed it to everyone I knew. Now that everything is epub and looks like crap, I hardly use my reader, and I hope to God that Sony gets off it's duff and fixes this

02-03-2010, 12:32 PM	#24
garbanzo bean Posts: 82 Karma: 338 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Boox Nova 2	the more i play with conversions in Calibre, the more i am satisfied with LRF. even ugly lit files convert to nicely justified text with a slight indent and no gaps between paragraphs. of course, i don't have my Reader yet, so i have no idea how well Calibre's display approximates what i will see on the actual hardware...