LRF no longer "supported" by Calibre

[bwhite82]

Originally Posted by Starson17

You handled that with class.

You provide great software - the best available anywhere. You don't require anyone to pay you for it. You provide free support - and you provide it faster and better than any commercial software. You constantly upgrade and improve the software. I suspect you scarcely have to time to read your ebooks. And despite all this, you get an "attitude" because you won't spend your time working on an obscure format that even Sony has dropped.

If he wants the code improved, he can fix it himself. (Sorry, but ungrateful posts like this really bug me.) You have my sincere thanks for calibre.

Very well said. I am happy to use software that is updated on a regular basis free of charge also. The maintainer(s) do a service by looking forward rather than backward...and my hat off to them for a fine product.

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

I've donated to Calibre when I began using it. Have you, Starson? Pretty sure I even donated to the "buy Kovid a Kindle" fund, long before you showed up here. (Sorry, snippy posts like this from newbies who don't open their pockets really bug me.)

There is no relation between Starson's post and donations you made. Starson might be a "newbie" in this forum from your point of view, though this doesn't disqualify him from posting his opinion here. If you disagree with his opinion then please discuss about his arguments and not about an imaginary member status.

Long time ago i opened a ticket to get paragraph spacing issues with LRF fixed. It got closed with the hint that LRF is going to be deprecated. Well, i was not amused, though i did accept it. Kovid owes me *nothing* and i'm very thankful for Calibre - even if there exist some bugs related to LRF-output.

I'm still hoping that another developer will pick up the LRF-output and fix some issues. If not, it's not a big deal as well.

Michael

[deltop]

I find it interesting that people still use lrf. I can see why they do due to the shortcommings of the adobe software, especially on the Sony devices. But isn't it going to be a huge hassle to go back and re-convert everything once your reader finally dies or you want to buy a new one? It's why I'm using epub now. Even if lrf still often produces better results. Then again I spend quite abit of time making sure all my ebooks look good. I'm rarely sasisfied with just a quick conversion via Calibre. I usually have to go and tweak the results. I'd not want to go back and redo a ton of files in the future.

[Madam Broshkina]

When I am reading an ebook I want the best reading experiences I can get. Right now for me on the Sony it is LRF files.

[Pablo]

LRF may have no future. But as I still live and read in the present and have a Sony 505 that doesn't make a good job of displaying epub files, I stick to LRF. Besides, I find making a well-formated LRF with BD far easier than making an equivalent ePub with Calibre or Sigil. In short, I see no reason to change to ePub, though I find it understandable that no more effort is devoted to this format in Calibre.

[junkml]

I'll also say I don't expect Kovid to spend his time on a format that is no longer actively being used by publishers. But, I will continue to convert to lrf for the foreseeable future because I prefer my books to be fully justified, which epub will not do. (does anyone have any idea if epub will EVER support full justification?)

I'll just say "Good job Kovid, your efforts are GREATLY appreciated!".

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by junkml

(does anyone have any idea if epub will EVER support full justification?)

The problem lies not in the ePub format itself but in its implementation in Sony Readers (though I believe the PRS-900 support justified ePub).
Nobody knows if Sony will release a firmware update to support justification in ePub files, my guess is that they will not.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Starson17

You handled that with class.

You provide great software - the best available anywhere. You don't require anyone to pay you for it. You provide free support - and you provide it faster and better than any commercial software. You constantly upgrade and improve the software. I suspect you scarcely have to time to read your ebooks. And despite all this, you get an "attitude" because you won't spend your time working on an obscure format that even Sony has dropped.

If he wants the code improved, he can fix it himself. (Sorry, but ungrateful posts like this really bug me.) You have my sincere thanks for calibre.

+1, totally agree.

[ShellShock]

I also use LRF only on my PRS505 because of the relatively poor implementation of epub viewing available on that device. I would love to switch over to epub but it will have to wait until either Sony upgrade the firmware (unlikely in my opinion), or I get a different device. So, for me, LRF is still alive and kicking.

I'm very grateful for the utilities in Calibre that enable us to convert LRF to LRS and back again: lrf2lrs and lrs2lrf. LRS is an xml format, which can be edited in any text editor. It is not for the technically challenged, but once you get the hang of it, it is possible (if time consuming) to tweak the file to your satisfaction. I've also written a program to automatically apply the styles I like best (margins, font sizes etc).

I was worried that LRF would be dropped from Calibre altogether, but Kovid has assured us it is still supported, just that there won't be any more bug fixes. This means I can carry on using Calibre to convert to LRF, and then do my own tweaking of the LRF file. If and when I do switch to epub, Calibre will be there again so that I can convert all my LRFs to epub.

I think that is the best that we can reasonably expect, in fact I'm very grateful to Kovid et al that it is possible at all. Without Calibre, format shifting would probably be a lot more difficult, especially considering the number of formats out there. I recently bought a series of 21 books by the same author, involving the same character; as seems to be typical with ebooks I had to source them from two different suppliers, and in 3 or 4 different formats. Using Calibre I was able to convert them all very easily to LRF.

So if you have any kind of coding skills, you can use the tools (lrf2lrs and lrs2lrf) that come with Calibre to do your own bug fixes/enhancements to get LRF just how you like them.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

If you have problems with the lrf format for your Sony Reader using Calibre, the message seems to be: tough noogies.

Seems reasonable to me to freeze the code for LRF since Sony is moving away form this format.

Originally Posted by DrMoze

I just encountered a bug when converting a .lit file, where extra spacing was added before the last line of each paragraph (and between paragraphs, it seems).

I hate that bug myself, but have moved my library to epub.

Originally Posted by DrMoze

Sorry, but I sometimes prefer the lrf format, because it actually provides full justification on the Readers--which ePub does not.

I preferred it because Calibre let me put headers up with the book title and author. I hacked the 505 using PRScustomizer to remove full justification. I have older eyes and bigger fonts with full justification was too ugly.

Originally Posted by DrMoze

Just thought I'd give a heads-up to save anyone else the trouble of reporting lrf problems. Thanks, Calibre.

It is always nice to give folks a heads up but your method was a little mean spirited.

Originally Posted by DrMoze

Anyone know of another utility for converting to lrf?

Finally after all those tears on the pillow your true question.

Originally Posted by tyche

You could use ConvertLIT to unpack the .lit file. Then use OpenOffice to clean up the html. The only thing I usually do first is open the file in a text editor and change the header to html instead of xhtml. Maybe that's not necessary but it's routine for me and I don't have issues importing the file.

tyche has it right just convert the file to html and clean it up a little. If you don't want to use convertlit then follow shellshock's adive below and maybe a little of his attitude as well.

Originally Posted by ShellShock

I'm very grateful for the utilities in Calibre that enable us to convert LRF to LRS and back again: lrf2lrs and lrs2lrf. LRS is an xml format, which can be edited in any text editor.

...~~...~~

I think that is the best that we can reasonably expect, in fact I'm very grateful to Kovid et al that it is possible at all. Without Calibre, format shifting would probably be a lot more difficult, especially considering the number of formats out there.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

Is this like saying that the New Zealand Football League also adopted the "Tuck Rule"?

I know nothing about the New Zealand Football League and even less about the "Tuck Rule", so you'll have to explain the reference.

[rkelac]

Here's another need for lrf. To change the margins on some epub files I have had to convert it from epub to lrf and then back to epub. Would be nice if this could be done directly but nothing else seems to work.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Valloric

In Calibre's defense, LRF output has been dropped from the Sigil roadmap, too. It's a dead format.

Originally Posted by Valloric

I know nothing about the New Zealand Football League and even less about the "Tuck Rule", so you'll have to explain the reference.

He is saying (in a very funny way) that your statement is moot. Calibre started with lrf at its core then branched to many other formats. Unless I'm wrong Sigil never had lrf so comparing the two is of little value.

The tuck rule is from American Football and will never be adopted by an entirely different sport.

So to veer further off topic, do you have any ballpark estimate on when Sigil 2.0 might make its appearance?

[rmm200]

I keep reading that LRF right justifies and EBub does not. Isn't this a function of the renderer, which is not part of either book format? Don't both formats use the same renderer, or does LRF not use CSS at all?

Thanks!

Robert

[theducks]

Originally Posted by rmm200

I keep reading that LRF right justifies and EBub does not. Isn't this a function of the renderer, which is not part of either book format? Don't both formats use the same renderer, or does LRF not use CSS at all?

Thanks!

Robert

EPUB has a Right justify.
I use Calibre to turn it off because I find the (padded) spacing really annoying at the font size I am using. I don't mind the jagged right margins.