Just bought a Topaz - Page 2

jaxx6166 · 12-23-2010, 10:35 PM

There's always a catch. I was looking for a way to cure these books, but I guess I'm SOL. I can't even get the Topaz/HTML trick to work on these. Urk..guess I gotta bring my kindle to work tomorrow instead of the Sony

DiapDealer · 12-23-2010, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Okay, nobody laugh, I'm trying to get the facts straight. I had thought that an eBook was made and then DRM was added to it after the fact somehow. After reading this it's clear that Topaz is part of the process of making the actual eBook. Is that correct? Is the same true for non-Topaz DRM?

Topaz is an ebook format... just like mobi or epub. The DRM on an Amazon topaz ebook is exactly the same as the DRM on an Amazon mobi. Only the underlying ebook structure is different.

daffy4u · 12-23-2010, 10:46 PM

Ebooks are made in whatever format and then DRM is applied. Topaz is a format only used by Amazon to create ebooks that don't currently exist (as far as I know). Topaz is a special format with embedded fonts. It kind of looks like a scanned pdf but it works like .azw books. It cannot be converted to another format easily even without DRM (a lot of clean up is required).

osnova · 12-23-2010, 10:58 PM

My guess is that Topaz is scan-based, i.e. not really a text but a bunch of scanned pictures of letters. The converter probably decides that some "pictures" are the same, so it reuses them. Sometimes, this "matching" results in mistakes between similar looking letters, especially if the scan is not good.

jaxx6166 · 12-23-2010, 11:26 PM

Onsova, you hit the nail on the head. Topaz is basically OCR. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But, four hours and six crashes later I finally converted my TPZ to EPUB. So, all is right in the world again...until the next time.

wvcherrybomb · 12-23-2010, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Topaz is a special format with embedded fonts. It kind of looks like a scanned pdf but it works like .azw books. It cannot be converted to another format easily even without DRM (a lot of clean up is required).

Ahhhhh. I think I've got it now. Thanks to all for taking the time to explain.

mr ploppy · 12-24-2010, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaxx6166

There's always a catch. I was looking for a way to cure these books, but I guess I'm SOL. I can't even get the Topaz/HTML trick to work on these. Urk..guess I gotta bring my kindle to work tomorrow instead of the Sony

It's probably not really worth it, all you get is a quick and dirty OCR that Amazon includes for indexing purposes.

CWatkinsNash · 12-24-2010, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaxx6166

Onsova, you hit the nail on the head. Topaz is basically OCR. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But, four hours and six crashes later I finally converted my TPZ to EPUB. So, all is right in the world again...until the next time.

Holy cow - I didn't think the Topaz ordeal was too bad but I obviously just got lucky. I had three and they processed fairly easily. Slowly, but no hangups or crashes. Sorry for your ordeal. I'll cross my fingers for both of us in the hopes we don't snag any more tpz files anytime soon.

FF2 · 12-24-2010, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Holy cow - I didn't think the Topaz ordeal was too bad but I obviously just got lucky. I had three and they processed fairly easily. Slowly, but no hangups or crashes. Sorry for your ordeal. I'll cross my fingers for both of us in the hopes we don't snag any more tpz files anytime soon.

I have not looked at all of my conversions of topaz and probably should but the processing went okay. The ones I did look at seem to have converted. I did 26. I sought of created an assembly line. I had three command/python windows running along with a folder window. 1st process started and when finished 2nd window pointed to the first's output and similarly the 3rd process took over. When finished I renamed the folder (using the folder window) and dragged the file to Calibre. When that was happening, I went back to the first window, browsed for the next book and processed it through Windows 1, 2 and 3, etc. This was on a slower netbook since the desktop is having issues.

sadievan · 12-25-2010, 11:49 AM

So far it looks like my topaz converted ok too, just did a quick check of them. I only had trouble with one that I could see. When I opened it in Calibre, the left side of the text was hidden and couldn't slide the slider on the bottom to view. Had to convert from mobi to epub. If both versions were in Calibre the mobi would open fine. When I would delete the epub the mobi would not show correctly again. Then what I did was convert to epub from mobi. Close out Calibre. Restart Calibre. Then when I deleted the epub, the mobi opened fine.

HTH,
Carol

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12-23-2010, 10:35 PM	#16
jaxx6166 Wizard Posts: 1,222 Karma: 769316 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Eternal summer Device: 350, iPad, PW	There's always a catch. I was looking for a way to cure these books, but I guess I'm SOL. I can't even get the Topaz/HTML trick to work on these. Urk..guess I gotta bring my kindle to work tomorrow instead of the Sony

12-23-2010, 10:46 PM	#18
daffy4u I'm Super Kindle-icious Posts: 6,734 Karma: 2434103 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Long Drive, Calinadia Candafornia Device: KDXG, KT, Oasis	Ebooks are made in whatever format and then DRM is applied. Topaz is a format only used by Amazon to create ebooks that don't currently exist (as far as I know). Topaz is a special format with embedded fonts. It kind of looks like a scanned pdf but it works like .azw books. It cannot be converted to another format easily even without DRM (a lot of clean up is required).

12-23-2010, 10:58 PM	#19
osnova Kindler of the Flame Posts: 582 Karma: 646016 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: US of A Device: K DX,3,KT,KP,KF, KFHD; Nook C, PRS600, iPad, Xoom, N900, N810, Zaurus	My guess is that Topaz is scan-based, i.e. not really a text but a bunch of scanned pictures of letters. The converter probably decides that some "pictures" are the same, so it reuses them. Sometimes, this "matching" results in mistakes between similar looking letters, especially if the scan is not good.

12-23-2010, 11:26 PM	#20
jaxx6166 Wizard Posts: 1,222 Karma: 769316 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Eternal summer Device: 350, iPad, PW	Onsova, you hit the nail on the head. Topaz is basically OCR. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But, four hours and six crashes later I finally converted my TPZ to EPUB. So, all is right in the world again...until the next time.

12-25-2010, 11:49 AM	#25
sadievan Wizard Posts: 1,931 Karma: 5456284 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, iPhone, Kindle Fire HD 6	So far it looks like my topaz converted ok too, just did a quick check of them. I only had trouble with one that I could see. When I opened it in Calibre, the left side of the text was hidden and couldn't slide the slider on the bottom to view. Had to convert from mobi to epub. If both versions were in Calibre the mobi would open fine. When I would delete the epub the mobi would not show correctly again. Then what I did was convert to epub from mobi. Close out Calibre. Restart Calibre. Then when I deleted the epub, the mobi opened fine. HTH, Carol

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