calibre to epub to sony reader - neat margins - Page 2

ldolse · 10-19-2011, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

The left and right margins are in the CSS see post 12 above for exactly where they are located.

True, I forgot about that.

cybmole · 10-19-2011, 02:48 AM

this is gettign much cleaere - thanks all.

my only remaining CSS puzzle is body vs .body - no joy googling css syntax for explanation of when not to add the dot

on the default 5pt margins - just out of curiosity how were they chosen - democratically or Kovid's view of what looks best.

If I wanted more margin all around, in the style of some adobe xgpt styles, I guess its better to tweak common preferences & reconvert rather than edit CSS & find /replace the @page stuff; that way there will be an original-epub to revert to.

on a quick test, I see the visual appeal of more surrounding white space - it is more "paper book like" but when I am actually reading i like to minimize page turns so will probably stick with calibre defaults.

pietvo · 10-19-2011, 04:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cybmole

my only remaining CSS puzzle is body vs .body - no joy googling css syntax for explanation of when not to add the dot

‘body’ applies to the element ‘body’. ‘.body’ applies to all elements with class="body". Similar ‘#body' would apply to the element with id="body".

Combined: p.xxxx would apply to elements <p class="xxxx">.

cybmole · 10-19-2011, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pietvo

‘body’ applies to the element ‘body’. ‘.body’ applies to all elements with class="body".

sorry - I still don't get that distinction.

each page of epub html (before conversion) contains

<head> blah blah

<body>

<p blah blah

so does body in css apply to that, or only .body in CSS

adding / removing that leading dot in css does change the margins

jackie_w · 10-19-2011, 07:43 AM

if your css file contains

Code:

.body {margin-left:5pt; ... etc} (with dot)

it would affect any text in your html marked up with <??? class="body"> e.g.
<p class="body">
<div class="body">
<blockquote class="body">
<body class="body">

If your css file contains

Code:

body {margin-left:5pt; margin-right:5pt; ... etc} (without dot)

it would affect any text in your html marked up with <body ...> e.g
<body>
it would also affect any text in your html marked up with
<body class="xyz"> but with a caveat. If your css also contains

Code:

.xyz {margin-left:10pt}

then, by rules of cascading css, the .xyz would take preference for the left margin. You would get a 10pt left margin and a 5pt right margin

If the css contains

Code:

body.xyz {margin-left:5pt; margin-right:5pt; ... etc}

then only html files with <body class="xyz"> will have the 5pt margins

For your specific epub, it's hard to say more without seeing it. The fact that a typical html file for a chapter only has a plain <body> tag rather than a <body class="calibre??"> suggests it was not created by a Calibre conversion, but I stand to be corrected on that. I manually add those 5pt L/R margins to non-Calibre epubs all the time. I can't say I've noticed any problems.

cybmole · 10-19-2011, 08:40 AM

i have no instances of class="body" in the original epub ( which has not come from calibre)
i have just <body>
then <h2 chapter header stuff....
then <p class="indent".... stuff
and no instances of 5pt margins in either the body or the indent definitions- the relevent bits are:
p.indent
{
text-indent: 1.00em;
margin-left: 0em;
margin-right: 0em;
text-align: justify;
}
body
{
margin-left: 0em;
margin-right: 0em;
}

so with those definitions, and your explanation, I'd expect to see text flow right up to bevel - which it does. - TICK

I now understand what calibre does, & where it does it, to add 5pt margins - TICK

I can also "prove" your explanation of the overrides, by setting e.g. left margin 5em in body to make a big visible difference.
body (without dot) then hugely indents the whole chapter. body (with dot) is over-ridden by p.indent & thus has no effect. TICK

but a zero left margin in body ( no dot) does not look the same as a zero left margin in p.indent & that is just mystifying - unless it is a side effect of justify...
YES. THAT IS IT. if i set p.indent text-align:left; then the text flows right up to left edge and all behaviour is consistent with explanations given:

body , with dot, is overridden by p.indent, and the text-align :justify in that definition adds something akin to a 5pt left & right border

I'm going tp quit while I think I'm winning & go read something :0)

theducks · 10-19-2011, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cybmole

i'd checked the body tag already
before there was no class on body, just....

</head>

<body>
....
with a CSS definition:
body
{
font-size: medium;
line-height: 1.2em;
margin-top: 1em;
margin-left: 0em;
margin-right: 0em;
margin-bottom: 5.000000pt;
margin-top: 5.000000pt;
font-family: "Charis";
}
NB original CSS has body , not .body
after
<body class="calibre1">

.calibre1 {
display: block;
font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.2em;

padding-left: 0;
padding-right: 0
}

so I'm still not seeing it ( assuming lack of explicit padding definition defaults to zero )

body applies to any Body tag
.body only applies to something with the class="body"
Both are valid
Both can do the same
the second way just allows finer application control

10-19-2011, 07:43 AM	#20
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,251 Karma: 16539642 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E, LibraCol, PBTouchHD3	if your css file contains Code: .body {margin-left:5pt; ... etc} (with dot) it would affect any text in your html marked up with <??? class="body"> e.g. <p class="body"> <div class="body"> <blockquote class="body"> <body class="body"> If your css file contains Code: body {margin-left:5pt; margin-right:5pt; ... etc} (without dot) it would affect any text in your html marked up with <body ...> e.g <body> it would also affect any text in your html marked up with <body class="xyz"> but with a caveat. If your css also contains Code: .xyz {margin-left:10pt} then, by rules of cascading css, the .xyz would take preference for the left margin. You would get a 10pt left margin and a 5pt right margin If the css contains Code: body.xyz {margin-left:5pt; margin-right:5pt; ... etc} then only html files with <body class="xyz"> will have the 5pt margins For your specific epub, it's hard to say more without seeing it. The fact that a typical html file for a chapter only has a plain <body> tag rather than a <body class="calibre??"> suggests it was not created by a Calibre conversion, but I stand to be corrected on that. I manually add those 5pt L/R margins to non-Calibre epubs all the time. I can't say I've noticed any problems.

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10-19-2011, 02:48 AM	#17
cybmole Wizard Posts: 3,720 Karma: 1759970 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	this is gettign much cleaere - thanks all. my only remaining CSS puzzle is body vs .body - no joy googling css syntax for explanation of when not to add the dot on the default 5pt margins - just out of curiosity how were they chosen - democratically or Kovid's view of what looks best. If I wanted more margin all around, in the style of some adobe xgpt styles, I guess its better to tweak common preferences & reconvert rather than edit CSS & find /replace the @page stuff; that way there will be an original-epub to revert to. on a quick test, I see the visual appeal of more surrounding white space - it is more "paper book like" but when I am actually reading i like to minimize page turns so will probably stick with calibre defaults.

10-19-2011, 08:40 AM	#21
cybmole Wizard Posts: 3,720 Karma: 1759970 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	i have no instances of class="body" in the original epub ( which has not come from calibre) i have just <body> then <h2 chapter header stuff.... then <p class="indent".... stuff and no instances of 5pt margins in either the body or the indent definitions- the relevent bits are: p.indent { text-indent: 1.00em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; text-align: justify; } body { margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; } so with those definitions, and your explanation, I'd expect to see text flow right up to bevel - which it does. - TICK I now understand what calibre does, & where it does it, to add 5pt margins - TICK I can also "prove" your explanation of the overrides, by setting e.g. left margin 5em in body to make a big visible difference. body (without dot) then hugely indents the whole chapter. body (with dot) is over-ridden by p.indent & thus has no effect. TICK but a zero left margin in body ( no dot) does not look the same as a zero left margin in p.indent & that is just mystifying - unless it is a side effect of justify... YES. THAT IS IT. if i set p.indent text-align:left; then the text flows right up to left edge and all behaviour is consistent with explanations given: body , with dot, is overridden by p.indent, and the text-align :justify in that definition adds something akin to a 5pt left & right border I'm going tp quit while I think I'm winning & go read something :0)

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