Avoiding to manually clean an epub?

[ibu]

@stumped

I didn't say, that it is easy to automate. But I'm sure, that it is possible to find a good solution for the task.

To your criticism:
bold, italic, italicbold

Indeed such visuell information should be kept.
Let's assum we have the following code:

<p>...<span class="foo">...</span>...</p>

.foo { font-family: "Arial Black" }

I suggest to keep a long list of bold fonts in the script. So that font would be recognized as bold.

The code will be replaced by:

<p>...<span class="foo">...</span>...</p>

.foo { font-weight: bold }

Sure, that is not perfect. And sure, that will not work in every situation. But in many. And that's what about I'm talking about. A good Plugin, with a focus on a narrow task. Not to much option. Clear.

Coming to your point justification:

I talk about eliminating the interference.
"left" is the standard. When you kill { text-align: justify } in the CSS you get back the option that the Kobo option "left" will have an effect. And in many cases, I think, the Kobo option "justified" willl work as well.
Do you know books, where it does work?

Coming to margins:
That's may be the most difficult part, that's true.
I hope for good heuristics, which work in many cases. And if not, the reader has to relinquish.

I understand your wish to clean an epub not only for a Kobo. But the task of cleaning a book is so complex, that I think it worth to focus on the usecases which are the most frequently. We will not be able to create a tool with a clear and simple UI, which could deal with all reader software of all books.

Well, it's nothing more, than my view.

[ibu]

OK, I have to realize, that there are no chances that new plugins will come, which go in that directions I suggested.

Back to one specific part of my wishes, eliminating the page margins of the publisher via a plugin:

Is there any method you can suggest, which comes near to the target without to much collateral damages?

[Sunlite]

Maybe take a look at the possibilities given to you by the available firmware patches.

There are quite some options to get more control over the layout of the text despite the publisher settings.

Information to the latest firmware and the available patches can be found in the wiki

[ibu]

I took a look at the patcher, but I couldn't find patches which do what I talk about in this thread.
May be I overlook something.

[JSWolf]

There is no way to do what you want and automatically modify an ePub such that they will be formatted the same. You have to do it by hand. There are too many differences in the coding for any way to automate this.