Converting from epub to pdf results in dollarsigns - Page 2

jhowell · 09-09-2020, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paperbackebook

What I notice is that every word in the book has a seperate span tag with absolute positioning. Is this accepted as normal in the ebook world? It looks ridiculous to me.

That is a fixed-layout EPUB, which is basically an alternative to PDF. They are not well supported by e-book reading software, including calibre.

retiredbiker · 09-09-2020, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paperbackebook

What I notice is that every word in the book has a seperate span tag with absolute positioning. Is this accepted as normal in the ebook world? It looks ridiculous to me.

When I look at those positions in the span tag I see high numbers pixels. Example:
style="position:absolute;top:6113.53px;left:4640px ;letter-spacing:-1.29px;"

That's a fixed format book; Calibre has no support for those. Nasty beasties. Actually its amazing it converted at all. Editing out all that positioning is the way to go, if you can.

paperbackebook · 09-09-2020, 01:25 PM

Yeah nasty indeed

Who ever came up with this ...

I suppose editing all those positionings out will probably end up giving other issues with the layout.
Not sure though and would like to fiddle further with it but I don't have that amount of time to spend how I can remove all that stuff properly.

However I did find another method which is scriptable (although output quality will be a bit lower. Putting it here for if someone ever needs it.
- extract the epub
- with chrome headless mode and screenshot feature open the file and write to a png (on the commandline; firefox started hanging so has to be chrome)
- print all the PNGs

I think for now that's the "easiest" and most scaling workaround.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Converting to EPUB results in files that Calibre can't read	Sheeba	Calibre	7	01-20-2020 09:34 PM
Help! Converting from epub to mobi results in loss of all images and font data	Spankeh	Conversion	12	10-17-2019 08:45 PM
Converting AZW3 book to PDF results in messed up format	NeonHD	Conversion	3	07-24-2017 05:22 AM
Converting epub to epub results in 2 pages in book	deback	Conversion	13	01-31-2016 04:06 PM
Converting Microsoft Word documents to PDF for the eDGe (with good results)	borisb	enTourage Archive	1	10-22-2010 02:31 PM

09-09-2020, 01:25 PM	#18
paperbackebook Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2020 Device: none	Yeah nasty indeed Who ever came up with this ... I suppose editing all those positionings out will probably end up giving other issues with the layout. Not sure though and would like to fiddle further with it but I don't have that amount of time to spend how I can remove all that stuff properly. However I did find another method which is scriptable (although output quality will be a bit lower. Putting it here for if someone ever needs it. - extract the epub - with chrome headless mode and screenshot feature open the file and write to a png (on the commandline; firefox started hanging so has to be chrome) - print all the PNGs I think for now that's the "easiest" and most scaling workaround.

Advert