Make ebook pages like the real book's pages

[wisdomlight]

I'm not sure how to ask - so hopefully it will be clear...
I have a book in both mediums - epub on calibre and paper
I want the pages on the ebook to look exactly like the pages in the paper book - meaning the first and the last word on the paper book should be mirrored by the epub on calibre

is it possible and how can I do that?

[Sirtel]

It's only possible by manually inserting page breaks where you want them and then converting to PDF. Which would defeat the whole purpose of having an ebook in the first place.

[theducks]

I am not sure even a PDF would prevent difference.

A Picture is the only way to stop any change and that defeats the advantages of an e-book (ability to scale or zoom).
If there is something ON the page, then use a picture sparingly and leave the rest a normal EPUB.
You use LINKS rather than cite page numbers (which don't REALLY EXISTS AS YOU VIEW BY SCREEN).

[lomkiri]

Some epubs have a map of correspondences, for each page number of the paper book there is a mark in the epub, <a id="page_23"></a>. And in that case there is often a file mapping such anchors with their page number.

Obviously, this feature depends of the good will of the editor that created the epub, this is not a generic solution.

For the epubs without this feature, it's easy to go from the paper toward the epub, a term of phrase can be searched. The contrary is clearly more problematic.

[Quoth]

Only PDFs or other formats mimicking a PDF are identicalPDF/ to paper books and then you need a big screen. Amazon calls it Print Replica.

It defeats the purpose of ebooks and PDF/Fixed layout/Print Replica are electronically stored books, not real ebooks.

[DNSB]

You could match the page breaks of the pbook. That said, the pages would tend to look strange since you could not guarantee that the screen would be able display a page on a single screen and compared to the microjustification on a printer page, most ebook renderers don't eve come close. Changing font size, margins, line spacing, etc. will make it even worse.

I went through this once for a customer who wanted his ebook to "look the same" as his pbook edition. I sent him two copies in ePub, one a standard reflowable and the other a fixed layout. To put it mildly, he was very disappointed with the result to the point where "non-refundable deposit" had to be tossed around.

[wisdomlight]

For all those who replied to my question.
Thank you
I appreciate your pointing out that what I want to do will be defeating the purpose of eBook
Since I have the reMarkable reader which is large enough to accommodate the page size the flow of the document would not be a problem.
But it does look like it needs a lot of work done. The book is 300 pages...

Ok
Cheers all

[theducks]

Originally Posted by wisdomlight

...
Since I have the reMarkable reader which is large enough to accommodate the page size the flow of the document would not be a problem.
But it does look like it needs a lot of work done. The book is 300 pages...

Ok
Cheers all

From this, are we to assume that this task is for personal use? In that case, whatever pleases.
But if this is to be for sale. It needs to be tested on multiple devices (not just e-readers. Some folk read on PHONES .

[JSWolf]

Making the ePub look like the pBook is a very bad idea. It's usually a fail. That's one reason why I edit the code. To fix the mess.

You get chapter headers with too much space. L/R margins that are too large, Line-height that are too large. In an ePub, there should not be any line-height and overall L/R margins. You get embedded fonts that do not look good. Font sizes that can be too small or all over the place. Images that are too small. Special characters as graphics instead of an embedded font (LotR Runes as a good example). There are other things, but this a a good list as is to show why not to do an ePub to match a pBook.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by theducks

From this, are we to assume that this task is for personal use? In that case, whatever pleases.
But if this is to be for sale. It needs to be tested on multiple devices (not just e-readers. Some folk read on PHONES .

What? Don't you guys have phones?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by theducks

Some folk read on PHONES .

Originally Posted by ratinox

What? Don't you guys have phones?

Does having a phone force us to read on them? I do test on phones. Heck, I even have a Kindle Paperwhite just to test on it.

[JSWolf]

I have a Kobo Aura H2O, Sony Reader PRS-T1, PW5, access to a PW5, Kindle Touch, and a Kobo Libra 2, iPhone 15 Pro Max, access to an iPad Pro, Windows 11 laptop, Windows 10 desktop, and access to a MacBook Air M2. If I needed to test an eBooks, I'd have plenty of devices to test. I just have no access to anything Android based.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Does having a phone force us to read on them? I do test on phones. Heck, I even have a Kindle Paperwhite just to test on it.

No. It's just a meme from that BlizzCon fiasco a few years back.

But to agree with the point: trying to make ebooks look exactly like printed pages is doomed to fail. Past the immediate need to test on a wide variety of devices and applications, skeumorphism is just bad design. Margins on printed pages serve two main mechanical functions:

* They provide space to accommodate mechanical deviations in printing, cutting and binding.
* They provide spade for the reader to hold without their fingers covering up text.

Neither of which are relevant to digital files: ebook readers don't have mechanical deviations in printing, and they have bezels with which to hold them.

If you absotively, posilutely must have the digital version look exactly the same as the printed version then you print your book, scan each page to static images (PNG or JPEG), and publish as a comic book archive (CBZ).

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ratinox

If you absotively, posilutely must have the digital version look exactly the same as the printed version then you print your book, scan each page to static images (PNG or JPEG), and publish as a comic book archive (CBZ).

The pdf used to make the paper book will work on a sufficiently large screen with at least 200 dpi and 16 M colours.

The CBZ route is lower quality and needs a higher ppi screen, ideally so the size is identical with no loss of resolution.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The pdf used to make the paper book will work on a sufficiently large screen with at least 200 dpi and 16 M colours.

Maybe. The specific requirement is that, "[...] the first and the last word on the paper book should be mirrored by the epub on calibre." Some PDF viewers have text reflow options or rendering deficiciencies which will alter the text layout, thus PDF can fail this requirement. The only way to ensure that the electronic version's layout is always identical to the printed book's layout is to use raster images. Visual quality would be the sacrifice for making the ebook look just so.