Page Numbers

[flutterby]

Disclaimer: I have a decent knowledge of HTML/CSS but I'm new to calibre so I apologize if this is an obvious question, but I've been looking everywhere and I haven't been able to find an answer myself.

So some of the ebooks I've actually purchased from Amazon include page numbers that match the print edition (as well as the usual "location" numbers) which is very useful in book clubs and the like, for reference--it's handy to be able to "turn" to the same page as everyone else instead of going hunting for it. I'm converting some other ebooks I have, and I want to stay as close to the print edition as I can.

My question is, can page numbers of this type be added with calibre? Like, I don't know... a tag to place at where each page beginning would be? I don't care how tedious it is, I just want to know if it's possible. Thank you!

[JSWolf]

The only true eBook page numbers are ADE style page numbers.

[jhowell]

The MOBI and KF8 (azw3) Kindle formats use an associated APNX file to provide page numbers. Calibre can produce this file automatically when sending a book to a kindle device. As far as I know the software that generates the APNX can be configured to estimate the page number starting positions within the book using the total number of pages, but exact page number positioning is not possible.

The KFX Kindle format has page numbers built in and can be created using the KFX Output plugin. It can make use of exact page number locations specified in the source EPUB using an NCX pageList, NAV page-list, or page-map.xml. There are advantages and disadvantages to using KFX which I recommend you investigate before going that route.

Added: To actually add the page numbers to your source EPUB you would need to manually mark the start of each page by adding an id in the HTML files. Then you create an index that associates each of those ids with a page number label. A very tedious process.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by flutterby

My question is, can page numbers of this type be added with calibre? Like, I don't know... a tag to place at where each page beginning would be? I don't care how tedious it is, I just want to know if it's possible.

Welcome to MobileRead flutterby!

There are 3 different "Real Page Number" methods. I broke them down in detail in this post:

• EPUB2 = page-map (obsolete) + pageList
• EPUB3 = page-list

Like jhowell mentioned, it requires going through your HTML and manually adding anchors at the beginning of every "page".

In Post #6 of "Indexes without Page Numbers", I gave an example:

Spoiler:

<h2><a href="#page354"></a>Chapter IX</h2>

[...]

<p>Whereas, the members of Ellen Wright Camp, Franklin County Chapter, Daughters of Pioneers, by resolution, <a href="#page355"></a>have asked that the White Pine be designated as the state tree of the State of Idaho.</p>

Once you finish marking up the book, you then generate the pageList (EPUB2) or page-list (EPUB3) code.

* * *

Doitsu has a Sigil Plugin to make generating this code a bit easier, "PageList - Generates print edition page numbers"

EPUB3 recommends using <span epub:type="pagebreak">s instead of <a>s, but you should be able to use Regex to swap between them relatively easily.

Side Note: Here is a sample EPUB3 Doitsu created which includes a page-list:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=264508

If you learn more by actually seeing.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The only true eBook page numbers are ADE style page numbers.

This was thoroughly debunked last year in the "Citing Websites" thread (beginning in Post #35ish and beyond).