Hyphenation issue with some lit-Mobi conversions

[TheD0ct0r]

I am really hoping I have missed something simple. On some lit books, when converting them to Mobi, every line gets hypenated, and not in the correct location. (See screenshot) Is there a setting in Calibre I am missing to prevent this?

[kovidgoyal]

The hyphenation is probably present in the original LIT file. In that case calibre just carries it over to the output file.

[TheD0ct0r]

No, the hyphens will move as I resize the reader window.

[kovidgoyal]

This is in what reader?

[pdurrant]

My guess would be that the original file was chock full of discretionary hyphens, which the mobi reader is using to nicely justify the lines. Sadly without any sensible check on the number of hyphens it's sensible to use.

Originally Posted by TheD0ct0r

No, the hyphens will move as I resize the reader window.

[TheD0ct0r]

No again. Attachment 1 is what Calibre shows the original lit file looks like. Attachment 2 and 3 show the Mobi converted file. Notice that the hyphens, which do not exist in the original file, are moving based upon where the edge of the reader is.

This does not happen on all lit files, only some of them.

[kovidgoyal]

Do the hyphens appear if you view the file in the calibre viewer?

[pdurrant]

Can you export to something where you can look at the HTML? Or post the mobipocket or lit file if it's not commercial.

I've never seen mobipocket reader with the behaviour shown in your screen shots, so I'm still guessing loads (enormous numbers) of discretionary hyphens.

Originally Posted by TheD0ct0r

No again. Attachment 1 is what Calibre shows the original lit file looks like. Attachment 2 and 3 show the Mobi converted file. Notice that the hyphens, which do not exist in the original file, are moving based upon where the edge of the reader is.

This does not happen on all lit files, only some of them.

[TheD0ct0r]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Do the hyphens appear if you view the file in the calibre viewer?

No. The text extends off the reading screen, same as it does when viewing the lit file.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by TheD0ct0r

No. The text extends off the reading screen, same as it does when viewing the lit file.

Then it's definitely something MOBI reader is doing.

[TheD0ct0r]

This isn't being done by the reader. It has to be something in the way the .lit document is formatted. If I read some .lit documents in the Calibre viewer, the sentences wrap properly. Others don't. It's like the "Word Wrap" option in Notepad. Those that don't wrap in the Calibre viewer will have all the hyphens when the MOBI reader or my Kindle tries to wrap the text. Those that properly wrap in the Calibre viewer will also properly wrap in the MOBI reader and on my Kindle.

I turned on "Debug" mode in Calibre and looked at the output .html documents at various stages of the cobnversion, and I get the same results. The problem documents do not word wrap in the HTML documents when viewed in IE. Is there a setting that controls this?

[kovidgoyal]

Your Lit file probably is really a txt file,which means all its content is put into a <pre> tag which is why it wont wrap. But the hyphens are being inserted by mobi reader, probably because it forces hyphenation.

Just look at the html in the input debug directory and change the <pre> tag to <p> then convert that html, the problem should go away.

[TheD0ct0r]

Already tried that. It did solve the hyphenation issue. Unfortunately, it also eliminated ALL the paragraphs, resulting in one long line of text for the whole book. Any other ideas?

[kovidgoyal]

you can copy paste the contents of the pre tag into a .txt file and convert that

[TheD0ct0r]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

you can copy paste the contents of the pre tag into a .txt file and convert that

That worked! Thanks for the help.



Can I add an enhancement request to have Calibre be able to handle the <PRE> tag?