Standard compliant ePub reader?

[Artha]

As I work through the book I'm converting from PDF I'm starting to get annoyed. I work in Sigil. While it's quite useful, it displays things one way. Calibre ebook reader displays things some other way. And Adobe Digital Editions some third way.

While Sigil does not need font embedding to show UTF8 files ADE really need them and needs style definitions to be carefuly crafted in order to work. ADE has been quite helpful pointing out mistakes Sigil does not get. But if your file is not standards compliant ADE will just ignore it all or just part of it quietly and I don't seem to find some debug mode.

On the other hand there was one error regarding SVG in the cover that ADE just worked it out and Sigil's Validate epub marked.

From this standpoint Calibre is somewhere in between: some things just work some don't. Only that it's slooow.

Now I'm trying to figgure out some mess with unordered lists that come out differently on each one and started to think: is there something that can show what an ePub should actually look like? I'm feeling like in the old days when each browser had its own way of making things.

[Toxaris]

The 'problem' is, that the ePUB specs are not the same as the XHTML specs. There are differences. Some program/readers take for convenience a web renderer instead of programming a new one. Therefore there are some differences.
For devices running with the mobile version of ADE, the ADE is quite acceptable.

[mrmikel]

This may be an argument for displaying an epub on the actual device you are mostly doing the epub for.

[Artha]

you are both right. I have an ADE eInk device. When the file will be done there is going to be some testing done right on it. On the other hand, the most probable device is going to be Kindle, thus a mobi converted from the ePub.

[mrmikel]

It is unfortunate this is necessary. The current abilities of most of them are limited, some by design, some by ADE.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Artha

...On the other hand, the most probable device is going to be Kindle, thus a mobi converted from the ePub.

For testing these there is the Kindle Previewer. At least with MOBI you have an excellent, though not perfect, emulator available for Mac and Windows.

[Artha]

That's good to hear. Only that if kindle's tool is that good than the epub to mobi conversion will also be good. On the other hand I've seen the insides of calibre epubs and I don't want something like that.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Artha

That's good to hear. Only that if kindle's tool is that good than the epub to mobi conversion will also be good. On the other hand I've seen the insides of calibre epubs and I don't want something like that.

As has been said many times before, garbage in, garbage out. Calibre can only work with what it's given. Do not blame Calibre for your giving is a poor source. I'm thinking your source come from Word and if that is the case, you have to blame Word, not Calibre.

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

It is unfortunate this is necessary. The current abilities of most of them are limited, some by design, some by ADE.

True, but compared to other ePUB reading engines, ADE follows the specs the best. Not perfect alas.

[Artha]

jswolf: and word is made by microsoft which is owned by quite a lot of people. thus the united nations should be blame as well for turning a blind eye to such atrocity.

in other words you are missing the point.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Artha

jswolf: and word is made by microsoft which is owned by quite a lot of people. thus the united nations should be blame as well for turning a blind eye to such atrocity.

in other words you are missing the point.

Just because you have Word, I have Word, my wife has Word doesn't make Word any better then it is. That's the point. Word creates styles that are not used, it has too many auto things that should be turned off. What comes out of Word and goes into making an ePub is garbage in/garbage out. That is the point. So no, I am not missing the point.

In fact, if you feel you have to use Word, take the resulting ePub, run it through Sigil and spend as long as it takes to make the code look nice and the ePub look nice using ADE. That's the best you can do. I've not tried a Calibre created ePub from Word in Sigil 0.4.2. So I don't know how Sigil will clean things up. There could be a lot of work by hand including renaming files.

[Toxaris]

Sigil will not clean up Word code. Either do it yourself or use a program that does it. I made my own macro to transform a word document to clean html.

[Artha]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Just because you have Word, I have Word, my wife has Word doesn't make Word any better then it is. That's the point. Word creates styles that are not used, it has too many auto things that should be turned off. What comes out of Word and goes into making an ePub is garbage in/garbage out. That is the point. So no, I am not missing the point.

*You* have Word. The rest is junk assumptions. Again, you're missing the point.

In fact, if you feel you have to use Word, take the resulting ePub, run it through Sigil and spend as long as it takes to make the code look nice and the ePub look nice using ADE. That's the best you can do. I've not tried a Calibre created ePub from Word in Sigil 0.4.2. So I don't know how Sigil will clean things up. There could be a lot of work by hand including renaming files.

And, again, missing the point. I won't answer anymore.

But it's funny (as in weird) as you can reach a «best one can do» without even exploring the possibilities available out there. Maybe, just maybe, trying to answer to somebody else instead of talking with yourself might help.

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Sigil will not clean up Word code. Either do it yourself or use a program that does it. I made my own macro to transform a word document to clean html.

Right. And he would have noticed that only by trying once.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Artha

*You* have Word. The rest is junk assumptions. Again, you're missing the point.

I've cleaned up a number of ePub that were created from a Word document. Have you?


Actually, one thing you can try as far as cleaning up a Word document is to save it as RTF, load it into Wordpad and then resave it. Then you can load into Sigil and finish making the code nice and neat.