epub or mobi?

bobcdy · 10-15-2009, 05:24 PM

I've been looking over the various tutorials for epub making, and I must admit that I'm having some troubles. Making a well-formatted mobi book, using HarryT's wonderful tutorial, is a snap; making an epub is certainly not! I tried using the html file used in making a mobi book by importing into calibre - all seemed to work on pc Adobe DR but the toc won't work on my Bebook - which is an important failure. I also tried Atlantis with similar results - gives an epub ok but the toc won't even work on my pc Adobe DR. I know it's possible because I've downloaded epubs with TOCs that work perfectly in Bebook. I've thought about starting from scratch, but the xhtml code is certainly a time-consuming and complex endeavor, as is purchasing and trying to learn Adobe's InDesign to make epubs. Adobe is noted for its non-intuitive approach to user interfaces in all it's programs.

Why are so many choosing epub with it complexities over mobi with its simple to use creator? I fail to see any advantages of epub over mobi - is it because the Adobe in the ebook format wars is considered unbeatable so that epub is the only way to go or are there real advantages to epub?
Bob

pdurrant · 10-15-2009, 05:31 PM

For a simple ePub creator, look no further than Sigil.

the ePub format allows ebook creators to do a lot more with graphics and the layout of the book than Mobipocket.

At the moment, the ePub reading software is less than optimal, and isn't as good a the Mobipocket reading software IMO.

Hopefully that will change with time.

ePub is also a documented open standard, unlike Mobipocket which is owned and held secret by Amazon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobcdy

Why are so many choosing epub with it complexities over mobi with its simple to use creator? I fail to see any advantages of epub over mobi - is it because the Adobe in the ebook format wars is considered unbeatable so that epub is the only way to go or are there real advantages to epub?
Bob

wallcraft · 10-15-2009, 05:48 PM

Did you try converting your MOBI to ePub using Calibre?

I'm not sure if Calibre will use a MOBI TOC if there is one, but if you are building the ebook yourself then it is probably worth using Calibre-compatible chapter headings. From the User's Manual:

Quote:

--chapter
An XPath expression to detect chapter titles. The default is to consider <h1> or <h2> tags that contain the words “chapter”,”book”,”section” or “part” as chapter titles as well as any tags that have class=”chapter”. The expression used must evaluate to a list of elements. To disable chapter detection, use the expression “/”. See the XPath Tutorial in the calibre User Manual for further help on using this feature.

DaleDe · 10-15-2009, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Did you try converting your MOBI to ePub using Calibre?

I'm not sure if Calibre will use a MOBI TOC if there is one, but if you are building the ebook yourself then it is probably worth using Calibre-compatible chapter headings. From the User's Manual:

Yes, this can be pretty intimidating. Try //h2 for level one and //h3 for level two as a starting point and see what you get.

Dale

bobcdy · 10-15-2009, 10:21 PM

Dale, Wallcraft,
Thanks for the info and help! I tried converting an rtf file with calibre, will try converting the mobi file to see what happens. Also, after I installed the sept09 official bebook firmware, Atlantis now seems to work perfectly with a ms word doc import - the formating and the toc came through fine. Things are looking up! Perhaps I'll need to explore Epub more because I would like to incorporate images in the ebooks.
Bob

bobcdy · 10-16-2009, 03:54 PM

Tried converting a prc file with calibre after installing the new firmware; everything worked perfectly. Apparently the firmware I was using, Lbook, is not satisfactory for epubs on Bebook.
Bob

HarryT · 10-17-2009, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobcdy

I've been looking over the various tutorials for epub making, and I must admit that I'm having some troubles. Making a well-formatted mobi book, using HarryT's wonderful tutorial, is a snap; making an epub is certainly not!

I use Calibre to convert my Mobi books to ePub. Works beautifully.

Terisa de morgan · 10-17-2009, 05:39 AM

I use calibre from command line, with some instructions for author and get the cover from the book, and the result is nice in Stanza. It takes only two minutes. You can try it.

Sweetpea · 10-21-2009, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobcdy

I've been looking over the various tutorials for epub making, and I must admit that I'm having some troubles. Making a well-formatted mobi book, using HarryT's wonderful tutorial, is a snap; making an epub is certainly not! I tried using the html file used in making a mobi book by importing into calibre - all seemed to work on pc Adobe DR but the toc won't work on my Bebook - which is an important failure. I also tried Atlantis with similar results - gives an epub ok but the toc won't even work on my pc Adobe DR. I know it's possible because I've downloaded epubs with TOCs that work perfectly in Bebook. I've thought about starting from scratch, but the xhtml code is certainly a time-consuming and complex endeavor, as is purchasing and trying to learn Adobe's InDesign to make epubs. Adobe is noted for its non-intuitive approach to user interfaces in all it's programs.

Why are so many choosing epub with it complexities over mobi with its simple to use creator? I fail to see any advantages of epub over mobi - is it because the Adobe in the ebook format wars is considered unbeatable so that epub is the only way to go or are there real advantages to epub?
Bob

I use the same input for both my epub and mobi books. Plain HTML + CSS + JPG, a zipper and mobigen is all I need...

(ok, I do use a home-made tool to split my main HTML file into smaller files, but that's because I don't want dozens of files for one book in my source...)

bobcdy · 10-21-2009, 10:47 PM

Thanks all for the info. I recently found that starting with a complex html from Proj. Gutenberg (Astounding Stories), converting with calibre gives a pretty good epub but that the toc was not suitable for bebook. Using sigil on the calibre result allowed producing a very nice toc that works perfectly on my Bebook and correcting a few mistakes that originated probably from the PG html file.

I was also able to easily and quickly edit one of HarryT's anthologies so that the toc of each included volume works with Bebook.
Bob

10-15-2009, 05:24 PM	#1
bobcdy Fanatic Posts: 527 Karma: 1048576 Join Date: May 2009 Device: bebook; prs-950; nook simple touch; HTC Jetstream tablet	epub or mobi? I've been looking over the various tutorials for epub making, and I must admit that I'm having some troubles. Making a well-formatted mobi book, using HarryT's wonderful tutorial, is a snap; making an epub is certainly not! I tried using the html file used in making a mobi book by importing into calibre - all seemed to work on pc Adobe DR but the toc won't work on my Bebook - which is an important failure. I also tried Atlantis with similar results - gives an epub ok but the toc won't even work on my pc Adobe DR. I know it's possible because I've downloaded epubs with TOCs that work perfectly in Bebook. I've thought about starting from scratch, but the xhtml code is certainly a time-consuming and complex endeavor, as is purchasing and trying to learn Adobe's InDesign to make epubs. Adobe is noted for its non-intuitive approach to user interfaces in all it's programs. Why are so many choosing epub with it complexities over mobi with its simple to use creator? I fail to see any advantages of epub over mobi - is it because the Adobe in the ebook format wars is considered unbeatable so that epub is the only way to go or are there real advantages to epub? Bob

10-16-2009, 03:54 PM	#6
bobcdy Fanatic Posts: 527 Karma: 1048576 Join Date: May 2009 Device: bebook; prs-950; nook simple touch; HTC Jetstream tablet	mobi or prc Tried converting a prc file with calibre after installing the new firmware; everything worked perfectly. Apparently the firmware I was using, Lbook, is not satisfactory for epubs on Bebook. Bob

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10-15-2009, 10:21 PM	#5
bobcdy Fanatic Posts: 527 Karma: 1048576 Join Date: May 2009 Device: bebook; prs-950; nook simple touch; HTC Jetstream tablet	Dale, Wallcraft, Thanks for the info and help! I tried converting an rtf file with calibre, will try converting the mobi file to see what happens. Also, after I installed the sept09 official bebook firmware, Atlantis now seems to work perfectly with a ms word doc import - the formating and the toc came through fine. Things are looking up! Perhaps I'll need to explore Epub more because I would like to incorporate images in the ebooks. Bob

10-17-2009, 05:39 AM	#8
Terisa de morgan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,227 Karma: 11768331 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2	I use calibre from command line, with some instructions for author and get the cover from the book, and the result is nice in Stanza. It takes only two minutes. You can try it.

10-21-2009, 10:47 PM	#10
bobcdy Fanatic Posts: 527 Karma: 1048576 Join Date: May 2009 Device: bebook; prs-950; nook simple touch; HTC Jetstream tablet	Thanks all for the info. I recently found that starting with a complex html from Proj. Gutenberg (Astounding Stories), converting with calibre gives a pretty good epub but that the toc was not suitable for bebook. Using sigil on the calibre result allowed producing a very nice toc that works perfectly on my Bebook and correcting a few mistakes that originated probably from the PG html file. I was also able to easily and quickly edit one of HarryT's anthologies so that the toc of each included volume works with Bebook. Bob