How to convert an ebook from .epub to .fb2?

[RbnJrg]

Does anyone know about a decent conversor from epub to fb2? I tried Calibre but it doesn't maintain the links that exist inside the epub.

Regards
Rubén

[HarryT]

FB2 is a very limited book format compared to ePub. Would it not be better simply to read the ePub?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

Does anyone know about a decent conversor from epub to fb2? I tried Calibre but it doesn't maintain the links that exist inside the epub.

Regards
Rubén

Look at our wiki for programs that can convert ePub to FB2.

Dale

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

FB2 is a very limited book format compared to ePub. Would it not be better simply to read the ePub?

Yes, of course. You are right, epub is far better than fb2. My interest was due to I wanted to read an epub with many many footnotes and I prefered to read them (the footnotes) at the end of the page so I thinked in CoolReader. But CoolReader is buggy regarding epubs and now it only shows footnotes at the end of pages only in .fb2 ebooks. Finally, I decided to read the ebook in my tablet with AlReader (instead of my e-ink Kindle with CoolReader). To read a large ebook in a tablet is not so comfortable but... Below you can watch how the epub looks in AlReader.

Regards
Rubén

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Look at our wiki for programs that can convert ePub to FB2.

Dale

Hi Dale;

Thank you for your answer. I tried all of those programs but all of them have the same issue than Calibre; they fail to convert the links. So my best option is to use Calibre and then, with PowerGREP, to rebuild the links (with S&R); it doesn't take so much (about 10 minutes). But finally I decided to read the epubs with AlReader (see my previous post).

Regards
Rubén

[BetterRed]

RbnJrg - FWIW : calibre will preserve the links when converting EPUB to DOCX, perhaps there's something that will convert the DOCX to FB2. Not calibre of course, I would guess that its 'problem' converting from EPUB is in its FB2 Output module.

Sometimes it takes two leaps to cross a yawning chasm

BR

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

RbnJrg - FWIW : calibre will preserve the links when converting EPUB to DOCX, perhaps there's something that will convert the DOCX to FB2. Not calibre of course, I would guess that its 'problem' converting from EPUB is in its FB2 Output module.

Sometimes it takes two leaps to cross a yawning chasm

BR

Hi BR;

Thank you for your answer. Yes, I had tried that too And I wanted to convert the .docx to .fb2 with QualityEbook. Some links work but many others don't. And that because not all links are properly converted by Calibre. QualityEbook does a good work when you write the .docx according to instructions of the program but with converted .docx results are no so good. Anyway many thanks for trying to help me.

Regards
Rubén

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

My interest was due to I wanted to read an epub with many many footnotes and I prefered to read them (the footnotes) at the end of the page so I thinked in CoolReader. But CoolReader is buggy regarding epubs and now it only shows footnotes at the end of pages only in .fb2 ebooks.

Did you consider converting to PDF? With Prince (and the PrincePDF plugin) you can have footnotes in the page if you massage the HTML+CSS correctly.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Did you consider converting to PDF? With Prince (and the PrincePDF plugin) you can have footnotes in the page if you massage the HTML+CSS correctly.

No, I didn't think in that; I'm going to do a trial to see how results. Many thanks for the suggestion.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

But CoolReader is buggy regarding epubs and now it only shows footnotes at the end of pages only in .fb2 ebooks.

Have you tested your ePub2 books with the free version of Moon+ Reader? It displays footnotes as popups.
You could also convert your ePub to ePub3 with the Sigil ePub3 plugin and use Gitden Reader, which also displays footnotes as popups.

[JSWolf]

Have you tried converting ePub to KF8 and reading on your Kindle?

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Have you tested your ePub2 books with the free version of Moon+ Reader? It displays footnotes as popups.
You could also convert your ePub to ePub3 with the Sigil ePub3 plugin and use Gitden Reader, which also displays footnotes as popups.

Hi Doitsu;

The "problem" is that the book I'm reading ("The Art of Rhetoric" by Aristotle) has so many footnotes (3 or sometimes more by page) that the lecture becomes uncomfortable if you have to touch the link to go to the note (even in a pop-up window). See for example this version of the ebook in pdf (is in english but of course, I'm reading a spanish version):

https://ryanfb.github.io/loebolus-data/L193.pdf

If you want to read it as .pdf, then you can see the footnotes in each page. But you only can read it in landscape mode. And then, to see footnotes many times you have to "go down" the page to read the note and after that to "go up" to continue the reading. For this reason I wanted to take advantage of the CoolReader feature of showing footnotes in each page (the best of both world, fluid layout with footnotes in each page) but CR does that only in fb2 ebook not in epub. And if I convert the epub in fb2, I lose the links. Conclusion: I have to read the epub in AlReader, that does show the footnotes in each page but I have to do it in a 7" inch tablet and I wanted to read the book in an e-ink device (CoolReader has a Kindle version). The curiosus thing is AlReader also uses crengine, so sometime Vladim Lopatin should fix the bug that avoid the showing of footnotes in epub as in fb2.

Regards
Rubén

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Have you tried converting ePub to KF8 and reading on your Kindle?

Hi JS;

Yes, that is what I do most of the times, but this is a special case Read my previous post to understand my "issues".

Regards
Rubén

[BobC]

I used to use fb2 for all my ereading so have a bit of experience with the problem you have. Ultimately I think it comes from the fact that with fb2 the entire book is a single contiguous file so the referring page and the footnotes are in memory at the same time. This means that the design of a reader that will display both items simultaneously is more practical than if they are in separate files.

I found that the best way to create an ebook with footnotes in fb2 format which displayed in the way you want, which is the way Word-processors like MS Word and LibreOffice Writer display footnotes was to use LibreOffice and the OOOFBTOOLS add-in which has a number of tools for working with footnotes. It will also output the file in fb2 format.

The real issue is, however, will the final fb2 file be too large for your reader to handle sensibly - I've built a few files that are o.k. but the reader won't handle or get slower and slower as you get further into the book.

As an aside I note that the calibre viewer using epub will display footnotes (which are in the same internal file as the referring file) in the way you would like but if they are endnotes (contained in a separate file) you need to follow the link to display them. This demonstrates the problem.

So If I were determined to do exactly what you want I would start by converting the EPUB to a format that LibreOffice could open (e.g. DOCX) and then sanitize the footnotes in there until they displayed correctly in LO (i.e. at the page bottom). Then use the OOOFBTOOLS exporter to write out the FB2.

OOOFBTOOLS has the capability of recognizing different footnote/endnote reference styles in plain text documents and batch converting them to "proper" foot/endnotes so the task may not be too onerous once you have mastered the various steps needed. These will be different if, for instance footnotes are sequentially numbered throughout to book or on a per-chapter basis.

I have used these tools in the past on books with hundreds of footnotes and I still use the footnote tools even when I intend to create an EPUB using a different export filter from LO.

IIRC the fb2 output from Calibre did have a few issues associated with footnote (and perhaps other) links but as a little-used format that's not surprising.


BobC

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by BobC

I used to use fb2 for all my ereading so have a bit of experience with the problem you have. Ultimately I think it comes from the fact that with fb2 the entire book is a single contiguous file so the referring page and the footnotes are in memory at the same time. This means that the design of a reader that will display both items simultaneously is more practical than if they are in separate files.

I found that the best way to create an ebook with footnotes in fb2 format which displayed in the way you want, which is the way Word-processors like MS Word and LibreOffice Writer display footnotes was to use LibreOffice and the OOOFBTOOLS add-in which has a number of tools for working with footnotes. It will also output the file in fb2 format.

The real issue is, however, will the final fb2 file be too large for your reader to handle sensibly - I've built a few files that are o.k. but the reader won't handle or get slower and slower as you get further into the book.

As an aside I note that the calibre viewer using epub will display footnotes (which are in the same internal file as the referring file) in the way you would like but if they are endnotes (contained in a separate file) you need to follow the link to display them. This demonstrates the problem.

So If I were determined to do exactly what you want I would start by converting the EPUB to a format that LibreOffice could open (e.g. DOCX) and then sanitize the footnotes in there until they displayed correctly in LO (i.e. at the page bottom). Then use the OOOFBTOOLS exporter to write out the FB2.

OOOFBTOOLS has the capability of recognizing different footnote/endnote reference styles in plain text documents and batch converting them to "proper" foot/endnotes so the task may not be too onerous once you have mastered the various steps needed. These will be different if, for instance footnotes are sequentially numbered throughout to book or on a per-chapter basis.

I have used these tools in the past on books with hundreds of footnotes and I still use the footnote tools even when I intend to create an EPUB using a different export filter from LO.

IIRC the fb2 output from Calibre did have a few issues associated with footnote (and perhaps other) links but as a little-used format that's not surprising.


BobC

Thank you very much for your answer. I didn't know the OOOFBTOOLS extension for LO; it's good to be consious of that tool. Regarding what you tell me, I had thought in that, so I made some tries by merging -in an epub book- all the files in one (with Sigil). So, of that way, the endnotes were in the same page (at the end) of the text. Results: the epub -in CoolReader- still didn't display the footnotes at the end of the page I think the problem is a bug in CR because -as I said in a previous post- in AlReader (an ereader for Android) epubs display footnotes at the end of the respective page. And AlReader uses also "crengine", that is, the same engine as CR But I'm going to experiment with LO and OOOFBTOOLS to see if I can get an .fb2 well formated and in an easy way Thanks again for your answer.