11-19-2018, 03:36 PM | #1 |
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How good are book tools on Windows?
I am thinking of running Windows 10 on my next PC after being away from Microsoft since Windows XP. Are book manipulation tools any good on Windows? My impression is that most hobbyist development nowadays is tilted towards open software, and thus platforms with a good POSIX command line and development tools.
What I mostly use right now is: Sigil (in the past I have found this to be better on Linux and Mac than Windows) kindlegen kindleunpack Kindle Comic Creator DeDRM (and sometimes it's underlying components by command line like ineptepub) koboify fonts convert LIT assorted PalmDOC tools and explode Plucker vim Thanks in advance for your thoughts! Last edited by radius; 11-19-2018 at 03:42 PM. |
11-21-2018, 04:40 PM | #2 |
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Sooo.... I guess everybody is on Mac and Linux then?
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11-21-2018, 04:47 PM | #3 |
A Hairy Wizard
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I wasn't sure there was a real question there...lol.."any good" implies a great deal of subjective opinion.
I use Windows 10. Book manipulation tools are great....at least I haven't found any reason to go get a non-windows environment. |
11-22-2018, 12:23 AM | #4 | |
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Quote:
I would add calibre to the list since it replaces many of the tools you mention and when I was playing with some of books from the old Baen CD inserts, it does a better job of converting directly to epub than when I used ConvertLIT and other tools way back when. As for Sigil working better on Mac and/or Linux? I've had more issues with Sigil on either than I have had with Sigil on Windows. As usual, YMMV. As for PalmDoc and Plucker? Not formats that I done much with since I last read Mother of Demons on a Palm and that was more years ago that I care to remember. |
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11-22-2018, 02:58 PM | #5 | |
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
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FWIW. Hitch |
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11-22-2018, 03:03 PM | #6 |
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Thanks guys. I don't know enough to know how much I don't know
More specifically, many of the tools are written in Python, sometimes with PyQT, and I was wondering how that works with Windows and how smoothly integrated it is. Is it hard to do git pulls on Windows? What kind of build environment should I set up, the free MS Visual Studio Community or some port of GNU tools? After reading a bunch it looks like I should switch to Kindle Previewer instead of kindlegen. And I meant Kindle Comic Converter, not Creator, and that looks like Windows is a first class citizen for that. I understand that Calibre hides a lot of this stuff from the user, but I specifically don't want to use Calibre because I have never liked it, neither its UI, nor its conversion, nor its editor. Lately, I've been re-reading some old books and now regret my decision to change them into HTML or epub "someday" instead of right away. I even have a bunch of Peanut Press books I'm slowly changing to HTML haha. |
11-23-2018, 04:52 AM | #7 | |||
Grand Sorcerer
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There's Git for Windows. You can also install a Linux subsystem on Windows 10 machines. Quote:
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The Calibre GUI has been designed with non-technical users in mind, however, Calibre Editor has the same features as Sigil. Some are even better than their Sigil equivalents. |
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11-23-2018, 11:28 AM | #8 | |||
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Oh man, I just realized I still have Sony books that I need to use LRFTools on too. Hope Java is well supported in Windows... I am still kicking myself for trying to do my archiving in one go as opposed to immediately when I acquired each book. |
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11-23-2018, 06:24 PM | #9 |
Bibliophagist
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Again for conversions, I would use calibre. It is just a bit better supported than most of the old conversion programs I used at one time or another.
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11-26-2018, 04:50 AM | #10 |
Wizard
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If you really want an editor, most guys I know have switched to Visual Studio Code (not to be mistaken with Visual Studio). It has many options and packages available and the user community for new functionality is great. Git support is built in and it runs on Windows/Linux/Mac. You can edit almost anything in it with support for color coding, linting, etc. It has support for Python, Perl, C++, C#, PHP, HTML, CSS, Go and much, much more.
It is basically a text editor on steriods with many good options. Or so I am told, I haven't made the switch myself yet... |
02-12-2019, 02:43 PM | #11 |
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So far my transition has been:
- Sigil: smooth - kindlepreviewer instead of kindlegen: I haven't made a successful book yet; it seems to be complaining about links to missing files. I'm going to cut down to the simplest helloworld book possible and try again - KCC: haven't tried yet as I have been doing this on a Linux box - DeDRM: I find the Mac drop target and Linux CLI easier. I might break down and just use Calibre for this instead - convertLIT: I'm using the builtin Linux support for this since convlit is an Ubuntu package; the bash command line is just easier to deal with for me than Windows' terminal. I'd rather re-create my own epubs by hand than use Calibre's conversion - Palm tools: since I went over to the Dark Side anyways, I am just going to do a conversion with Calibre and then clean that up by hand - vim: I've decided to spend some time getting used to Atom instead - development: I'm still trying to figure out what mix of things I need My biggest issue right now is standard Windows font display is not all that attractive. |
02-12-2019, 05:15 PM | #12 |
null operator (he/him)
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You don't have to use calibre's library manager if you don't need that functionality. It comes with a set of separate command line tools, which includes editor and viewer.
BR Last edited by BetterRed; 02-12-2019 at 05:17 PM. Reason: wrong link |
02-14-2019, 10:08 AM | #13 |
eBook Enthusiast
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Just to note that there is a Windows version of kindlegen. No need to use Kindle Previewer if you prefer kindlegen.
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