kepubify - A standalone tool to convert ePubs into Kobo ePubs

[geek1011]

kepubify
A tool to convert ePubs into Kobo ePubs

Documentation • GitHub • Download • MobileRead Wiki


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I have released version 2.0. Please click here to go to it's thread.
Most of the information below on usage does not apply anymore to the new version.
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Kepubify is a epub to kepub conversion tool. Kepubify is fast, easy-to-use, and cross platform. Kepubify is written in Go, and released under the MIT license.

I created kepubify because I was not satisfied with the speed of calibre-kobo-driver, and I wanted a faster alternative which can be used from the command line, and does not depend on Calibre. I found most of my information about Kobo ePubs from the source code of calibre-kobo-driver.

Installation
Windows:

1. Download kepubify

Linux:

1. Download kepubify
2. Open a terminal
3. Type cd ~/Downloads (or whatever location you downloaded kepubify to) and press enter
4. Type chmod +x kepubify-linux-* and press enter

macOS:

1. Download kepubify
2. Open a terminal
3. Type cd ~/Downloads and press enter
4. Type chmod +x kepubify-darwin-* (or whatever location you downloaded kepubify to) and press enter

macOS (Homebrew):

1. Open a terminal
2. Type brew install vitorgalvao/kepubify/kepubify and press enter

Usage

USAGE: kepubify INPUT_PATH [OUTPUT_PATH]

INPUT_PATH:
The input file or directory. If it is a directory,
OUTPUT_PATH must be a nonexistent directory.

OUTPUT_PATH:
The path to place the converted ebook(s). Can only
be a directory if INPUT_PATH is a directory.

By default, this is the basename of the input file, 
with the extension .kepub.epub

Examples
For the following examples, replace kepubify with the path to the downloaded kepubify.

To convert a single book by dragging and dropping on Windows:
Just drag the original epub file over kepubify.exe. The resulting file will be saved to the same directory as the original epub.

To convert a single book:
kepubify /path/to/the/book.epub
The resulting file will be saved to the current directory.

To convert a single book with a different output filename:
kepubify /path/to/the/book.epub /path/to/save/the/new/book.kepub.epub
The resulting file will be saved to the specified file.

To convert a single book with a different output folder:
kepubify /path/to/the/book.epub /path/to/save/the/book/
The resulting file will be saved to specified folder.

To batch convert a whole directory of ebooks:
kepubify /path/to/the/books/ /path/to/output/the/converted/books
The output directory must not exist, as it will be created by kepubify. The directory structure of the source
is preserved in the output.

Series metadata
On Linux, you can update the series metadata on the Kobo using seriesmeta. Seriesmeta is available
here. It is used as follows:
seriesmeta /path/to/KOBOeReader

What is different about kepubs?
Kepubs are Kobo's ebook format based on the epub format. This format enables additional features such as chapter progress
stats, time left, faster page turns, footnote previews, image zooming, and faster text selection. Also, ePub
3 is only supported using the kepub reader.

Why would I use this over the Calibre kepub output plugin?

• Calibre adds additional unnecessary metadata to the ebook
• Kepubify is usually at least 12x faster than the Calibre plugin
• Kepubify works from the command line
• Kepubify removes leftover Adobe DRM tags, cleans up MS Word tags, and cleans up the html
• Calibre is an enourmous program, which is unnecessary if all you want to do is convert books
• Kepubify is written in Go, which is a compiled language
• Kepubify can update the series metadata on your Kobo without managing your whole library

Reporting Issues
If you find any issues or have any questions, please
report them here, or send me an email at
geek1011 (at) outlook.com. Include the kepubify version, the operating system you are using, and if
possible, the book which you are having problems with. You can find the version by typing:
kepubify --version.

More Information • Download

[geek1011]

v2.0.0

Changelogs

v1.0.0
Initial release

v1.1.0
1ca2d62 Fix cover image
f685a9f Added 32bit builds
4715b92 Updated feature list
4c78632 Exit on error in release script
3351bc3 Added install to makefile
57e2098 Added thumbnail images to website

v1.1.1
ee08531 Add style tag fixes to html cleaning code
9ea0a38 Fix kobo css
180aa72 Add notes on usage as a library
726e54f Added go report badge to README
59d0a02 Fix spelling mistake
a00fc30 Added license
7dead88 Moved kepub code into a subpackage to allow use as library

v1.1.2
a7b28c3 Added tests for kepub conversion and packing
77ddd91 Added more unit tests
e8a5d1c Improve release script

v1.1.3
9b6d955 CLI fixes
405f3ac Faster progressbar

v1.1.4
7ac7e17 Change delay on windows to 1s
46add9f Fixed commented xml tag (#2)

v1.1.5
d6d9dff Updated dependencies
33f0f9e Added information about Homebrew package (#4)
4e64ae2 Fix spelling

v1.1.6
b893f2a Updated to go 1.9.1

v1.1.7
efbe34e Added seriesmeta to build scripts
8a7d164 Updated readme
1cfb138 Fixes
8b98db2 Updated readme
0939314 Update gitignore
74b0d1c Improvements
29fcbe1 Added support for updating series metadata for all books
3490e5c Started on series metadata update command

v1.2.0
00ec029 Normalize path seperator on Windows (fixes #1)
aa85e8b Update
41805e6 Update
920ca61 Improved seriesmeta cli

v1.3.0
bf6c4fa Added option to convert whole folder of books (closes #8)
af05328 Updated README.md
2a6cfad Fixed segfault when printlog false
4a53aeb Only delay exit on Windows if started with drag and drop
c0e081a Use all CPU cores for conversion (closes #7)

[DNSB]

Any reason for no 32 bit version for Windows? Quite a few of them still around.

[rashkae]

The one big deficiency I find with the Calibre Kepub output is that it does not fix the TOC. It would be nice if a Kepub output program modified the TOC to include some kind of generic label entry for all files not already in the TOC, (slotted in the correct order.)

I realize that's probably a little tricky to code.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rashkae

The one big deficiency I find with the Calibre Kepub output is that it does not fix the TOC. It would be nice if a Kepub output program modified the TOC to include some kind of generic label entry for all files not already in the TOC, (slotted in the correct order.)

I realize that's probably a little tricky to code.

I'd rather have the utility remove HTML TOCs which do popups when reading a kepub -- it's hard to tell a touching a chapter item in the HTML TOC from touching a footnote. Or are you referring to creating an EPUB3 navigation document including all files?

I would prefer not to have 5 or so TOC entries referring to the cover image, books by, acknowledgments, copyright, etc. prior to the prologue/first chapter/whatever.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I'd rather have the utility remove HTML TOCs which do popups when reading a kepub -- it's hard to tell a touching a chapter item in the HTML TOC from touching a footnote. Or are you referring to creating an EPUB3 navigation document including all files?

I would prefer not to have 5 or so TOC entries referring to the cover image, books by, acknowledgments, copyright, etc. prior to the prologue/first chapter/whatever.

From the very few rules we have for kepubs, every file is supposed to have a ToC entry. In some purchased books, I've seen things like "unnamed chapter" or the first line of text as the title. I think Kobo's publishing routines are adding these as needed. If there are missing entries, you can get some strange things happening with the chapters and page counts. (I might have to check that as it has been a while).

[Raymond73]

Does kepubify also prevent hyphenation? Because that's the main reason for using the kobo extended driver in my case

[Semwize]

Kobo then does not see the books created by your utility. What am i doing wrong?

[trekk]

I got a "no permission" message in my terminal, so I had to chmod kepubify on my mac. Conversion is very fast, but without the possibility of a batch conversion, Calibre is faster when converting multiple files. Nice tool though!

Edit: I also realized that the new .kepubs don't show a thumbnail of the cover on my KA1.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by trekk

Edit: I also realized that the new .kepubs don't show a thumbnail of the cover on my KA1.

@geek1011: Covers work differently for kepubs to epubs. The OPF needs an extra property set on the cover and the image is used. Based on inspecting purchased books, below is what the extended driver does:

<item href="cover.jpeg" id="cover" media-type="image/jpeg" properties="cover-image"/>

[patrik]

[QUOTE=trekk;3559609]Conversion is very fast, but without the possibility of a batch conversion, Calibre is faster when converting multiple files. Nice tool though!

#!/bin/bash
for i in *.epub; do kepubify "$i"; done

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by davidfor

@geek1011: Covers work differently for kepubs to epubs. The OPF needs an extra property set on the cover and the image is used. Based on inspecting purchased books, below is what the extended driver does:

<item href="cover.jpeg" id="cover" media-type="image/jpeg" properties="cover-image"/>

Oops, I missed that. I'll fix that and add a 32 bit now.

Sent from my XT1527 using Tapatalk

[geek1011]

Thanks to everyone's feedback so far, I have fixed a few bugs and released version 1.1.0.

v1.1.0
1ca2d62 Fix cover image
f685a9f Added 32bit builds
4715b92 Updated feature list
4c78632 Exit on error in release script
3351bc3 Added install to makefile
57e2098 Added thumbnail images to website

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Any reason for no 32 bit version for Windows? Quite a few of them still around.

Fixed in v1.1.0

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Semwize

Kobo then does not see the books created by your utility. What am i doing wrong?

Have you copied the book to your kobo?