pdf to epub - more confusion

ralphiedee · 06-12-2012, 12:14 PM

Sorry for being a pest here but I'm a bit confused and hopefully the answer to this clears up my head. I have a pdf file which is a 100 page book. It has from what I see two fonts and a few images. As far as I see I can go 3 ways here,

1. I first tried to convert the pdf to epub in Calibre and opened the files in Sigil. I have only default font and no styling, I'm having a bit of confusion on how to:

import the two necessary fonts into Sigil
add the font styles to the existing css page
changing the color of the text.

??

2. Create the book from the original pdfs, problem is I would have no TOC and the pdf text is a bit small, as set way to do this procedure?

3. Create the book from a pdf, convert to images and do a fixed layout book. Way too much work ( but its a thought)

I really need the first question answered as this situation will come up many times.

thanks again for this forum you guys are great!

DiapDealer · 06-12-2012, 12:25 PM

There are no step-by-step instructions/details for turning a PDF into anything else. If you can avoid doing it at all, you should by all means (meaning start with ANY source OTHER than PDF). If you can't avoid it, you're just going to have to find what works best for you (for THAT particular PDF)... they're all different, and they're all a PITA.

But mainly... Sigil just doesn't bring anything special/helpful to this particular task (except for polishing the earlier PITA stuff).

ralphiedee · 06-12-2012, 12:42 PM

Quote:

If you can avoid doing it at all, you should by all means (meaning start with ANY source OTHER than PDF)

With that in mind the question then becomes
I convert the pdf to epub in Calibre and opened the files in Sigil. I have the xhtml pages and now I need to add the font / colors etc. I have only default font and no styling, I'm having a bit of confusion on how to:

import the two necessary fonts into Sigil
add the font styles to the existing css page or create a new one
changing the color of the text.

DiapDealer · 06-12-2012, 01:02 PM

You're not under the impression that there's fonts you "can get out of" a pdf and "put into" an epub are you?

I would suggest brushing up on how to embed fonts into an epub in general. Liz Castro is as good a place as any to start... and then come back if you need any Sigil specific guidance after that.

ralphiedee · 06-12-2012, 01:16 PM

No I understand that, but the fonts from the original pdf are helvetica, helvetica bold and italic. I need to import those into the font folder of Sigil and then add a stylesheet or do I I will go to some Liz Castro books I have to find out there.

thx

RD

DiapDealer · 06-12-2012, 01:22 PM

Keep in mind that it may not be legal for you to redistribute or sell ebooks with certain licensed fonts.

dwig · 06-12-2012, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralphiedee

No I understand that, but the fonts from the original pdf are helvetica, helvetica bold and italic. ...D

As DiapDealer said, there are some serious legal/copyright issues that impact embedding fonts. If you must embed, you would be better off replacing the very copyrighted Helvetica font family with a suitable open-source replacement. Consider using the Liberation Sans family

Personally, I recommend that you abandon the idea of embedding these fonts and, instead, simply spec the text as being "sans-serif" and allow the ereader to use its own sans serif font, one that will likely be custom adapted to its display characteristics.

ralphiedee · 06-12-2012, 02:22 PM

Ok seems I got this now, I added the @font face to the css. The fonts are arial, arial bold and arial bold italic so no font license issues.

Now for some questions

where the fonts call for bold and italic do I need to add the artial bold and italic font or just use the bold / italic buttons in Sigil?

I also need to add the color option to the text, I used the color:red; is that OK for use in epub?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I have about 100 pages of styling to do as I have to add chapter breaks and style the headings and paragraphs. This is a lot of work and labor intensive, If my rate is 20.00 per hour we are looking at 5 hours minimum to finish. Is there an easier way to do this?

RD

dwig · 06-12-2012, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralphiedee

...The fonts are arial, arial bold and arial bold italic so no font license issues.
...

These are copyrighted fonts!

JSWolf · 06-12-2012, 02:29 PM

Here is how to convert a PDF to ePub.

1. Use Calibre to convert the PDF to ePub.
2. Use Sigil to edit the resulting ePub.
3. A/B compare the PDF to the ePub (every letter, every space, every punctuation, everything)
4. Edit the ePub to fix the errors.
5. Edit the ePub to fix the formatting.
6. Done!

To do this right takes a lot of work.

JSWolf · 06-12-2012, 02:31 PM

There are plent of free sans-serif fonts out there you could use instead of Arial.

DiapDealer · 06-12-2012, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralphiedee

Correct me if I'm wrong but I have about 100 pages of styling to do as I have to add chapter breaks and style the headings and paragraphs. This is a lot of work and labor intensive, If my rate is 20.00 per hour we are looking at 5 hours minimum to finish. Is there an easier way to do this?

Are you really charging someone an hourly rate for work you don't know how to do yet?

theducks · 06-12-2012, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralphiedee

Ok seems I got this now, I added the @font face to the css. The fonts are arial, arial bold and arial bold italic so no font license issues.

Now for some questions

where the fonts call for bold and italic do I need to add the artial bold and italic font or just use the bold / italic buttons in Sigil?

I also need to add the color option to the text, I used the color:red; is that OK for use in epub?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I have about 100 pages of styling to do as I have to add chapter breaks and style the headings and paragraphs. This is a lot of work and labor intensive, If my rate is 20.00 per hour we are looking at 5 hours minimum to finish. Is there an easier way to do this?

RD

You need a @font for each face (combination) you intend to use
You need the font-family in each selector or the element if overall.

Color

E-Ink readers are monochrome
$20/hr to learn to code EPUB

JSWolf · 06-12-2012, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralphiedee

Ok seems I got this now, I added the @font face to the css. The fonts are arial, arial bold and arial bold italic so no font license issues.

Now for some questions

where the fonts call for bold and italic do I need to add the artial bold and italic font or just use the bold / italic buttons in Sigil?

I also need to add the color option to the text, I used the color:red; is that OK for use in epub?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I have about 100 pages of styling to do as I have to add chapter breaks and style the headings and paragraphs. This is a lot of work and labor intensive, If my rate is 20.00 per hour we are looking at 5 hours minimum to finish. Is there an easier way to do this?

RD

You have more work to do then simple styling to edit the ePub. You HAVE to A/B compare the PDF to the ePub to be sure of no conversion errors. This is more then 5 hours work to get it right. You should be charging a flat rate and not an hourly rate since you will take longer then you should since it reads like you don't know what you are doing.

meme · 06-13-2012, 02:44 AM

If you are really considering using fonts in your EPUB, then you can't use Book View to do your editing to use these fonts. You will have to use Code View. It is not 'easy' to convert a book to EPUB, and although Sigil helps a lot, you still have a lot of work to do. I suggest you look at the Sigil User Guide and its tutorials, including an overview of fonts.

06-12-2012, 12:14 PM	#1
ralphiedee Zealot Posts: 125 Karma: 1370 Join Date: Mar 2012 Device: none	pdf to epub - more confusion Sorry for being a pest here but I'm a bit confused and hopefully the answer to this clears up my head. I have a pdf file which is a 100 page book. It has from what I see two fonts and a few images. As far as I see I can go 3 ways here, 1. I first tried to convert the pdf to epub in Calibre and opened the files in Sigil. I have only default font and no styling, I'm having a bit of confusion on how to: import the two necessary fonts into Sigil add the font styles to the existing css page changing the color of the text. ?? 2. Create the book from the original pdfs, problem is I would have no TOC and the pdf text is a bit small, as set way to do this procedure? 3. Create the book from a pdf, convert to images and do a fixed layout book. Way too much work ( but its a thought) I really need the first question answered as this situation will come up many times. thanks again for this forum you guys are great!

06-12-2012, 12:25 PM	#2
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,549 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	There are no step-by-step instructions/details for turning a PDF into anything else. If you can avoid doing it at all, you should by all means (meaning start with ANY source OTHER than PDF). If you can't avoid it, you're just going to have to find what works best for you (for THAT particular PDF)... they're all different, and they're all a PITA. But mainly... Sigil just doesn't bring anything special/helpful to this particular task (except for polishing the earlier PITA stuff). Last edited by DiapDealer; 06-12-2012 at 12:28 PM.

06-12-2012, 01:02 PM	#4
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,549 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	You're not under the impression that there's fonts you "can get out of" a pdf and "put into" an epub are you? I would suggest brushing up on how to embed fonts into an epub in general. Liz Castro is as good a place as any to start... and then come back if you need any Sigil specific guidance after that. Last edited by DiapDealer; 06-12-2012 at 01:10 PM.

06-12-2012, 02:29 PM	#10
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,974 Karma: 128903378 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Here is how to convert a PDF to ePub. 1. Use Calibre to convert the PDF to ePub. 2. Use Sigil to edit the resulting ePub. 3. A/B compare the PDF to the ePub (every letter, every space, every punctuation, everything) 4. Edit the ePub to fix the errors. 5. Edit the ePub to fix the formatting. 6. Done! To do this right takes a lot of work. Last edited by JSWolf; 06-13-2012 at 05:14 PM.

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06-12-2012, 01:16 PM	#5
ralphiedee Zealot Posts: 125 Karma: 1370 Join Date: Mar 2012 Device: none	No I understand that, but the fonts from the original pdf are helvetica, helvetica bold and italic. I need to import those into the font folder of Sigil and then add a stylesheet or do I I will go to some Liz Castro books I have to find out there. thx RD

06-12-2012, 01:22 PM	#6
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,549 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Keep in mind that it may not be legal for you to redistribute or sell ebooks with certain licensed fonts.

06-12-2012, 02:22 PM	#8
ralphiedee Zealot Posts: 125 Karma: 1370 Join Date: Mar 2012 Device: none	Ok seems I got this now, I added the @font face to the css. The fonts are arial, arial bold and arial bold italic so no font license issues. Now for some questions where the fonts call for bold and italic do I need to add the artial bold and italic font or just use the bold / italic buttons in Sigil? I also need to add the color option to the text, I used the color:red; is that OK for use in epub? Correct me if I'm wrong but I have about 100 pages of styling to do as I have to add chapter breaks and style the headings and paragraphs. This is a lot of work and labor intensive, If my rate is 20.00 per hour we are looking at 5 hours minimum to finish. Is there an easier way to do this? RD

06-12-2012, 02:31 PM	#11
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,974 Karma: 128903378 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	There are plent of free sans-serif fonts out there you could use instead of Arial.

06-13-2012, 02:44 AM	#15
meme Sigil developer Posts: 1,275 Karma: 1101600 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle PW, K4 NT, K3, Kobo Touch	If you are really considering using fonts in your EPUB, then you can't use Book View to do your editing to use these fonts. You will have to use Code View. It is not 'easy' to convert a book to EPUB, and although Sigil helps a lot, you still have a lot of work to do. I suggest you look at the Sigil User Guide and its tutorials, including an overview of fonts.

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