ePub to ePub - just replace CSS?

[ChristopherTD]

Most of my books are converted from LIT and PDB and the CSS snippet below added into Calibre works beautifully, apart from one book that contained dodgy PML. For me though, one of the most important aspects is overriding the default font to something a bit darker (Georgia or DroidSerif are good choices). In books purchased in ePub format the styles are more diverse and it is hard to work out what to add to the Calibre code - but there is a neat Java applet now that lets me fiddle with the CSS directly for those. Hooray.

For conversions from PDB/LIT I use the following (recklessly plundered from various MR threads)





@font-face {
font-family: "DroidSerif";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/DroidSerif-Regular.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "DroidSerif";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/DroidSerif-Bold.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "DroidSerif";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/DroidSerif-Italic.ttf);
}

@font-face {
font-family: "DroidSerif";
font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/DroidSerif-Bolditalic.ttf);
}




body {
font-family: "DroidSerif", serif;
}

p {
line-height: 130%
}

div {
line-height: 130%
}

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by ChristopherTD

Most of my books are converted from LIT and PDB and the CSS snippet below added into Calibre works beautifully, apart from one book that contained dodgy PML. For me though, one of the most important aspects is overriding the default font to something a bit darker (Georgia or DroidSerif are good choices).

~...~...

@font-face {
font-family: "DroidSerif";
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url(res:///Data/fonts/DroidSerif-Regular.ttf);
}

I'm curious, do you actually place this font on your 600?

I am lucky enough to be able to use the PRSplus hack on my PRS-505. This lets me place what fonts I want to use (I use fontin fonts) on my reader and change the font, font size, line height, margins etc on the fly by adjusting my style.css file on the reader. This applies my desired setup to every epub I read, including DRM infected epubs.

Originally Posted by ChristopherTD

In books purchased in ePub format the styles are more diverse and it is hard to work out what to add to the Calibre code - but there is a neat Java applet now that lets me fiddle with the CSS directly for those. Hooray.

This applet sounds like an excellent tool for our community.

[ChristopherTD]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I'm curious, do you actually place this font on your 600?

I am lucky enough to be able to use the PRSplus hack on my PRS-505. This lets me place what fonts I want to use (I use fontin fonts) on my reader and change the font, font size, line height, margins etc on the fly by adjusting my style.css file on the reader. This applies my desired setup to every epub I read, including DRM infected epubs.



This applet sounds like an excellent tool for our community.

Indeed I do - I put them on both the main reader and the memory card for good measure. The PRSPLUS hack sounds ideal, but I am a little wary of applying a similar thing (if it even exists) to the PRS-600 until I know it a bit better. Then I will have a good chance of determining whether odd behaviour is native or introduced!

The Java tool is described in this thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70600

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by ChristopherTD

The PRSPLUS hack sounds ideal, but I am a little wary of applying a similar thing (if it even exists) to the PRS-600

Currently There are no hacks for the 600.

Originally Posted by ChristopherTD

The Java tool is described in this thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70600

Thanks for the info.

[soilwork]

Using ebook-convert.exe in command-line may be simpler than using GUI or opening CSS in epub file to modify it by hand. Since I almost never use calibre GUI, I am not sure whether or how this will affect the way GUI handles the database so please bear that in mind. Also, it may be useful only for those who are comfortable with command line.

I made a simple batch file named "2epub.bat" to convert files to epub with the setting I prefer.

REM 2epub.bat
ebook-convert %1 "%~n1%~x1.epub" --extra-css="C:\Program Files\calibre\fontin.css" --base-font-size 15 --no-default-epub-cover %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

I put this batch file and the following "fontin.css" in Program Files\calibre directory. "fontin.css" is CSS file to support embedded fonts placed on PRS505. For more information, please refer to
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36361

/* CSS for using Fontin fonts*/
/* Note that the Fontin fonts should be located in /fonts/ directory of Sony reader */
/* Modified: 2010 01 15 */
@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
  src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Fontin-Regular.ttf);
}
@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: normal;
  src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Fontin-Bold.ttf);
}
@font-face {
  font-family: "Fontin";
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: italic;
  src: url(res:///Data/fonts/Fontin-Italic.ttf);
}

body {
  font-family: "Fontin", serif;
  line-height: 120%;
  widows: 0;
  orphans: 0;
}

Using these files, I can make "filename.ext.epub" from "filename.ext" without overwriting the original file.

2epub "filename.ext"

For example,
source file name -> output file name will look as follows.
--------------------------------------
filename.epub -> filename.epub.epub
filename.mobi -> filename.mobi.epub
filename.lrf -> filename.lrf.epub

This way, if the original source file is epub, the source file is not overwritten. Another reason is that I would like to track what is the source of the final epub file. For example, if I have multiple source files (e.g. freebies from Smashwords), I try converting from epub, mobi, lrf and leave the best one and it helps to know what is the best source file to use.

[JanuaryF]

Originally Posted by ChristopherTD

Looking further at a particularly obstinate title (Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson) ...

How funny is that? The book that brought me to this post was "Well of Ascension"!

I have a 505, so I'm going to give PRSPlus a try...

Thanks,
January

[ChristopherTD]

That is amusing! I did get that title sorted out, and most of the others beaten into submission. The combination of the ePubTweaker.jar and Sigil gets rid of most mischief. The current book "Dragonfly Falling" by Adrian Tchaikovsky was purchased as ePub but had odd Ă characters at each pagebreak, saving it in Sigil sorted that out. Incredible that nobody even opened it in ADE to see that it looked OK before releasing it!