Free book (MultiFormat, DRM-free) - Starfarers [Science Fiction]

[Nyssa]

Thank you ATDrake!

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by Marcy

If you have any comfort level with editing css you can easily fix it in calibre by tweaking the epub. Open the style css file you get when the epub is exploded. Remove all the lines that say "Bookman" in them (to get rid of the extra large bold font they picked for some reason) and remove the two lines in the .calibre section that specify margins at 27%. Then have calibre put the epub back together and it is fixed.

So --in THIS case -- what do I lose by using the mobi version for my Kindle? Nice and clean.

Seems like the ePub format is - in this case - just a big headache.

[ATDrake]

Trust me, it's a much bigger headache to fix a messed-up Mobi file than an ePub. At least this one can be dealt with via a minor stylesheet edit. Mobi you'd have to take completely apart and rebuild.

I don't even bother downloading the Mobi files from Baen's Webscription site any more, simply because it's easier to work with the ePub versions and there's bound to be some typo or other that I'll want to edit if I ever intend to re-read the book.

And the Mobi file for Starfarers is mildly messed-up, though not in a way that most people will notice. On my Kindle, it has ragged-right setting instead of the usual auto-justify, which is admittedly an effect that some people will use a hack to get.

Anyway, all of this is Microsoft's fault, given that it looks like the BVC converted it from an un-cleaned-up Word document, with all the ensuing cruft.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

So --in THIS case -- what do I lose by using the mobi version for my Kindle? Nice and clean.

Seems like the ePub format is - in this case - just a big headache.

In any case, if your only device is a Kindle, I don't see what you'd gain by using any format except the mobi version. You have to convert the source file to mobi anyway, so why not just pick the correct format in the first place?

-Marcy

[koland]

Originally Posted by Marcy

In any case, if your only device is a Kindle, I don't see what you'd gain by using any format except the mobi version. You have to convert the source file to mobi anyway, so why not just pick the correct format in the first place?

Sometimes the EPUB formatting is actually better (the same with metadata). I generally do a quick compare of the two and will sometimes convert the epub to mobi (and others the mobi to mobi after fixing the metadata). And I've converted mobi to epub for a different device, on occasion.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by koland

Sometimes the EPUB formatting is actually better (the same with metadata). I generally do a quick compare of the two and will sometimes convert the epub to mobi (and others the mobi to mobi after fixing the metadata). And I've converted mobi to epub for a different device, on occasion.

I have encountered this several times. So many times that I now just download epubs instead of mobi files on certain sites, especially from Smashwords. Often the epub is great and the mobi looks like a poor neglected imitation - no cover, no metadata, poor formatting. The Calibre conversion from epub > mobi usually turns out much better than the offered mobi, and it's faster than doing everything manually.

[astra]

Originally Posted by koland

Because a txt file would not have the formatting that still remains - including bold, italic, included graphics, covec pages, etc. No doubt I lose "something", but since I don't want any text or font overrides and the defaults for indents are fine, I want the default margins.

Marcy

The problem with doing this is that you lose all formatting of the story.

I am sorry if I misunderstood it?

[leebase]

Downloaded it, thanks for the heads up. Looks fine in iBooks on my iPad

Lee

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by Marcy

Open the style css file you get when the epub is exploded. Remove all the lines that say "Bookman" in them (to get rid of the extra large bold font they picked for some reason) and remove the two lines in the .calibre section that specify margins at 27%. Then have calibre put the epub back together and it is fixed.

When I exploded the epub in Calibre, the settings for the left and right margins for the ".calibre" style was 24pt ... not 27%. I changed it to 5pt (which is the calibre standard) and that seems to work best.

Other tweaks some may want to make are:

--For the ".title-TableOfContents" style, make the padding-bottom value 2em which will add space between the chapter titles and body text

--For the ".separator" style, make the margin-top and margin-bottom values 0.5em which will add space between the section separators.

--Change all the text-indent values from 1.5em to 0em except for the ".MsoNormal" style which is the body text. For some reason, they had text indentations for other parts of the book which threw off the centering of things like chapter heads.

In addition, for these changes to show up on my Sony reader, I had to do an epub-to-epub conversion in Calibre, which is a simple step.

When I was new to epubs, I would just delete the css stylesheet if there was problematic formatting. But now with Calibre's handy epub tweaking feature and more experience working with epubs, I much prefer to make selective tweaks like this.

[screwballl]

Looks good... Kind of annoying since I already had a book by the same name from Poul Anderson and calibre threw a fit about it...

[ATDrake]

This is now a repeat freebie, apparently as one of the monthly specials, direct from the BVC, and they are also having a sale on 50% off all titles in their catalogue over $2.99 through July 8th only, more info in the DRM-free thread.

[piperclassique]

Got it, many thanks!

[ATDrake]

Just a reminder that this will probably be the last day to pick up the freebie if you're interested, since this was apparently one of the BVC's monthly specials.