can Calibre split text from multiple pdf pages?

pjfan281 · 07-23-2008, 06:38 PM

I recently got a Sony E-Reader 505 and was turned on to some formatting programs by reviewers online. I have been trying out Book Designer and Calibre. Both work, but only to a certain degree. Calibre seems to be most accurate in formatting pdf's to read on the Sony Reader, with one exception - it starts a new page in the Reader wherever there is a new page in the original pdf. This leaves me with some pages having only having a few lines of text before I have to turn the e-page and continue reading.

Book Designer is good in that it can take text from one pdf page and merge it with another to keep the text going naturally. Book Designer, however, seems to be horrible at formatting in my experience. In one book, for example, anytime a sentence is written in ALL CAPITALS LIKE THIS (if, say, a character is yelling) it takes that as a new chapter and does all crazy line breaks. It's also very bad at reading other breaks. It almost wipes them out completely. This leaves me having to go back and manually fix lots and lots of pages.

Basically, I want to preserve the original formatting of the text in the pdf, but have it sized down with accurate text wrapping for the E-Reader. How can I get Calibre to split/merge text on pdf pages? Are there other programs that can do it?

I have searched this forum and others and came upon the same question from others, but all went unanswered. Any help you guys can give me is greatly appreciated. I know pdf is the least preferred source to work with, but I also tried converting the pdf to both .doc and .rtf first, and neither worked well (with those I lose all original indentation and paragraph breaks fro mthe original pdf...way too much to even attempt to fix manually)

kovidgoyal · 07-23-2008, 10:29 PM

its on my insanely long todo list

pjfan281 · 07-23-2008, 11:14 PM

oh, ok...well at least i have an answer now lol and maybe me bringing it up will get it bumped up on that to-do list =) but i must say great program in general. fast and pretty damn accurate.

sam1am · 07-24-2008, 04:10 PM

The new prs505 firmware supports pdf reflow, which supposedly solves this problem. YMMV.

pjfan281 · 07-25-2008, 12:08 AM

thanks for the heads up. i got the update, and it does work for pdf overflow, but far from perfect. it still breaks off to new page randomly in the middle of a current page =) it does however do adecent job and saves me from having to convert file types

07-23-2008, 06:38 PM	#1
pjfan281 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: PRS-505	can Calibre split text from multiple pdf pages? I recently got a Sony E-Reader 505 and was turned on to some formatting programs by reviewers online. I have been trying out Book Designer and Calibre. Both work, but only to a certain degree. Calibre seems to be most accurate in formatting pdf's to read on the Sony Reader, with one exception - it starts a new page in the Reader wherever there is a new page in the original pdf. This leaves me with some pages having only having a few lines of text before I have to turn the e-page and continue reading. Book Designer is good in that it can take text from one pdf page and merge it with another to keep the text going naturally. Book Designer, however, seems to be horrible at formatting in my experience. In one book, for example, anytime a sentence is written in ALL CAPITALS LIKE THIS (if, say, a character is yelling) it takes that as a new chapter and does all crazy line breaks. It's also very bad at reading other breaks. It almost wipes them out completely. This leaves me having to go back and manually fix lots and lots of pages. Basically, I want to preserve the original formatting of the text in the pdf, but have it sized down with accurate text wrapping for the E-Reader. How can I get Calibre to split/merge text on pdf pages? Are there other programs that can do it? I have searched this forum and others and came upon the same question from others, but all went unanswered. Any help you guys can give me is greatly appreciated. I know pdf is the least preferred source to work with, but I also tried converting the pdf to both .doc and .rtf first, and neither worked well (with those I lose all original indentation and paragraph breaks fro mthe original pdf...way too much to even attempt to fix manually)

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07-23-2008, 10:29 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,842 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	its on my insanely long todo list

07-23-2008, 11:14 PM	#3
pjfan281 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: PRS-505	oh, ok...well at least i have an answer now lol and maybe me bringing it up will get it bumped up on that to-do list =) but i must say great program in general. fast and pretty damn accurate.

07-24-2008, 04:10 PM	#4
sam1am Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 32 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: Sony Reader	The new prs505 firmware supports pdf reflow, which supposedly solves this problem. YMMV.

07-25-2008, 12:08 AM	#5
pjfan281 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: PRS-505	thanks for the heads up. i got the update, and it does work for pdf overflow, but far from perfect. it still breaks off to new page randomly in the middle of a current page =) it does however do adecent job and saves me from having to convert file types

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