The deadline is approaching & I have no time!

[Chikwako]

OK, guys I'm gonna go blind looking for the info I want, to no avail. I'm sure is in here, the thing is I need many hours I don't have, to find the settings I want.

I bought an EZReader PP to give to my mom on her birthday (approaching very soon), and I want to set it up with a few things like the widest range of fonts (the bigger the better).

I have experimented with the different formats, downloaded Calibre and have converted text books into epub, mobi and fb2 -- which turns out to be the best (in my view) for the widest selection of font sizes, as seen in Cool Reader in the EZReader PP. This is very important since my Mom (or anybody approaching 70, I imagine) would hate this gift if she can't read the books in it.

However, some paragraphs are broken where they're not supposed to be, some characters (specially the accented vowels) convert to other characters. I have added some conversion plug-ins to Open Office Writer, but they have too many options, many that I don't understand, and I don't have much time since her birthday is coming soon.

I have also looked into the CSS coding to see how I can set perfect margins for the EZ, and delete unwanted brakes, but again, I need more time.

What I need:
A CSS recipe (or simply some instructions, or a link to a thread that someone knows already exists) with the optimal margins for the EZ Reader with fb2 books, and with the most font sizes.

A way to convert text files into fb2 that will cure the broken paragraphs and respects accented characters.

Thanks in advance to all of you that will try to help me, and I promise that when I get my own e-reader, I will take the time to read the threads to find my answers.

[Solicitous]

Unfortunately I don't know how successful you will be with the books you have converted using Calibre. I played around quite alot to get a fb2.css file working well with Calibre converted fb2 but unfortunately Calibre does not build the fb2 file to proper standards (see this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?p=903993).

From my findings and help from others, Book Designer seems to be the best application out there to create fb2 files. Once you have a fb2 file built to standards, creating a fb2.css (or using an existing one) is an absolute easy process.

Hope it is of some help, and hopefully others might be able to shed some more light or offer some alternatives.

[Dopedangel]

Lbook firmware is the best out there and if you are using fb2 thats even better as
the coolreader in it has large number of font sizes that you can change. You can add all the custom fonts you want.
With it you don't even need to edit each fb2 file just set the format setting inside the coolreader options. And save it after that all the books will load with those settings and ignore the format settings of the book.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Chikwako

What I need:
A CSS recipe (or simply some instructions, or a link to a thread that someone knows already exists) with the optimal margins for the EZ Reader with fb2 books, and with the most font sizes.

If you are using FB2 on the PocketPRO, that means you are reading with CoolReader. You *can* use CSS with CoolReader to set margins and indents and such, but you can also instruct CoolReader to ignore CSS and to use the defaults that you define in CollReader's setup menus. For the style elements that you mentioned, that would probably be easier than using CSS, if you are unfamiliar with CSS.

Originally Posted by Chikwako

A way to convert text files into fb2 that will cure the broken paragraphs and respects accented characters.

BookDesigner, which has an extensive help thread here, would probably be the easiest for you to get what you want. Calibre's FB2 output does not follow the FB2 Schema, and the developer of that plug-in has indicated no interest in fixing the mess that it creates. A good FB2 file can be converted to a good EPUB file with the FB2EPUB program, but once Calibre has produced it's so called FB2 output, the file is too damaged for further use IMHO.
The accented character problem probably is the result of the wrong choice of character encoding during the conversion from the source format to the output format. I recall that seems to frequently be a problem with the mixed use of Windows-1252 and UTF8 during a conversion.

[Fincary]

Originally Posted by Chikwako

I have experimented with the different formats, downloaded Calibre and have converted text books into epub, mobi and fb2 -- which turns out to be the best (in my view) for the widest selection of font sizes, as seen in Cool Reader in the EZReader PP. This is very important since my Mom (or anybody approaching 70, I imagine) would hate this gift if she can't read the books in it.

However, some paragraphs are broken where they're not supposed to be, some characters (specially the accented vowels) convert to other characters. I have added some conversion plug-ins to Open Office Writer, but they have too many options, many that I don't understand, and I don't have much time since her birthday is coming soon.

Just an assumption here, and I could be wrong, but it sounds like you are trying to set up some books that you downloaded from the internet. Thing is, a LOT of these books are scanned paper copies, and they don't get proofed very well. Most of them are PDF files, and if they aren't, someone has just converted them from someones scanned PDF.

As far as your paragraph breaks and other difficulties, I'll bet the problem is in your source files. It will not matter what file type you convert them to, or how you set up your reader. If your source file is trash, you are going to get a trashy output.

You have two choices. (Well there are others, but this isn't the place to go into them.) Either purchase books from a reputable ebook store so that they are formatted correctly(try www.EZread.com), or be prepared to spend a LOT of time per book for editing/formatting. Check out the Workshop forum if you want to go the editing route.

[Chikwako]

Thank you for your answers, I'm sorry it took me all this time to respond but I've been very busy.

I guess there are no easy answers, they all take time, either to learn how to use new software or to keep on looking for the ones posted here already.
I'll download Book Designer and try to work with it.

Dopedangel, I didn't understand your post very well, but I think your suggestion would be the easiest to implement, since the settings would be in Coolreader (just like Dave_S also says). However, isn't lbook part of the software that comes with the EZ reader? How do I change the settings other than the coolreader's main menu? I've tried many times to change the font size through the main menu, but to no avail.
Again, these books are Spanish public domain (mostly from Guttenberg) in txt format that I've downloaded through the years, that I want to convert them into an easier-to-the-eye format with bigger default fonts.

Thank you. I'll keep on trying and reading.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Chikwako

However, isn't lbook part of the software that comes with the EZ reader?

NO.

There are multiple resellers of the Jinke/Hanlin e-book readers. Astak is the American reseller and Lbook is a VAR(Value Added Reseller) in Ukraine and Russia. Lbook adds a lot of improvements to the stock Chinese firmware. Since the hardware from all the resellers is the same, the Lbook firmware can be downloaded and used on the hardware distributed by Astak.

Originally Posted by Chikwako

How do I change the settings other than the Coolreader's settings menu? I've tried many times to change the font size through the main menu, but to no avail.

I have a *feeling* that you are trying to change the reader font or font size in the bookshelf main menu, and not CoolReader's main menu. CoolReader is the reader for FB2/TXT/HTML/DOC/RTF files and also for EPUB files with a little modification to the book's filename to trick the bookshelf application. You can add all the fonts that you want for the CoolReader application to use, and you can pick from a large number of font sizes to render the books text into, BUT that must be done through CoolReader's settings menu and NOT the bookshelf setting menu.

Originally Posted by Chikwako

Again, these books are Spanish public domain (mostly from Guttenberg) in txt format that I've downloaded through the years, that I want to convert them into an easier-to-the-eye format with bigger default fonts.

The nice thing about CoolReader is that you only need to configure the default font size CoolReader and then any files that you load in the format that you configure the default font face and size for will be rendered in that default font face and size. There is no need to configure fonts for each book file separately.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Chikwako

I'll download Book Designer and try to work with it.

There is a nice tutorial on working with Book Designer posted here.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10313

[DaleDe]

While Astak firmware is not the same as lBook they do have a lot in common and both use CoolReader for some file formats and both use ADE reader. The differences are primarily in the latest version of which products and the user interface when working with the bookshelf.

The Buggins betas are beyond both the current released lBook firmware and the current released Astak firmware.

Dale

[jemyers77]

Originally Posted by Chikwako

Again, these books are Spanish public domain (mostly from Guttenberg) in txt format that I've downloaded through the years, that I want to convert them into an easier-to-the-eye format with bigger default fonts.

Thank you. I'll keep on trying and reading.

Try opening the TXT file in MSWord and saving as an RTF and/or an HTML file before importing the file to Calibre. Calibre converts RTF and HTML files much better than it converts TXT files, at least if converting to EPUB format. I'm not sure about FB2.

[Chikwako]

Thank you people, I followed the path of the Book Designer and I've been getting to know it, working at it. I've been trying fb2 and mobi formats.
It takes time, but what the heck, gotta do what needs to be done!
Thanks to all that have replied to this post.