understanding kepub

arslonga · 08-17-2017, 03:23 AM

Good day.

I am thinking of moving from reading on an iPad to eInk because of its excessive back light. In the absence of a Marvin clone on an eInk device, I am considering the Kobo Aura One for its screen size and resolution.

I was wondering if someone could explain if there is a substantial difference in the quality of the output of the following actions:

a. Simply change the file extension from .epub to .kepub.epub on Windows.
b. Convert the epub document to kepub using Calibre and later change the file extension of the resulting document to .kepub.epub.

Thank you for your attention.

davidfor · 08-17-2017, 04:02 AM

Firstly, the Kobo ereaders are good epub devices. There is no reason not to just put the epub on the device and read that. There are advantages to both formats, and a search here will find them listed. From memory, there was a thread about it a week or two ago.

But, to the kepub format, you really need to do the conversion. Changing the extension will work and when you read the book, the kepub renderer will be used. And most of it will work. And it is a good way to see the differences between the renderers without any extra work. But, it isn't suitable for long term use as several things do not work.

The big thing that doesn't work is the reading location. For kepubs, the reading location relies on spans wrapping each sentence. These have an id and the device tracks the location using these ids. If you don't have the spans in the book, if you close and reopen a book while reading, it will not open to the correct place. It will always open to the start of a chapter.

For people who use calibre and only want to read kepubs, I usually recommend using the KoboTouchExtended driver. This does on-the-fly conversion of the book and puts it on the device as a kepub. If you only want to read as a kepub sometime, then do a conversion and send that. The drivers will automatically fix the extension. There is also a separate tool to create kepubs that was published here a few weeks ago. That is suitable for non-calibre users.

08-17-2017, 03:23 AM	#1
arslonga Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	understanding kepub Good day. I am thinking of moving from reading on an iPad to eInk because of its excessive back light. In the absence of a Marvin clone on an eInk device, I am considering the Kobo Aura One for its screen size and resolution. I was wondering if someone could explain if there is a substantial difference in the quality of the output of the following actions: a. Simply change the file extension from .epub to .kepub.epub on Windows. b. Convert the epub document to kepub using Calibre and later change the file extension of the resulting document to .kepub.epub. Thank you for your attention.

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08-17-2017, 04:02 AM	#2
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Firstly, the Kobo ereaders are good epub devices. There is no reason not to just put the epub on the device and read that. There are advantages to both formats, and a search here will find them listed. From memory, there was a thread about it a week or two ago. But, to the kepub format, you really need to do the conversion. Changing the extension will work and when you read the book, the kepub renderer will be used. And most of it will work. And it is a good way to see the differences between the renderers without any extra work. But, it isn't suitable for long term use as several things do not work. The big thing that doesn't work is the reading location. For kepubs, the reading location relies on spans wrapping each sentence. These have an id and the device tracks the location using these ids. If you don't have the spans in the book, if you close and reopen a book while reading, it will not open to the correct place. It will always open to the start of a chapter. For people who use calibre and only want to read kepubs, I usually recommend using the KoboTouchExtended driver. This does on-the-fly conversion of the book and puts it on the device as a kepub. If you only want to read as a kepub sometime, then do a conversion and send that. The drivers will automatically fix the extension. There is also a separate tool to create kepubs that was published here a few weeks ago. That is suitable for non-calibre users.

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