Documentation of css

tamhas · 03-24-2013, 12:57 PM

Is there someplace I can find documentation of the css which Calibre uses in converting a book to epub? I can read it well enough, but all the styles are simply .calibreN or .calibreNN with no indication of the purpose of each style.

theducks · 03-24-2013, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tamhas

Is there someplace I can find documentation of the css which Calibre uses in converting a book to epub? I can read it well enough, but all the styles are simply .calibreN or .calibreNN with no indication of the purpose of each style.

Your book

Calibre starts with what is in your book
then it applies the settings and calculates all those calibre# ones as needed.

I have seen as few as 3

There is no hard significance to the numbers.

Typical:
calibre is the body class when the book came with a cover
calibre3 can be the body class when a calibre generated cover was added. Many time calibre3 and calibre 4 are normal paragraphs... But never count on it

everything else.. You need to decode the usage from context.

(I use Sigil in CV mode, find in CSS )

tamhas · 03-24-2013, 02:36 PM

My difficulty is that the bulk of the books I have are Kindle books, which I can't read, so I can't read them. I am trying to help someone out defining a css for creating epubs, but we have a limited number of original epubs and a fair number of those use the same css, which we don't want to use. So, I was hoping to translate the calibre css into more meaningful labels. The one I am looking at has 34 different calibreN and calibreNN styles ... which seems silly to me, but maybe it would make more sense if I knew what it all was.

theducks · 03-24-2013, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tamhas

My difficulty is that the bulk of the books I have are Kindle books, which I can't read, so I can't read them. I am trying to help someone out defining a css for creating epubs, but we have a limited number of original epubs and a fair number of those use the same css, which we don't want to use. So, I was hoping to translate the calibre css into more meaningful labels. The one I am looking at has 34 different calibreN and calibreNN styles ... which seems silly to me, but maybe it would make more sense if I knew what it all was.

A Mess

34 almost always means you are seeing a result of a previous conversion OR a book with a lot of images OR someone used WORD as a source

Forget the mess, Have Calibre convert and see if it looks OK.
There is no single solution. I bought a book (Anthology) that the 3 stories had nothing in common (code wise

). The style sheet was a horror to look at. I look, because I tweak all books to display optimally (for me) on my PEz

tamhas · 03-29-2013, 10:01 AM

The issue is not wanting to fiddle with an existing book, but wanting a good css to use in creating new books.

PeterT · 03-29-2013, 10:14 AM

It would thought make more sense to look at the CSS from some of the books in the library here at MobileRead; these books will have css that have been created by hand, and not by a program attempting to preserve formatting present in the data files given to it.

Take a look at this thread for some ideas on books to look at

theducks · 03-29-2013, 10:46 AM

BPH's try and use OSFA CSS

(which is a great reason to use 'Delete unused styles')

My only selector that is 'static' is: body. That is because I wanted MY EPUB's to work around those silly

page numbers that ADE (Mobile) places into the margin-right space. YMMV

All else is 'per series'/ book (I prefer that a SINGLE Series maintains a consistent style, but every series does not have the exact same style).

IMHO A book/series should have a personality of its own

If you have not viewed the Zen Garden, you should look at what the GURU's did with the same book (You switch looks with the pulldown on the right) http://www.epubzengarden.com/#/stati.../chapter1.html . There is no excuse for a boring, Visualy speaking

, book

03-24-2013, 12:57 PM	#1
tamhas Zealot Posts: 108 Karma: 1000 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle	Documentation of css Is there someplace I can find documentation of the css which Calibre uses in converting a book to epub? I can read it well enough, but all the styles are simply .calibreN or .calibreNN with no indication of the purpose of each style.

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03-24-2013, 02:36 PM	#3
tamhas Zealot Posts: 108 Karma: 1000 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle	My difficulty is that the bulk of the books I have are Kindle books, which I can't read, so I can't read them. I am trying to help someone out defining a css for creating epubs, but we have a limited number of original epubs and a fair number of those use the same css, which we don't want to use. So, I was hoping to translate the calibre css into more meaningful labels. The one I am looking at has 34 different calibreN and calibreNN styles ... which seems silly to me, but maybe it would make more sense if I knew what it all was.

03-29-2013, 10:01 AM	#5
tamhas Zealot Posts: 108 Karma: 1000 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle	The issue is not wanting to fiddle with an existing book, but wanting a good css to use in creating new books.

03-29-2013, 10:14 AM	#6
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,166 Karma: 73448616 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS	It would thought make more sense to look at the CSS from some of the books in the library here at MobileRead; these books will have css that have been created by hand, and not by a program attempting to preserve formatting present in the data files given to it. Take a look at this thread for some ideas on books to look at

03-29-2013, 10:46 AM	#7
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,800 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	BPH's try and use OSFA CSS (which is a great reason to use 'Delete unused styles') My only selector that is 'static' is: body. That is because I wanted MY EPUB's to work around those silly page numbers that ADE (Mobile) places into the margin-right space. YMMV All else is 'per series'/ book (I prefer that a SINGLE Series maintains a consistent style, but every series does not have the exact same style). IMHO A book/series should have a personality of its own If you have not viewed the Zen Garden, you should look at what the GURU's did with the same book (You switch looks with the pulldown on the right) http://www.epubzengarden.com/#/stati.../chapter1.html . There is no excuse for a boring, Visualy speaking , book