a unified approach to PDF files

[KingDani]

i know it might be a bit off question , yet since all of you had experienced how things go smoothly on PDF files and i am practically lost with other formats , i was wondering if there is a universal converter that could change CHMs , HTML , DJVU , and PDB (isilo) into PDF .
do you know of any?

[Grimulkan]

Why not try a free pdf printer? I mentioned one in your earlier thread. This will work as long as DRM does not stop you from printing. But if you have a document in one of the supported formats, why not keep the original? PDF is a horrible, ugly and bloated format IMHO. FBReader reads CHM and HTML fine.

[KingDani]

holy cow , FBReader shows CHM files? i read somewhere on iliad forum that large files would make it hang . is that true?
and can you please show me the free printing software?
I already found these
http://www.theta-software.com/chmtopdf.htm
http://www.print-driver.com/download/
http://www.colorpilot.com/chm2pdf.html

they are not free , and this one i don't think it can convert from various file types to PDF.
http://www.processtext.com/abcpdf.html

i used UDC , and it's ok , although it takes an hour for a 400 page book to convert ,and it sizes goes something around 1gb.
any more suggestions?

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by KingDani

FBReader shows CHM files? i read somewhere on iliad forum that large files would make it hang . is that true?

The DR has more memory and a faster processor, so it should handle larger CHM files than the iLiad. However, a big enough ebook file of any kind will hang FBReader because it reads the entire ebook into memory before it starts. CHM files tend to be big, which is why they are the most problematic. I would be surprised if a 5MB CHM hung FBReader on the DR, but a 20MB CHM might be too big.

[KingDani]

well for most part , i have CHM files of over 100mb. so i think FBR is out of the picture.
how about other types of converters ? any new ideas?

[Shaggy]

I use Book Designer a lot, but it may be overkill for what you need. I'm not sure if the latest version does CHM. I think there have been updates that aren't reflected in the wiki.

[Grimulkan]

Originally Posted by Grimulkan

<snip>
Why not try a free pdf printer? I mentioned one in your earlier thread.

I'll forgive, as my post was probably a daunting wall of text

Originally Posted by Grimulkan

<snip>
PDFCreator, however, is free and lets you print anything to PDF, including web pages. You can even save directly onto the SD card on the device, if its connected.

I even suspect that iRex ships this printer on the SD card that comes with the device.

[KingDani]

thank you very much , if you haven't mentioned , i would be under the impression that PDF creator is only a firefox addon , i didn't know it has a desktop version too.
i'll give it a try . however i used UDC and it seems it only converts chapters at a time and not the whole book.and besides it seems it uses the windows drive as temp folder , and i have less 2gb free space there, on big files , the system gets really slows , i suppose its a lot of processing.

[KingDani]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I use Book Designer a lot, but it may be overkill for what you need. I'm not sure if the latest version does CHM. I think there have been updates that aren't reflected in the wiki.

Dear Shaggy ,
Book Designer is free , but it does not get the job done , it only supports HTML and TXT and other office related formats. my main concern right now is multi level formats like CHM and PDB (isilo) which uses several hyperlinks and separate chapters as mini books inside a book. most converters are not smart enough to recognize that and even worse , they all simply print it out , with no intervention. anyway , i would be grateful if you could give me the links to un-mentioned updates to the program .
cheers

[Shaggy]

The older version doesn't do CHM, but I think it has limited support for PDB. Don't know if it's enough for your needs though.

As far as updates, I don't know for sure. I've seen lots of posts on their Russian forum talking about Book Designer 5. The latest updates the wiki on here has are version 4 updates from 2007. It's possible that development stopped and it's a dead product, but I would double check the official site first.

[Grimulkan]

I suppose you could try decompiling the CHM into a bunch of HTMLs using Microsoft's tools, but I don't recall if FBReader or the UDS reads links in HTML files.

[Shaggy]

There's also the ABC Amber CHM Converter, but I don't know a lot of details about it. I think it's commercial software (free trial, then buy) though.

[Grimulkan]

If you have access (ahem) to Adobe Acrobat Professional, you could also decompile to HTML and then combine the entire bunch of files into PDF, preserving link structure etc. I've permanently converted my larger CHMs to PDFs this way.

If one of those other programs you've tried "prints everything out" like you described but preserves link structure, PDFCreator will save the file as a PDF.

[KingDani]

oh the pro version does that? but if i recall right , DR PDF viewer does not allow hyperlinking inside PDF files right?

[Grimulkan]

Originally Posted by KingDani

oh the pro version does that? but if i recall right , DR PDF viewer does not allow hyperlinking inside PDF files right?

But it does! As long as the links point within the same PDF file.