Touch KOBO Touch reading advice welcome

[polli]

Just bought a Kobo Touch and love it.
However I find that with Pdfs the text is very small
If I try and change it it overlaps the page and takes forever to read

Any advice would be great Is it possible to convert the pdf to something else with the text larger?

Any tips would be great

[JD Gumby]

You can use http://calibre-ebook.com/ to convert the document to ePub (and for library management in general for non-DRM'd books). The conversion is mostly quick & dirty, though, so the result almost certainly won't look as nice as the original PDF - but at least you'll be able to resize the text to what you want. Lots of options for converting that you can fiddle with to hopefully get decent (as opposed to just readable) output.

[rashkae]

But be advised, in general, PDF is a terrible format for text based literature, and e-ink devices in general are terrible pdf viewing devices. (Some people seem satisfied with the experience, so YMMV, of course.) For reading on E-ink devices, I would strongly encourage you to find books in a text friendly format to start with. (epub, mobi, html, rtf, etc.)

[novou]

Using tools like Briss or PDF scissors you can cut margins so the page appears a bit larger. Don't cut too much off the bottom because the page numbers cut a bit of that already. (They're both Java, but they do the trick)

You know about double-tap to zoom, right?
My method for pdfs with small text is to rotate the screen (rightmost menu icon) and then fit the text to the screen width. Once you're zoomed in you can pan left or right past the page edge to get the page-turn arrows. (Sorry if you already know this, I just want to be sure.)

I personally wouldn't recommend PDF conversion, unless you're ready to tune/fix the output a bunch. (eg: page numbers appearing in the ePub, incorrect linebreaks)

[filmo]

Here is my review about reading PDFs on Kobo touch.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=146863

[polli]

Thanks all for the replies, But still confused.
Have downloaded a few books from Kobo which are good size print to read
Though not as cheap as I thought compared to Amazon lol
However some pdfs which I found elsewhere are a struggle as so very tiny print

(I have pretty good eyesight Just need glasses for reading)

Read the advice but not got a clue regarding Calibre either
Would like to rename some books and add covers

Do I use it as well as ADE or instead?

Have got my books on the pc all neat in one folder Dont want another program to mess them up.

[polli]

Downloaded Calibre. Pursuaded it to change a few covers and titles But they did not show any different in ADE

Can you use Calibre with ADE?
Where do I store my ebooks - Calibre folder, My Docs, a folder I create or where?

How do I get the changes I make in Calibre to show up anywhere else?

Really stuck here

[JD Gumby]

To actually change the covers, you pretty much have to run the book through the conversion process to remove the cover image and insert a new one. Editing the cover in the metadata just adds an image file to the directory for calibre to load - it doesn't actually put the image into the epub.

[polli]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

To actually change the covers, you pretty much have to run the book through the conversion process to remove the cover image and insert a new one. Editing the cover in the metadata just adds an image file to the directory for calibre to load - it doesn't actually put the image into the epub.

But should it show the epub with an image after Calibre has found one?
Some do some don't

Wonder if I am doing it wrong somehow
Can you advise me please?
I put all my epubs and pdfs in a folder I created in Documents
Is that correct?
Or should they be somewhere else? In a Kobo or Calibre folder?
When they convert they go into Calibre folder But now i am getting 2 copies of everything.

So need a plain and simple way to start again basically before I get 100s of books lol

Then the best way to get covers on my books please

[larrymohr]

First off, your PDF books. If they are free books, I would go back to the site you got them from and see if they have epub versions. You might also try some of the other sites with free epubs for their versions.

I personally like the epubs I have downloaded from http://www.feedbooks.com. I go there first and if they don't have it, then I check elsewhere.

As far as editing covers, there is NO simple solution as yet.

If you use Calibre and add a new cover there, you have two choices for updating the cover to the Kobo.

1. use the "convert books" button to have Calibre convert from epub to epub.
This has its own problems. Mainly that Calibre creates a cover that no longer has the correct aspect ratio. ie. the cover is stretched or squashed.
It also, in my experience creates an epub where you can NOT change the margins.

2. This is much more involved. You use the "tweak epub" selection on the right click menu and explode the epub. You can then edit the "cover.jpg" image and save the corrected image back into the epub. Yes, it is very involved but gives you much more control over things.

3. There is some software written by another forum user (Nigol), that may help. I have not tried it out yet.

ePubFixer - http://code.google.com/p/epubfixer/


You could also check out some of the threads about the cover issues with the Touch for some more ideas.

Hope this helps a little.

Larry

[Nigol]

Originally Posted by larrymohr

3. There is some software written by another forum user (Nigol), that may help. I have not tried it out yet.

ePubFixer - http://code.google.com/p/epubfixer/

Note that my software will only replace existing covers, if there is no cover already it will not replace them.

Also you do not really need both ADE and calibre, since you can use calibre to send your books to your reader, even DRM ones (they are in your my documents-> My digital editions folder). You might need ADE to authorize your reader at first.

I think it is way easier to use calibre than just placing them all in a folder like you do, since you can really use the database features of calibre to manage your collection. Like only seeing a particular author or series.

[larrymohr]

Actually, you will need ADE if you want to use DRM ePubs and not just the Kobo kepubs. When you "download" an ePub from Kobo or other seller who uses the Adobe DRM, ADE opens the ACSM file and then downloads and authorizes the ePub.

However, once the file is on your comuter, usually in the "My Digital Editions" folder as Nogol mentions, you can use Calibre to manage your collection and even to make some changes.

Larry

[polli]

Thanks for the replies

So basically stlll can't understand why ADE doesnt like the books I have changed titles and added covers to. In Calibre they look great

But ADE keeps freezing also and can't find a quick way to delete ALL books in ADE and start again

So you are saying everyone puts their books into Calibre folder and uploads to Kobo Reader from there?

Then my edited covers/titles should be ok?

But if I decide to uninstall Calibre at a later date wont it uninstall the folder my books are in also?

I will be downloading free books from new authors. Kobo books and any books I see on other sites Also Library books too.

Just basically want to start again Put my edited books in the correct folder and read lol

[filmo]

When I down load free books from different sites they go into Download folder. I then transfer these books to a Book folder in my Document folder then delete those books from the Download folder. When I use Calibre Add Books the books are added to Calibre folder. First in author file then Book's name file and meta data is also filed with the book in the Calibre file system. I backup the book file to another location. When you uninstall or remove installed program should be option to leave or remove related data files for complete removal.

When Calibre is running and you plug in Kobo to computer then select connect on Kobo screen. Calibre then finds and shows books on the Kobo device, and Storage Card A plugged into Kobo along with books in Kobo library. You can then select one (left mouse button) or more than one books (shift or control left mouse button) to add to Calibre's library. This is easy way to transfer your DRM free books on SD card to new computer.

[polli]

Originally Posted by filmo

When I down load free books from different sites they go into Download folder. I then transfer these books to a Book folder in my Document folder then delete those books from the Download folder. When I use Calibre Add Books the books are added to Calibre folder. First in author file then Book's name file and meta data is also filed with the book in the Calibre file system. I backup the book file to another location. When you uninstall or remove installed program should be option to leave or remove related data files for complete removal.

When Calibre is running and you plug in Kobo to computer then select connect on Kobo screen. Calibre then finds and shows books on the Kobo device, and Storage Card A plugged into Kobo along with books in Kobo library. You can then select one (left mouse button) or more than one books (shift or control left mouse button) to add to Calibre's library. This is easy way to transfer your DRM free books on SD card to new computer.

Hi Tried your advice but had a major problem
Since buying my Kobo Touch 2 weeks ago I have been using Adobe Digital but it was always freezing

That was my main reason to try out Calibre.
I found somefree books on the net and it did a great job of converting pdfs helping me find covers and data for epubs
So I was really pleased with it

So I backed up andf then deleted my epubs fron the folder I saved them to and pointed Adobe to when first I installed it
It took me ages to delete all the books however in ADE one by one! (is there a quick way?)

Sotried to import the books from Calibre folder into ADE But ADE could not find them

So i tried the suggestion to get Calibre to manage them However when I tried to put them on my Kobo half of them said unkown format and I could not and the rest looked just the same as before I used Calibre to change data covers etc and they had looked sooo nice lol

So back to square one
What am I missing here?