pdf to epub conversion author determine

[lanny]

I am using calibre command line tool to convert PDFs to epub. All works fine except Author name. How is this determined?

I get authors like Plazma - a word which is nowhere to be found in the document being converted.

[itimpi]

As far as I know the Author Name is taken from the properties embedded in the PDF (i.e. it does not necessarily appear anywhere in the visible text).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by lanny

I am using calibre command line tool to convert PDFs to epub. All works fine except Author name. How is this determined?

I get authors like Plazma - a word which is nowhere to be found in the document being converted.

PDF's can have lots of stuff that is not visible, but still exists to be caught by the converters. Remember:PDF pours stuff onto the page. There is no order only location. Once the pour is done, it gets rendered.

[lanny]

Thank you. That helped. I have now parsed the authors and names and updated the epubs.

I also have a list of genres for each book but cannot see an epub field where I could put it. There are multiple genres for some, for example: adventure, sci-fi.

Any suggestions how I could insert it so that I could display sets like "sic-fi", "poetry" and such?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by lanny

I also have a list of genres for each book but cannot see an epub field where I could put it. There are multiple genres for some, for example: adventure, sci-fi.

Any suggestions how I could insert it so that I could display sets like "sic-fi", "poetry" and such?

Use Tags

See Managing subgroups of books, for example “genre” if you want to create hierarchical structures

br

[lanny]

@BetterRed: Thank you. I was more looking for a standard recognized by other products (like iBooks reader on a Mac or an iPad)

[Sabardeyn]

Lanny,
As with any other file format, standards are open to debate. Every ebook viewer (hardware or software) implements a slightly different set of standards, in slightly different ways - regardless of what the various file format specifications actually say. Meanwhile, everyone is claiming someone else's implementation is wrong and things should be done their way. In other words, it's the "Browser Wars" of a decade past all over again.

Expect things to start working properly in a minimum of 5 years.

[theducks]

Sabardeyn
It won't happen.

This is a battle to maintain a Walled Garden.

Incompatibility with others is how they try and keep you prisoner to Their device-Store

Just look at all the new devices from the big players that just happen to do changes in the new models that break or lock-out some of the services that Calibre provided.

[Sabardeyn]

Originally Posted by theducks

This is a battle to maintain a Walled Garden.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Fighting to maintain a Walled Garden of some kind has been the name of the game since one group of cavemen made a technological advance over their neighbors. And it will remain this way as we encounter sentient alien life forms from across the universe.

The Browser Wars was all about maintaining control and licensing fees (via file formats & extensions) - similar to the current ebook situation. Despite various commercial entity's best efforts at monopolizing the net, users got tired of the squabble, demanded compliance and won. Strangely, the commercial entities discovered they could adequately support the existing (and future) standards. Within a relatively short time (~1.5 years?) the standards were correctly supported.

As ebooks saturate the market there is going to be an ever increasing pressure to allow interoperability - exactly like the Browser Wars. Sooner or later a judge will uphold the concept that the data (text, images, and other contents) does not have to be restricted to a single product manufacturer's preferred format and that "fair use" applies here as well.

Which is why I said to give it 5 years, minimum, for things to start to change.