kepubify 2.0 - A standalone tool to convert ePubs to Kepubs

[geek1011]

kepubify
A standalone tool to convert ePubs to Kepubs

Documentation • GitHub • Download • MobileRead Wiki
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About
Kepubify is a standalone tool for converting ePubs into Kepubs. I made Kepubify because I wanted to be able to quickly convert my books for use on my Kobo, and be able to use it without managing my whole library with Calibre.


Features

• Supports all Kepub features
• Works from the command line
• Standalone and cross-platform
• Fast (about 12x faster than Calibre)
• Can update Calibre-style or EPUB3-style series metadata on the Kobo (even without reconnecting) (EPUBs and KEPUBs)
• Can pre-generate cover images (EPUBs and KEPUBs)
• Batch conversion
• Update/sync mode
• Kepubify removes leftover Adobe DRM tags, cleans up MS Word tags, and cleans up the html
• Includes workarounds for common bugs (FullScreenReading, kepub stylesheets in 4.11.11976)

What's new in 2.0

Kepubify 2.0 now has better drag-and-drop support on Windows, an improved CLI with support for additional options, a sync mode to allow direct use with the kobo (only converts books not yet present on the destination), better logging for debugging, and many bugfixes. It also now supports various CSS tweaks such as enabling and disabling hyphenation, fixing the full-screen reading bugs without patching the firmware, and adding custom CSS.

Seriesmeta 2.0 has been completely rewritten with more options and many bugs fixed. macOS and Windows builds will come soon (I still need to figure out how to properly cross-compile releases with CGO in the CI system).


What is different about kepubs?
Kepubs are Kobo's ebook format based on the epub format. This format enables additional features such as chapter progress stats, time left, faster page turns, footnote previews, image zooming, and faster text selection. Also, ePub 3 is only supported using the kepub reader.


Installation

Windows:

1. Download kepubify

Linux:

1. Download kepubify
2. Open a terminal
3. Type cd ~/Downloads (or whatever location you downloaded kepubify to) and press enter
4. Type chmod +x kepubify-linux-* and press enter

macOS:

1. Download kepubify
2. Open a terminal
3. Type cd ~/Downloads and press enter
4. Type chmod +x kepubify-darwin-* (or whatever location you downloaded kepubify to) and press enter

Examples
On Windows, if using the command line, change kepubify to kepubify.exe

Converting one or more books or folders of books using drag-and-drop on Windows
Drag and drop them onto kepubify.exe. The converted books will be in the same folder as the original ones.

Converting a single book
kepubify /path/to/book.epub
The converted book will be called book.kepub.epub in the current directory.

Converting multiple books
kepubify /path/to/book1.epub /path/to/book2.epub
The converted books will be in a folder in the current directory, with the same name as the original with the extension .kepub.epub.

Converting a directory of books
kepubify /path/to/books
The converted books will be in a folder in the current directory, with the same name as the original with the suffix _converted.

Converting a directory of books, but not reconverting already converted ones
kepubify --update /path/to/books
The converted books will be in a folder in the current directory, with the same name as the original with the suffix _converted.

Setting the output path for converted books
kepubify --output /path/to/put/converted/books PATHS
Replace PATHS with the path to your original books. /path/to/put/converted/books is the folder to place the converted books into.

Syncing a folder with the kobo
kepubify --update --output /path/to/KOBOeReader /path/to/original/books
Only books which have not already been placed on the kobo this way will be converted.

Updating series metadata for side loaded books on the kobo with seriesmeta
seriesmeta
On Windows, just run seriesmeta.exe.

Reporting Issues
If you find any issues or have any questions, please report them here, or send me an email at patrick (at) pgaskin.net. Include the kepubify version, the operating system you are using, and if possible, the book which you are having problems with. You can find the version by typing: kepubify --help. If possible, please also include the output of kepubify with the --verbose option.


Feature Requests
If anyone has any feature requests (including options for css tweaks), I'd like to hear them. Feel free to open an issue on GitHub or reply to this thread.

More Information • Download

________
The old thread for version 1 is here.

[geek1011]

Changelogs
v2.5.0
d7a04d8 Remove the UTF-8 BOM if present (fixes #36)
7fee1e2 Used more functions from koboutils v2 in seriesmeta
7506c33 Added --calibre flag for using .kepub extension (closes #46)
058dff2 Updated dependencies
ac39794 Updated year

v2.4.0
This release mainly affects seriesmeta and the new covergen tool.

Seriesmeta now works even before books are imported (i.e. you don't have to reconnect to update series metadata for new books), and it now supports EPUB3-style series metadata.

Covergen (re)generates cover images for nickel, with optional stretching to fit a specific aspect ratio (I use 1.5). It works on both EPUBs and KEPUBs. This speeds up browsing the library, and if stretching is used, will also make it more consistent. In addition, covergen is useful when the automatically generated cover images are not satisfactory (too small, white margins, etc).

In addition, the README has been completely redone.

v2.3.1

Spoiler:

9dbe9ab Added option to inline styles

v2.3.0

Spoiler:

47db2ec Added deb packages
1361314 Updated seriesmeta docs

v2.2.0

Spoiler:

459203e Cross-compile seriesmeta for windows (fixes #30)
7429dfe Delayed exit on windows for seriesmeta
f260f4b Improved seriesmeta output format
a90ba78 Automatically detect kobo for seriesmeta
77342a1 Updated dependencies
8687447 Simplified addStyle
4a911da Simplified span creation code

v2.1.4

Spoiler:

3440efd Fixed self-closing script tag issues (fixes #29)
37d2855 Added content processing benchmark

v2.1.3

Spoiler:

a3ff23c Add xmlns:xlink namespace to inline svg if missing (fixes #25)
c7f6b09 Fixed self-closing title tags eating up content (fixes #28)
fc7ae2a Added note to docs about new kepub fast page flip feature

v2.1.2

Spoiler:

ab7009f Updated dependencies
f973ce3 Fix epubcheck error about nbsp entities (fixes #26)

v2.1.1

Spoiler:

7b9b7c1 Fixed 32-bit builds

v2.1.0

Spoiler:

592ca9b Updated docs
8e0d891 Added option to fix fullscreen reading bugs without firmware patches (closes #24)
ce5074e Added options to enable and disable hyphenation (closes #23)
d7dd704 Added option to add custom css to epub (closes #22)
42ed13c Fixed output path for relative input path
c5af6bc Fixed tests
feb6367 Make conversion more extensible

Changes since the last post
v2.0.0

Spoiler:

a42b3cb Use GNU style flags
a42b3cb Allow converting multiple files from the command line
a42b3cb Allow dragging and dropping multiple files
a42b3cb Clean up output for readability
a42b3cb Add option to skip already converted books
a42b3cb Fix bug in batch conversion
a42b3cb Make it easier to extend the options
8219029 Don't remove elements which only contain whitespace (fixes #21)
793b1b8 Fixed directory conversion output path
6b0bd35 Fixed release notes
0856f55 Updated docs and added v2.0.0 notes
8d36f58 Fixed tests
4649bdd Updated go to 1.10
6628f5b Improved seriesmeta CLI
dae405d New README
44555ab Fixed build script for seriesmeta
40e20a8 Show output directory before conversion
f4d97a7 Improved release notes generation
a42b3cb Improved CLI (closes #20)
d92d084 Updated docs
5e40c96 Fix typo in docs
a78a519 Updated year
f3de939 Improved version info in Makefile and release script

v1.3.2-v1.3.7

Spoiler:

26fc1d2 Fixed h1 with only an image being cleared
a4dea55 Preserve elements with only whitespace (fixes #14)
7ac298a Updated documentation
89a6db3 Automatically create output dir for batch conversion if none specified (closes #11)
fdda1aa Fix mistake in last commit
f57ec63 Improved error messages and checks
16bde7c Update
3e15863 Refactor content processing
a9ca145 Refactored epub file cleanup
070baa7 Renamed cleanOPF to processOPF
fad8414 Improved cover detection
483fed7 Improve OPF file cleanup
0c08274 Faster conversion and cleaner code
950cd0e Rewrote addSpansToNode to make it less hacky (fixes #10)
3249342 Added another test
e8367b1 Updated test files
6a62d49 Prettify html
6ec8f6f Final site tweaks
7c14cfe Site fixes
10fb557 Site improvements
904afe3 New site design
4f571f8 Tell user how many books found in dir
d1e0783 Do not convert books which have already been converted

[geek1011]

Upcoming features

• Option to remove embedded fonts
• Web-based version (maybe)
• Wireless syncing (a big maybe)
• Conversion cache to speed up conversion of similar books (maybe)

[geek1011]

I have released v2.1.0. It comes with the following new features:

• Option to add custom css
• Option to force enable or disable hyphenation
• Option to fix the fullscreen reading bugs without firmware patches (based on this)

[koboy]

Originally Posted by geek1011

I have released v2.1.0. It comes with the following new features:

• Option to add custom css
• Option to force enable or disable hyphenation
• Option to fix the fullscreen reading bugs without firmware patches (based on this)

will there be a windows 64 bit version?


best wishes koboy

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by koboy

will there be a windows 64 bit version?


best wishes koboy

Hmm? There is a windows 64bit version. Just click the other platforms link on the kepubify webpage. I have 32bit as the default for compatibility. It actually does not make any noticeable difference in performance.

[kansaskyle]

I tried out Kepubify this afternoon because I'm reading a book with diagrams, and I wanted to be able to zoom in on them. It was really fast and easy to use! Thanks for providing the resource.

After you convert a book to kepbub, how do you merge that format into Calibre? If I add the book, Calibre thinks there are two entries for the same book.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Hmm? There is a windows 64bit version. Just click the other platforms link on the kepubify webpage. I have 32bit as the default for compatibility. It actually does not make any noticeable difference in performance.

Normally it doesn't indeed, but there are some huge books in circulation, notably many Delphi Classics, that need more than 2GB of RAM to convert. On 32-bit Windows, 2GB is the limit for memory usage by a single process. At least with Calibre, some EPUBs cannot be converted to a different format if you're using the 32-bit version. The convert worker will crash when exceeding 2GB (at least, at the time when I last used the 32-bit version). I do not know if Kepubify manages memory differently and can convert any EPUB book no matter the size without using more than 2GB.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by kansaskyle

I tried out Kepubify this afternoon because I'm reading a book with diagrams, and I wanted to be able to zoom in on them. It was really fast and easy to use! Thanks for providing the resource.

After you convert a book to kepbub, how do you merge that format into Calibre? If I add the book, Calibre thinks there are two entries for the same book.

You can rename it to .kepub instead of .kepub.epub I think. I don't use Calibre myself so I am not completely sure.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Normally it doesn't indeed, but there are some huge books in circulation, notably many Delphi Classics, that need more than 2GB of RAM to convert. On 32-bit Windows, 2GB is the limit for memory usage by a single process. At least with Calibre, some EPUBs cannot be converted to a different format if you're using the 32-bit version. The convert worker will crash when exceeding 2GB (at least, at the time when I last used the 32-bit version). I do not know if Kepubify manages memory differently and can convert any EPUB book no matter the size without using more than 2GB.

Kepubify should work a lot better, as it is made to be as efficient as possible. I have quite a few books which Calibre hangs on while converting, but in kepubify, they convert in about 20 seconds. Kepubify also uses less memory in my experience.

If you have any issues with memory, I'd love to see the book, as I've not had any books use more than 40mb to convert.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by kansaskyle

After you convert a book to kepbub, how do you merge that format into Calibre? If I add the book, Calibre thinks there are two entries for the same book.

Rename the file to just .kepub as the extension. Then select the book in calibre and drop it on the details display of the book. Or open the metadata editor for the book and either drop it on the formats in the top right corner or use the add button there. You will also want to install the Kepub metadata writer and Kepub Metadata reader plugins.

But, as you are using calibre, why not either use the KoboTouchExtended driver to do the conversion on the fly, or use the Kepub output plugin to do the conversion in calibre?

[kansaskyle]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Rename the file to just .kepub as the extension. Then select the book in calibre and drop it on the details display of the book. Or open the metadata editor for the book and either drop it on the formats in the top right corner or use the add button there. You will also want to install the Kepub metadata writer and Kepub Metadata reader plugins.

But, as you are using calibre, why not either use the KoboTouchExtended driver to do the conversion on the fly, or use the Kepub output plugin to do the conversion in calibre?

Thanks for the Calibre guidance.

I tried kepubify because it also has the option to fix the full-screen bug where part of text gets cut off on the right margin. Does the KoboTouchExtended driver fix that also?

I know I could patch the firmware, but I've never ventured down that path, and kepubify seemed like an easy thing to try.

[Owl_]

I was wandering if it's possible to insert a custom css command line to get the 100% of the screen on the final kepub. (of course, without cut out the any margins)
If yes, do you know it?

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by kansaskyle

Thanks for the Calibre guidance.

I tried kepubify because it also has the option to fix the full-screen bug where part of text gets cut off on the right margin. Does the KoboTouchExtended driver fix that also?

I know I could patch the firmware, but I've never ventured down that path, and kepubify seemed like an easy thing to try.

You can do it with the KoboTouchExtended driver by configuring it to add the following CSS to the book (it's what kepubify does):

body {margin: 0 !important;padding: 0 !important;}                
body>div {padding-left: 0.2em !important;padding-right: 0.2em !important}

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Owl_

I was wandering if it's possible to insert a custom css command line to get the 100% of the screen on the final kepub. (of course, without cut out the any margins)
If yes, do you know it?

It is possible to add custom CSS with kepubify, but I don't think it's what you are looking for.

For full screen, first you can enable the fullscreen reading mode in Kobo eReader.conf, and then you can disable the headers and footers in the reading settings.