Use CSS sheet in conversion

[GrosNours]

Hi,

I have some raw text files that I want to convert to epub (they will be easier to read on my tablet).

Is there a way to use a sspecific CSS file in the conversion, instead of what seemed to be hardcoded calibre* classes? I don't want to search and replace the generated files to change the styles afterwards, if I can help it.

[kovidgoyal]

Look in the look & feel section of th econversion dialog

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by GrosNours

Hi,

I have some raw text files that I want to convert to epub (they will be easier to read on my tablet).

Is there a way to use a sspecific CSS file in the conversion, instead of what seemed to be hardcoded calibre* classes? I don't want to search and replace the generated files to change the styles afterwards, if I can help it.

Calibre does not have hard-coded classes. What it does is try to ‘flatten’ any classes already present and give the new classes generated from this process names of the form ‘calibrenn’

If you are starting from raw text files then you will not have any pre-existing classes so any classes generated will be as a result of any conversion options you specify.

[GrosNours]

Thank you itimpi, it makes (a little) more sense now.

But I am still confused about the whole process:
- in the look&feel section, it is said that you can add a CSS path. But there is now button to add it. how can you do that?
- I tried to add some CSS instructions and I see them added to the calibre* classes in the output. But what if simply want to use my specific classes, that I have in a CSS stylesheet file, or even more don't use classes at all, and just use a stylesheet that sets values for p, h1, h2, etc. Can I do this from a raw text file as input, or do I have to first convert to XHTML?

[retiredbiker]

Since you're going from raw text, a conversion has no real way of knowing where to apply your css, no matter what you put in...it has no coding to start from.

In such cases, I have a very simple css in a text file that contains what I like for reading: indent, noindent, chaptertitle, quotations, verse, center, right, and that's about it.

I convert the text to epub, then in the editor import my css file. Then I use search and replace as needed to change 'calibren' classes to my own. For a simple book like a novel this usually only takes a few minutes. If you have a lot of fancy stuff you want to pretty up, well, that can take a while. I know you don't want to do that, but I don't see any other way.

[PeterT]

calibre conversions will always use it's own class names.

For an idea on the extra cxs see https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/con...html#extra-css

[GrosNours]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

Since you're going from raw text, a conversion has no real way of knowing where to apply your css, no matter what you put in...it has no coding to start from.

In such cases, I have a very simple css in a text file that contains what I like for reading: indent, noindent, chaptertitle, quotations, verse, center, right, and that's about it.

I convert the text to epub, then in the editor import my css file. Then I use search and replace as needed to change 'calibren' classes to my own. For a simple book like a novel this usually only takes a few minutes. If you have a lot of fancy stuff you want to pretty up, well, that can take a while. I know you don't want to do that, but I don't see any other way.

You are right, I don't want to do that, but as you said, it looks like it is *the* way.

[GrosNours]

Originally Posted by PeterT

calibre conversions will always use it's own class names.

For an idea on the extra cxs see https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/con...html#extra-css

Yeah, I've seen that, but it does not explain how to include a whole CSS file, which seems to be possible. Is it just copy-paste of the data, or can I just type the path of the .css file (and in this case, absolute path? relative to a base directory?)

[kovidgoyal]

copy paste will always work. An absolute path should work, if you get it right