PDF to EPUB using Calibre - I need some tips

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deubster

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I enjoy the appearance and features of the Aldiko eBook reader, and I have access to quite a few books in PDF format. I've been struggling with Calibre to do the conversion from PDF to EPUB, and thought someone out there would have the answers (I've looked on both Calibre and Aldiko's websites).

The books convert and are readable, but each individual line in the PDF seems to get converted to something like a paragraph. I've played with the "Remove spacing between paragraphs" on the Look & Feel page, the "Line Unwrapping Factor" on the PDF Input page, and just about anything I can see that might remotely pertain.

I've tried 3 books, each from different sources, all with the same results. It doesn't matter if I'm viewing in Aldiko on my Droid, or with Calibre's built-in viewer.

The sample books that came with Aldiko do not have these annoying breaks all over. Also, the PDFs display normally with the PDF reader in Astro. Of course, reading it in Astro causes me to lose lots of features, plus I have to read in landscape mode to make the print big enough.

Anyone having similar PDF to EPUB conversion problems with Calibre? Better yet, does anyone have a solution?

Thanks in advance.
 
I've probably spent a cumulative total of 24 hours trying to get the formatting of one of my PDFs correct and it still never quite worked out. I wish had some better advice, but I eventually gave up.

deubster said:
I enjoy the appearance and features of the Aldiko eBook reader, and I have access to quite a few books in PDF format. I've been struggling with Calibre to do the conversion from PDF to EPUB, and thought someone out there would have the answers (I've looked on both Calibre and Aldiko's websites).

The books convert and are readable, but each individual line in the PDF seems to get converted to something like a paragraph. I've played with the "Remove spacing between paragraphs" on the Look & Feel page, the "Line Unwrapping Factor" on the PDF Input page, and just about anything I can see that might remotely pertain.

I've tried 3 books, each from different sources, all with the same results. It doesn't matter if I'm viewing in Aldiko on my Droid, or with Calibre's built-in viewer.

The sample books that came with Aldiko do not have these annoying breaks all over. Also, the PDFs display normally with the PDF reader in Astro. Of course, reading it in Astro causes me to lose lots of features, plus I have to read in landscape mode to make the print big enough.

Anyone having similar PDF to EPUB conversion problems with Calibre? Better yet, does anyone have a solution?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
 
sup fellas. i must have 50 or so books on my droid and almost all were converted from PDF to EPUB using calibre. i think it has more to do with the source file than calibre converting it. at least thats what i have noticed. i do know what your talking about when you spoke of weird paragraphs and stuff. are you creating these pdfs yourself or taking someone elses? i know alot of pdfs i find are all txt files converted to pdf.
 
No, these are downloads either from publishers' websites or from free download sites. When viewed with Acrobat or through Astro, they look exactly like the printed books.

Just to clarify what's happening - if you view a page in PDF form, and if a paragraph has 3 lines of 80 or so characters each, when you convert to EPUB, each of those 3 lines now looks like a paragraph. The 80 or so characters will be indented, take 2 or 3 lines, and then followed by a blank line. The second line of the PDF paragraph will follow this pattern. If I set it not to leave a blank line, each PDF line is still indented and may end in the middle of the line. I'm going to try to use THIS PARAGRAPH, replicated below, to illustrate what happens:

_____Just to clarify what's happening - if you view a page in PDF form, and if
a paragraph has 3 lines of 80 or so characters each, when you convert to
EPUB, each of those 3 lines now looks like a

_____paragraph. The 80 or so characters will be indented, take 2 or 3 lines,
and then followed by a blank line. The second line of the PDF paragraph will
follow this pattern. If I set it not to leave a

_____blank line, each PDF line is still indented and may end in the middle of
the line. I'm going to try to use THIS PARAGRAPH, replicated below, to
illustrate what happens:

Irritating, yes? (underlines added to simulate spacing).
I can control whether there is a blank line, but each line in the PDF file still becomes its own paragraph.

So, you've converted 50 or so PDF books with Calibre? Would you be willing to share what setting you use? Because with my limited searching of the web, lots of people describe similar problems with Calibre and PDF to EPUB conversions.
 
I've tried Calibre, sometimes works well, but not that stable and the quality of the output .epub file depands on the original PDF. And there is a shareware called AnyBizSoft PDF to EPUB Converter, works pretty well and keep the original formats well. but it cost some dollars. You can also have a try.
 
deubster said:
No, these are downloads either from publishers' websites or from free download sites. When viewed with Acrobat or through Astro, they look exactly like the printed books.

Just to clarify what's happening - if you view a page in PDF form, and if a paragraph has 3 lines of 80 or so characters each, when you convert to EPUB, each of those 3 lines now looks like a paragraph. The 80 or so characters will be indented, take 2 or 3 lines, and then followed by a blank line. The second line of the PDF paragraph will follow this pattern. If I set it not to leave a blank line, each PDF line is still indented and may end in the middle of the line. I'm going to try to use THIS PARAGRAPH, replicated below, to illustrate what happens:

_____Just to clarify what's happening - if you view a page in PDF form, and if
a paragraph has 3 lines of 80 or so characters each, when you convert to
EPUB, each of those 3 lines now looks like a

_____paragraph. The 80 or so characters will be indented, take 2 or 3 lines,
and then followed by a blank line. The second line of the PDF paragraph will
follow this pattern. If I set it not to leave a

_____blank line, each PDF line is still indented and may end in the middle of
the line. I'm going to try to use THIS PARAGRAPH, replicated below, to
illustrate what happens:

Irritating, yes? (underlines added to simulate spacing).
I can control whether there is a blank line, but each line in the PDF file still becomes its own paragraph.

So, you've converted 50 or so PDF books with Calibre? Would you be willing to share what setting you use? Because with my limited searching of the web, lots of people describe similar problems with Calibre and PDF to EPUB conversions.
Click to expand...
The problem with converting between these formats is the actual formatting issues. What I mean to say is that the way text, pictures, tables, etc. are aligned in PDFs differs greatly from that of epub files. If you're not content with the simpler solutions you may find that a little manual labor is required. If you can get a hold of Adobe Indesign you are in luck.

Check this link out, it may help you: How can I create ePub files from my books? | Lexcycle
 
To create Epub from PDF is extremely easy

Hey, guy, I think you could try some apps over Calibre because Calibre is not that user-friendly. PDF to Epub Converter is good, but not good enough.
Try Mepub, you could create epub from multiple formats like PDF, MS Word (.doc/.docx), Txt (.txt), Html (.html/.htm/.xhtml), Chm (.chm), EPUB (.epub), Images (.jpg/.png/.bmp/.gif/.tiff). And you can also customize the cover. (Copy from the website). Just have it a look. Not Ads.:)
 
sorry to say it but.

sorry to say it but... If u aren't happy with the conversion the first time with Calibre your never going to be happy with it no matter how much u tweak it, or any other free conversion software or even paid for conversions software's. software for the converting really doesn't work all to well honestly. calibre it is good for being free thats just about it. if u wan't indexing or the correct formatting u got to do a real professional conversion with real programers putting in the coding. i have put out several of my books online using this company pdf to epub .
 
Hey,
In fact, I have not used Aldiko and Calibre. But I think it is because the program is not able to retain the original content of your PDF files.
If necessary, you can try Free 3DPageFlip PDF to ePub Converter. It’s totally free and easy-to-use. What’s important, it never changes paragraph and line.
At least I do not encounter such an issue like yours.
 
Last edited:
is tricky but works well

calibre is tricky, but should do most of the trick ...

I'll assume you are using the desktop version (I'm on linux)

Have a look at the Heuristic processing. Check 'Enable heuristic processing' and play with the line un-wrap factor (it gives you a hint if you hover over it).
Get it to a point where it is almost perfect (or perfect if it can manage) and manually fix the rest with this:

https://code.google.com/p/sigil/

I've had good results.
Once I figure it all out, I'm sure i'll get really good results.
 
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