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Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

epub.to

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Re: Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

#61

Post by orangeoxidation »

rualca wrote: post #46
harshreality wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you print your ebooks for some reason rather than buy used copies, granted you have to convert to pdf for that. Why prefer an epub... They have flowed text, and ebook readers let you customize font and font size so that the book's text adapts to you rather than you adapting to a particular combination of publisher quirks and zoom necessary to fit in a particular device's or app's viewable size. They're generally s…

> Why prefer an epub... Does epub support proper proper math notation typesetting? Moreover, text in a webview doesn't flow as nice as vanilla TeX, and can look outright atrocious.

Converting an epub to a pdf adds nothing, only "fixes" your view to specific settings (font, etc.). You won't get better math typesetting that way, if it was missing in the epub.

Re: Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

#63

Post by jtbayly »

nadermx wrote: post #60
jtbayly wrote: post #59

Well, two epubs gave a "something went wrong" when converting to HTML, which is the only output I'm really curious about. I got one conversion to PDF to work, then went back to try html, and now I've got to wait an hour... :(

this should be fixed

Thanks. Got an HTML doc through.

FYI, (at least in my document) quotes and apostrophes and em-dashes don't work properly.

Re: Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

#64

Post by radicaldreamer »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #56
esher wrote: post #21

The comments are not mentioning [Pandoc]( https://pandoc.org/ ) as an alternative yet (missing mobi I think).

If you're specifically converting eBooks, Calibre comes with command line conversion tools that produce better results than pandoc.

It doesn’t run on iPad or iPhone… which is the niche these sites fill

Re: Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

#65

Post by simonklitj »

radicaldreamer wrote: post #64
LeoPanthera wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're specifically converting eBooks, Calibre comes with command line conversion tools that produce better results than pandoc.

It doesn’t run on iPad or iPhone… which is the niche these sites fill

Someone should write a simple web app to use Docverter on iOS. Or just run a cURL tool or something. https://www.docverter.com

Re: Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

#66

Post by iamacyborg »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #56
esher wrote: post #21

The comments are not mentioning [Pandoc]( https://pandoc.org/ ) as an alternative yet (missing mobi I think).

If you're specifically converting eBooks, Calibre comes with command line conversion tools that produce better results than pandoc.

Calibre also has plugins that help ensure stuff like Goodreads works if you’re sending non Kindle books to a Kindle device.

Re: Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

#67

Post by oarsinsync »

oarsinsync wrote: post #40
JadeNB wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although who knows why you'd want to go without Calibre when it's so multi-functional?

I can download an epub on my mobile. I can email an epub from my mobile. I can't run calibre from my mobile. I can rename .epub to .png and email that from my mobile. Yes, I can host calibre somewhere else. No, my technologically savvy friends and family cannot. I also don't want them to depend on me to be able to convert an epub for their kindle when there's a trivial solution that doesn't require additional depende…

> No, my technologically savvy friends and family cannot.

There's a "less" missing in there, oops.

Re: Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

#69

Post by 0-_-0 »

rualca wrote: post #46
harshreality wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you print your ebooks for some reason rather than buy used copies, granted you have to convert to pdf for that. Why prefer an epub... They have flowed text, and ebook readers let you customize font and font size so that the book's text adapts to you rather than you adapting to a particular combination of publisher quirks and zoom necessary to fit in a particular device's or app's viewable size. They're generally s…

> Why prefer an epub... Does epub support proper proper math notation typesetting? Moreover, text in a webview doesn't flow as nice as vanilla TeX, and can look outright atrocious.

Epub3 does support math rendering:

https://docs.mathjax.org/en/v2.7-latest/misc/epub.html

Re: Show HN: Epub.to – ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API

#70

Post by harshreality »

rualca wrote: post #46
harshreality wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you print your ebooks for some reason rather than buy used copies, granted you have to convert to pdf for that. Why prefer an epub... They have flowed text, and ebook readers let you customize font and font size so that the book's text adapts to you rather than you adapting to a particular combination of publisher quirks and zoom necessary to fit in a particular device's or app's viewable size. They're generally s…

> Why prefer an epub... Does epub support proper proper math notation typesetting? Moreover, text in a webview doesn't flow as nice as vanilla TeX, and can look outright atrocious.

Math epubs can be done properly using mathjax; equations can be written in typical TeX notation and rendered into MathML or SVG or various other targets.

Also, modern unicode fonts have good coverage of math symbols, so a lot of abstract math can be written inline without even resorting to mathjax. Algebra, set theory, and things like that.

I think the delay there is the many older ebook readers and apps that have quirks that require workarounds to get mathjax to work. Why bother, when publishers could just render equations to images or SVG and hardcode them? Mathjax just takes that rendering step out of the publishing pipeline.

Text flow... are you talking about inter-word spacing and rivers? My take on that is: full text justification was always a bad idea, only promoted for aesthetic reasons and to show off fancy layout engines that reduced rivers and other bad artifacts. It seems some publishers are doing away with it in new books. Poetry and plays rarely used it.

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