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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

#71

Post by robin_reala »

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.

You can bring in MathML into ePub with no problem. I guess your question then is “are there renderers that support MathML?” The answer to that is yes: Kobos have good MathML support.

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

#72

Post by unicornporn »

JadeNB wrote: post #22
unicornporn wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And (another fun fact) if you want to email EPUBs to your kindle, just make the file extension .png (!?) and it will be automatically converted, without the need for Calibre.

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

Because the only feature I've ever needed from Calibre is ePub conversion and Amazon will do that for me without hassle (and without access to desktop computer).

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

#73

Post by enriquto »

harshreality wrote: post #70
rualca wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 qu…

> 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.

I would say that mathematicians are extremely picky about the quality of their displayed formulas. Most of what can be produced by mathjax is not of acceptable quality. I speak about fine-tuning of kerning, alignement, etc. Having "reflowable" text is a nightmare for typography-inclined people: the flow is an essential part of the content and you do not want to lose it!

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

#74

Post by criddell »

JadeNB wrote: post #23
criddell wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And unfortunately I don't think the DRM for the latest format (KFX) has been cracked yet. The best anybody can do is work around it by getting Amazon to send you the book in an older Kindle format but then you lose all the nice things that you get with KFX.

> The best anybody can do is work around it by getting Amazon to send you the book in an older Kindle format but then you lose all the nice things that you get with KFX. What do you get with KFX? It's hard for me to imagine any goodies I'd rather have than a file that I own and can read at my leisure.

The improvements are listed here:

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202087570

The writing is on the wall though - DRM is getting better and the easy to crack formats will probably fade away soon.

The solution isn't technical (ie better cracks), it's legislative. Books are special and most e-books shouldn't be DRM'd. Purchasers of ebooks should have the right to resell, to gift, to bequeath, to trade, and do all the other things that have been part of book culture for the past few hundred years.

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

#75

Post by young_unixer »

harshreality wrote: post #28

Why would you convert an epub to pdf? There is no ebook reader, other than kindles (for which the proper conversion would be to kf8), that can't handle epubs.

Because all PC epub readers suck (bad default margins, paddings, fonts, bad font rendering, lack of visual pages/sheets, etc)

I've tried to like them, customize them, fix their problems, etc but to no avail.

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

#76

Post by JulianMorrison »

rualca wrote: post #47
Deathmax wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PDFs retain their formatting better Which is also its downside when formatting is not critical. I want to be able to change the font size and have the text reflow correctly. With PDFs you end up with broken layouts if you don't view it exactly as formatted.

>>I want to be able to change the font size and have the text reflow correctly. With PDFs you end up with broken layouts if you don't view it exactly as formatted. Reflowable books also do a poor job reflowing content. Case in point, the free AWS ebooks on kindle are a god-awful mess whenever they add code snippets, no matter how small. Given the choice, a good fixed format layout beats a bad reflowable layout.

Especially as the choice of layout and elements like fonts is neither trivial nor unimportant, and a good readable code font is not easily replaced with $monospace_font_goes_here

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

#77

Post by SecurityLagoon »

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

I run calibre server on a raspberry pi which allows you to upload files and convert them via the web interface via my phone/tablet. You can even then download the new mobi/azw3 via the kindle browser (although the non JS version on my older paperwhite).

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

#78

Post by SecurityLagoon »

fishywang wrote: post #50
13415 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an author on Amazon and wonder: Is this also true if I switch off DRM for my books on Amazon? Could someone clarify this? I publish all my books without DRM.

So one thing I know is that for all the books by John Scalzi, their listings on Google Play Books have a note of: At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. (see https://play.google.com/store/books/details/John_Scalzi_Old_... for an example) And indeed once you purchased his books you can download a DRM-free epub or pdf file of the book you purchased…

The Kindle store doesn't make it obvious if something is DRM free anymore. The most obvious way is that DRM free books will usually list the number of simultaneous devices as unlimited while DRM books will not. Happy to be corrected if there is a nicer way of telling.

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

#79

Post by SecurityLagoon »

marvindanig wrote: post #29

Nice tool but ack!, yet another this file format to that file format conversion tool. A book is not a file. It never will be. I know half the unixy nutcases won't agree with anything normal but in reality the world will continue to buy dead-tree books because no real consumer believes or wants these stupid files. Or will pay for it. Meh, the trash.

There is a growing market for ebooks. I have a lot of friends who are not tech literate who prefer buying on their kindle for the convenience of having one small device rather than shelves of paper.

Both markets will continue to exist for a long time for different reasons and readers.

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

#80

Post by Tepix »

enriquto wrote: post #36
harshreality wrote: post #28

Why would you convert an epub to pdf? There is no ebook reader, other than kindles (for which the proper conversion would be to kf8), that can't handle epubs.

> Why would you convert an epub to pdf? On the contrary! Why would you ever keep an epub file around? If somehow an epub file finds its way into my computer, the first thing that I need to do is to convert it to pdf to be able to read it with a reasonable viewer (or print it!). After the convesion, I delete the epub file; I really dislike this format and the associated software.

Haha, I'm the opposite, i usually see a long text and wish I had it as epub.
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