RE: [docbook-apps] ePub to MOBI conversion

[Jason Zech <zech@loyolapress.com>]

The new KF8 format seems to have fixed many of the problems that plagued the older mobi format, though we still try to create high-quality files that work on both kinds of devices. I haven't worked as closely on those formats in a while, so I can only speak broadly and of the experience I had six to twelve months ago. These problems are 

The biggest problem is that in the old mobi format, you cannot write CSS to select items within a div. For example, if you want to set font size within a sidebar at a smaller text size, you can only accomplish this by putting a unique class style on every paragraph within that sidebar. You cannot do div.sidebar p {font-size: 90%}. This causes a number of problems because the DocBook epub is built quite handily to allow you to control all kinds of things within divs. About 80% of my perl scripts are about adding unique class styles to p tags to enable me to style them differently. The same is true of first paragraphs, which we do not indent. 

As for HTML issues, the biggest I can recall is an inability to use p tags in <li> and <blockquote>. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Stayton [mailto:bobs@sagehill.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 12:50 PM
To: Jason Zech; Richard L Hamilton; DocBook Apps
Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] ePub to MOBI conversion

Is there a summary of the changes to the tagging that are needed "to fit Amazon's 
non-standard requirements"?  Like Dick said, the kindle.extensions parameter in epub3 
XSL could implement those.

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
bobs@sagehill.net


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason Zech" <zech@loyolapress.com>
To: "Richard L Hamilton" <dick@rlhamilton.net>; "DocBook Apps" 
<docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 10:00 AM
Subject: RE: [docbook-apps] ePub to MOBI conversion


I take my finished epub, extract the OEBPS with all the epub contents, and run a Perl 
script filled with regex on the files (to change the standard epub, tagging to fit 
Amazon's non-standard requirements). Then I drag the content.opf into the Kindle 
Previewer window. There are a lot of changes to make (such as removing p tags from 
within li or p tags within blockquotes). I also maintain a separate mobi CSS 
stylesheet. It's a giant pain, but for our books the standard epub to mobi conversion 
provided out of the box by Kindlegen is too messy, and Calibre scares me a bit.

I'm thinking about starting a customization of the docbook epub transform that outputs 
the tags in a way that works better with kindlegen. One of these days...

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard L Hamilton [mailto:dick@rlhamilton.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 11:36 AM
To: DocBook Apps
Subject: [docbook-apps] ePub to MOBI conversion

At different times I've used kindlegen and calibre for ePub to MOBI conversion, with 
varying results, but I've never been 100% happy with the result from either.

Does anyone on the list have any suggestions as to which of these (or which 
alternative) is the best choice for conversion when the ePub was generated using the 
DocBook stylesheets?

Thanks,
Dick Hamilton
-------
XML Press
New from XML Press:
WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit
http://xmlpress.net/publications/wiki-how-to-grow





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