[HN Gopher] Show HN: Epub.to - ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an...
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Show HN: Epub.to - ePub to pdf, mobi, Kindle, and an API
Author : nadermx
Score : 105 points
Date : 2021-02-06 19:11 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (epub.to)
(TXT) w3m dump (epub.to)
| LiberatedLlama wrote:
| I'd think I'll stick with the tried and true `ebook-convert` tool
| from Calibre, and pandoc. There's no sense uploading your
| documents to a third party when that's not necessary.
| esher wrote:
| The comments are not mentioning [Pandoc](https://pandoc.org/) as
| an alternative yet (missing mobi I think).
| [deleted]
| eigenvalue wrote:
| I have found the best tools for this to be the free Kindle
| Previewer (
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1003018... )
| and Calibre. The Calibre editor is useful for cleaning up messed
| up EPUB files that don't work in the Kindle Previewer.
| harshreality wrote:
| 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.
| soapdog wrote:
| when I check the download stats for all my books, PDF downloads
| are more popular than all other formats.
|
| I prefer epubs too, but apparently readers really like PDFs...
| JulianMorrison wrote:
| PDFs retain their formatting better and are much more readily
| accessible across devices, except for the smallest screens.
| Deathmax wrote:
| > 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.
| enriquto wrote:
| > 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.
| harshreality wrote:
| 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 smaller files.
|
| And if there's something about the ebook you don't like, you
| can _actually fix it_.
| fastball wrote:
| Where are you downloading content as epubs that you can't get
| as PDF?
| enriquto wrote:
| Fortunately, most stuff that I read is math-heavy thus
| unfeasible as an epub. Yet, there is the rare essay,
| interview or otherwise math-less text that comes in the
| annoying epub format that needs to be converted.
| ldx1024 wrote:
| Send my public domain book to my grandma who doesn't know how
| to handle an epub? Convert it because it is easier to print as
| a .pdf with my particular setup?
|
| There are all kinds of potential use cases for users of
| differing levels of technical sophistication.
|
| Why wouldn't you provide an option to convert to .pdf?
| qwerty456127 wrote:
| I want ePub to FB2. Because FB2 books are rendered with better
| readable fonts on my PockerBook reader.
|
| I have no problems using Calibre or PanDoc for this task though.
| Obviously the problem emerges when you want to do the job without
| installing anything.
| marvindanig wrote:
| 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.
| rhino369 wrote:
| Nice tool. I thought kindle files were mobi? Any difference?
| LiberatedLlama wrote:
| There are a few "kindle formats"; the most basic of which are
| just mobi files. Generate a mobi file and any kindle should be
| able to load it fine.
| kemayo wrote:
| Kindle has jumped around in formats over the years. It's been
| AZW (which is basically mobi), AZW3, and now KFX. I assume that
| KFX is what this tool is calling "Kindle".
| nadermx wrote:
| It currently does AZW3 for kindle, but I will add in the sub
| option to choose from those three formats.
| kemayo wrote:
| Oh, that option being listed as "Kindle" is just there so
| people don't need to understand file formats currently? :D
| nadermx wrote:
| just about, trying to make it easy to understand
| davidhbolton wrote:
| The ones with DRM are .azw, basically an encrypted .mobi.
| Calibre is your friend. https://calibre-ebook.com/
| unicornporn wrote:
| 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.
| JadeNB wrote:
| Although who knows why you'd _want_ to go without Calibre
| when it 's so multi-functional?
| oarsinsync wrote:
| 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 dependencies.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| Most people HN would want it since we are power users who
| like desktop apps. But don't rob yourself of trying to
| understand why everyone else doesn't want to use desktop
| software to get a book on their Kindle.
|
| For example, my girlfriend is an avid ebook reader but
| couldn't be less interested in it. "I can see why that
| could be useful but... no thanks."
|
| We like the smell of our own farts too much sometimes. In
| this case, in the form of "why don't people want to use
| more software to do what you were already doing without
| it?"
| codazoda wrote:
| > A file with the .MOBI file extension is used for storing
| eBooks. It was originally a Mobipocket Reader format but has
| since been adopted by several different readers as well. Amazon
| purchased Mobipocket in 2005, and later discontinued the MOBI
| format in 2011.
|
| > The current Kindle formats (AZW3, KF8, and KFX) are based on
| MOBI and is a proprietary format exclusively used on Kindle
| devices. And, in fact, you can still open files with the MOBI
| format directly on your Kindle
|
| https://www.howtogeek.com/360419/what-is-a-mobi-file/
|
| If you want to write a Kindle book, checkout my book, Publish
| Your eBook by Joel Dare.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Publish-Kindle-write-ebook-software-e...
| jowsie wrote:
| How is this monetised?
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| https://epub.to/signup lists plans
| zigzaggy wrote:
| Can I use this to change my purchased kindle books into ebooks
| for all devices?
|
| I'm somewhat tech literate, but pretty ignorant about e-book file
| types.
| LiberatedLlama wrote:
| Search for "Apprentice Alf" for a DRM stripping plugin for
| Calibre. This is how I liberated my kindle library. Once you've
| stripped the DRM, you can freely convert them to epub.
| kemayo wrote:
| You cannot -- Kindle ebooks are in a format called KFX (or
| AZW/mobi or AZW3, depending on when you got them), which this
| tool doesn't support as an input.
|
| If you wanted to do that, I'd just use Calibre, which has
| really comprehensive format conversion abilities:
| https://calibre-ebook.com
|
| Most Kindle ebooks have DRM as well, which I think is currently
| hard to remove -- there's a plugin for calibre that you could
| try. Some publishers don't apply it, though, so maybe.
| amluto wrote:
| Calibre is great, but IMO it's the wrong approach for this
| particular conversion. Use KindleUnpack instead, which is
| close to lossless.
|
| https://github.com/kevinhendricks/KindleUnpack
|
| This is a fantastic way to read books published by Tor on
| multiple devices. Now if only Tor would sell the ePub files
| on their website. (Tor eBooks are not DRMed.)
| toyg wrote:
| KindleUnpack doesn't seem to handle DRM though.
| amluto wrote:
| Neither does Calibre's converter. To convert an encrypted
| AZW3 to an unencrypted EPUB, one can presumably decrypt
| it first and convert it second.
| andrewzah wrote:
| Removing drm from .azw3 is easy. [0] All you need is the ID
| of your kindle, since it's tied to your device.
|
| There is also a plugin for Calibre, although I haven't tested
| this myself. I'm not sure if it requires a device ID or not.
| [1]
|
| [0]: https://alexwlchan.net/2019/08/removing-the-drm-from-my-
| kind...
|
| [1]: https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/wiki/Exa
| ctly...
| jordanrobinson wrote:
| I haven't tried with this tool yet but I would be surprised if
| so, purchased Kindle books usually have quite a bit of DRM
| involved.
|
| There are methods to strip it using old versions of the desktop
| kindle app that have exploits, but it's not overly easy to do
| if you're not familiar with stuff like that.
| dsr_ wrote:
| No, your Kindle books are AZW3 or such, and they also have DRM
| applied.
|
| If you strip the DRM, with tools which are common to find on
| the net, you can then use Calibre to convert them to EPUB,
| which is a very common format.
| JadeNB wrote:
| In case the question isn't about the format but about the DRM,
| Apprentice Alf has a wonderful plugin for Calibre:
| https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com
| criddell wrote:
| 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.
| JadeNB wrote:
| > 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.
| dexterdog wrote:
| One really nice feature you get is that if Amazon decides
| they want to delete the book from your kindle they can.
| It's a nice feature for Amazon and the publishers love it
| as well.
| GGfpc wrote:
| Justification is much better on kfx
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