Calibre & iTunes (a couple's counseling workshop)

[supraluminal]

I'm very grateful for the timely feedback from both of you but before I waste any more of your time or mine, let me see if I understand this correctly.

The approximate order of applications are:

1. Take non-ePub documents created on or downloaded to my pc and convert them to pdfs.

2. Import or copy the pdfs (and my ePubs) to the Calibre or Calibre 2OPDS library on my pc.

3. Install the iBooks app to my iPad and establish a DropBox account for cloud storage.

4. Copy my documents from Calibre to iTunes on my pc in pdf or ePub format AND/OR copy them to my DropBox library.

5. Transfer my iTunes document library on my pc to iBooks on my iPad OR import the documents to iBooks on iPad as I need them from DropBox.

6. Somewhere within this sequence of operations, discover a method/format allowing me to import covers where there aren't any and a way to open ePub books in the iTunes library or abandon iTunes document library functions altogether and copy documents directly to iBooks on iPad from Calibre or DropBox (if possible).

7. Have a beer or two...or three, until the room is spinning as fast as my head.

Did I leave out any steps or put in more than necessary?

if your PDFs have headers and footers (annoying little buggers) and you don't want to deal with them then you are going to have to learn a little regex. It's tedious and wether you try your hand at it or not may well depend on how neurotic you are about the end product's perfection.

Margins, headers and footers...yeah, unnecessary space-takers on iPad's valuable real estate. I'll live with it if I must. I read somewhere that the Good Reader app allows one to eliminate this useless space from the document but then I forfeit the iBooks app. Regardless, with well over 500 pdfs on file, any efforts to improve their aesthetic qualities one by one is going to be impossibly tedious. (By the time I finish this task the iPad will be obsolete.) :ipad-back:

I'll be able to speak more intelligently about it when I can actually conduct some hands-on experiments with the iPad. For now I just want to get all of my documents in the right places and formats so they're ready for the iPad when I have it in my possession.

Depending on what your PDFs actually are, you can make use of Calibre's capacity to translate them into a file type that plays more friendlily (didn't think spell check was going to allow friendlily!) with iTunes, like into .epub format./

if it is truly an .epub file that doesn
't want to open, then I am at a loss. I have never had that happen with an .epub file.

ePub formats work nicelily for me in Calibre but are unable to open once copied to iTunes. I don't know why either, but I will try some other formats if iTunes is a necessary step in the process from documents with various formats on my pc to iBooks. If I discover anything that may be helpful to others, I'll gladly pass it along.

I don't use iTunes for anything other than back-ups and syncing my apps. Just not a very user friendly program, in my opinion.

My Calibre library is on Dropbox. With Calibre2OPDS, I've created a catalog that can be accessed with Safari. This catalog not only has links to my books, it has phrases like "download this book as an e-pub." By pressing on that link, Safari will automatically open a page that'll have two buttons, one for the last app you used and another for "Open In." Press either one and bam! That app will open, your e-book will download and you are off reading. No fussing with iTunes. Just click and read.

I was under the impression that one must utilize the iTunes application with any/all data for it to be useable on Apple peripheral devices, ie., iPad. I like it as a music library/player, but are you saying I can bypass it with Calibre (or 2OPDS) and/or DropBox and go straight to iBooks on iPad?

It would sure be nice if I could elliminate all the "middle men" in the equation, download iBooks to my pc, use it as the default document library for my iPad (in the same respect that iTunes fulfills this role for my iPod).

If wishes were fishes...I'll certainly give it a shot. Thanks again!

 

[slayda]

Be nice if you could do both (iPad & e-ink device) at the same time from Calibre.

Do you mean have them both hooked up to Calibre at the same time? Cause otherwise, I'm a bit confused about your remark.

You can set up the iPad to sync with Calibre - and you can set up an e-reader to sync with Calibre. Calibre will recognize/talk/sync with whichever you plug in.

Sorry about a late reply. Been busy & out of touch. Evidently I don't know Calibre well enough. I know I can set it to any particular reader but thought I'd need to reset it if I hooked up a different reader. That's what I meant by both at the same time - not both connected at the same time but both set up at the same time so regardless of which you connect to, Calibre would recognize it.

From what you're saying, it looks like you can.

 

[slayda]

MobileRead Forums

I was under the impression that one must utilize the iTunes application with any/all data for it to be useable on Apple peripheral devices, ie., iPad. I like it as a music library/player, but are you saying I can bypass it with Calibre (or 2OPDS) and/or DropBox and go straight to iBooks on iPad?

It would sure be nice if I could elliminate all the "middle men" in the equation, download iBooks to my pc, use it as the default document library for my iPad (in the same respect that iTunes fulfills this role for my iPod).

If wishes were fishes...I'll certainly give it a shot. Thanks again!

Some people actually use Dropbox as their primary Calibre library storage. I prefer to maintain my library under my 'complete' control but mirror it to Dropbox using a Microsoft (free DL) SW called SyncToy. (I also use a PC but don't apologize about it. LoL) You can use Windows Task Scheduler to automatically have SyncToy synchronize your Dropbox files to your computer's files.

I've only had my iPad 2 a month or so but I'd suggest using iTunes for the initial dump of books to the iPad & then use Dropbox for any incremental additions. On the iPad, in Dropbox, when you DL a file to the iPad, it will ask which app you want to use to open it with - simply choose iBooks & it DLs there in your iPad library.

For some additional information/help on Calibre, check out MobileRead Forums

I've never gotten iTunes to open books to read either. As far as the covers, the way suggested at Mobileread to fix that is to use Calibre to change the book to Mobipocket, delete the epub & then change back to epub & delete the Mobipocket. (it's a kludge but works, at least for books without DRM.)

BTW Mobileread also has a lot of 'out of copyright' books that you can DL for free in any of several formats.

 

[Wreybies]

... As far as the covers, the way suggested at Mobileread to fix that is to use Calibre to change the book to Mobipocket, delete the epub & then change back to epub & delete the Mobipocket. (it's a kludge but works, at least for books without DRM.)

You can skip a step by first adding the book cover within Calibre and then having Calibre convert from .epub to .epub. This is technically the debug function. This imbeds the book jacket without the need to go from one file type to another and back again.

 

[Wreybies]

The approximate order of applications are:

1. Take non-ePub documents created on or downloaded to my pc and convert them to pdfs.

2. Import or copy the pdfs (and my ePubs) to the Calibre or Calibre 2OPDS library on my pc.

Again, it would depend a bit on the purpose of those original non-epubs as to which end file type they should go to. And also depend a bit on you personal use of iBooks. Great thing about these devices and apps is that they are so tailorable to ones own need. If you want my personal druthers, if the file is intended for pleasure reading, then I would not go to PDF, but direct to .epub. That's just me. I don't want to read a PDF format for pleasure. I want it in "book" form.

If the file is perhaps a work related document or perhaps a document ill-suited to a conversion, then yeah', PDF.

I have tons of PDFs in my iBooks that I use for work. I am a federal court interpreter and the documents I translate, well, it just wouldn't work to turn them into .epubs. And there are advantages in leaving them as PDFs within iBooks because some of the scans I get are not the best quality and the ability to make use of the pinch/zoom is a godsend in this respect.

So, again..... depends.

 

[supraluminal]

Great suggestions, all.

Converting from .epub to .epub would not have been the "intuitive" choice for me. What I mean is, it never would have occured to me to try it, but I smell what you're cookin'.

I don't mind reading in pdf format, but getting descriptive covers on all of them so I know what's what without having to open each one is important to me. I also absolutely must be able to listen to my music while I'm reading but it seems stupid to bring along my iPod with the iPad, so iBooks or jailbreaking are my options, or so I understand.

I guess I'm jumping the gun a little here. When I get the iPad I'll probably be able to answer some of my own questions.

I like the idea of "mirroring" on DropBox. I'll check out mobileread forums too.

Thanks very much, iPadders.

 

[slayda]

Great suggestions, all.

Converting from .epub to .epub would not have been the "intuitive" choice for me. What I mean is, it never would have occured to me to try it, but I smell what you're cookin'.

I don't mind reading in pdf format, but getting descriptive covers on all of them so I know what's what without having to open each one is important to me.

The only way I can think of to add covers is one at a time. I use Calibre and if it doesn't find a suitable cover I can usually find something I like on-line.

I also absolutely must be able to listen to my music while I'm reading but it seems stupid to bring along my iPod with the iPad, so iBooks or jailbreaking are my options, or so I understand.

I guess I'm jumping the gun a little here. When I get the iPad I'll probably be able to answer some of my own questions.

I like the idea of "mirroring" on DropBox. I'll check out mobileread forums too.

Thanks very much, iPadders.

I've never cared that much about music while I read but with the iPad, but I've found that I like to listen to Pandora Radio since I have a subscription for it. I have particular music tastes and other than the music I've bought, this is the only source I've found that can (mostly) match my tastes. It seems to work well but does use more battery than just reading. I have 5 other electronic readers (not counting my Smartphone & my PDA) but the iPad is my favorite. I guess that's due to all the other things I can do with it. I even like watching Netflix on it when I end up waiting in a doctor's office (if I can find a network connection) Recently I got a Vulkano Platinum that allows me to watch TV from my cable system via my home network. This is great when we have tornado warnings & I have to retreat to my safe room (in my case an interior bathroom). I can keep up with exactly where the storm activity is rather than just guessing. The weather radio is just not very specific.

Didn't think I'd enjoy so many varied uses for the iPad when I got it.

 

[KariK]

Calibre .epub auto conversion

Hi,
Just found this forum and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on my problem.

I am using Calibre Content Server with my iPad and it works fine. I can use the Safari web browser to get to my Calibre and get a book, read it in iBook and then delete it. But most of my books are in non-ePub format. So when I wish to get a new book, I need to get off my butt and go to my desktop running Calibre and convert the book I want to ePub format first. I would prefer for Calibre Content Server to do that automatically, give me my book in ePub format on my iPad, and then delete the ePub format from Calibre so I will not have multiple versions of a book. Likely the conversion can be done using Python streams and not even need to have a ePub format file anywhere.

Just wondering if anyone has seen this feature somewhere already or is thinking of doing it or working on it already? If not, any pointers would be welcome.

Thanks.

 

[Mickey330]

Sorry, but that sounds more like a question you need to direct to Calibre's developer, Kovid Goyal. In this case, the iPad is merely the reading device - you want Calibre to do the work.

So, I'd suggest you visit Kovid's Calibre web site an either browse to see if what you want can already be done or maybe open up a request ticket.

Marilyn