[Conversion Plugin] KFX Input

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by miss_p1nky

Star Wars Bestiary, Vol. 1_ Cre - S.T. Bende.kfx (440 MB)

That file is quite large. I would expect conversion of it to be slow.

Originally Posted by miss_p1nky

Just clicking the KFX Input, my computer started to slow down (mouse pointer becomes "heavy" to move).

You are obviously using the "From KFX" feature of this plugin which bypasses calibre's regular conversion system.

Pressing the From KFX button normally results in a pause because the plugin has to process the KFX file in order to determine what conversion options are appropriate for it. The delay will be longer for large or complex books such as the one you have indicated.

Originally Posted by miss_p1nky

6The KFX Input has a dialogue pop-up saying 'Conversion' (it didn't use to in the past but maybe it's the new feature of it?)

A dialog box will pop up saying "Conversion in progress - please wait". While that is happening you will be unable to do anything in calibre until it completes. That can take several minutes (or possibly hours) for a large book.

Originally Posted by miss_p1nky

Then it becomes 'not responding', Calibre also becomes whiten out, freezing, then Windows dialogue saying Calibre not responding and whether I want to wait it out or close it now. I tried it 3 times before deciding to uninstall this.

Unfortunately that is to be expected because the calibre user interface is locked out while conversion is going on. It does not mean that the conversion has failed. You just need to keep waiting.

The way From KFX works now was a quick and dirty implementation. I have plans to change it so that conversion is done as a background job instead of locking out the user interface. However I don't know when I will have the free time to work on that.

Originally Posted by miss_p1nky

I guess since the file has been de-DRM-ed I can send it to you for testing. Please check your PM.

Thank you. I tried and it takes several minutes to convert to EPUB it on my relatively fast system. Conversion to PDF is much faster because that book actually contains PDF resources.

[miss_p1nky]

I see, thank you for answering. I guess it must have eaten quite a big chunk of my comp's RAM then. OK I tried to wait it out and conversion was successful. I guess I'll stay with this version.

Originally Posted by jhowell

You are obviously using the "From KFX" feature of this plugin which bypasses calibre's regular conversion system.

Pressing the From KFX button normally results in a pause because the plugin has to process the KFX file in order to determine what conversion options are appropriate for it. The delay will be longer for large or complex books such as the one you have indicated.

And what is the other method to use the plugin besides clicking the button? I tried right click but no option that seems to come from From KFX.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by miss_p1nky

And what is the other method to use the plugin besides clicking the button? I tried right click but no option that seems to come from From KFX.

There are two other ways to use the KFX Input plugin.

You can invoke it by using calibre's standard "Convert books" feature. However conversion will fail for fixed-layout books, such as the one you indicated, unless you select the "Allow conversion to complete even if errors are detected" option in the KFX Input tab. If you chose that option the results will be generally inferior to using From KFX for this type of book since calibre's conversion function is not designed to handle fixed-layout books.

You can also use the KFX Input command line interface (CLI) as described in the first post of this thread. The result will be the same as using From KFX. It just takes more steps to do the conversion that way.

[miss_p1nky]

Originally Posted by jhowell

There are two other ways to use the KFX Input plugin.

You can invoke it by using calibre's standard "Convert books" feature. However conversion will fail for fixed-layout books, such as the one you indicated, unless you select the "Allow conversion to complete even if errors are detected" option in the KFX Input tab. If you chose that option the results will be generally inferior to using From KFX for this type of book since calibre's conversion function is not designed to handle fixed-layout books.

You can also use the KFX Input command line interface (CLI) as described in the first post of this thread. The result will be the same as using From KFX. It just takes more steps to do the conversion that way.

Ahh, I just know this. Got it now and thank you.

[jhowell]

Version 2.18.0 - 29 Nov 2024

Show a progress indicator during conversion performed using the "From KFX" toolbar action.

The configuration option "Split landscape images when converting comics to CBZ or PDF" is now "Split landscape images when converting comics to PDF" and no longer applies to conversion to CBZ format.

Add "kfx_input_add_comic_spread_center = True" plugin tweak that when converting comics from KFX to EPUB will add the property "rendition:page-spread-center" to pages that do not have a left or right page spread. This will only occur for comics that contain page spreads.

[tomsem]

Thank you!

[blackeyes]

How to solve it.

ERROR: KFX conversion failed: <p><b>Cannot convert Vademécum Veterinario: XIV Edición (Spanish Edition)</b><br><br>Exception('This book has a layout that is incompatible with calibre conversion. For best results use either the From KFX user interface plugin or the KFX Input plugin CLI for conversion. See the KFX Input plugin documentation for more information.')</p>

[theducks]

Originally Posted by blackeyes

How to solve it.

ERROR: KFX conversion failed: <p><b>Cannot convert Vademécum Veterinario: XIV Edición (Spanish Edition)</b><br><br>Exception('This book has a layout that is incompatible with calibre conversion. For best results use either the From KFX user interface plugin or the KFX Input plugin CLI for conversion. See the KFX Input plugin documentation for more information.')</p>

That is a fixed layout book. As the message say. Not Compatible with Calibre (conversion) You can store the book in Calibre, but only as it is.

Solution: read it on a reader that supports that brands Fixed Layout

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by blackeyes

See the KFX Input plugin documentation for more information.

See the section "From KFX" toolbar action in the first post of this thread for details.

[Pierre89]

hi, i got yhis meesage when i was trying to convert a kfx file to pdf:

calibre, version 7.17.0
ERROR: Conversion Failed: Failed to create PDF format

Software versions: From KFX 2.18.0, calibre 7.17, Linux-6.12.4-arch1-1-x86_64-with-glibc2.40 
KFX Input plugin help is available at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291290 
 
Processing /tmp/calibre_7.17.0_tmp_c_xb0eru/format_abspath/Scripting_ Automation with Bash, PowerShel - Michael Kofler.kfx 
Processing container: /tmp/calibre_7.17.0_tmp_c_xb0eru/format_abspath/Scripting_ Automation with Bash, PowerShel - Michael Kofler.kfx 
Features: CanonicalFormat-2, kfxgen.positionMaps-2, yj_custom_word_iterator-1, yj_fixed_layout-1, yj_graphical_highlights-1, yj_pdf_support-1, yj_textbook-1 
Metadata: ASIN=B0CP87F5CC, asset_id=CR!6YJ46911X9587FP4775CFBNVWS43, author="Kofler , Michael", book_id=6ocHevvRSPSTiA85glVgxQ0, book_orientation_lock=none, cde_content_type=EBOK, content_id=B0CP87F5CC, cover_image=842x1200, creator_version=1.80.0.0, file_creator=KC, graphical_highlights=1, is_sample=False, issue_date=2024-02-27, kfxgen=20.12.238.0, language=en, max_id=832, min_kindle_version=Unsupported, multipage_selection=disabled, pages=473, publisher="Rheinwerk Computing", reading_orders=1, selection=enabled, title="Scripting: Automation with Bash, PowerShell, and Python", user_visible_labeling=page_exclusive, yj_fixed_layout=1, yj_textbook=1 
pypdf PdfWriter error appending resource/rsrc37X: KeyError('/P') 
Failed to create PDF format

help, please

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Pierre89

pypdf PdfWriter error appending resource/rsrc37X: KeyError('/P') 
Failed to create PDF format

help, please

Amazon KFX print replica format splits a PDF file provided by the publisher into several individual files holding a few pages each. This plugin attempts to recombine them back into a single PDF file. Unfortunately the splitting process performed by Amazon sometimes breaks the PDF in a way that prevents it from being recombined by the pypdf software used by this plugin.

You can use the option to convert to CBZ format instead of PDF to work around this problem. I hope to come up with a better solution to get a working PDF file instead, but it won't be soon.

[Pierre89]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Amazon KFX print replica format splits a PDF file provided by the publisher into several individual files holding a few pages each. This plugin attempts to recombine them back into a single PDF file. Unfortunately the splitting process performed by Amazon sometimes breaks the PDF in a way that prevents it from being recombined by the pypdf software used by this plugin.

You can use the option to convert to CBZ format instead of PDF to work around this problem. I hope to come up with a better solution to get a working PDF file instead, but it won't be soon.

Thank you for answer , it works perfectly.

[Jaws]

I'm uncertain whether this is truly a "from KFX" thing or something broader in Calibre; it seems a lot more common in conversions from KFX, but that may just be because of the way some publishers are doing their own conversions in-house for older books.

The problem:

After conversion, illustrative graphics are often in separate files (with separate generated styles, too) from the accompanying text. This often ends up splitting logical chapters (often relatively small ones, like individual recipes in illustrated cookbooks) into three or more separate files. This does not play nice with some readers, and is particularly annoying when the graphic is actually quite small.

The resulting structure might look like this (artificial names for clarity):
file001.xhtml (the chapter number and title)
file002.xhtml (a graphic that on a printed page is right with the chapter number and title, ranging from a 50x50 icon up to a 3/4-page illustration)
file003.xhtml (the text of the chapter, sometimes itself broken up similarly if there are interior illustrations even interspersed with running narrative text and no subheadings)

And on many readers (such as at least ten Android and Windows based readers that I've examined, and futilely attempted to customize), each file is displayed as if it contains a CSS "page-break-before," which is both really annoying and separates sometimes-meaningful illustrations from the accompanying text. (Cookbooks and biological-sciences texts are especially annoying about this; one conversion from a 1980s-era original print publication broke a 17-page chapter into 83 separate files, making it almost impossible to read.)

The question:

There are probably conversion parameters somewhere — perhaps in Calibre as a whole, more probably in KFXInput or even the KFX specification — that are creating this kind of chaos. Are these user-adjustable (and where and how), or is this something I'm just going to have to manually edit the internal structure by merging files in the editor after conversion?

I'm not necessarily suggesting changes to either Calibre or KFXInput, just looking for ways to automatically import sources that aren't straight running text without spending hours rebuilding single chapters so that they'll display illustrations in context. Admittedly, given the way publishers are munging their conversions, there is going to be at least some of the latter no matter what.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Jaws

There are probably conversion parameters somewhere — perhaps in Calibre as a whole, more probably in KFXInput or even the KFX specification — that are creating this kind of chaos.

Conversion performed by calibre can optionally break up HTML files based on the configuration parameters provided. That sometimes leads to the sort of results you are seeing. Look at the Detect Chapters setting under the Structure Detection tab.

However if you are using From KFX to generate the EPUB and doing no further conversion after that then the set of HTML files in the EPUB produced reflects the actual internal structure of the book as provided by Amazon.

If you can provide the title and author or ASIN of some books that exhibits this problem I may be able to tell from the free samples whether the file splitting came that way from the publisher or was done later.

Originally Posted by Jaws

Are these user-adjustable (and where and how), or is this something I'm just going to have to manually edit the internal structure by merging files in the editor after conversion?

If that is way the book is actually formatted you will need to edit it manually to correct it.