Good way to print EPUB/MOBI?

kanzhe · 07-30-2011, 09:59 AM

Hi folks,

I've been trying to figure out how to print a few pages of an ebook. I'm using the latest Calibre for Mac. The book is EPUB that I've converted to MOBI, so I can two versions. I know that the print feature in the Calibre reader is broken. Does anybody know a good to print EPUB or MOBI?

I've tried converting to PDF and there a lot of problems, ranging from:

1) jobs that refuse to finish (says file is too big...this is because converting to PDF is really not efficient--usually books just a few megabytes in size are turned into gigabyte PDFs),

2) PDFs where the pages are little just thumbnails (i.e. you can't zoom in and they appear on my screen about the size of my thumb's nail),

3) PDFs that are readable but unprintable...size 80 font, no margins, no diagrams, maps, pictures. I know this has something to do with which output format you pick--what's good for the Kindle is not good for your printer--but even the generic layout is not printer friendly.

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

jgaiser · 07-30-2011, 11:04 AM

Try converting to RTF. You'll probably have better results than PDF. And if you need PDF, Open Office (and maybe Microsoft Office) will output PDF from the RTF source.

slm · 07-30-2011, 11:44 AM

Several browsers (Firefox for one) have "epub reader" add ons.
If you try opening the file in one of those, you may be able to use the browser's built in printer.

(at worst, you can just rename the epub to zip, unzip and launch the relevant html file in a browser and print!!)

mohamedselim · 07-30-2011, 12:08 PM

as i think you have two options :
1- convert the file whether epub or mobi to any format other than pdf that pages or any other program in mac which have printing capability can accept as rtf or so (i am not fluent in Mac) by calibre then save the converted file by calibre to disc then print.
2- extract the html of epub by naming the epub extension of file to zip then unzip then copy html files inside then open by browser then print within browser or in case of mobi files extract by the python script called MobiUnpack.pyw then MobiML2HTML.pyw (the non graphical user interface versions has same names but has extensions .py and you should install active python or the python version of mac first) or install active perl first or the perl version of mac then use script called mobi2html.exe to unpack mobi to html then open resulting html within browser then print within browser.

user_none · 07-30-2011, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanzhe

I'm using the latest Calibre for Mac... I've tried converting to PDF and there a lot of problems...

PDF output on OS X is horribly broken. There is no ETA on a fix as the issue is with Qt (the tool kit calibre uses for PDF output). There are no plans to move to another PDF rendering engine for output.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanzhe

I know that the print feature in the Calibre reader is broken.

How so? It's been working fine for me on OS X. There have been reports that it's broken on Windows but I've never been able to recreate the issue on OS X. However, the ebook viewer uses a special print stylesheet so you won't get a one to one print.

I would recommend against unzipping an EPUB and printing each individual file. There can easily be over a hundred files. If you convert to HTMLZ you will have a single HTML file inside of a ZIP archive (with the extension set to .htmlz). It would be much easier to print a single file vs many.

kanzhe · 08-05-2011, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanzhe
I know that the print feature in the Calibre reader is broken.

How so? It's been working fine for me on OS X. There have been reports that it's broken on Windows but I've never been able to recreate the issue on OS X. However, the ebook viewer uses a special print stylesheet so you won't get a one to one print.

When I get the print dialog in the Calibre reader, and try to save as PDF or Preview PDF, nothing happens. My processor doesn't even see a spike. I found a previous mention of this problem on the forums:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80614

I think there was another mention of this feature being broken somewhere--but I can't find it.

Anyway, in Snow Leopard and in Lion, across several recent versions of Calibre, I can't save to PDF in the print dialog, or Preview PDF.

paravantis · 03-31-2012, 06:08 PM

Using Calibre to convert a mobi/epub file to RTF, opening the file in Word 2010, making a few cosmetic changes (such as reducing margins and changing to a font/size of your choice) and saving as PDF is by far the best route. If you do not have Office 2010, use Word 2003/2007 to print to PDF Creator, the best free PDF maker.

John Paravantis
University of Piraeus
Greece

marczeman · 06-17-2012, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paravantis

Using Calibre to convert a mobi/epub file to RTF, opening the file in Word 2010, making a few cosmetic changes (such as reducing margins and changing to a font/size of your choice) and saving as PDF is by far the best route. If you do not have Office 2010, use Word 2003/2007 to print to PDF Creator, the best free PDF maker.

John Paravantis
University of Piraeus
Greece

Instead of RTF, I find converting to htmlz and editing with Word preserves formatting a little better. But you'll have to extract the htmlz first.

Valkrider · 06-18-2012, 03:14 AM

Why bother with doing anything other than opening the epub file with winzip. Select the appropriate html page in your browser and print from there. No conversion messing or anything particularly as you only want to print a couple of pages. If it is the whole thing then go with user_none's recommendation.

Jimbo724 · 07-27-2013, 10:03 PM

It's been a while, and Qt has made a lot of progress. Would any of that progress allow proper printing to PDF and page-to-page correspondence when trying to print a few pages from the viewer under OS X?

kovidgoyal · 07-28-2013, 12:22 AM

Just convert to pdf and print the pdf. Dont print directly from the viewer.

Jimbo724 · 07-31-2013, 03:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just convert to pdf and print the pdf.

The PDF conversion is unusable. A 380-page book becomes 1850 pages, with a small number of huge words on each page. I've tried the more obvious Look & Feel settings but I don't see any real difference. I'm probably missing something.

kovidgoyal · 07-31-2013, 04:17 AM

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conv...verting-to-pdf

Divingduck · 07-31-2013, 12:55 PM

@ Jimbo724,

I don't think so...

Try to understand your conversion set-up entries a bit better. Kovid post you the link in the Help-File. Take a look on the attached PDF. It is a converted news feed in PDF. For a quick and dirty PDF-Book not bad I think...

Calibre's helpfile is not your enemy, just only what it intend to be - help for you

Jimbo724 · 08-01-2013, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Divingduck

I don't think so...

Well, ah, actually, I am that incompetent.

Thank you, Kovid, for the pointer to the relevant help section. The solution was to check the box to "Override page size" in the PDF section of the conversion dialog.

07-30-2011, 09:59 AM	#1
kanzhe Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Good way to print EPUB/MOBI? Hi folks, I've been trying to figure out how to print a few pages of an ebook. I'm using the latest Calibre for Mac. The book is EPUB that I've converted to MOBI, so I can two versions. I know that the print feature in the Calibre reader is broken. Does anybody know a good to print EPUB or MOBI? I've tried converting to PDF and there a lot of problems, ranging from: 1) jobs that refuse to finish (says file is too big...this is because converting to PDF is really not efficient--usually books just a few megabytes in size are turned into gigabyte PDFs), 2) PDFs where the pages are little just thumbnails (i.e. you can't zoom in and they appear on my screen about the size of my thumb's nail), 3) PDFs that are readable but unprintable...size 80 font, no margins, no diagrams, maps, pictures. I know this has something to do with which output format you pick--what's good for the Kindle is not good for your printer--but even the generic layout is not printer friendly. Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks!

07-30-2011, 12:08 PM	#4
mohamedselim Technophile Posts: 31 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cairo, Egypt Device: Xiaomi redmi 5+ ,kindle Voyage etc	as i think you have two options : 1- convert the file whether epub or mobi to any format other than pdf that pages or any other program in mac which have printing capability can accept as rtf or so (i am not fluent in Mac) by calibre then save the converted file by calibre to disc then print. 2- extract the html of epub by naming the epub extension of file to zip then unzip then copy html files inside then open by browser then print within browser or in case of mobi files extract by the python script called MobiUnpack.pyw then MobiML2HTML.pyw (the non graphical user interface versions has same names but has extensions .py and you should install active python or the python version of mac first) or install active perl first or the perl version of mac then use script called mobi2html.exe to unpack mobi to html then open resulting html within browser then print within browser. Last edited by mohamedselim; 07-30-2011 at 12:19 PM.

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07-30-2011, 11:04 AM	#2
jgaiser Omnivorous Posts: 3,281 Karma: 27978909 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Rural NW Oregon Device: Kindle Voyage, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle 3, KPW1	Try converting to RTF. You'll probably have better results than PDF. And if you need PDF, Open Office (and maybe Microsoft Office) will output PDF from the RTF source.

07-30-2011, 11:44 AM	#3
slm Fool Posts: 424 Karma: 3585252 Join Date: Feb 2003 Device: Kindle: Voyage,PW1,KOA, Kobo: Clara Colour, Nook GLP, Pocketbook verse	Several browsers (Firefox for one) have "epub reader" add ons. If you try opening the file in one of those, you may be able to use the browser's built in printer. (at worst, you can just rename the epub to zip, unzip and launch the relevant html file in a browser and print!!)

03-31-2012, 06:08 PM	#7
paravantis Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2012 Device: many	Using Calibre to convert a mobi/epub file to RTF, opening the file in Word 2010, making a few cosmetic changes (such as reducing margins and changing to a font/size of your choice) and saving as PDF is by far the best route. If you do not have Office 2010, use Word 2003/2007 to print to PDF Creator, the best free PDF maker. John Paravantis University of Piraeus Greece

06-18-2012, 03:14 AM	#9
Valkrider Addict Posts: 306 Karma: 1250000 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kobo Libra, iPadAir2, PRS600, iPhone 6, iPod, Palm TX	Why bother with doing anything other than opening the epub file with winzip. Select the appropriate html page in your browser and print from there. No conversion messing or anything particularly as you only want to print a couple of pages. If it is the whole thing then go with user_none's recommendation.

07-27-2013, 10:03 PM	#10
Jimbo724 Connoisseur Posts: 60 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: Kindle Touch	It's been a while, and Qt has made a lot of progress. Would any of that progress allow proper printing to PDF and page-to-page correspondence when trying to print a few pages from the viewer under OS X?

07-28-2013, 12:22 AM	#11
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 44,558 Karma: 24495948 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Just convert to pdf and print the pdf. Dont print directly from the viewer.

07-31-2013, 04:17 AM	#13
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 44,558 Karma: 24495948 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conv...verting-to-pdf

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