DOC to EPUB - Arabic Formatting

[Khatri]

Hi.. I'm new to Calibre. After reading and testing out several options, I made good progress with conversion of a DOC (English and Arabic text) to EPUB, however, the formatting is still not as good as it is on Android.

I have enabled preservation of ligatures, selected the fonts, still no luck.

Attached are screenshots from both: Android and IOS.

Any guidance on this matter will be appreciated.

[Quoth]

Are you using doc or docx source?

Is it from MS Word or something else?

Note that LO Writer works best if you only ever edit doc or docx once to import from MS Word, then save in "odt", then do an extra Save As in docx to import to Calibre.

What do you mean "formatting is still not as good as it is on Android."

The epub format needs a decent 3rd party app for iOS and Android. Neither have built in epub support. Some apps are not very good.

You need also to embed fonts and use an app (Lithium, Bluefire, Aldiko Basic, Pocketbook on Android, some of those on iOS) that will use the embedded font and your ebook CSS.

Some are poor at even Latin-Roman embedded fonts & ligatures and worse for anything else.

What is you epub like in Calibre viewer compared to original source?

Note that if the Word docx file is created on a different PC to the one running calibre you need the same fonts installed, or in MS Word and LO Writer to pick the "Embed Fonts" option in Properties which slows saving and opening a lot. Better to have Calibre on the same computer, or make sure the same fonts installed. When you select "Embed Fonts" in Calibre epub conversion it looks on that computer for them.

[Khatri]

Thanks for your input.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Are you using doc or docx source?

Yes, the source is a docx. It was not created on the same computer which is running Calibre, however, I do have all the fonts installed.

I tried saving the DOCX to ODT and back to DOCX and then imported to Calibre.

Originally Posted by Quoth

What do you mean "formatting is still not as good as it is on Android."

If you take a look at the screenshots I shared from Android and IOS each, the one from Android is spaced evenly and without any breaks in ligatures. Attached a screenshot depicting a couple of these with this reply.

Originally Posted by Quoth

The epub format needs a decent 3rd party app for iOS and Android. Neither have built in epub support. Some apps are not very good.

Using Apple Books in iPhone as opposed to Lithium on Android. The primary audience will be Apple/ Kindle users and most Apple users will use the default Apple Books application.

Originally Posted by Quoth

You need also to embed fonts and use an app (Lithium, Bluefire, Aldiko Basic, Pocketbook on Android, some of those on iOS) that will use the embedded font and your ebook CSS.

I did select the embed fonts option in Calibre during the conversion.

Originally Posted by Quoth

What is you epub like in Calibre viewer compared to original source?

See attached screenshot. Some of the arabic text and ligatures don't appear right as well in the Calibre E-Book Viewer.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Note that if the Word docx file is created on a different PC to the one running calibre you need the same fonts installed, or in MS Word and LO Writer to pick the "Embed Fonts" option in Properties which slows saving and opening a lot. Better to have Calibre on the same computer, or make sure the same fonts installed. When you select "Embed Fonts" in Calibre epub conversion it looks on that computer for them.

The below are what I have selected during conversion:
Output format: EPUB
Look & Feel > Fonts > Embed all fonts in document (ensure fonts in the document are installed)
Look & Feel > Text > Character encoding > utf-8
Page Setup > Default Profile
DOCX Input > Do not add a page break after every endnote
DOCX Input > Render superscripts and subscripts so that they do not affect the line height
EPUB Output > EPUB version > 2
Look & Feel > Fonts > Keep ligatures

[Quoth]

Well, you seem to be doing the right stuff. Certainly Arabic script with its variant median and ending style characters is challenging.

Try a different font.

There are a problems with Books formerly called iBooks and Apple. I ignore it by using Smashwords to redistribute my epub2 to Apple.

Years ago the docx uploads to Amazon KDP lost chapter page breaks and Amazon support told me to upload the same epub2 to KDP as I used for Smashwords after they got a copy and verified it was converting to mobi, azw3 and KFX fine.

So now I upload the same epub2 to Amazon, Smashwords (who redistribute to Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble etc) and Google Playstore Playbooks.

The Arabic won't work at all on the four old mobi only Kindles, K1, K2, DX and DXG. The K3, Touch etc all need FW upgrades for azw3 so Arabic works.
The 3.4.3 or later for Arabic

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...MQC26VQQMM8XSW


Try disabling "Look & Feel > Fonts > Keep ligatures" as that's probably for Latin-Roman etc such as æ Æ fi œ Œ etc.

Try a different Arabic font. Find an ebook (azw3 or epub2) that has embedded font that works OK and use Calibre Editor to see what font it is.

I also test any new fonts / CSS style/format ebooks created in LO Writer (only edited in odt and extra save as docx for Calibre) on physical eink Kindles (Mobi only till recently, and azw3, sometimes check after publish Amazon azw3 & KFX download as the is no longer any real preview) and variety of brands of eink epub readers (Sony, Kobo, others) from 4.7" to 10.3", and Android Apps on phone (4.3" to 6"), tablet and eink.

[Quoth]

More Apple users use the Kindle App than Apple Books. Though Google Playybooks has the worst sales.
A bit more than half of ebooks are read on phones.
Over 90% of English Language ebooks are from Amazon.

Some of the top epub apps are on iOS as well as Android.

Kobo might be selling more ebooks than Apple. I'm not sure. They are owned by Rakuten who own Tolino too, who are run now by Kobo.

Not sure relative Nook (Barnes & Noble) vs Apple Books sales, but those two are our lowest. Maybe slightly more Nook than Apple. Zero Google Playstore Playbooks sales in nearly 10 years! Amazon is about 50% for us.