[Device Plugin] Kobo Touch Extended Driver

[theducks]

There is so much OFF advice out there

1) The plugin works with the Calibre device driver, so it knows about the Kobo (model) needs.

2) Kobo can use EPUB or KEPUB so no need to make the Library have KEPUB just to read on a Kobo. There are additional features that can be gaind. Look at the plugins (all those for Kobo) Configurations and see what they offer if set. I have 2 different Kobo. I even set backup locations by Serial (model)

3) The extended edition CAN convert an EPUB on the fly, the copy book being sent (the Kepub is only on the device) >>> This is a great reason to NOT backdoor (use the OS) to side load. (you set this on the 'Extended' tab. see image.

It has been quite a while, so I do not remember all what I needed to do... But the PI works as installed. Configuration just gets you MORE and is the place where you tell it what custom columns (or folders) to use for that MORE.

[frasderp]

Hey guys, I have an epub that I have cleaned up and polished, however when I use KTE to send to my Calibre HD (latest firmware), some of the formatting has random breaks in the paragraphs.

Both the epub and kepub appear correct when viewing in Calibre on my PC, but in the Kobo, have this issue. Any tips for what to look for?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by frasderp

Hey guys, I have an epub that I have cleaned up and polished, however when I use KTE to send to my Calibre HD (latest firmware), some of the formatting has random breaks in the paragraphs.

Both the epub and kepub appear correct when viewing in Calibre on my PC, but in the Kobo, have this issue. Any tips for what to look for?

Have you tried sending the eBook as ePub and seeing how that goes? It could be a bug in the KePub renderer.

[jgoguen]

Are you able to get a picture of what it looks like? Is it a full paragraph break or a line break? Is it breaking in the middle of a word or always between words?

Can you use the Scramble ePub plugin to generate a scrambled book file and share that with us? Make sure to include some detail about where you see an unexpected break (chapter 2, in the first few pages) so I can find it in the scrambled book.

[frasderp]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Have you tried sending the eBook as ePub and seeing how that goes? It could be a bug in the KePub renderer.

I tried this, and works perfectly on the Kobo (thanks for the question).

Originally Posted by jgoguen

Are you able to get a picture of what it looks like? Is it a full paragraph break or a line break? Is it breaking in the middle of a word or always between words?

Can you use the Scramble ePub plugin to generate a scrambled book file and share that with us? Make sure to include some detail about where you see an unexpected break (chapter 2, in the first few pages) so I can find it in the scrambled book.

Here is a photo from the Kobo. After "Just her car." Is a random space that shouldn't be there, and that text should be indented also.

Have attached a scrambled copy, any of the chapters with hyphen (eg 11-1) are the areas that have issue.

[theducks]

A Script dialog.

It is a Hanging indent (-5.7) and the 'trick' (spaces) that is used to keep the text in a block for the first line.

[jgoguen]

Looking at it, it's possibly a bug in the KePub rendering engine, but the ebook publisher is doing some things that make me question their layout people and I would blame them before I go blaming the rendering engine. It even looks odd in the calibre edit book preview window.

As one example, in chapter11-1.xhtml you have a line (obviously from the scrambled book):

Yloka:            V xhn b atre ycoxxkjn. [vojzeqtl] Ihfj, cop, J fjd jscc eio npfs otlc edhqa kikhu-ejvr shko. H pycfi ugmgk rotdcc iw fj, qwv B nmchq pvmpfs tnu sql bhazo mjlch rilhit vx opam kbc p xvg wyq sc fbxhs. S aens zv tjtc atjw jng pm Cwsal j zpx.

Those spaces you see after "Yloka:" are not normal spaces, or tabs, or non-breaking spaces. Those are character 0x2005, the "four-per-em space". Why? Because they can I guess?

The CSS is also doing some things I'm not sure they have any legitimate reason to. The span surrounding "Yloka:" has its margins set to "10px 0 10px 5.7em"; the values are for top, right, bottom, and left, respectively. Then it sets text-indent to -5.7em, which visually has the effect of undoing the 5.7em left margin... but why? Why have a single CSS rule fighting with itself?

Without the weird things they're doing, I strongly suspect the book would render fine in both ePub and KePub engines, but I'm not doing the work to reformat the book into something that makes some semblance of sense just to check that. I'm pretty sure I know what they're trying to do, but there are multiple much better ways for them to accomplish it.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by Enelya123

So I’m a bit dumb. But if I install these plugins then they work without me doing anything? So when I send books to device the plug-in starts to work?

Some plugins do things without configuration.
Most of the interesting things this plugin does needs configuration.

Someone told me I needed to turn my epubs to kepubs because not all the book sent to my kobo shows in my books on the kobo.

epubs will show up fine without conversion. They look slightly different and have slightly different functinoality after conversion.

If books don't show up when you add them, either they're not in a format the kobo recognizes, or your kobo's database is corrupt, or you didn't give it time to import. (Or maybe it is there and you just didn't find it.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by frasderp

Hey guys, I have an epub that I have cleaned up and polished, however when I use KTE to send to my Calibre HD (latest firmware), some of the formatting has random breaks in the paragraphs.

Both the epub and kepub appear correct when viewing in Calibre on my PC, but in the Kobo, have this issue. Any tips for what to look for?

I suggest you try to contact the author and tell the author of how poorly made that eBook is.

[mgrimace]

Using KTE/kepub output/kepub metadata writer, is there a way to convert a book to kepub not-on-the-fly, such that metadata options like cover span (unchecked 'keep cover aspect ratio') are saved to the Calibre library or 'hard coded' (so-to-speak) into the book?

I convert my books in advance to kepub in Calibre, and some options (like full cover span) only work when the Kobo is physically connected via USB.

However, I don't physically connect my Kobo via USB and instead I use Calibre-Web + Kobo Sync API (wireless) for books to appear on my device. I'm trying to find a way for Calibre-Web to pickup the metadata preferences/settings that I use in KTE in Calibre if that flow makes sense.

[mgrimace]

Originally Posted by serlex

Hello to all. Until a few days ago I didn't have an ebook and I'm trying to configure my setup using a kobo device.

my setup is like this:readarr -> calibre -> database <- calibre-web (kobo sync) -> kobo

I seek help from anyone using kobotouchectended and calibre-web!

How is the conversion to kepub using KoboTouchExtended handled when using Kobo Sync?

is it configured at Calibre or Calibre-web? who is the one doing the conversion?

I can speak a bit to this as I have a similar setup, you have two options

• Calibre first: add a book, pull its metadata (author, series, covers, etc.), then convert your books in advance all in Calibre using KTE. Close Calibre, and the changes should appear in Calibre-Web. You can then sync using kobo sync api, and new books should appear automatically in 'my books'
• C-W first: Calibre-web has kepubify built-in, but you have to specify the path to the binary for it (see their for instructions here or their discord, both super helpful). Upload an epub to Calibre-web (or Calibre if they share a library), and Calibre-web should convert it to kepub using kepubify when you sync your device via kobo sync.

[jgoguen]

Originally Posted by mgrimace

Using KTE/kepub output/kepub metadata writer, is there a way to convert a book to kepub not-on-the-fly, such that metadata options like cover span (unchecked 'keep cover aspect ratio') are saved to the Calibre library or 'hard coded' (so-to-speak) into the book?

I convert my books in advance to kepub in Calibre, and some options (like full cover span) only work when the Kobo is physically connected via USB.

However, I don't physically connect my Kobo via USB and instead I use Calibre-Web + Kobo Sync API (wireless) for books to appear on my device. I'm trying to find a way for Calibre-Web to pickup the metadata preferences/settings that I use in KTE in Calibre if that flow makes sense.

You have two (technically three) options here:

1. Install the "KePub Output" and "KePub Metadata Writer" plugins to add the ability to convert to KePub in calibre as a conversion target format. There's also a "KePub Input" and "KePub Metadata Reader" plugin if you want to be able to import KePub books (must have a single '.kepub' extension, not the usual '.kepub.epub').
2. Let calibre-web do the conversion on the fly using the kepubify binary. If you're using the linuxserver.io Docker container it's pre-installed at /usr/bin/kepubify, otherwise you have to get the binary yourself. Go to your admin settings, under Basic Configuration expand External Binaries, then set the location of the kepubify binary. When set, calibre-web will convert to kepub as needed.
2.5. Use kepubify to convert the books yourself on the command line and import those into calibre. Do not recommend, the other two options are much better and easier.

[mgrimace]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

You have two (technically three) options here:

1. Install the "KePub Output" and "KePub Metadata Writer" plugins to add the ability to convert to KePub in calibre as a conversion target format. There's also a "KePub Input" and "KePub Metadata Reader" plugin if you want to be able to import KePub books (must have a single '.kepub' extension, not the usual '.kepub.epub').
2. Let calibre-web do the conversion on the fly using the kepubify binary. If you're using the linuxserver.io Docker container it's pre-installed at /usr/bin/kepubify, otherwise you have to get the binary yourself. Go to your admin settings, under Basic Configuration expand External Binaries, then set the location of the kepubify binary. When set, calibre-web will convert to kepub as needed.
2.5. Use kepubify to convert the books yourself on the command line and import those into calibre. Do not recommend, the other two options are much better and easier.

Thank you for that info! My typical steps have been option 1. My challenge has been that despite converting ahead of time, my cover selection options are not making it to C-W and hence to my device, for example:

I take an epub, convert it to kepub via option 1 ahead of time in Calibre. I want the cover to 'span' the full device front page (yes, with a little distortion, but avoiding the pillarbox or 'black bars' effect on my fancy new colour reader). I deselect 'preserve cover aspect ratio in KTE', and convert it to kepub with the output plugin and KTE driver ahead of time.

Full cover works: when I send the book via USB, but that's difficult because it's a 'headless' home server, which is why I prefer kobo sync api on C-W.
Full cover doesn't work: (black pillarbox effect) when I send wirelessly via Kobo Sync API, despite having previously converted the book in Calibre using KTE/output.

Does that mean the metadata (or cover options specifically) from KTE and the kepub output plugins require a physical connection only to send to the device? Or that C-W isn't passing the metadata properly wirelessly. Or possibly something else I'm not grasping?

thanks again!

[jgoguen]

I suspect what's happening here is a matter of the book cover versus the metadata cover. In calibre's file system, alongside the book you'll see "cover.jpg". This is what gets added to the book file unless you specify different options in conversion. If you unpack the KePub and inspect the converted book cover and cover.jpg, I bet they're different.

Beyond here I'm a little more fuzzy on details. As I understand it, metadata sent over to Kobo by calibre-web, as a consequence of how Kobo syncs, is the metadata shown in the UI, not what's in the book itself. The cover is included in "metadata" and is fetched by Kobo separately from the book, and you get whatever is cover.jpg showing as the book cover on the device. If you open your book and go back to the cover page, it's probably the image you're expecting to see.

So, my best educated guess would be to change the cover itself in calibre to be the dimensions you want rather than do it in book conversion options. How exactly, I'm not sure, I don't have a calibre install accessible right now and I've never needed to do it.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

The CSS is also doing some things I'm not sure they have any legitimate reason to. The span surrounding "Yloka:" has its margins set to "10px 0 10px 5.7em"; the values are for top, right, bottom, and left, respectively. Then it sets text-indent to -5.7em, which visually has the effect of undoing the 5.7em left margin... but why? Why have a single CSS rule fighting with itself?

While 5.7em is a larger value than normally seen, this is a pretty common way of doing a fakelist (oddly, the name I used in my stock CSS )