Adding PDF books

[Sweetpea]

Is there a way for Calibre to read my PDFInfo files when I add PDF books?

When I add an epub book, the fields are all nicely filled (author, title, tag, etc). But with PDF books it completely ignores my PDFInfo fields (which are nicely filled, at least, Author, Title and Subject are).

If it doesn't, is there a way for it to read the folder structure (by using the reg expression)? Because the filenames of my books only contain a series index (if applicable) and the title of the book. The author (and series, again if applicable) are folder names...

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Is there a way for Calibre to read my PDFInfo files when I add PDF books?

When I add an epub book, the fields are all nicely filled (author, title, tag, etc). But with PDF books it completely ignores my PDFInfo fields (which are nicely filled, at least, Author, Title and Subject are).

If it doesn't, is there a way for it to read the folder structure (by using the reg expression)? Because the filenames of my books only contain a series index (if applicable) and the title of the book. The author (and series, again if applicable) are folder names...

No and no. Calibre can only pick up metadata from inside the file or from the filename, not from external files (pdfinfo) or the folder names. The usual solutions for your case are to either send the metadata inside the pdf file or change the filename with a file rename utility to include your metadata/foldernames.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Starson17

No and no. Calibre can only pick up metadata from inside the file or from the filename, not from external files (pdfinfo) or the folder names. The usual solutions for your case are to either send the metadata inside the pdf file or change the filename with a file rename utility to include your metadata/foldernames.

The PDFInfo is inside the PDF file. It's called PDFInfo in LaTeX... you can see that data when you look at the properties of the PDF file.

[kovidgoyal]

make sure your pdf metadata reader plugin is enabled in Preferences->Advanced->Plugins->Metadata rader plugins

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

The PDFInfo is inside the PDF file. It's called PDFInfo in LaTeX... you can see that data when you look at the properties of the PDF file.

In that case, assuming it's just the normal internally stored pdf metadata, it should work. You need to have the option in Prefs|Import/Export|Add to "read metadata from file contents" turned on. Some pdf files cause problems for the code library used by Calibre to handle pdfs and, as a result, some people have turned off the pdf metadata reader. If you've done that, turn it back on, per Kovid's comment.

edit: You should also be aware that Calibre will pick up metadata in an opf file stored with any other format in preference to the other two methods. If there's any chance you have some sort of .opf file with the same name as the pdf, it would override the other metadata.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

make sure your pdf metadata reader plugin is enabled in Preferences->Advanced->Plugins->Metadata rader plugins

Hmm, it is turned on... Maybe it simply won't read it, because I generate my PDF's myself...

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea;

Hmm, it is turned on... Maybe it simply won't read it, because I generate my PDF's myself...

Does this mean you have an alternative source format available? PDF is the worst format for conversion purposes so if you have an alternative you should consider using this instead.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Does this mean you have an alternative source format available? PDF is the worst format for conversion purposes so if you have an alternative you should consider using this instead.

My sources are HTML and the PDF's are the converted files. But I don't want to add all my formats to Calibre, because I have no need for multiple copies of all my files. Especially as my .OPF files are all called the same...

[itimpi]

HTML is the best format for conversion, so if you have that available use it for the conversion.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by itimpi

HTML is the best format for conversion, so if you have that available use it for the conversion.

As I said, HTML is my source format, PDF is the converted format... But I don't want to add the HTML + epub + mobi + PDF files. I don't like the fact that Calibre makes a copy of each book. I was just exploring if I could use Calibre to keep track of the books on my devices. I don't use the GUI to convert, the only conversion I use is by command-line (from mobi to HTML, the rest I do using my own tools).

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Especially as my .OPF files are all called the same...

If you have .opf files named the same as the .pdf file, they will override the pdf data and prevent it from being read. If you're having trouble importing a pdf, remove the .opf file from that folder and test that way.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Starson17

If you have .opf files named the same as the .pdf file, they will override the pdf data and prevent it from being read. If you're having trouble importing a pdf, remove the .opf file from that folder and test that way.

No, my OPF's are all called metadata.opf...

I have a folder:

Source/authorname/bookname

which contains my metadata, toc.ncx and all other files in a nice epub-like structure

I have another folder:

PDF/authorname

which contains all books by that author which has been generated by using the files in my source/authorname/bookname folder.

When I try to add said PDF, it will not read the pdfinfo metadata, which can be seen if I open it with a pdf reader. Which means I have to manually change every single PDF and that kind of defeats the purpose of using metadata and thus, Calibre.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

When I try to add said PDF, it will not read the pdfinfo metadata, which can be seen if I open it with a pdf reader. Which means I have to manually change every single PDF and that kind of defeats the purpose of using metadata and thus, Calibre.

I was trying to find reasons why your pdf metadata wasn't being read. It apparently boils down to some incompatability between the way you create your internal pdf metadata and the library used by Calibre to read it.
As Kovid has said in connection with another PDF metadata problem:

That bug is in the PDF library that calibre uses to set PDF metadata. Unfortunately, I don't know of any library that manages to set or for that matter even read PDF metadata with 100% success.

It looks like your problem is similar. I believe Calibre uses PoDoFo to parse and manipulate PDF metadata. I know PoDoFo was updated recently, and the new code was brought into Calibre to fix other issues with that library. If you decide your pdf metadata format is valid and PoDoFo is failing, you may want to make a bug report to them:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/podofo/

[kovidgoyal]

Actually calibre uses poppler to read metadata, which is yet another library The reason for that is poppler allows rendering of the PDF, so calibre can render the first page as the cover.

Are you sure your PDF metadata is in the PDFInfo structure and not in the extended XML metadata?

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre uses poppler to read metadata

Does poppler replace PoDoFo, or do they do some different things? In addition to poppler, I know pdftohtml is used (or at least I think so). Are there any others used for pdf handling or manipulation?