BBeB (LRF) generation tools

[igorsk]

Just thought I'd make a list, since many people are not aware these tools exist.

1) MakeLRF
The first tool, released even before Sony's own LIBRIe addons. Converts a text file.
http://www.sven.de/librie_files/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/librie...entGeneration/
Has a GUI, MakeLRFGUI:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/librie...entGeneration/
2) Sony's LIBRIe addons (mostly in Japanese, and mostly require LIBRIe):
http://www.sven.de/librie/Librie/AddonSoftware
How to install Printer for LIBRIe without a LIBRIe.
3) flatLRF, a Java tool which can convert whole sites to an LRF book.
http://monalipse.sourceforge.jp/tmp/lrf/
4) Book Creator, an official tool by Canon. Probably the most complete solution, however it is not distributed freely anymore.
http://ps.canon-sol.jp/bc/index.html
5) lrs2lrf, a command-line tool which uses a DLL from Book Creator to compile a Xylog XML (BBeB source format) .lrs file into an .lrf
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/librie...entGeneration/
6) BookDesigner.
A multi-format conversion tool which can also output LRF files, using the same DLL from Book Creator.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7897 Is this an "official URL"?
7) Libriate, a Mac OS X GUI for makelrf
http://jfarlow.com/preciousgem/libriate/libriate.html
8) BBeBook, a Java port of makelrf
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...05&postcount=5
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/librie...entGeneration/
9) HTML2LRF. Converts one or several HTML files to an LRF. Uses DLLs from Toolbar for LIBRIe.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8368

Tools for already compiled LRF files:
1) EditLRFMeta. Edits meta-information (Author, Title, etc).
http://editlrfmeta.peterknowles.com/
2) LRFParser. Parses an LRF file, dumps all tags and streams:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/librie...entGeneration/
http://www.sven.de/librie_files/
3) LrfConvCLI. Uses flatLRF library to convert an LRF to an XML format used by flatLRF.
4) lrf2lrs. A Python tool, tries to convert an LRF to a Xylog XML .lrs file.

[NatCh]

Nice, igorsk, I'd found most of these, but there are a few I'd missed. Having a list all together is excellent. Thanks!

[heavyB]

Canon's site regarding Book Creator is difficult to navigate, much less understand, even with Google's amazing translation abilities.

Does anyone know how to get ahold of an 'evaluation' copy? Of course if there was an english version, that would be nice as well.

I know this kind of discussion is a grey area, but there doesn't seem to be much of a legitimate venue for purchasing this software for individual use. If I'm wrong, please show me the way.

Thanks!

[Bob Russell]

This deserves another sticky status.. certainly at least until the info gets into the wiki.
Ooops... went to do it and found it's already sticky! Excellent.

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by heavyB

Does anyone know how to get ahold of an 'evaluation' copy? Of course if there was an english version, that would be nice as well.

First news item on that site says "Evaluation version distribution stopped".
That said, I think someone posted a link to reuploaded version in the librie yahoo group. The translated .exe is also available there.

[JazZi]

I actually like Book Designer. Unfortunately, it doesn't convert to LRF using advanced features. It would be nice if someone could tweak it to allow conversion using advanced features, rather than very simple configuration.

[igorsk]

vvv is going to adapt it for the Reader when he gets his own (not sure when that's going to happen though).

[BuddyBoy]

Originally Posted by igorsk

vvv is going to adapt it for the Reader when he gets his own (not sure when that's going to happen though).

Those of us who love book designer should all chip in $30-50 and buy him one!

[vvv]

Originally Posted by BuddyBoy

Those of us who love book designer should all chip in $30-50 and buy him one!

Thank you, folk. But there is no problem to bay while it was a problem with the shipment. However it seems it is resolved so I hope to get the device next week.

One proposal. It seems the lrf reader has been improved: now it can processes well non-paginated lrf-files. However there is still one important feature which is not supported: soft hyphenations. So I suggest to everybody who likes good-looking books: WRITE to Sony requesting this feature.

[JazZi]

Originally Posted by igorsk

vvv is going to adapt it for the Reader when he gets his own (not sure when that's going to happen though).

That's great news!

[JazZi]

Originally Posted by vvv

One proposal. It seems the lrf reader has been improved: now it can processes well non-paginated lrf-files. However there is still one important feature which is not supported: soft hyphenations. So I suggest to everybody who likes good-looking books: WRITE to Sony requesting this feature.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is soft-hyphenation, and why is it important that it be implemented by Sony?

[scotty1024]

Originally Posted by igorsk

8) BBeBook, a Java port of makelrf
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...05&postcount=5
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/librie...entGeneration/

BBeBook may have started from a port of makelrf to Java but has gone quite a bit further than makelrf ever did.

All makelrf could really do was convert plain text into LRF's, no HTML markup at all, no entity operators. No image processing to make the thumbnail from the front cover image, no PDF parsing or rasterizing and needed an external GUI being purely a command line only tool.

BBeBook is focused on creating re-flowable BBeB documents from plain text, HTML and PDF's. It offers full support for all of the Dublin Core meta data and is Unicode clean. It can also rasterize PDF's into "picture" books.

[scotty1024]

Originally Posted by vvv

It seems the lrf reader has been improved: now it can processes well non-paginated lrf-files.

I've been fiddling with BBeBook to explore the limits of the Reader. Very promising indeed. I've also noticed that BBeB's are more stable than PDF's. I can lock up the Reader very easily feeding it PDF documents. I've yet to hang it once feeding it my entire collection of BBeBook generated LRF content (100's of documents).

But I don't know why you are so anxious about soft-hyphens. Personally I'd put far more weight behind them supporting real headers and footers in re-flow mode. As well as anchors and links. Inline font changes and support for inline images. Then a command or two for text alignment would be nice.

About then I might start feeling the lack of soft hyphens.

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Personally I'd put far more weight behind them supporting real headers and footers in re-flow mode. As well as anchors and links. Inline font changes and support for inline images. Then a command or two for text alignment would be nice.

BBeB supports all of this.

[vvv]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

But I don't know why you are so anxious about soft-hyphens.

Because they are font-independent.

When a book is hyphenated hardly, the hyphenation signs will be at the needed places only for the font size chosen during the text pre-parsing (let's say "S"). But as soon as one changes the font size (let's say by "M"), these symbols will fly in an unpredictable way.

The simplest way to avoid this is to hyphenate a book softly. A reader supported soft hyphens (AD) shows the hyphenation signs at the needed places independently on the font (newer mind S, M, or L size is chosen in Sony Reader - the hyphens will be always positioned correctly).