KOReader, Elipsa and PDFs

[Quoth]

I use KO for epubs on my Mars, but I'm quite happy with the stock epub reader on Kobo.

Can KOReader be installed on the Elipsa ONLY to replace the Foxit PDF reader? I'm not interested in using the stylus with PDFs.

If, so how?
Would I need to get Calibre to send PDFs to separate directory with a special name?

Most of the PDFs I want to read are scans of old books. They need the margins cropped, and often the background and text adjusted, all of which the stock PDF reader on the Boyue Likebook Mars does very well.

I've occasionally used ImageMagick to reformat scanned PDFs, but for security reasons I have open the PDF in The Gimp, Export As a reversed layer order mng file and import that on command line to ImageMagick to make text black, paper white and 14 shades of grey instead of colour or 256 shade mono.

Technical stuff / datasheets is just a few pages and thus fine on the 10" LCD tablet.

[NiLuJe]

We have to kill nickel to start KOReader, so what you do with it once it's up is all up to you .

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

We have to kill nickel to start KOReader, so what you do with it once it's up is all up to you .

I've only the vaguest idea that nickel is something Kobos have, nor how to kill it.
Also can epubs still be opened by the default reader if KOReader is installed for PDFs?

I'm not clear on how to actually install KOReader, except on Android. There seems to be posts leading to posts and some sort of file monitor. I have looked at various threads.

Is there a current post with all the up-to-date information in one place?
Can it be easily undone to return the Elipsa to normal?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I'm not clear on how to actually install KOReader, except on Android. There seems to be posts leading to posts and some sort of file monitor. I have looked at various threads.

Go to the One-Click install package thread for KOReader and Plato and follow the directions. I did and it was very easy.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=314220

[Quoth]

OK, I managed that using 2nd post!
I'd forgotten the crazy KOreader defaults and how to get the document settings.
So while not as nice for PDFs as the native Boyue Likebook Mars reader, it's miles better than the Kobo install of Foxit for scanned books as PDF. I was able to eventually get paged and crop working and the contrast to darken text was easy.

I tried to jump 120 pages in and only turned on the frontlight! No contents in most scans. I presume there IS a way to navigate by page number or % on a scanned PDF.

I get an extra menu item "NickelMenu" on the bottom extreme right of the screen to select KoReader.

It goes mad with Orientation and only worked consistently holding the Elipsa upside down!

[Quoth]

Is there a way to hide all the epubs from KOReader? Or is it a case of having Calibre put all PDF authors in a PDF subdirectory? Or even .pdf to hide them from the Kobo built in my books?

[Quoth]

Managed to set to 180 °, ignore thingy and keep this orientation in all views. Only worked invoking screen rotation menu from File Browser. Otherwise it was reversing layout between file browser and document!

[Quoth]

Ah, the Bookmark menu mysteriously has the Go to page or percent, which of course works on scanned PDFs.

[Quoth]

It seems to ignore sleep on the Elipsa, though that works on the Mars.

[Quoth]

My bad, Sleep on Elipsa does work, it's just that wrong option on the Screen -> Sleepcover was selected.

[Frenzie]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Is there a way to hide all the epubs from KOReader? Or is it a case of having Calibre put all PDF authors in a PDF subdirectory? Or even .pdf to hide them from the Kobo built in my books?

What many of us do is that we have a hidden directory, named for example .books, that we put our coolreader/KOReader/Plato stuff in, separate from the main Nickel documents.

[Ken Maltby]

You could have a .pdf folder for your PDFs and have that be your "Home" in the KOReader file browser. If all the ebooks you put in, or under, that folder are PDFs you won't see any epubs there. Remember, KOReader has to be directed to a file to open it. If it only sees PDFs that is all that it will be opening.

Luck;
Ken

[Quoth]

I'd thought of .pdf as a folder/directory, but I couldn't see how to tell Calibre to save pdfs in a different path to epubs.
It's also awkward that the default of Koreader is to browse only files and not Calibre metadata, or can I change that? It makes sense to have a directory per author, but often I only remember part of the title on old books partly because the author wouldn't be well known.

[Ken Maltby]

If you use the Calibre Content Server, the KOReader OPDS catalog will offer the chance to choose where to download the book/document. This offer is for each time, it will stay on the last one set though, so in your case, since this is done in KOReader and you are only using it for PDFs, you would just leave it on the .PDF directory.

Luck;
Ken

[calk]

I think you can do this from Calibre with the Kobo touch extended plugin and a custom general program template. This only checks if there is one file format, and if it’s PDF, then sets the save directory from there

I’m not sure how best to change it so it could do PDF or CBZ/CBR, the documentation on Calibre is hard to digest.

You’d probably want to check your settings in the kobo touch extended as well so that it doesn’t try and auto kepub the PDF when you send it to the kobo.

To use this function connect the device or go to settings > plugins > kobo touch extended and edit the save format.

I’m on mobile too so sorry for the formatting.

```
program:
# Template function to check if PDF is the only format
# Use with Kobo plugin where pdf conversion is not ideal and pdf is the preferred format
# Use to avoid having Kobo plugin convert to kepub
book_formats = field('formats');
format_length = count(book_formats,',');
found_format = str_in_list(book_formats, ',', '1', '0');
save_path = '';
if format_length == 1 && found_format == 1 then
save_path = '.pdfs/{author_sort} - {series}{series_index:0>2s| | - }{title} - {authors}'
return save_path
else
save_path = 'books/{author_sort}/{series}/{series}{series_index:0>2s| | - }{title} - {authors}'
return save_path
fi
```

This one is in the extra settings tab under template for kepubification, as an example for you

```
program:
# Template function to lookup CBZ or CBR Manga file formats
# Use with Kobo plugin where 'epubs' by KCC have been added to the format
# Use to avoid having Kobo plugin convert KCC kepub to kepub
book_formats = field('formats');
shelfs = field('#calibre_web_shelf');
found_format = str_in_list(book_formats, ',', 'cbr', 'found cbr', 'cbz', 'found cbz', 'no comic found');
found_shelf = str_in_list(shelfs, ',', 'Graphic-novels', 'found shelf','no shelf found');
if str_in_list(book_formats, ',', 'cbr', 'found cbr', 'cbz', 'found cbz', 'no comic found') || str_in_list(shelfs, ',', 'Graphic-novels', 'found shelf','no shelf found') then
return ''
else
return 'true'
fi
```