Calibre Indent Issue When Removing Blank Lines (Converting From HTML to MOBI or EPUB)

David Derrico · 08-03-2010, 06:34 PM

First of all, thank you for an excellent e-book organization and conversion program.

I recently started using Calibre not only for organization, but also to format my e-books, by converting my HTML files into MOBI and ePub formats.

For the output, I prefer first line indents in paragraphs, with no blank lines between paragraphs.

My problem is that I can set the Calibre export options to (a) leave blank lines between paragraphs and retain the paragraph indents encoded in my HTML /CSS, or (b) remove blank lines and add paragraph indents of a set amount. The problem with option (b) is that it adds paragraph indents even to centered lines (such as chapter headings), which makes them off-center. This is regardless of the CSS styles I specify (where <p> tags have a first-line indent set and <h1> or other centered styles have the first-line indent set to 0).

I was wondering if either I am missing a way to get what I want (no blank lines between paragraphs, but it respects the existence or absence of first-line indents I set through CSS), or if this is perhaps a feature that could be added to a future version of Calibre? (Perhaps a check-box to "retain paragraph indents set through CSS when removing blank lines" or "do not add indents to centered lines.") As far as I can tell, this one nitpick is the only thing preventing Calibre from creating perfect MOBI output for me.

Thank you in advance for any help on this matter!

kovidgoyal · 08-03-2010, 08:16 PM

IIRC, If your headings are using HTML heading tags they wont have indents added to them. calibre only add indents to <p> and <div> tags.

David Derrico · 08-04-2010, 12:17 AM

Thanks for the response!

So instead of doing <p class="c1"> (which I have set to centered, 0 indent), I could do, say <h3> and just make h3 centered with normal font size and then Calibre won't insert indents on those lines?

I don't suppose using <h3> tags would have any adverse effects, since I have Calibre set to only make TOC entries for <h1> tags.

kovidgoyal · 08-04-2010, 12:27 AM

yes, that should do the trick.

David Derrico · 08-04-2010, 12:30 AM

Thank you very much, I do appreciate you taking the time to reply! And thanks again for all your work on an excellent piece of software!

David Derrico · 08-04-2010, 01:13 AM

Just for the record, using header (<h3> or <h4>) tags inserts blank lines before and after the line, but I can live with it. It did fix the indenting issue.

08-03-2010, 06:34 PM	#1
David Derrico Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 510132 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Florida Device: Kindle 3 & Kobo Wireless	Calibre Indent Issue When Removing Blank Lines (Converting From HTML to MOBI or EPUB) First of all, thank you for an excellent e-book organization and conversion program. I recently started using Calibre not only for organization, but also to format my e-books, by converting my HTML files into MOBI and ePub formats. For the output, I prefer first line indents in paragraphs, with no blank lines between paragraphs. My problem is that I can set the Calibre export options to (a) leave blank lines between paragraphs and retain the paragraph indents encoded in my HTML /CSS, or (b) remove blank lines and add paragraph indents of a set amount. The problem with option (b) is that it adds paragraph indents even to centered lines (such as chapter headings), which makes them off-center. This is regardless of the CSS styles I specify (where <p> tags have a first-line indent set and <h1> or other centered styles have the first-line indent set to 0). I was wondering if either I am missing a way to get what I want (no blank lines between paragraphs, but it respects the existence or absence of first-line indents I set through CSS), or if this is perhaps a feature that could be added to a future version of Calibre? (Perhaps a check-box to "retain paragraph indents set through CSS when removing blank lines" or "do not add indents to centered lines.") As far as I can tell, this one nitpick is the only thing preventing Calibre from creating perfect MOBI output for me. Thank you in advance for any help on this matter!

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08-03-2010, 08:16 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 44,572 Karma: 24495948 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	IIRC, If your headings are using HTML heading tags they wont have indents added to them. calibre only add indents to <p> and <div> tags.

08-04-2010, 12:17 AM	#3
David Derrico Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 510132 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Florida Device: Kindle 3 & Kobo Wireless	Thanks for the response! So instead of doing <p class="c1"> (which I have set to centered, 0 indent), I could do, say <h3> and just make h3 centered with normal font size and then Calibre won't insert indents on those lines? I don't suppose using <h3> tags would have any adverse effects, since I have Calibre set to only make TOC entries for <h1> tags.

08-04-2010, 12:27 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 44,572 Karma: 24495948 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	yes, that should do the trick.

08-04-2010, 12:30 AM	#5
David Derrico Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 510132 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Florida Device: Kindle 3 & Kobo Wireless	Thank you very much, I do appreciate you taking the time to reply! And thanks again for all your work on an excellent piece of software!

08-04-2010, 01:13 AM	#6
David Derrico Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 510132 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Florida Device: Kindle 3 & Kobo Wireless	Just for the record, using header (<h3> or <h4>) tags inserts blank lines before and after the line, but I can live with it. It did fix the indenting issue.

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