Converted to PDF for Scribe, TOC problems

[Deskisamess]

I purchased a study book in epub format, with the goal of converting to PDF, so I could use it on my Scribe. I've done this one time before successfully with a different book.

This book converted ok, and I emailed it to my Scribe, which worked. But the TOC doesn't work correctly. Each chapter link sends to the same page, in this case page 2 of the book.

If I view the converted PDF from Calibre it "looks" correct, but again the TOC doesn't work correctly.

Is this something I can fix using the Edit Book option? When using the Edit Book button, only epub and azw3 are my options, not PDF.

I'm not an advanced user by any means, but would love to be able to figure this out, as it would sure make navigation easier.

I'm using the most current version of Calibre on Windows 10, Scribe firmware 5.16.10.0.1

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I purchased a study book in epub format, with the goal of converting to PDF, so I could use it on my Scribe. I've done this one time before successfully with a different book.

This book converted ok, and I emailed it to my Scribe, which worked. But the TOC doesn't work correctly. Each chapter link sends to the same page, in this case page 2 of the book.

If I view the converted PDF from Calibre it "looks" correct, but again the TOC doesn't work correctly.

View it with what… the calibre viewer, Acrobat, other?

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Is this something I can fix using the Edit Book option? When using the Edit Book button, only epub and azw3 are my options, not PDF.

No you'd need a 'proper' PDF editor.

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I'm not an advanced user by any means, but would love to be able to figure this out, as it would sure make navigation easier.

I'm using the most current version of Calibre on Windows 10, Scribe firmware 5.16.10.0.1

Why are you converting to PDF and not one of the proprietary Amazon formats?

There have been some recent changes to calibre relating to PDFs; so, you could install an older version of Calibre Portable (e.g 7.10) and try converting the EPUB to PDF with it.

Older versions of calibre are at ==>> Previous calibre releases

If that works then it's a problem with recent versions of calibre, if it doesn't the problems is in the original EPUB.

BR

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I purchased a study book in epub format, with the goal of converting to PDF, so I could use it on my Scribe. I've done this one time before successfully with a different book.

This book converted ok, and I emailed it to my Scribe, which worked. But the TOC doesn't work correctly. Each chapter link sends to the same page, in this case page 2 of the book.

If I view the converted PDF from Calibre it "looks" correct, but again the TOC doesn't work correctly.

Is this something I can fix using the Edit Book option? When using the Edit Book button, only epub and azw3 are my options, not PDF.

I'm not an advanced user by any means, but would love to be able to figure this out, as it would sure make navigation easier.

I'm using the most current version of Calibre on Windows 10, Scribe firmware 5.16.10.0.1

You can fix up the PDF bookmarks with a PDF editor before you send it. Those will be converted to print replica ToC for the Scribe.

I have very little experience using calibre to convert ePub to PDF, but if the ePub ToC is not getting converted it's either a bug or feature request. I think calibre is using system (Windows macOS Linux) built in PDF generation rather than a Python library, which might explain the limitations. I would think there must be other tools that do a good job.

[Deskisamess]

Why are you converting to PDF and not one of the proprietary Amazon formats?

Because that is necessary if you want to be able to hand write notes in the book margins.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by tomsem

You can fix up the PDF bookmarks with a PDF editor before you send it. Those will be converted to print replica ToC for the Scribe.

Thank you, I'll try this.

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

This book converted ok, and I emailed it to my Scribe, which worked. But the TOC doesn't work correctly. Each chapter link sends to the same page, in this case page 2 of the book.

Hi Deskisamess, what a cool username.

Now and then I have similar problems with some large textbooks, where either the conversion wouldn't complete or I'd get no working ToC. For some really large books, I used to have luck using Calibre Portable 3.48. And for some seemingly defective AZW3 or EPUBs, I had to do some intermediate conversions before the final conversion to PDF.

So here's a couple of things you could try:

- do an EPUB to EPUB conversion before converting to PDF. That will often fix many issues.
- Epubsplit plugin can be useful for large textbooks, but you will end up with fragmented content across multiple files.
- sometimes you might find a good solution to simply use the Edit ToC feature in Calibre. Select the book, press K, then click "Generate ToC from all headings".

Make sure you have a backup of the original EPUB before anything!

[Deskisamess]

So none of my attempts using various methods were successful. I did find a source for the book in PDF format, and went with that route.

[tomsem]

FWIW, I converted a couple of ePub books with calibre and they are perfectly fine. In particular the ToC is same as the source.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by tomsem

FWIW, I converted a couple of ePub books with calibre and they are perfectly fine. In particular the ToC is same as the source.

I've done one other epub to PDF that was fine. This one I believe was just coded horribly to begin with. The cover picture was showing up between each chapter for one thing.