Markdown to ePub : Optimize internal filesizes

Agama · 01-22-2011, 07:03 AM

I have a 4MB plain text file which I have marked-down in preparation for calibre conversion to ePub. The markdown produces a 3 level TOC and doesn't require any structure detection, (so I set it to null in the calibre conversion options).

Conversion works perfectly and exploding the ePub shows a set of html files varying in size from 60K to 127K. As an experiment I switched on structure detection for H3 elements, (chapters), so that the output was now many, many more html files each of size 4K to 8K.

So my query is this: Is it better to have many small html files within the ePub or a fewer number of larger ones? Does it improve reader compatibility/presentation to break a book into separate html files per chapter or does it make no difference?

(Does calibre's conversion processing prefer one or the other?)

I'm only asking as I intend to post the book to the eBooks section of MR and want to make the book widely compatible. (I have had purchased books which caused my reader to hang).

user_none · 01-22-2011, 10:36 AM

More files vs less files doesn't really matter. EPUB readers (Adobe) requires each internal file to be under a certain size. calibre will split to ensure each files is under that amount if necessary.

The default is to split on chapter simply because it looks better when reading. Many readers will show empty space between files until the page is turned. Really having the extra split point comes down to how does it look on your reader.

01-22-2011, 07:03 AM	#1
Agama Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 2751519 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: UK Device: PW2, Nexus7	Markdown to ePub : Optimize internal filesizes I have a 4MB plain text file which I have marked-down in preparation for calibre conversion to ePub. The markdown produces a 3 level TOC and doesn't require any structure detection, (so I set it to null in the calibre conversion options). Conversion works perfectly and exploding the ePub shows a set of html files varying in size from 60K to 127K. As an experiment I switched on structure detection for H3 elements, (chapters), so that the output was now many, many more html files each of size 4K to 8K. So my query is this: Is it better to have many small html files within the ePub or a fewer number of larger ones? Does it improve reader compatibility/presentation to break a book into separate html files per chapter or does it make no difference? (Does calibre's conversion processing prefer one or the other?) I'm only asking as I intend to post the book to the eBooks section of MR and want to make the book widely compatible. (I have had purchased books which caused my reader to hang).

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01-22-2011, 10:36 AM	#2
user_none Sigil & calibre developer Posts: 2,487 Karma: 1063785 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Florida, USA Device: Nook STR	More files vs less files doesn't really matter. EPUB readers (Adobe) requires each internal file to be under a certain size. calibre will split to ensure each files is under that amount if necessary. The default is to split on chapter simply because it looks better when reading. Many readers will show empty space between files until the page is turned. Really having the extra split point comes down to how does it look on your reader.

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