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Good PDF to EPUB Converter?

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bob616

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 12, 2008
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I have some textbooks in the PDF format and I want to convert them to EPUB so that I can use the highlight and sticky note features in iBooks. I tried using Calibre however the outputted EPUB file looked really bad. Any recommendations for a good PDF to EPUB converter that would work with textbooks?

Thanks!
 
MisterMe

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
69
USA
bob616 said:
I have some textbooks in the PDF format and I want to convert them to EPUB so that I can use the highlight and sticky note features in iBooks. I tried using Calibre however the outputted EPUB file looked really bad. Any recommendations for a good PDF to EPUB converter that would work with textbooks?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I don't believe that what you are asking for is possible. ePub is a superset of HTML. It allows links to other text and graphics files. PDF is a proper subset of PostScript. It is a flat-file format. For the time being, let us put aside the fact that Adobe has managed to get the pig to dance.

You want things to look nice. You cannot turn your dancing pig into a prancing gazelle without some work. This means that you must edit your ePub files that you convert from PDF. You may have to tweak them for accuracy as well as for formatting.

Now to your question. The respected Mac shareware site, MacUpdater.com, lists 24 ePub-related software titles. Several of these perform PDF to ePub conversion. The best rated converter is PDF Converter. It is available at the Mac App Store.

Among the other ePub utilities listed by MacUpdate.com is a suite from Sixty Four, LLC. You may find that these utilities will help you to perform the necessary checks and and edits of your converted ePub files.
 
HengenJL

HengenJL

macrumors 6502a
May 27, 2007
701
296
Rochester, NY
I'd highly recommend you look into Goodreader or Notability. both allow you to import PDF files and annotate them. converting PDF to ePub will never be easy, your better off using an app that will allow you to annotate PDFs.
 
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palpatine

macrumors 68040
May 3, 2011
3,130
45
i find it difficult to imagine why i would take a perfectly good pdf file (viewable in just about any application) and convert it to epub (locking it into just a few).

i recommend you purchase one of the high-quality applications for reading and annotating (iannotate is my favorite, but there are goodreader, pdf expert, and others). it costs more than ibooks (of course), but they are vastly superior.
 
TheWheelMan

TheWheelMan

macrumors 6502a
Mar 15, 2011
982
0
You can convert PDFs to pretty much any format, but PDFs retain no formatting information, so converting from a PDF to any other format usually results in a fairly messed up document, especially if the PDF has anything but the most basic layout. I do ebook conversions as part of my design services, and sometimes I have to start with a PDF that I then must convert so I can format in preparation for conversion, and the results of converting from PDF to MS Word is very often quite nasty!
 
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palpatine

macrumors 68040
May 3, 2011
3,130
45
TheWheelMan said:
You can convert PDFs to pretty much any format, but PDFs retain no formatting information, so converting from a PDF to any other format usually results in a fairly messed up document, especially if the PDF has anything but the most basic layout. I do ebook conversions as part of my design services, and sometimes I have to start with a PDF that I then must convert so I can format in preparation for conversion, and the results of converting from PDF to MS Word is very often quite nasty!
Click to expand...

true!

as i said above, i cannot see why you would want to go from pdf to epub. ibooks is pretty, but not even in the same league as pdf expert or iannotate when it comes to annotating.
 
Thomas P.

Thomas P.

macrumors member
Oct 5, 2011
71
0
NewYork
Are you looking for a PDF to EPUB converter on PC or for the ipad? Can you please elaborate? or did i miss read the post?
 
shyam09

shyam09

macrumors 68020
Oct 31, 2010
2,229
2,498
Thomas P. said:
Are you looking for a PDF to EPUB converter on PC or for the ipad? Can you please elaborate? or did i miss read the post?
Click to expand...


OP is looking for a (Mac or PC?) software so he can covert PDFs to EPUBs on his/her computer and use the EPUBs in iBook so he can read and annotate them.

@OP: Textbooks are long and have chapters with a lot of images, and the format of the ePub will be horrible! I suggest just buying iAnnotate (or one of the PDF annotating software mentioned above) and use it to annotate. My personal thoughts on this (as we both use digital version of our textbooks) is that you should only use the iPad as as PDF reader. Just get a good old spiral notebook (though i prefer a legal pad) and use that to hand-write notes. You can highlight and add notes in iAnnotate (and i believe it has one of the fastest PDF rendering system or something like that). The price is a little steep, but I think it's well worth it.

EDIT:: Sigh.. i just realized this is a thread from a few months ago. Well these are my opinions... if anyone reads it, consider it :)
 
flameproof

flameproof

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2011
615
18
Goyaler said:
Calibre is good for free software. but it does tend to have some formatting issues and I have never been able to create a working TOC and Index links.
Click to expand...

The problem is that Calibre uses the same line breaks as they appear in the PDF. So what you get are terribly formatted pages.

What I do then is to use Sigil and remove all breaks with the REGEX function. It's quite easy, you want a break only after a . - : etc. - but usually not after a word.

All is free, but not easy.
 
maplelegend

maplelegend

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2012
19
0
Ohio
bob616 said:
I have some textbooks in the PDF format and I want to convert them to EPUB so that I can use the highlight and sticky note features in iBooks. I tried using Calibre however the outputted EPUB file looked really bad. Any recommendations for a good PDF to EPUB converter that would work with textbooks?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Calibre is good enough.
Don't know what you mean by saying "the outputted EPUB file looked really bad"?You mean it couldn't keep the origional layout?
 
K

Kathters

macrumors newbie
May 12, 2013
4
0
I have had good luck with PDF -> RTF -> EPUB. However, that might be because I have Acrobat to do the first conversion.
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
There's a lot of spam in here, so I'll get right down to the point.

You want a PDF to ePub converter? No you don't.

PDFs are usually made in one editor, and then simply converted. Most of them are WYSIWYG and let you layer elements to your liking. Open up something in Adobe Acrobat Pro and you'll see just how unorganized and ugly everything is in something as simple as a manual.

There is NO way you can convert documents that complex into a simplified ePub without doing the dirty work yourself. That means copy and pasting every page and fixing it yourself.

Like someone else said, you want a dedicated app that deals with PDFs exclusively. Or you want to use Calibre and manually edit the file yourself.
 
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