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shyam09

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 31, 2010
2,229
2,498
So i have a few PDFs [these have hundreds of pages] and i was wondering if there is any way i can either a) insert them into iBooks and get the page flip effect or b) insert it into iBooks author.

What i mean for b) would be to just insert all the pages of the pdf and have them become pages or something in iBooks Author?

Don't know if this is even possible, but want to see if it is worth a shot!
thanks guys!

EDIT: I could copy and paste the text, but it's a lot of pages so if there is a simpler way? Would converting the PDF to ebooks or something be of any use, in terms of (a)?
 
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shyam09

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 31, 2010
2,229
2,498
I might have a solution, but I don't know if it will work [ie. get the page flip effect] since I don't have my iPad yet (it's pre-ordered, just waiting for pickup)

Check out Calibre: http://calibre-ebook.com/
______________________________________

I had a small PDF file i had to read in college last quarter, so i converted that into an epub file using the iPad 3 settings that was built into the program. So if you or anyone has an iPad 3 they want to try it on, I have attached the file.

The cover is of organic chemistry [so we can test the cover image too] and the pdf is about "southerniation"... so anyone who wants to try it and report back here... we would really appreciate it :)

*The PDF file had 6 pages, so the overall file is very small [just a few KB]

*Also MR's upload rules states I can upload certain types of files so it's in a .zip

Thank you.

UPDATE: i saw this vid on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxC8Mgb9gRQ
and it looks like the ePub on the iBooks app will give you the page flip effect; since calibre is converting it to an ePub, it should essentially work. If you want to try a PDF to eBook using Calibre, just download the "Southernization" attachment, unzip it, and open it. There is an ePub file in there you can try :D
 

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FMJPhoto.com

macrumors member
Nov 9, 2010
60
0
Littleton, CO
Just tried calibre, it worked...sorta. It did give the right look and format needed for iBooks, but it broke up the PDF horribly. Page breaks with footers in the middle of pages, etc.

I'm guessing it took the longer "actual pages" in the PDF, and shortened them to fit in the ePub window. By doing this it messed up the formatting and layout, also adding about 100 pages.

But hey, the page turn animation works! lol

I'll just stick to reading the PDF version of the few books I have.
 

shyam09

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 31, 2010
2,229
2,498
I'll just stick to reading the PDF version of the few books I have.

lol. thanks for trying! It'll probably go better for non-header/footer PDFs. When I get my iPad, I'll experiment some more and see how things go, maybe try different software or something. the main thing is to get PDFs into ebooks so that's one step closer ;)
 

shyam09

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 31, 2010
2,229
2,498
UPDATE: I think i have it figured out :, although it might take a bit longer. I think the best option would be to covert the PDFs to HTML and then use Calibre to convert that to a eBook. I used the same Southernization article and i used Mobisoft eReader on my computer to test it out and see how it looks.

Calibre: PDF to eBook
Calibre%2520PDF%2520to%2520eBook.png


Calibre: HTML to eBook
Calibre%2520HTML%2520to%2520eBook.png


Windows Software: PDFtoePUB
PDFtoPUB%2520Windows%2520software.png


So if you guys are keen on converting your PDFs to eBooks and reading them say in iBooks or something on your ; the best route seems to be converting PDFs to HTML and converting the HTML to an eBook.
 
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