How To Fix Reading Epub On Mac Formatting Issues?

For extremely academic content with lots of citations and a bibliography, proper formatting is crucial. Inline citations ([1,2]) have to be rendered as superscript and the bibliography has to be complete and not messed up by the converter. You can use ‘Extra CSS’ to style common citation patterns. For example, will style all tags with the class “citation”. Also, make sure the converter recognizes the bibliography as a separate section and not as just more paragraphs. You can help the converter by marking the bibliography’s heading tag (e.g. ) as a major division in the ‘Structure Detection’ settings. This will then also ensure proper page breaks before the bibliography.

It’s also worth noting that the source file may need some tuning before side loading, as I found out with some poorly converted EPUBs leading to wonky spacing. Using ebook-convert from Calibre (on the PC) to reformat the book to a Kobo Clara optimized ebook (in EPUB format) sorted the spacing out completely. This also cleans up the CSS and reflows the content, stripping out any numbers of render snagging formatting tags. Some older ebooks contain font-size tags that the Clara’s relatively simple ebook reader interprets strangely. And then make sure to safely eject the device from your computer, to avoid writing metadata that messes up how your ebooks appear to read. A soft reset (hold the power button for 20 seconds or so) usually will fix up newly added ebooks too. Note, though, that the ultimate reset to resolve such persistent problems and get your Kobo back to full, factory-default operation is also to perform a full factory reset. (Yes, a real pain, but there it is.)

I get asked by family and friends a lot about how to add books to their Kindle. My answer to them is now use the email method as it’s the least complicated way for non-techy people to add books to their Kindle. I then just have to remote into their computer and use Calibre to add the books to their Kindle if they end up with a huge file or very weirdly formatted file from some shady website but usually it works 90% of the time or so. Using the email method first is just less of a barrier to entry as it seems like magic when it does work as it usually does.

As a general rule, I prefer not to read PDFs on my Kindle. However, I have found that there are two methods that can make reading PDFs relatively hassle-free. The Kindle’s built-in ‘Fit to Screen’ option is sufficient for simple PDFs, such as novels or reports. However, for more complex documents, it is better to convert them to EPUB first using a free online service such as Zamzar and then transfer them to your Kindle using a USB cable. To read comics and illustrated PDFs, I use ‘Kindle Comic Converter’. It splits up the PDF into readable parts on your Kindle, saving you from having to reduce the font size so much that you can no longer read it properly. Some books even contain beautiful pictures which get preserved very well by this tool. For travel I simply email the PDF to my Kindle under the subject line ‘convert’. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.

Your Kobo eBook reader can be sped up by reducing the number of titles displayed on the home screen ‘Recently Read’ carousel. Set this to show the last 3 or so books instead of 10. Also disable the ‘What’s New’ section as this contains a lot of graphics and, more importantly, animations which all use processor power. A minimalist home screen is the fastest way to get on with reading. In addition to these settings, it is also worth noting that sideloaded books with high-resolution cover images can negatively impact performance when viewed in your library. Resize these images to 600×800 in Calibre before transferring them and you will find that scrolling through your collection of eBooks is significantly smoother. As with any other device, performance tuning for an eReader is a real thing and even small changes can add up.

I just make the text larger in the original document before creating a PDF or printing it. If it's a Word document or a web page, I view it at 150% on my computer before printing or saving it to PDF. The resulting file has larger text on the physical page, which then becomes smaller when viewed on the Kindle screen, but is still readable. This method is simple, requires access to the original document, but does not introduce any conversion artifacts or change any of the original formatting. The text is simply larger from the start.

Ugh, indentation chaos. Some paragraphs are displaying huge tabs, while others appear to have no indentation at all. In some cases, the spaces between words are rendering as little square boxes instead of normal space characters. This sort of problem is a sign that your document was created using a bunch of random space and tab characters as opposed to CSS styles for paragraph indentation. For the reader, it can be a problem to work around, but in most cases toggling the “Publisher Font” on and off will reset the paragraph to its proper formatting. Also, if you change the font size up or down by one notch, the text will reflow to proper indentation in most cases. But, oh, the page will look awful in the meantime. This kind of problem is a sure sign that the author did not hire a professional to format the work, and makes me worry about the quality of the editing as well.

As someone who has done a lot of formatting of book pages for manuscripts and print ready PDFs, I can say that there is nothing more annoying than a wonky margin, a line of text that splits to a new page unexpectedly, or a font that just doesn’t look right. Most of these problems are simple to fix if you check the basic settings first. So, check the size of the pages you are using. Are you using 6×9 for trade paperbacks, or A4 for your docs? Also, check for ‘keep lines together’, ‘prevent widow orphan pages’ and similar options in your word processor. These are often found in the paragraph formatting options for Word and Google Docs, and can be toggled on and off to test their effect. There are times, however, where more serious reformatting is called for. This can include troubleshooting consistent font display or unGhosted hyperlinks. It’s rare that I’ve had to convert a file to a ‘clean’ format in order to allow reformatting from scratch, but such has been the case with both Word .doc and Google Doc files. Once in plain text (.txt) these can be reimported into almost any program. For eBook reformatting, however, I use the wonderful free software, Calibre, which also allows for reformatting of EPUB errors. For print, it’s worth noting that InDesign’s ‘package’ feature creates a zip file including all used fonts and linked graphics – which is very handy when distribution to printers/copy shops etc. It’s also very simple to have a second pair of eyes scan a test print for subtle errors such as: over running headers to the bottom of the page; and images bleeding into the gutter. It’s a little puzzle, but ultimately very rewarding when sorted.

Honestly after all these years I’ve just come to terms with the situation of these kinds of sites going down for free. The reason they’re free to use is because they’re ad-supported, most are also somewhat questionable in terms of legality and are run on almost no budget at all. My way of dealing with this is to use Mangakakalot as my main site and have Mangadex and Bato as backups for when that one happens to be down too. I also try to get official apps for series that have them available for the series I read. For my ongoing series, I also keep a text file that contains links to the websites of the various scanlation groups. Occasionally when all the aggregator sites are down, the original site will be up to read the latest chapters. It’s not ideal but it does work and is more efficient than randomly searching the web for the info you need. And much like you wouldn’t use just one screwdriver for all your screwing needs, one would build out their own personal manga ‘tool box’ of methods with which to read their favorite manga.

Check both sides of the equation for volume being turned down. On the Kindle, use the physical buttons on the edges to turn up the volume while an audio file is playing. Also, be sure to check the volume on your Bluetooth headphones independently from the Kindle as their volume can typically be adjusted independently of the source device. Be sure that the headphone volume is not set to zero even if the volume on the Kindle is turned up to maximum. Try pairing the headphones with another device such as your phone to confirm that they are working correctly. Next, pair the headphones with your Kindle and play an audiobook. Slowly turn up the volume using the physical buttons on the edges of the Kindle as well as the volume control on the headphones themselves. Believe it or not, I have wasted 10 minutes trying to troubleshoot an issue only to find out that I had accidentally muted my earbuds.