7 ms·

Why would you convert an epub to pdf? There is no ebook reader, other than kindles (for which the proper conversion would be to kf8), that can't handle epubs.

ldx1024 6y ago
Send my public domain book to my grandma who doesn't know how to handle an epub? Convert it because it is easier to print as a .pdf with my particular setup? There are all kinds of potential use cases for users of differing levels of technical sophistication. Why wouldn't you provide an option to convert to .pdf?
soapdog 6y ago
when I check the download stats for all my books, PDF downloads are more popular than all other formats. I prefer epubs too, but apparently readers really like PDFs...
- JulianMorrison 6y ago
  PDFs retain their formatting better and are much more readily accessible across devices, except for the smallest screens.
  - Deathmax 6y ago
    > PDFs retain their formatting better Which is also its downside when formatting is not critical. I want to be able to change the font size and have the text reflow correctly. With PDFs you end up with broken layouts if you don't view it exactly as formatted.
    - rualca 6y ago
      >>I want to be able to change the font size and have the text reflow correctly. With PDFs you end up with broken layouts if you don't view it exactly as formatted. Reflowable books also do a poor job reflowing content. Case in point, the free AWS ebooks on kindle are a god-awful mess whenever they add code snippets, no matter how small. Given the choice, a good fixed format layout beats a bad reflowable layout.
      - JulianMorrison 6y ago
        Especially as the choice of layout and elements like fonts is neither trivial nor unimportant, and a good readable code font is not easily replaced with $monospace_font_goes_here
enriquto 6y ago
> Why would you convert an epub to pdf? On the contrary! Why would you ever keep an epub file around? If somehow an epub file finds its way into my computer, the first thing that I need to do is to convert it to pdf to be able to read it with a reasonable viewer (or print it!). After the convesion, I delete the epub file; I really dislike this format and the associated software.
- harshreality 6y ago
  If you print your ebooks for some reason rather than buy used copies, granted you have to convert to pdf for that. Why prefer an epub... They have flowed text, and ebook readers let you customize font and font size so that the book's text adapts to you rather than you adapting to a particular combination of publisher quirks and zoom necessary to fit in a particular device's or app's viewable size. They're generally smaller files. And if there's something about the epub you don't like, you can actually fix it. If a book is available in both PDF and epub formats, it's a reader's prerogative to pick the one they want, and there are specific types of books where PDFs might be preferable. However, if there's no original pdf, what is the objective of converting an epub to pdf in order to read it on a computer? Whatever you think you're accomplishing, I think you're mistaken. You end up with a pdf that looks exactly like how a typical ereader would display the epub. Minus the flowed text and font customizability, and probably with poorer navigation as well.
  - rualca 6y ago
    > Why prefer an epub... Does epub support proper proper math notation typesetting? Moreover, text in a webview doesn't flow as nice as vanilla TeX, and can look outright atrocious.
    - orangeoxidation 6y ago
      Converting an epub to a pdf adds nothing, only "fixes" your view to specific settings (font, etc.). You won't get better math typesetting that way, if it was missing in the epub.
    - 6y ago
young_unixer 6y ago
Because all PC epub readers suck (bad default margins, paddings, fonts, bad font rendering, lack of visual pages/sheets, etc) I've tried to like them, customize them, fix their problems, etc but to no avail.

ldx1024 6y ago

Send my public domain book to my grandma who doesn't know how to handle an epub? Convert it because it is easier to print as a .pdf with my particular setup? There are all kinds of potential use cases for users of differing levels of technical sophistication. Why wouldn't you provide an option to convert to .pdf?

soapdog 6y ago

when I check the download stats for all my books, PDF downloads are more popular than all other formats. I prefer epubs too, but apparently readers really like PDFs...

JulianMorrison 6y ago
PDFs retain their formatting better and are much more readily accessible across devices, except for the smallest screens.
- Deathmax 6y ago
  > PDFs retain their formatting better Which is also its downside when formatting is not critical. I want to be able to change the font size and have the text reflow correctly. With PDFs you end up with broken layouts if you don't view it exactly as formatted.
  - rualca 6y ago
    >>I want to be able to change the font size and have the text reflow correctly. With PDFs you end up with broken layouts if you don't view it exactly as formatted. Reflowable books also do a poor job reflowing content. Case in point, the free AWS ebooks on kindle are a god-awful mess whenever they add code snippets, no matter how small. Given the choice, a good fixed format layout beats a bad reflowable layout.
    - JulianMorrison 6y ago
      Especially as the choice of layout and elements like fonts is neither trivial nor unimportant, and a good readable code font is not easily replaced with $monospace_font_goes_here

enriquto 6y ago

> Why would you convert an epub to pdf? On the contrary! Why would you ever keep an epub file around? If somehow an epub file finds its way into my computer, the first thing that I need to do is to convert it to pdf to be able to read it with a reasonable viewer (or print it!). After the convesion, I delete the epub file; I really dislike this format and the associated software.

harshreality 6y ago
If you print your ebooks for some reason rather than buy used copies, granted you have to convert to pdf for that. Why prefer an epub... They have flowed text, and ebook readers let you customize font and font size so that the book's text adapts to you rather than you adapting to a particular combination of publisher quirks and zoom necessary to fit in a particular device's or app's viewable size. They're generally smaller files. And if there's something about the epub you don't like, you can actually fix it. If a book is available in both PDF and epub formats, it's a reader's prerogative to pick the one they want, and there are specific types of books where PDFs might be preferable. However, if there's no original pdf, what is the objective of converting an epub to pdf in order to read it on a computer? Whatever you think you're accomplishing, I think you're mistaken. You end up with a pdf that looks exactly like how a typical ereader would display the epub. Minus the flowed text and font customizability, and probably with poorer navigation as well.
- rualca 6y ago
  > Why prefer an epub... Does epub support proper proper math notation typesetting? Moreover, text in a webview doesn't flow as nice as vanilla TeX, and can look outright atrocious.
  - orangeoxidation 6y ago
    Converting an epub to a pdf adds nothing, only "fixes" your view to specific settings (font, etc.). You won't get better math typesetting that way, if it was missing in the epub.
  - 6y ago

young_unixer 6y ago

Because all PC epub readers suck (bad default margins, paddings, fonts, bad font rendering, lack of visual pages/sheets, etc) I've tried to like them, customize them, fix their problems, etc but to no avail.