PDF TO EPUB
I perform and teach guitar. I just self-published a guitar method book in paperback. Naturally it has text, photos, and sheet music in standard notation. I want to make an Ebook. I was told I have to convert the paperback PDF to an Epub file. But the company that published my paperback says they will not convert a PDF containing sheet music to Epub because it doesn’t come out good. I was really hoping to have an Ebook of this. Is there any way of doing that such that it is a viable Ebook? I know nothing about tech anything, so my question is: can it be done if I pay someone to do it for me.
Comments
Does the company that published your book own the copyright? If so, there's that to consider. Also there are plenty of PDF to Epub sites. Google it.
In reply to Does the company that… by bobjp
Thanks for your reply. I own the copyright, so that’s not a problem. And yes, there are lots of conversion sites, even some free ones, and Zamzar Conversion gets great reviews. But my question still is: Can a PDF with sheet music, photos, and text, be converted to Epub successfully to fully function properly as an Ebook?
In reply to Does the company that… by bobjp
Thanks for your reply. I own the copyright, so that’s not a problem. And yes, there are lots of conversion sites, even some free ones, and Zamzar Conversion gets great reviews. But my question still is: Can a PDF with sheet music, photos, and text, be converted to Epub successfully to fully function properly as an Ebook?
In reply to Thanks for your reply. I own… by gitterist
You could try calibre. It is a well established and comprehensive eBook management system that includes format conversion and an eBook editor. (And it is totally free software that you install - just like Musescore).
https://calibre-ebook.com/
You can learn more or ask questions at the calibre section of MobileRead. So you could try a conversion and ask for advice if it needs improving.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=166
There is a thread specifically about PDF conversion:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118605
Is PDF the only electronic format that you have for your book?
In reply to You could try calibre. It is… by yonah_ag
Thanks for your reply. I can’t do anything that involves tech anything. And in the article you cited, it sounds like PDF to Epub simply doesn’t work, especially with sheet music, which is what the publisher said. I could probably have the PDF converted to WORD, and assuming that that conversion comes out really good, then possibly have the WORD doc converted to Epub. There must be a way. The book is a method book for classical guitar. Classical guitar music is written all in treble clef, so it’s at least a little less complex and less dense. I see plenty of Ebooks on classical guitar methods, and they all obviously have the same as mine – sheet music, photos, and text. So they all had to have been converted from some kind of file to Epub. And if for example they were originally made in WORD and then converted to Epub, that might not necessarily be the same as using a WORD doc that was itself an already converted file.
In reply to Thanks for your reply. I can… by gitterist
Download the attached file. Rename it by changing its extension from .PDF to .EPUB*. Open it in am EPUB viewer.
*Note - this is not the way to convert a PDF to EPUB, it's just that the forum will only allow the attachment of files with a certain extension.
typically, a book is created in a typesetting program (my mom typeset books for 40 years in SGML on a Mac and they were mostly education and technical books so text, diagrams, formulas, etc), so i suggest finding out if the company which published the paperback has the source typesetting document(s). if that source could be exported into a publication ready format (such as Word), then converting that into an EPUB file should be straightforward. in general PDF into Word or other formats requires extensive work to "fix" as PDF line breaks are hard breaks and not flowed.
"I just self-published a guitar method book in paperback."
In what program did you create it? Musescore and export to PDF?
The nature of epubs is that text usually can flow and be resized. Your music notation certainly will be fixed aspect ratio images. I suppose you can create an epub out of your PDF in the way that each page will just be an image.
Or you rewrite it in LibreOffice or Word as text (which then can flow) and with the music notation as images.
This might be interesting to read and is about creating an epub (with embedded audio snippets):
http://jonathankulp.org/goetschius_rationale.html
Hi - just wondering if you found a way to do this ... ?
I have a 'supplement' for a music ed book I published several years ago, MuseScore files converted to PDF.
I tried a couple of the free online converters a little while ago, no luck.
Thanks for any clues :-)
DS
In reply to Hi - just wondering if you… by DS-GBT
Calibre is one of the best PDF to ePub convertors but PDF is one of the worst starting formats for eBook conversion.
https://calibre-ebook.com/
Making your score pages into PNG images may provide an easier solution. You can easily assemble these into an ePub with any eBook creation software. Calibre includes an eBook editor.
In reply to Calibre is one of the best… by yonah_ag
Thank you! :-)
I have Calibre ... and to be clear - I'd just do a MuseScore batch export to .png - and then Calibre can assemble them?
DS
In reply to Thank you! :-) I have… by DS-GBT
Have a look at book editing and its automation tools:
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/edit.html
You would need to include the PNGs in the book.
Since ePub format is simple and well documented it is likely that the whole PNG-to-ePub process could be automated via a MuseScore plugin. This is something that I would also make use of so I'll add the creation of such a plugin to my "To Do" list.
In reply to Have a look at book editing… by yonah_ag
I will, thanks! :-)
Wow - that would be quite a feat, I think!
I kinda suspect there's more than a few items on that list ...
DS
In reply to I will, thanks! :-) Wow -… by DS-GBT
I have had a look and it can't be fully achieved via a MuseScore plugin because there is no zip file management in the plugin API. I have written plugins for calibre in the past, (in python), but these have access to the full calibre code so almost everything is possible.
You could either use calibre to assemble the images into an ePub or you could probably use 7zip to do the packaging after a MuseScore plugin has done as much as it can, i.e. the book would be prepared but not zipped. (I don't think that the built-in zip capability of Windows would be sufficient because at least 1 of the ePub files has to be packaged into the ePub without compression).
In reply to I had a look and it can't be… by yonah_ag
Looks like the 7zip route feasible:
https://sourceforge.net/p/sevenzip/discussion/45797/thread/6ddd584ad9/
In reply to Thank you! :-) I have… by DS-GBT
Here's a calibre conversion of a score.
The dummy "_.txt" extension needs to be removed to make this an ePub.
Scarborough Fair.epub_.txt
In reply to Here's a calibre conversion… by yonah_ag
Wow. I deleted the _.txt and it opened, looks fine.
What I have is 6 volumes, each with about 600 pgs of MuseScore exported as PDF - (banjo, bass, guitar, mando, uke tabs - one with notation) - supplements for my music ed book.
DS
In reply to Wow. I deleted the _.txt and… by DS-GBT
You would need the pages as .PNG images to use this calibre method.
You can explore the structure of the ePub file by changing the extension to .zip. You will see what a simple structure it is and why I thought that a plugin could build one. There is only 1 critical element and that is the mimetype file which must be the first file in the zip archive and must be uncompressed and unencrypted.