ebukafy

A collection of tools used to convert html or text files into ebooks.

Installation

npm install ebukafy --save

Usage

ebukafy [-hv] command [args ...]

To use ebukafy look at the list of commands/tools in the Tools section below. The arguments needed change based on the command.

Normal use of ebukafy would look something like this:

1. Download some html that you want to convert into an ebook with a tool like wget
2. Run ebukafy create-skeleton to create a skeleton of an epub directory
3. Put the downloaded html into the EPUB/text directory of the skeleton
4. Since most html files online will have a bunch of cruft at the beginning of the book, at the end of the book, and between the chapters, remove everything that you won't need. You essentially just want to keep all the paragraph tags: the actual text of the book
5. Run ebukafy split to split the big html file into multiple files with correct headers
6. You can use ebukafy smarten-quotes to convert any straight quotes to curly/smart quotes
7. After all the xhtml files in the EPUB/text directory are as you want them to be, run ebukafy generate-manifest and ebukafy generate-spine to populate the manifest and spine tags in the content.opf file. While the manifest should be good as is, the spine needs to be reordered in reading order, not alphabetical as is the default (more info in the generate-spine README). This is also a good time to add any extra metadata you might find useful in the metadata tag of the content.opf file. Here are some examples of what you can add
8. Run ebukafy generate-toc to generate the table of contents from the spine done in the previous step
9. Optionally replace the cover image. The one provided in the skeleton is just an all black 1400 x 2100 jpg. To change it just replace the cover in the EPUB/images directory. Keep the name as cover.jpg or manually edit content.opf if you know what you're doing
10. After everything is done run ebukafy build to build this epub folder into an actual epub file
11. Before reading, run ebukafy epubcheck to make sure everything within the epub is up to the specification of the epub standard and fix any errors
12. To read on a kobo or kindle please use a tool like Calibre to convert the book to the appropriate format (kepub and azw3 respectively)

Tools

Note that to run any of these tools you need to precede them with ebukafy (e.g. if you want to run create-skeleton, you need to run ebukafy create-skeleton).

• ebukafy build

  NAME
       build -- builds the epub directory into an epub file
  
  SYNOPSIS
       build [-h] [-o output_file] epub_directory
  
  DESCRIPTION
       This tool builds the epub directory into an actual epub file. Ignoring
       a few important details, this is essentially done by zipping up 
       the folder. Additionally, this updates the mandatory 'dcterms:modified'
       value in the content.opf file.
  
       The options are as follows:
  
       -h       Display usage statement. 
   
       -o       Optional. Set the outputed epub to be called something
                other than 'output.epub', which is the default.
  
  EXAMPLES
       Note that the 'epub directory' is actually the parent directory of the
       'EPUB' directory. In other words, the command should be run in this
       directory:
       
       epub-directory/
          mimetype
          META-INF/
            container.xml
          EPUB/
            [etc]
  
       To build just go into 'epub-directory' and run 
       
            build -o homer_the-odyssey.epub .
  

• ebukafy create-skeleton

  NAME
       create-skeleton -- creates a skeleton epub directory
  
  SYNOPSIS
       create-skeleton [-h] [-a author] [-u uid] -l language -t title 
       target_directory
  
  DESCRIPTION
       This tool creates a new skeleton of an epub directory at target_directory
       The contents of this skeleton folder can be found at the GitHub 
       repository. According to the epub standard the uid, title, and language
       are all required. Including the author is just good practice.
  
       The options are as follows:
  
       -h       Display usage statement. 
   
       -a       Optional. Set the author of the book. 
  
       -u       Optional. Set uid manually. If not set, it will be
                randomly generated. A uid is mandatory according to the
                epub standard.
  
       -l       Set the language of the book. This should be the IANA language
                tag. If you don't know the tag for a language look up 'IANA 
                Language Subtag Registry'.
  
       -t       Set the title of the book.
  
  EXAMPLES
       To create an epub skeleton in the current working directory you can run
       
            create-skeleton -a Homer -l grc -t 'The Odyssey' .
  
       Note the '' around the title since it's two words.
  

• ebukafy epubcheck

  NAME
       epubcheck -- checks for any errors regarding the epub specification
  
  SYNOPSIS
       epubcheck [-h] target_epub
  
  DESCRIPTION
       epubcheck is a tool which 'validates the conformance of EPUB 
       publications against the EPUB specifications.' The GitHub repository
       for epubcheck can be found here: https://github.com/w3c/epubcheck
       Note that this tool is written in java so you need java to run it.
       It will output any errors or just say that your epub is up to standard.
  
       The options are as follows:
  
       -h       Display usage statement. 
  
  EXAMPLES
       To check if your epub conforms to the epub standards just run
       
            epubcheck homer_the-odyssey.epub
  

• ebukafy generate-manifest

  NAME
       generate-manifest -- generates the manifest part of the content.opf file
  
  SYNOPSIS
       generate-manifest [-hi] epub_directory
  
  DESCRIPTION
       This tool generates the manifest part of the content.opf file. It goes
       through the text, css, and images folders and the toc.ncx and toc.xhtml
       files and adds them as items between the two manifest tags. Without the
       'i' option it just prints it to stdout. With the 'i' option it
       replaces the manifest in-place.
  
       The options are as follows:
  
       -h       Display usage statement. 
  
       -i       Instead of outputting the manifest into stdout, it overwrites
                the manifest in the actual content.opf file, in-place.
  
  EXAMPLES
       Note that the 'epub directory' is actually the parent directory of the
       'EPUB' directory. In other words, the command should be run in this
       directory:
       
       epub-directory/
          mimetype
          META-INF/
            container.xml
          EPUB/
            [etc]
  
       To generate the manifest just go into 'epub-directory' and run 
       
            generate-manifest -i .
  

• ebukafy generate-spine

  NAME
       generate-spine -- generates the spine part of the content.opf file
  
  SYNOPSIS
       generate-spine [-hi] epub_directory
  
  DESCRIPTION
       This tool generates the spine part of the content.opf file. It does
       this simply by going through the text folder. Without the 'i' option
       it just prints it to stdout. With the 'i' option it replaces 
       the spine in-place.
  
       NOTE: You will most likely want to manually reorder the spine. By 
       default it will order the spine in alphabetical order. So, for example,
       'chapter-10.xhtml' will come before 'chapter-2.xhtml'. However, 
       the spine needs to be in the order that the book is supposed to be read,
       so 'chapter-2.xhtml' should come before 'chapter-10.xhtml'.
  
       The options are as follows:
  
       -h       Display usage statement. 
  
       -i       Instead of outputting the spine into stdout, it overwrites
                the spine in the actual content.opf file, in-place.
  
  EXAMPLES
       Note that the 'epub directory' is actually the parent directory of the
       'EPUB' directory. In other words, the command should be run in this
       directory:
       
       epub-directory/
          mimetype
          META-INF/
            container.xml
          EPUB/
            [etc]
  
       To generate the spine just go into 'epub-directory' and run 
       
            generate-spine -i .
  
       And don't forget to manually reorder it into reading order!
  

• ebukafy generate-toc

  NAME
       generate-toc -- generates the toc.ncx and toc.xhtml files
  
  SYNOPSIS
       generate-toc [-hio] epub_directory
  
  DESCRIPTION
       This tool generates toc.ncx and toc.xhtml files. Without the 'i'
       option it just prints it to stdout. With the 'i' option it replaces 
       the files in-place. This command looks at the <spine> tag in the
       content.opf file so make sure to run generate-spine before generating
       the table of contents.
  
       NOTE: The titles of each chapter are set as whatever is in the <title>
       tag. If the <title> tag is not present, the toc will simply say
       "MISSING TITLE".
  
       The options are as follows:
  
       -h       Display usage statement. 
  
       -i       Instead of outputting the toc into stdout, it overwrites
                the tocs in the toc.xhtml and toc.ncx files, in-place.
  
  EXAMPLES
       Note that the 'epub directory' is actually the parent directory of the
       'EPUB' directory. In other words, the command should be run in this
       directory:
       
       epub-directory/
          mimetype
          META-INF/
            container.xml
          EPUB/
            [etc]
  
       You can generate the toc files like so:
       
            generate-toc -i .
  
       And make sure that the spine in the content.opf file is complete
       before you run generate-toc!
  

• ebukafy smarten-quotes

  NAME
       smarten-quotes -- convert straight quotes to smart quotes
  
  SYNOPSIS
       smarten-quotes [-h] target_file ...
  
  DESCRIPTION
       Online transcriptions often use straight quotes since they're easier
       to type on the keyboard. However, books look bad if you just use
       straight quotes so this tool, for purposes of better typography, allows 
       you to convert them to smart quotes (aka curly quotes). Note that this
       tool looks specifically between <p> tags, so if you have any quotes
       outside of a <p> tag that you want to smarten, you will have to do so
       manually.
         Also, if your book is in a language with a different quote system 
       you can first use this tool to convert them to the standard english 
       ones and then do a search and replace to your language's quotes 
       („…“, «…», »…«, etc.) using a tool like sed.
  
       The options are as follows:
  
       -h       Display usage statement. 
  
  EXAMPLES
       Say you have a bunch of text files in the text/ folder. You can use
       this tool like so:
  
            ebukafy smarten-quotes EPUB/text/*
  

• ebukafy split

  NAME
       split -- split file at every '<!--split-->' into separate files
  
  SYNOPSIS
       split [-h] target_file
  
  DESCRIPTION
       This tool splits a file at every '<!--split-->' into chapter-n.xhtml, 
       where n is just an index starting at 1. Oftentimes you start making
       your ebook with a gigantic text/html file. It is much better practice 
       to split your file into separate chapters. This tool will also put in
       the appropriate header information into each chapter-n.xhtml file
       such as the chapter's roman numeral.
  
       The options are as follows:
  
       -h       Display usage statement. 
  
  EXAMPLES
       Say you have a file like this and you put in the splits like so
  
            foofoo
            <!--split-->
            barbar
            <!--split-->
            bazbaz
  
       This will result in three files, chapter-1.xhtml to chapter-3.xhtml.
       Besides the header, the content of chapter-1.xhtml will be 'foofoo',
       the content of chapter-2.xhtml will be 'barbar', and the content of
       chapter-3.xhtml will be 'bazbaz'. The best way to see exactly what
       this does is to try it with an example such as the one above.