Scribus Forums

Scribus => PDF Generation => Topic started by: Tee Gee on March 23, 2016, 04:24:39 PM

Title: Alternatives to PDF
Post by: Tee Gee on March 23, 2016, 04:24:39 PM
I have just finished my first book using Scribus 1.5.1 but cannot upload it in its sla. format to Lulu and Kindle.

I knew I could  use a PDF but both these publishers do not reccomend this format, particularly for e-books. so I used a pdf converter to try and get over my problem but  to no avail.

I tried the epub conversion to publish a 'printed book' as opposed to an ebook in Lulu and it will not pass the validation issue for Barnes & Noble, meaning I can't get my PDF accepted.

Is there a way to convert my sla. file to any of the following:  MS Word DOC, DOCX  or EPUB file format?

Tg
Title: Re: Alternatives to PDF
Post by: mnawij on March 24, 2016, 03:59:44 AM
My only recommendation is that of converting the pdf file to word, html, or epub which B&N accepts into their manuscript editor.

I have not used these products specifically but I have used other products (for inDesign) by these companies with pretty good results.

http://www.recosoft.com/products/pdf2officepersonal/
https://www.pdftoword.com/
http://www.nuance.com/for-business/imaging-solutions/document-conversion/power-pdf-converter/how-to/convert-pdf-to-word/index.htm

I have used these apps to convert with moderate success.

Adobe Acrobat Pro will convert it to MS Word, but you will have to do quite a bit of editing fixes afterward.  Also, InDesign will convert straight to an epub, but there is a minor learning curve to get through.  There is a 30 day trial that you could download and give it a try.

https://calibre-ebook.com    (a lot of reformatting in an epub editor), which B&N has called "manuscript editor".

I would avoid the zillion or so free 'online' conversion sites unless you know that they are a reputable company.

I wish I could be of more assistance, I too have run into this problem a few times when my 'print' customers requested that I convert their books to epub...  If there is a better answer I would love to hear it also :-)

mnawij
Title: Re: Alternatives to PDF
Post by: Nermander on March 24, 2016, 08:16:49 AM
I believe you have created your book from the wrong end.

For an e-book the format should not be page oriented but instead more of a tagged format (like HTML), since an e-book reader will want to reflow the text according to the used screen size and resolution.

Scribus is a page layout program, intended to design pages with a fixed layout, no re-flowing.

So you should have written your book in an e-pub compatible format, and THEN made the layout for print in Scribus (if you do not intend to print there is no reason to use Scribus at all).

Title: Re: Alternatives to PDF
Post by: Tee Gee on March 24, 2016, 02:09:08 PM
Thanks guys

Mnawij, I tried a couple of the products you mentioned and they worked quite well but I would have had to do quite a bit of tweaking.

Calibre would have required virtually a re-write.

Nermander, yes I was getting round to thinking I had started things the wrong way round, so perhaps I will have to go back to my previous format of using Dreamweaver.

Unless anyone one can advise me of an Epub based self publishing system I could use.

I do have the consolation that all will not be lossed as I still have all my preparatory work done, so it will be relatively easy to use elsewhere.

I would like to say that I have now  tried Scribus and I quite liked using it, despite the odd glich or two  :-\

I think I will keep it on board for a while, who know I might find other reasons to use the format.

So thanks guys for your replies it is appreciated.   Tg
Title: Re: Alternatives to PDF
Post by: Nermander on March 25, 2016, 10:53:36 AM
There is the possibility to export the text content from a Scribus document (someone has written a script for that). But all formatting will be lost.
Title: Re: Alternatives to PDF
Post by: founder on May 10, 2016, 09:50:18 AM
Quote from: Nermander on March 25, 2016, 10:53:36 AM
There is the possibility to export the text content from a Scribus document (someone has written a script for that). But all formatting will be lost.

I have written a script in Perl for this, to bring the text file to the program from http://languagetool.org