Hi, I'm new here. I just got my Kobo Aura H2O, and figured out how to get it working right with normal epubs - mine were downloaded free from www.gutenberg.org. This fixes issues of not being able to make margins smaller, and not being able to change line spacing.
*This does not tell you how to remove the page number at bottom of page. I like having it, so I never tried to remove it.
<NOTE: I found out that epubs, due to adobe ADE, sometimes display page numbers within the text itself of the books you read, either obscuring words or popping up in the middle of sentences. This is frustrating. It happened to me on a book from gutenberg.org. I figured I would tell others before they spend a lot of time trying to get it to work. It seems there is no work around right now, if there is please let me know. I am now stuck with using kepubs, which are nice - but I would have preferred epubs since I can remove the title bar. Now I am stuck with the title bar! Frustrating, but at least the included features of the kepubs are nice.>
Here is the tutorial for getting epubs to work as best as you can, in any case.
1. Download Calibre on your computer.
2. Download your epubs from gutenberg, etc. on to your computer.
3. Open Calibre, and click top left button "add books". Select where the epubs were downloaded to and click "open" (on a Mac).
4. Hit Command-P on Mac, or Control-P on a PC (I assume), or click Prefences in the top bar, then click Preferences again.
Under Import / Export, click "Saving books to disk"
In the top left, uncheck two items - "Save cover separately" and "Save metadata in separate OPF file"
Under "Save template", you'll see this:
{author_sort}/{title}/{title} - {authors}
change it to this:
{title} - {authors}
Click Apply.
Close Preferences window.
5. Select your epub, and click the "Convert books" button near the top left of the screen.
6. Click "Look and Feel" and change "Minimum line height" to 0%
Click "Page Setup" and change "Output Profile" to Kindle Voyage. This has the same screen resolution as the Aura H2O. (You're changing the top list, leave the list on the bottom the same, on "Default Input Profile").
If you're using a different version of the Kobo, I'd assume you'd select "Kobo Reader" or whichever device has the same resolution as yours.
In the same screen towards the bottom you'll see: "Margins". Change Top and Bottom from 5pt to 0. This gives you more reading room by reducing excess extra space at the top and bottom of the display. Leave Left and Right Margins the same, at 5pt. That way the text won't be right against the sides of the display.
Click "OK"
7. Wait for conversion to finish (Wait for it to say "Jobs: 0" instead of "Jobs:1" at bottom right of screen),
Select the epub you converted. Right click and select "Save to disk", "Save only EPUB format to disk in a single directory" and select where you would like to save it to. (dropbox, to a sd card, to your documents)
OR
Click the little down arrow next to the "Save to disk" button near the top of the screen. Click "Save only EPUB format to disk in a single directory" and select where you would like to save it to.
8. Done! Now just upload/transfer epub to your Kobo! Use your usb cable, or Dropbox, or use Calibre as a server and download from there.
This allows for epubs to be formatted nicely, AND you can change the margins, line spacing, etc.
I'd like to thank these sources:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/arc.../t-158904.html
http://dearauthor.com/ebooks/getting...are-functions/
The second was especially helpful, and shows you how to use Calibre as a server (towards the bottom of the post).
*This does not tell you how to remove the page number at bottom of page. I like having it, so I never tried to remove it.
<NOTE: I found out that epubs, due to adobe ADE, sometimes display page numbers within the text itself of the books you read, either obscuring words or popping up in the middle of sentences. This is frustrating. It happened to me on a book from gutenberg.org. I figured I would tell others before they spend a lot of time trying to get it to work. It seems there is no work around right now, if there is please let me know. I am now stuck with using kepubs, which are nice - but I would have preferred epubs since I can remove the title bar. Now I am stuck with the title bar! Frustrating, but at least the included features of the kepubs are nice.>
Here is the tutorial for getting epubs to work as best as you can, in any case.
1. Download Calibre on your computer.
2. Download your epubs from gutenberg, etc. on to your computer.
3. Open Calibre, and click top left button "add books". Select where the epubs were downloaded to and click "open" (on a Mac).
4. Hit Command-P on Mac, or Control-P on a PC (I assume), or click Prefences in the top bar, then click Preferences again.
Under Import / Export, click "Saving books to disk"
In the top left, uncheck two items - "Save cover separately" and "Save metadata in separate OPF file"
Under "Save template", you'll see this:
{author_sort}/{title}/{title} - {authors}
change it to this:
{title} - {authors}
Click Apply.
Close Preferences window.
5. Select your epub, and click the "Convert books" button near the top left of the screen.
6. Click "Look and Feel" and change "Minimum line height" to 0%
Click "Page Setup" and change "Output Profile" to Kindle Voyage. This has the same screen resolution as the Aura H2O. (You're changing the top list, leave the list on the bottom the same, on "Default Input Profile").
If you're using a different version of the Kobo, I'd assume you'd select "Kobo Reader" or whichever device has the same resolution as yours.
In the same screen towards the bottom you'll see: "Margins". Change Top and Bottom from 5pt to 0. This gives you more reading room by reducing excess extra space at the top and bottom of the display. Leave Left and Right Margins the same, at 5pt. That way the text won't be right against the sides of the display.
Click "OK"
7. Wait for conversion to finish (Wait for it to say "Jobs: 0" instead of "Jobs:1" at bottom right of screen),
Select the epub you converted. Right click and select "Save to disk", "Save only EPUB format to disk in a single directory" and select where you would like to save it to. (dropbox, to a sd card, to your documents)
OR
Click the little down arrow next to the "Save to disk" button near the top of the screen. Click "Save only EPUB format to disk in a single directory" and select where you would like to save it to.
8. Done! Now just upload/transfer epub to your Kobo! Use your usb cable, or Dropbox, or use Calibre as a server and download from there.
This allows for epubs to be formatted nicely, AND you can change the margins, line spacing, etc.
I'd like to thank these sources:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/arc.../t-158904.html
http://dearauthor.com/ebooks/getting...are-functions/
The second was especially helpful, and shows you how to use Calibre as a server (towards the bottom of the post).