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Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files

From "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Newsgroups comp.mobile.android, alt.os.linux, alt.comp.os.windows-10
Subject Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files
Date 2026-07-06 12:05 +0200
Message-ID <nb1d07FpadoU1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References (6 earlier) <112dnb9$143vq$1@dont-email.me> <navhfjFgthuU1@mid.individual.net> <112ed43$1cjg0$1@dont-email.me> <navuctFifh4U1@mid.individual.net> <112fd4t$ua0$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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On 2026-07-06 07:06, Maria Sophia wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> Calibre is also capable of viewing the ZIP file directly,
>> but it calls firefox to do the actual viewing.
> 
> Hi Carlos,
> 
> I fed my 500MB zip file into Calibre and told it to convert it to an EPUB,
> which took a few hours on my 2009 Windows 10 PC, but it worked beautifully.

Wow. My laptop took a few seconds, but it was just a 2.5 MiB zip.

> 
> The resulting EPUB file was 400MB so it took a while for Calibre to load it
> the first time (due to all the caching that Calibre does on first loading).
> 

I have never seen an epub that big. In my case, the book that I tested 
with can be purchased in epub format. Possibly the epub is available on 
the emule network or such (for testing, of course).

> When I looked at the file inside of Thorium, I got an appreciation for why
> HTML is an excellent medium, as there were tens of thousands of connected
> pages and images, where an EPUB can handle it, but it's slow as all hell.
> 
> Since the EPUB itself was 400MB, I didn't even bother copying to Android.
> If it's slow on Windows, it's likely gonna be even slower on Android.
> 
> The HTML is, by way of contrast, is virtually instant when clicking about.
> 
> When I tried to convert the EPUB to a PDF, Calibre failed (with what seemed
> like memory errors) after about an hour or two, so I gave up on the PDF.

I don't like PDF for books, because it doesn't flow the text. It is 
fixed size. You need a display that matches the design size and 
resolution (or better).

> 
> Looking into my c:\app\editor\epub directory, these seem to be most common
> cross platform EPUB readers, where I've sorted by large file handling.
>   thorium
>    most stable & fastest for huge image-heavy epubs like textbooks
>   calibre
>    most powerful for conversion & repair of image-heavy epubs
>   redium desktop
>    sibling of thorium but less polished than thorium
>   okular
>    KDE document viewer with medium-level EPUB support via plugins
>   hamster
>    best for small epubs
>   lucidor
>    best for very small epubs
>   fbreader
>    suitable for smaller epubs
>   adobe digital editions
>    not suitable as the epub engine is old and fragile
>   sumatra pdf
>    fast for small epubs
> 
> In summary, for certain kinds of references (such as highly cross-linked
> highly imaged technical manuals and textbooks), a zip HTML is likely ideal.

Seeing that calibre imports the html directory as a zip file, it is 
possible that there is software out there that directly renders readable 
those ZIP files. Or even hardware.

-- 
Cheers,
        Carlos E.R.
        ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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Thread

How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 18:40 -0400
  Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 21:17 -0400
    Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 21:48 -0400
      Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 22:51 -0400
        Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 23:57 -0400
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 23:13 -0600
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 13:29 +0200
            Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-07-05 14:48 +0100
              Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 10:06 -0600
              Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 19:10 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2026-07-05 17:37 +0000
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-07-05 21:00 +0100
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 22:50 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 23:06 -0600
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 12:05 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 12:24 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-06 10:28 -0600
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 19:50 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-06 09:36 -0600
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 19:56 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-07-06 07:58 +0100
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 12:12 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 15:12 -0600
        Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-07-06 17:53 +0200
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-06 10:47 -0600
      Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-07-05 08:35 +0100
        Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 10:38 -0600
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-07-05 18:22 +0100
            Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 12:16 -0600
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 19:41 +0200
            Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 12:54 -0600
              Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 23:11 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 15:23 -0600
  Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-07-06 17:48 +0200

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