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Groups > comp.mobile.android > #154365
| 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 19:56 +0200 |
| Message-ID | <nb28ihFpadpU5@mid.individual.net> (permalink) |
| References | (8 earlier) <112ed43$1cjg0$1@dont-email.me> <navuctFifh4U1@mid.individual.net> <112fd4t$ua0$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <nb1d07FpadoU1@mid.individual.net> <112gi25$k9h$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> |
Cross-posted to 3 groups.
On 2026-07-06 17:36, Maria Sophia wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:
>>> 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.
>
> My desktop is from 2009. It's still working well, but this stressed it. :)
>
>>> 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).
>
> My experience had been the same as yours. EPUBs are generally quite small.
> This one has tens of thousands of separate images yet very little text.
>
>>> 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).
>
> I agree that PDF isn't all that great for books in that, for me, my eyes
> aren't so great and a PDF makes you sit and stare at it to read it.
Maybe it would be easier to read in an ebook device, using epaper which
doesn't shine.
>
> I prefer to convert the (text) PDF to audio using cross platform balabolka
> freeware which then turns any (text) PDF into an audio book.
>
> It's not as good as a human reader for some books, e.g., when I converted
> Einstein's 1916 (updated in 1922) book on relativity, calculations are
> messed up when spoken by balabolka's conversion utilities.
>
> But now I'm one of the few non-physicists who understand gravity as a
> result, since I was in a compression/decompression chamber for a month.
>
> As an aside, almost nobody understands gravity. One in a million I'd bet.
> And even as I understand it to that level, there's still much I don't know.
>
>>> 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.
>
> I agree that Calibre had no problem importing the single 500MB zip file.
> It just took a long time, but Calibre didn't even blink on the contents.
>
> It's just that my circa 2009 PC runs slowly when it's time to crunch it.
>
> I've learned there's a good reason highly cross-linked documents filled
> with images and almost no text are supplied in a zip file HTML format.
>
> It's amazing how fast HTML is compared to the EPUB, although the epub has
> the distinct advantage of a fantastic search mechanism that shocked me.
>
> With EPUB, when you search, you get every instance but every line of every
> instance (much like you'd get with a (text) PDF, so that was really nice.
Yes, my kobo reader does search easily, I noticed.
>
> So if you need to search a huge 500MB HTML document containing tens of
> thousands of files, converting it to a 400MB EPUB allows that fantastic
> search, but if you need to actually navigate it, an HTML server wins out.
--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;
Back to comp.mobile.android | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll 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 Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-08 10:10 +0100
Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-08 10:32 -0400
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 Alan <nuh-uh@nope.com> - 2026-07-07 11:11 -0700
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 Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-08 11:14 -0400
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 Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> - 2026-07-08 17:51 +0000
Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-08 21:49 +0200
Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> - 2026-07-09 07:05 +0000
Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> - 2026-07-08 17:44 +0000
Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-07-09 06:09 +0100
Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-08 10:39 +0100
Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-08 10:37 +0100
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 Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-08 10:57 +0100
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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