Hi,
Setup is a Vario Ultra 20 and a Mac. I have a bunch of EPub files I want to put on my Vario Ultra to read as the books app on iOS is broken, and voice dream reader is not the direction I want to go.
I've converted the EPub into txt files using calibre however, I find that there are big white spaces between paragraphs which requires an annoying amount of line skipping which isn't sustainable in long reading sessions.
I've heard of BRF, but not quite sure how it works and, having tried Brail Blaster, though with an admitted lack of understanding as to how it works, the file didn't seem to do much and I'm not sure if it would solve the problem in question anyway.
I just want to be able to read a book... It seems that every way of doing it there is some little hurdle that makes it difficult or not work at all.
PS, I know BARD is an option as a reader on IOS, but I'm in the UK so can't use it.
Any suggestions to make these incredibly expensive pieces of equipment work, will be greatly appreciated. :)
Comments
Converting ePub
I use Codex to convert from ePub and there don't seem to be as many spaces.
I can help
I am a long-time user of the VarioUltra which does not have a method for skipping blank lines. I am also a long-time user of Epub files.
What I've done is written a SED script to make text files read nicely on the VarioUltra. If you are on the VarioUltra list you can reply to me directly or search its archives for my script.
As a Mac user, you can easily use Sed or any other Unix/Linux tools on the mac. I am not a mac user, so you will probably need to surf around for help using the command line in terminal on the mac. But mastering command line tools is the best way to clean up text to read on a Braille display or even if you like reading text with Alex on your Mac.
Also know that an epub is merely a zipped file. If you unzip it you will find it contains HTML which can be opened in browsers, like Chrome. This way you can read it on your Mac with Firefox say and the Braille display connected -- since I'm a Windows user, perhaps another Mac user will chime in here now I've got you started down the right road!
Where is the Vario Ultra list?
This sounds like exactly what I want. Thank you.
I'm also trying to get the battery replaced but, as is typical with assistive businesses, customer service is illusive.
unzip epub
I am aware that EPUB's are basically HTML, but how can you "unzip" them? Just for the fun of it, I changed the file extension to zip and tried to make my Mac unzip it. It complained it wasn't the right file type.
Often I'd be quite happy to get at the HTML.
Blank lines are an enemy of smooth reading, but I find there is a lot I have to modify to read on my BrailleNote Apex. Those stupid quotes they inaccurately call smart quotes are the worst. For that reason I have a list of search and replace tasks too perform and I keep trying to find better ways of doing it.
I used to be a heavy regular expression search and replace user in Kurzweil.
I'm trying to edit an Apple script to do it, but failing. I should just learn python, but I keep baulking at a language that requires correct whitespace.
Re pyton
Hopefully Ventura will help with the white space in coding aspect of this.
I also found no joy in changing the extension and trying to unzip. This would seem to be a Mac specific limitation. I will have a go at doing it via command line later today.
I'm not sure how you would…
I'm not sure how you would do it on Mac.
On windows you can just open the file in 7zip.
No need to change the extention to zip.
If I need to convert an epub I normally just use onlineconverter.com.
The problem with that site is there is a 200 MB limit for each file.
That should be fine for most files.
Ah right, I'll have a play…
Ah right, I'll have a play later.
Regarding the online conversion tools, they don't help the white space issue. I think they have the same result as calibre conversions.
It's amazing that no recent brail displays can handle the EPub format. I know the brail sense can, but that's an android machine with a brail display attached. Seems they're missing a trick here.
Even under windows,…
Even under windows, converting ePubs gives me blank lines.
Paragraphs are seperated by about three blank spaces.
So what I normally end up doing is converting them to HTML and copying the text into a blank text document.
With NVDA on windows, you need to go into focus mode to copy the text, otherwise you'r not going to get the formatting.
Jaws use to retain the formatting, but I haven't used Jaws in years, so my knowledge with that is out of date.
I don't know why NVDA doesn't retain the formatting, might have something to do with the virtual buffer.
I guess that one good thing about the mac, no virtual buffer to deal with.