[Athen] Converting EPUB to PDF

[Susan Kelmer]

Andi, I should have been more clear.  I download a LOT of Bookshare files.  But not very often are the “ready to go” for the student.  They need work.  Lots of work.  I can take a hard-copy PDF and convert to Word with page number and page breaks and headings intact and graphics, much more quickly than I can repair a Bookshare xml file to include all those things, and I also usually have to find a hard copy of the book so I know what it’s SUPPOSED to look like and where the page numbers are SUPPOSED to be.

Give me a PDF any day – conversion to Word is pretty much a breeze with those, with a whole lot less editing.

Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
University of Colorado Boulder
303-735-4836



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Andrea L. Dietrich
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 9:27 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Converting EPUB to PDF

My understanding is that Bookshare books DO all come available as Word documents, at this point. That said, they aren’t always useable, and do usually need at least some formatting unless the student is using them directly through Bookshare.

Usually the biggest problem I’ve run into is when a particular Bookshare book was originally uploaded without graphics, since many of the students I work with need the images as well as the text. But in a LOT of cases, especially with newer books with “Publisher Quality” copies that include all the graphics, or for books that didn’t have pictures to begin with (many works of literature, for example,) Bookshare is a great solution. I would say it’s useful FAR more than 1% of the time, for us.

-Andi :)

--------------------------
Andrea Dietrich
Cornell University
Student Disability Services
Cornell Health, Level 5
110 Ho Plaza
Ithaca, NY 14853
http://sds.cornell.edu<http://sds.cornell.edu/>

Tel. 607.254.4545
Fax. 607.255.1562

Office Hours:
Monday-Thursday 8:15AM-4:45PM
Friday 8:15AM-4:00PM

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Susan Kelmer
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 11:03 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Converting EPUB to PDF

George, this is too simplified.

Not every Bookshare book comes with a Word version.  Not every Bookshare book comes with an ePub version.  Most bookshare files I receive are atrociously edited – lack of or misplaced page numbering, no heading levels identified or headings not even there, missing sections like indexes and working table of contents, etc.

Bookshare may be making strides, but they are definitely not there yet.  We edit CAREFULLY for our students because we want them to have what they need.  99% of the time, Bookshare is not it.


Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
University of Colorado Boulder
303-735-4836


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of George Kerscher
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 8:53 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Converting EPUB to PDF

Dear Susan,

First, Bookshare is now making Word files available. There is a wide range of formats available from Bookshare. Better to just download the format you are looking for rather than going through the torture of converting these materials yourself.

Also, Bookshare is making EPUB available, which provides a rich reading experience for everybody, including persons with disabilities.

Probably more importantly, publishers are creating Born Accessible EPUB that are fully accessible. This eliminates the need to get a format that is different from what everybody else is reading.

If there is anything I can do to helpg DSO folks  provide the materials their students need, feel free to call upon me.


Best
George
George Kerscher Ph.D.
-In our Information Age, access to information is a fundamental human right.
Chief Innovations Officer, DAISY Consortium
http://www.daisy.org
Senior Advisor, Global Literacy, Benetech
http://www.benetech.org<http://secure-web.cisco.com/1kQ8BVybADspb-vXdoLLNfRxjtYtQ_PkZWRhPExj-E3Wg_v7TowgqMpK8739lwiFTkITpjsuPYS_jH6raulH2bkawPonupLdmFrwDJ5HTOUzXEewetaz1YR2y7eSgaucLQqhBHShiLooKuTsByIZL9RLZSX2hsZuezXjwlEMdjMd5sjQPNrYUXvmVjeaBSIDkbQGuLF0peIhavYGQw3KnYS-GUayZFeZ54h6focCH9vC54sSF6Ja2L4wf5IARjw7zzNzhXazrqGAep5rCttyskupRzwiiE3tyBt7k4E1FDE5FxPTP2kQyzLtbwQ2KaPqyJZEfKDtH5Cv2BguT8sLnuNrOe0jQOAzsFN7mN1nw4SKET6URR9peS_7Aec5pgbIoXQ890x326W7F2Qxm-JvFEY0t9oDPxiB5eOVbv3lMqhTCD2F7n3TdEeELf2hZR2-VZiWoW6a-QsUdGRYPs2t29A/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.benetech.org>
President, International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
http://www.idpf.org
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http://www.imls.gov
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http://www.w3c.org/wai
Phone: +1 406/549-4687
Cell:+1 406/544-2466
Email: kerscher at montana.com<mailto:kerscher at montana.com>


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Susan Kelmer
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 7:41 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Converting EPUB to PDF

Andrea, this is basically what we do with Bookshare files.  Most of my sighted students have no interest in learning to navigate a bookshare file, so we convert to word, add in page numbers and heading levels (because those do not exist or are poorly done in most bookshare files) and then convert word to PDF, or just give the student the word files.

Isn’t it amazing the hoops we jump through for your students?  This is also why I am so angry about publishers finding yet another few hoops we have to jump through to get what our students need.  Why are they making things more difficult?

Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
University of Colorado Boulder
303-735-4836



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Andrea L. Dietrich
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 7:03 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Converting EPUB to PDF

I use a free program called Calibre (also available in a “portable” version in case you don’t have the ability to install software on your computers yourself). It’s designed as a general ebook management program, but it has really good conversion capabilities. The only issues I’ve had with epub to PDF are that sometimes the conversion will divide pages in odd places, and that there are usually no original page numbers to correspond to the hard copy of the book.

Depending on your time constraints, you might want to convert the epub to .docx, add page breaks manually in Word, and then convert that file to PDF so that you can “recreate” the original publisher layout for the book, but obviously that’s more time-consuming.

Good luck!

-Andi :)

--------------------------
Andrea Dietrich
Cornell University
Student Disability Services
Cornell Health, Level 5
110 Ho Plaza
Ithaca, NY 14853
http://sds.cornell.edu<http://sds.cornell.edu/>

Tel. 607.254.4545
Fax. 607.255.1562

Office Hours:
Monday-Thursday 8:15AM-4:45PM
Friday 8:15AM-4:00PM

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Robert Spangler
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 8:54 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [Athen] Converting EPUB to PDF

Hello, is it possible to convert from EPUB to PDF and, if so, how would I go about doing it?  We distribute PDFs only to our students unless otherwise requested, but a publisher on AccessText is stating that Epub is the only option available from them.


--
Robert Spangler
Disability Services Technical Support Specialist
rspangler1 at udayton.edu<mailto:rspangler1 at udayton.edu>
Office of Learning Resources (OLR) - RL 023
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Web Site: http://go.udayton.edu/learning
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