Question for Bremen: Kobo books vs. iBooks

[Damiensmunki]

Hi! I've just discovered this forum after becoming dissatisfied with the formatting of Kindle books when comparing with iBooks. I've noticed in several threads that you talk about buying Kobo books to use in iBooks. I've managed to strip the drm from my Kindle purchases and convert them to epub, so I'm sure stripping the Kobo drm can't be difficult. I'm curious if you've compared the formatting between Kobo books and iBooks. Is one book from Kobo basically the same file as you'd get from iBooks, only with different drm? Are epubs of the same book always the same, regardless of source? Thanks for any input!

Rob

 

[Matth3w]

You know that contacting a specific poster with a specific question would be a lot quicker to use the PM function. Otherwise he might not see the thread.

 

[Damiensmunki]

I actually typed the message as a PM and then thought someone else might benefit from the response. If he doesn't see it, I'll send a PM. Thanks.

 

[Bremen]

In the Kobo books that I have read in iBooks, the formatting was fine. The easy thing to do is get one of the free Kobo books and check it out..... that will give you a good idea of how well they will work.....

The main reason I buy from Kobo more than the others is their DRM is very easy to strip, they are already in ePub so no conversion needed, and their cost is usually lower than IBooks and equal to Kindle......

Also Kobo has a reader, but it is the buggiest app on the iPad I have ever seen.....

If Apple DRM were easy to strip (my understanding is at this point no one has cracked it yet) and their prices right I would buy from them simply for convenience sake.... but as it stands now, for me Kobo works the best....

Here is a link to free Kobo books..... http://www.kobobooks.com/lists/Free_eBooks/iAelgfsVRkeCoTvSmlCADw-1.html

If you have Python and such installed (since you strip DRM from Kindle books, I assume you do) it is pretty easy to find the scripts to liberate Adobe Digital Editions DRM, which is what Kobo uses....

 

[Matth3w]

I actually typed the message as a PM and then thought someone else might benefit from the response. If he doesn't see it, I'll send a PM. Thanks.

He found it, so all is good

 

[Bremen]

I thought I would go ahead and post how to do all this........ If this is in any way against forum policy, please delete......

THE FOLLOWING IS WINDOWS ONLY!

You need to download and install Python, pycyrpto and Adobe Digital Editions, links below....

http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/modules.shtml#pycrypto (this will give you a zip file with Python 2.6 and pycrypto)
http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/


You do all this one time, so grin and bear it….

Download and install Python and pycrypto.

Download and install Adobe Digital Editions (you will also need an account so you can “authorize” your computer) Adobe - Digital Editions

Be sure to “authorize” your computer after installing.

Put the folder with the Python scripts ineptepub http://pastie.org/pastes/751362/download and the ineptkey script http://roke-isle.blogspot.com/2010/02/ineptkeypyw-version-43.html somewhere you can get to. If the script links above do not work, you will have to do a search on the internet for the scripts. The version changes often, and putting links up is only good for a month or two.... After your computer is “authorized” run the ineptkey_v4.3 script. This will create the “key” from your authorized ADE account…. Don’t worry, if ADE is installed and authorized it will find it on your computer automatically. You only run this script this one time, then forget about it.
________________________________________________

You do this part when you buy a book from Kobo, The Sony Store, Borders or any store that uses ADE DRM.

When you click to download the book you bought, ADE will take over and download the book. When it’s done close ADE. If you go to my documents, find the folder “my digital editions” and your book will be in that folder as an ePub. At this point the book is infested with DRM and cannot be opened in anything but ADE.

Now run the “ineptepub” script. You will see it has your key already in the top space. In the input space point it to the ePub file of your book in the “my digital editions” folder. In the output box tell the where to put and what to name the new ePub file that will be liberated from the DRM. Click decript……. In about two seconds….. done!

Now find your new book, and drag and drop into iTunes, sync you iPad and now read your book in iBooks, or Stanza….or any hardware or software ePub reader on any computer and most eBook readers….. It is now truly YOUR book

 

[Damiensmunki]

Awesome! Thanks! Going to give it a try as soon as I get home. Googled the scripts really quickly, and they don't seem difficult to find. You rock, sir.

 

[Bremen]

No problem

Like I said before, try it out on a free book. The free ones are infected with DRM just like the bought ones. That way you can test it all out, and see if you like the formatting in iBooks.... hope it all works for you!

 

[Damiensmunki]

Hmmm... Something isn't working. Tried sending you a PM to request the scripts, but my post count isn't high enough.

 

[Damiensmunki]

So forgive me, but I'm going to try to get three additional posts and send you my email address.

 

[Damiensmunki]

Lookout...PM coming your way.

 

[Bremen]

Sorry, I did not realize you were on a Mac. The info in my post only applies to PC Windows. I have edited it now to state that. Sorry

 

[phenixagom]

In the Kobo books that I have read in iBooks, the formatting was fine. The easy thing to do is get one of the free Kobo books and check it out..... that will give you a good idea of how well they will work.....

The main reason I buy from Kobo more than the others is their DRM is very easy to strip, they are already in ePub so no conversion needed, and their cost is usually lower than IBooks and equal to Kindle......

Also Kobo has a reader, but it is the buggiest app on the iPad I have ever seen.....

If Apple DRM were easy to strip (my understanding is at this point no one has cracked it yet) and their prices right I would buy from them simply for convenience sake.... but as it stands now, for me Kobo works the best....

I was just looking at this and have a question. Have the pubs from Kob been exactly the same looking when used in iBooks as their iBooks counterpart? I ask because I tried using Kindle books in iBook (DRM stripped wnd converted) but it never looked the same as the iBooks book or as it looked in Kindle.

 

[Bremen]

I of course have never bought a book from the iBook store. But, you had to convert the Kindle book to an ePub.... the Kobo books are already in ePub format so I would say they will look better. Converting from one format to another is not a perfect science, it is generally better to leave in it's "native" format if possible.

 

[phenixagom]

Well an easy way is to just test free books that are on both.

Question though, I am trying to find the scripts but can't seemed to find them. Can someone send me a PM on where they are located? I did find them a awhile back when I was testing this with Kindle but now I just can't seem to find them.