Go Books as ePub

[smartgo]

Most of the books at gobooks.com are now available as ePub. More details here:
https://smartgo.blog/2019/03/08/epubs-gobooks-com/

[RobertJasiek]

Avoiding proprietary file formats is great news for Windows users! I will install some ebook reader(s), try if the samples work and, if they do, finally buy what I did not buy before because of the Apple-limited ecosystem.

[hyperpape]

Am I remembering correctly that SmartGo just uses SGF, and embeds the book related metadata in SGF attributes that it knows how to handle?

[smartgo]

Am I remembering correctly that SmartGo just uses SGF, and embeds the book related metadata in SGF attributes that it knows how to handle?

I did that for the first 20 books, but it was too cumbersome and error-prone, as the SGF tree structure didn't match the more linear structure of a book. Since then, I'm using my .gobook format, as described here: https://smartgo.com/pdf/gobookformat.pdf

To create the ePub, I read that .gobook format and write it out as an ePub, which is a zipped collection of HTML with a specific structure and added information, plus some JavaScript for the interactive parts. The diagrams are done using SVG so that they scale properly.

[gowan]

I tried reading a couple of samples using whatever my Windows 10 default reader is (Edge?) and it was readable but the numbers on the stones were off center and just a little bit difficult to read. I didn't try theother things.

[smartgo]

I tried reading a couple of samples using whatever my Windows 10 default reader is (Edge?) and it was readable but the numbers on the stones were off center and just a little bit difficult to read.

Yes, Edge has a bug that causes the numbers to be off-center. On Windows, I would recommend calibre. Not perfect, but works better.

[TerryMulhern]

Edge is terrible indeed. It was a nightmare for me. Any other sources (recommendations) for Windows? Besides Calibre.
Thanks

[smartgo]

Any other sources (recommendations) for Windows? Besides Calibre.

I tried a bunch of ePub readers on Windows last year, and they were generally pretty bad. I'd love to hear that I missed some good ePub readers in my search, but it seems that there is definitely room for a well-designed ePub reader that handles JavaScript, on both Windows and Android. You could try Readium on Chrome and epub.js; however, those require more setup.

Any specific reason why you're looking for alternatives to calibre?