Best Settings for PDFMate eBook Converter Professional to Preserve Formatting
1. Input preparation
- Clean source PDF: remove unnecessary headers/footers and crop margins in a PDF editor before conversion.
- Use OCR first for scanned PDFs (ensure text layer exists).
2. Output format choice
- ePub for reflowable text (best for novels, articles).
- Mobi/AZW3 for Kindle compatibility if layout must be approximate.
- PDF output only if you need exact page layout (not reflowable).
3. Conversion profile
- Select “Keep Original Layout” when preserving exact positioning and images is critical.
- Choose “Flowing Text” (reflowable) if you want adjustable font size and better reading on different devices.
4. Page range & splitting
- Convert by page ranges for large documents to isolate problematic sections.
- Enable split by chapters (if available) to avoid formatting errors across chapter breaks.
5. Image and graphics handling
- Set image quality to high (or 300 DPI) to avoid compression artifacts.
- Preserve original image size to keep layout; scale only if file-size is a concern.
6. Font embedding & substitution
- Embed fonts when available to maintain exact typography.
- Enable font substitution fallback for missing fonts, and choose similar serif/sans-serif alternatives manually if possible.
7. TOC and metadata
- Generate or preserve Table of Contents so chapter breaks map correctly in the eBook.
- Fill metadata (title, author, language) to help reader apps render correctly.
8. Advanced text options
- Keep line breaks vs. reflow: enable reflow for natural paragraphs; disable if original line breaks are meaningful (poetry, fixed-layout docs).
- Preserve hyphenation to avoid awkward word breaks, unless your output device handles hyphenation poorly.
9. Post-conversion checks & fixes
- Preview on multiple apps/devices (Calibre viewer, Kindle Previewer, iBooks) and note formatting issues.
- Use Calibre or Sigil to edit the ePub for fine fixes (CSS adjustments, heading levels, image placement).
- Run validation (EPUBCheck) to catch structural errors.
10. Performance vs. file size
- Balance image DPI and compression to keep file size reasonable while preserving clarity.
- Strip unnecessary embedded fonts only if you accept typographic differences.
If you want, I can give a concise step-by-step preset you can apply in PDFMate for typical novels or for image-heavy textbooks.
Leave a Reply