Publicant is a simple to use python library for generating ePub and mobi documents from text and html content. Mobi files are generated using a binary provided by Amazon.
from publicant import Publicant
# Simple, single chapter ePub and mobi
content = """
<h3>Publicant is neat!</h3>
<p>I should have started using this a long time ago, it's quite simple to use!</p>
"""
pub = Publicant(
title = 'Praises For Publicant',
chapters = [content,])
pub.write_epub()
# Specify a filepath
pub.write_mobi('simple.mobi')- Python 2.7+
- kindlegen for mobi generation
Things to consider:
Allow for configuration of where the kindlegen binary is. I think it'd be best to check if an environment variable is present, and default to a PATH lookup if it's not set. Something like
kindlegen_bin = os.environ.get('KINDLEGEN_BIN', 'kindlegen')We also want to allow for configuration of all the possible flags for kindlegen. I imagine something simple like so:
kindlegen_defaults = {
"compression": 1,
"foo": "bar",
}
pub.kindlegen_options = {
"compression": 0,
}
# inside Publicant, wherever the mobi actually gets created
def generate_mobi(self, blah):
options = kindlegen_defaults.update(self.kindlegen_options)
self.call_the_damn_binary(options)Creating an ePub and mobi is really just sticking the right things into the right templates. Do we want to rely on a templating engine like jinja or just roll with simple python string formatting with static loading of basic templates? The templates we will need are:
For Kindle, multi-chapter:
- book.ncx
- book.opf
- content.html
- cover.html
- toc.html
single chapter:
- article.html
- article.ncx
- article.opf
- toc.html
For epub:
- content.html
- content.opf
- cover.html
- index.html
- toc.ncx