Where a PDF export gets its fonts
Where a PDF export gets its fonts has a plain answer: this browser looks at the characters that appear in the book, reads the fonts it needs from this site, and writes those characters into a new PDF. When you use EPUB to PDF on ReadyEPUB, what comes in is a font, not your whole book going somewhere else to be typeset. The work happens in the browser you opened. What you download is a new file this device has just made. Book files are not uploaded to ReadyEPUB. There is no sign-in, no registration, and no account server that collects books.
The file you pass on is the one you downloaded. The original EPUB is still in its folder unless you move or delete it yourself. This page takes one file at a time. A result you have not downloaded lives only in this visit; refresh or close the page and it is gone. The sample on the page is a short passage made right here in this browser so you can try one conversion. It is not a book fetched from somewhere else. If the sample goes through PDF, it reads fonts from this site too.
What is read in is a font from this site. What is not uploaded is your book. What you download is a new file made in this browser.
Fonts follow the characters in the book
This step decides which font to read by looking only at the characters used in the book, then writes that font into the new PDF. The book title, the author, and the language code are written into the new PDF as well. If the font does not come through on this pass, this pass cannot finish, and the page says: This one did not convert. Try another file. Check that the page loads, then try another file; do not assume the book has been sent off to be worked on elsewhere. How files are handled draws the same line: book files are not uploaded to ReadyEPUB, there is no account here, and exporting a PDF reads a font.
Opening the page is the other thing that touches the network. This visit is counted by 51.LA, and what is counted is a page being opened, not your EPUB and not the PDF you downloaded. Do not turn "the book is not uploaded" into "this computer never goes online". The page has to load, the fonts have to be read in for a PDF export, and the visit has to be counted once. None of those three is your book's text being uploaded to ReadyEPUB. The fonts come from this site. That is not a server doing your typesetting, and you do not need to know which font file was used.
Fonts are read in from this site and written into the copy you download. The book stays in this browser.
What goes into the new PDF
When an EPUB is turned into a PDF, this browser writes the text out page by page, and the fonts go into the new file along with that text. PNG and JPG pictures with readable width and height are written into the new file. Other pictures this browser can draw are drawn to PNG first and then written in; a picture it cannot draw is skipped. SVG data addresses are not accepted. Chapter titles go in with the text. The title, author, and language code are details written into the new PDF, not edits to the original in your folder.
- Text is written page by page, and chapter titles come along with it.
- PNG and JPG with readable dimensions go into the new file; other drawable pictures become PNG first.
- A picture that cannot be drawn is skipped, and SVG data addresses are not accepted.
The other direction, from PDF
Going from PDF to EPUB, what you can take is the text you can already select in the PDF. If a scanned page is only a picture, its words cannot be picked up. There is no recognition step here, and a scanned book does not quietly become editable text. A complicated layout is folded into paragraphs. Columns, running headers, and footnotes do not go back where they were. Over 300 pages and the page says: This file has too many pages for one pass in the browser.
The converter takes one file at a time. Over 40 MB and the page says: This file is over 40 MB, so this browser cannot take it. That is not a server refusing the file; this page simply does not take a larger one. If the extension does not match, it says: Choose a EPUB file. If there is no body text to convert, it says: This file has no text that can be converted. All of those lines come from this page, not from a judgement sent back by somewhere else.
The book title, author, and language code can be edited before converting. When the file is dropped in, details the browser can read are used to fill the fields you have not touched; a field you edited is not overwritten. What you change is the copy about to be downloaded, not the original in your folder. Download anything you want to keep: refresh or close the page and an undownloaded result is gone. The original stays in its folder unless you move or delete it yourself.
When an EPUB is sent out, chapter titles carry over into PDF, HTML, plain text, Markdown, and FB2, but each format keeps different things. Plain text keeps paragraphs, and pictures do not turn into a line of words. Markdown marks headings with symbols. FB2 uses its own chapter structure. HTML keeps headings and paragraphs, while scripts and styles do not come along. Every one of these is a new file rewritten locally by this browser, not the original EPUB with a different name.
Three things to check before you send it
- Did the font come through? If the page says: This one did not convert. Try another file. then try another file.
- Is the EPUB over 40 MB, and does the extension match the format you chose?
- Have you downloaded the result you want to keep? Refresh or close the page and an undownloaded copy is gone.
If you have not put a book in yet, go back to the converter, drop the EPUB in, and open EPUB to PDF. Read How files are handled first if you want the file boundary. One file at a time, and download as soon as it is done. The Journal will go on to DOCX headings and pictures, Markdown marks, and how a comic archive becomes one picture per page.
What you send is the copy you downloaded. The other person gets a new file, not a copy stored at ReadyEPUB, because ReadyEPUB has not kept your book. The fonts are already inside that PDF, so the page does not need to read them again after you close it. The original is still yours to keep. To convert once more, open this page again and pick the file from your own folder.