Ebook2Text

Overview

This Python script provides functionality for converting various ebook file formats (EPUB, DOCX, PDF, TXT) into a standardized text format. The script processes each file, identifying chapters, and replaces chapter headers with asterisks. It also performs OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for image-based text using a vision-capable AI model and standardizes the text by converting smart punctuation.

Features

• File Format Support: Handles EPUB, DOCX, PDF, and TXT formats.
• Chapter Identification: Detects and marks chapter breaks.
• OCR Capability: Converts text from images using OCR.
• Multiple AI Providers: OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic, and OpenRouter.
• Text Standardization: Replaces smart punctuation with ASCII equivalents.

Requirements

To run this script, you need Python 3.10 or above and the following packages:

• bs4
• ebooklib-autoupdate
• pdfminer.six
• pillow
• python-docx
• python-dotenv
• openai

The OpenAI SDK is a core dependency and also serves OpenRouter. Gemini and Anthropic need optional extras:

pip install ebook2text[gemini]     # Google Gemini
pip install ebook2text[anthropic]  # Anthropic Claude
pip install ebook2text[all]        # both

AI provider configuration

OCR runs through one of four providers, selected by environment variable. See .env.sample for a complete template.

Variable	Purpose	Default
OCR_PROVIDER	openai, gemini, anthropic, or openrouter	openai
OCR_MODEL	Model name for the chosen provider	falls back to OPENAI_MODEL
OCR_MAX_TOKENS	Maximum tokens in the OCR response	1000
OPENAI_API_KEY / GEMINI_API_KEY / ANTHROPIC_API_KEY / OPENROUTER_API_KEY	API key for the selected provider	—

API keys and models are read the first time an image is actually processed, so importing the library and converting text-only books requires no configuration at all.

To choose a provider programmatically instead, pass one to convert_file:

from ebook2text import convert_file, get_ocr_provider

provider = get_ocr_provider(provider="anthropic", model="claude-haiku-4-5")
text = convert_file(
    file_path, metadata, save_file=False, ocr_provider=provider
)

Any object with a perform_ocr(base64_images: list[str]) -> str method satisfies the OCRProvider protocol, so you can supply your own implementation.

Usage

1. Ensure all dependencies are installed.
2. Set your environment variables for the AI provider (see above).
3. Run convert_file from the convert_file module with the path to the ebook file and a metadata dictionary with keys of 'title' and 'author' as arguments.

• set save_file to False, if you want a string returned.
• set save_file to True or leave blank, and provide a Path object to save_path to use a custom output filename.
• set save_file to True or leave blank, and leave save_path blank for the output text file to be saved with the same base name as the input file name, in the same directory.

Example

from pathlib import Path
from ebook2text.convert_file import convert_file

metadata = {"title": "My Ebook", "author": "John Doe"}
file_path = Path("my_ebook.epub")

# Convert and save to a file
convert_file(file_path, metadata, save_file=True, save_path=Path("output.txt"))

# Convert and return as a string
text = convert_file(file_path, metadata, save_file=False)
print(text)

Functions

convert_file

Converts an ebook file to a standardized text format.

Location ebook2text.convert_file.py

Signature: convert_file(file_path: Path, metadata: dict, *, save_file: bool = True, save_path: Path | None = None, ocr_provider: OCRProvider | None = None) -> str | None

Arguments:

• file_path: Path to the input file. Must include the file extension.
• metadata: Dictionary containing the book's title and author.
• save_file: Boolean flag. If True, saves the converted text to a file; otherwise, returns it as a string. Defaults to True.
• save_path: Optional path to save the output file. Defaults to a generated name in the input file's directory.
• ocr_provider: Optional OCR provider for image text extraction. Defaults to the provider configured by environment variables.

Returns:

• If save_file is True: Returns None.
• If save_file is False: Returns the converted text as a string.

Raises:

• ValueError: If the file type is unsupported.

initialize_pdf_converter

Initializes a PDFConverter instance for handling PDF files.

Location: ebook2_text.pdf_converter

Signature: initialize_pdf_converter(file_path: Path, metadata: dict, ocr_provider: OCRProvider | None = None) -> PDFConverter

Arguments:

• file_path: Path to the PDF file to be processed.
• metadata: Dictionary containing title and author.
• ocr_provider: Optional OCR provider. Defaults to the environment-configured provider.

Returns:

• A PDFConverter instance configured for the provided PDF file and metadata.

convert_pdf

Convenience function for reading and processing a PDF file, splitting its content into chapters.

Location: ebook2_text.pdf_converter

Signature:

convert_pdf(file_path: Path, metadata: dict, ocr_provider: OCRProvider | None = None) -> Generator[str, None, None]

Arguments:

• file_path: Path to the PDF file to be processed.
• metadata: Dictionary containing title and author.
• ocr_provider: Optional OCR provider. Defaults to the environment-configured provider.

Yields:

• Strings representing parsed text from each page of the PDF.

Raises:

• PDFConversionError: Any errors related to bad PDF's or IO errors. Subtype of EbookConversionError

convert_pdf Example

from pathlib import Path
from ebook2text.pdf_converter import convert_pdf

metadata = {"title": "Sample PDF", "author": "Jane Doe"}
file_path = Path("sample.pdf")

# Iterate through parsed content
for page_content in convert_pdf(file_path, metadata):
    print(page_content)

initialize_epub_converter

Initializes a EpubConverter instance for handling Epub files.

Location: ebook2_text.epub_converter

Signature: initialize_epub_converter(file_path: Path, metadata: dict, ocr_provider: OCRProvider | None = None) -> EpubConverter

Arguments:

• file_path: Path to the Epub file to be processed.
• metadata: Dictionary containing title and author.
• ocr_provider: Optional OCR provider. Defaults to the environment-configured provider.

Returns:

• A EpubConverter instance configured for the provided Epub file and metadata.

convert_epub

Convenience function for reading and processing a Epub file, splitting its content into chapters.

Location: ebook2_text.epub_converter

Signature:

convert_epub(file_path: Path, metadata: dict, ocr_provider: OCRProvider | None = None) -> Generator[str, None, None]

Arguments:

• file_path: Path to the Epub file to be processed.
• metadata: Dictionary containing title and author.
• ocr_provider: Optional OCR provider. Defaults to the environment-configured provider.

Yields:

• Strings representing parsed text from each page of the Epub.

Raises:

• EpubConversionError: Any errors related to bad Epub's or IO errors. Subtype of EbookConversionError

convert_epub Example

from pathlib import Path
from ebook2text.epub_converter import convert_epub

metadata = {"title": "Sample Epub", "author": "Jane Doe"}
file_path = Path("sample.epub")

# Iterate through parsed content
for page_content in convert_epub(file_path, metadata):
    print(page_content)

initialize_docx_converter

Initializes a DocxConverter instance for handling Docx files.

Location: ebook2_text.docx_converter

Signature: initialize_docx_converter(file_path: Path, metadata: dict, ocr_provider: OCRProvider | None = None) -> DocxConverter

Arguments:

• file_path: Path to the Docx file to be processed.
• metadata: Dictionary containing title and author.
• ocr_provider: Optional OCR provider. Defaults to the environment-configured provider.

Returns:

• A DocxConverter instance configured for the provided Docx file and metadata.

convert_docx

Convenience function for reading and processing a Docx file, splitting its content into chapters.

Location: ebook2_text.docx_converter

Signature:

convert_docx(file_path: Path, metadata: dict, ocr_provider: OCRProvider | None = None) -> Generator[str, None, None]

Arguments:

• file_path: Path to the Docx file to be processed.
• metadata: Dictionary containing title and author.
• ocr_provider: Optional OCR provider. Defaults to the environment-configured provider.

Yields:

• Strings representing parsed text from each page of the Docx.

Raises:

• DocxConversionError: Any errors related to bad Docx's or IO errors. Subtype of EbookConversionError

convert_docx Example

from pathlib import Path
from ebook2text.docx_converter import convert_docx

metadata = {"title": "Sample Docx", "author": "Jane Doe"}
file_path = Path("sample.docx")

# Iterate through parsed content
for page_content in convert_docx(file_path, metadata):
    print(page_content)

Contributing

Contributions to this project are welcome. Please use Ruff for formatting to ensure that your code follows the existing style for consistency, and follow the ProsePal Open Source Contributor's Code of Contact.

TODO

• Increase test coverage
  • Tests for text converter
  • More edge cases and failure states
• Better handling of ebooklib dependency
• Explore additional filetypes
• Other options for determining filetype

License

This project is licensed by ProsePal LLC under the MIT license