TEPUB - Tools for EPUB

Transform EPUB books into translations, audiobooks, and web pages – automatically.

TEPUB is a comprehensive toolkit for processing EPUB files. Translate books into any language, create professional audiobooks with natural voices, export to markdown, or publish as interactive websites.

Features

📖 Translation

• Multi-language support: Translate to/from any language
• AI-powered: OpenAI GPT-4, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, xAI Grok, DeepL, or Ollama
• Dual output modes:
  • Bilingual: Original and translation side-by-side (perfect for learning)
  • Translation-only: Professional translated edition
• Smart processing: Auto-skip front/back matter, parallel translation, resume capability

🎧 Audiobook Creation

• Dual TTS providers:
  • Edge TTS (Free): 57+ voices in multiple languages, no API key required
  • OpenAI TTS (Premium): 6 high-quality voices with superior naturalness
• Professional output: M4A format with chapter markers and embedded cover art
• Chapter management: Export, edit, and update chapter titles and timestamps
• Flexible control: Adjustable speed, voice selection, resume support
• Cost: Free with Edge TTS, or ~$11-22 per 300-page book with OpenAI TTS

📱 Export Formats

• Web: Interactive HTML viewer with live translation toggle
• Markdown: Plain text with preserved formatting and images
• EPUB: Bilingual or translation-only editions

Quick Start

Installation

Automatic (Mac/Linux)

git clone https://github.com/xiaolai/tepub.git
cd tepub
./install.sh
source .venv/bin/activate

Manual (All platforms)

git clone https://github.com/xiaolai/tepub.git
cd tepub
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate    # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .[dev]

See INSTALL.md for detailed platform-specific instructions.

Translation Setup

1. Get an API key from your preferred provider:

• OpenAI (Recommended: GPT-4, ~$0.50-2.00/book)
• Anthropic (Claude, great for literature)
• Ollama (Free, runs locally)

2. Configure TEPUB:

# Create .env file with your API key
echo 'OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here' > .env

Basic Usage

Translate a book:

tepub extract mybook.epub
tepub translate mybook.epub --to "Simplified Chinese"
tepub export mybook.epub --epub

Create audiobook (Free Edge TTS):

tepub extract mybook.epub
tepub audiobook generate mybook.epub
# Interactive voice selection will appear

Create audiobook (Premium OpenAI TTS):

tepub audiobook generate mybook.epub --tts-provider openai --voice nova
# Requires OPENAI_API_KEY in environment

All-in-one pipeline:

tepub pipeline mybook.epub --to Spanish --epub

Common Tasks

Translation

Translate to different languages:

tepub pipeline book.epub --to "Simplified Chinese" --epub
tepub pipeline book.epub --to Spanish --epub
tepub pipeline book.epub --to French --epub

Choose translation provider:

tepub translate book.epub --to Spanish --provider anthropic
tepub translate book.epub --to Spanish --provider ollama

Translation-only output (smaller file):

tepub export book.epub --epub --output-mode translated-only

Audiobooks

Edge TTS (Free, 57+ voices):

# Interactive voice selection
tepub audiobook generate book.epub

# Specify voice directly
tepub audiobook generate book.epub --voice en-US-GuyNeural    # Male
tepub audiobook generate book.epub --voice en-US-JennyNeural  # Female
tepub audiobook generate book.epub --voice en-GB-RyanNeural   # British

# See all voices
edge-tts --list-voices

OpenAI TTS (Premium, 6 voices):

# Standard quality (tts-1)
tepub audiobook generate book.epub --tts-provider openai --voice nova

# Higher quality (tts-1-hd)
tepub audiobook generate book.epub --tts-provider openai --tts-model tts-1-hd --voice nova

# Adjust speed
tepub audiobook generate book.epub --tts-provider openai --voice nova --tts-speed 1.2

# Available OpenAI voices:
# - alloy: Neutral, balanced
# - echo: Male, authoritative
# - fable: British, expressive
# - onyx: Deep male, professional
# - nova: Female, friendly
# - shimmer: Female, warm

Custom cover image:

tepub audiobook generate book.epub --cover-path ~/Pictures/mycover.jpg

Chapter management:

# Preview chapter structure before generating audiobook
tepub audiobook export-chapters book.epub
# Edit chapters.yaml to customize chapter titles
tepub audiobook generate book.epub  # Uses custom titles from chapters.yaml

# Extract chapters from existing audiobook
tepub audiobook export-chapters audiobook.m4a

# Update audiobook with edited chapter markers
tepub audiobook update-chapters audiobook.m4a chapters.yaml

Export

Create web version:

tepub export book.epub --web
# Opens browser with interactive viewer

Export to markdown:

tepub extract book.epub
# Markdown files created automatically in: book/markdown/

Configuration

TEPUB uses a two-level configuration system:

Global Config: ~/.tepub/config.yaml

Apply settings to all books:

# Translation
source_language: auto
target_language: Simplified Chinese
translation_workers: 3

primary_provider:
  name: openai
  model: gpt-4o

# Audiobook
audiobook_tts_provider: edge    # or: openai
audiobook_workers: 3

# Skip rules
skip_rules:
  - keyword: index
  - keyword: appendix

Per-Book Config: book/config.yaml

Created automatically when you run tepub extract book.epub. Override global settings:

# Choose TTS provider
audiobook_tts_provider: openai
audiobook_tts_model: tts-1-hd
audiobook_voice: nova

# Or use Edge TTS
audiobook_tts_provider: edge
audiobook_voice: en-US-AriaNeural

# Custom cover
cover_image_path: ~/Pictures/mycover.jpg

# Output mode
output_mode: translated_only

# Skip specific sections
skip_rules:
  - keyword: prologue
  - keyword: epilogue

See config.example.yaml for all available options with detailed explanations.

Output Structure

Translation

mybook.epub                      # Original
mybook/                          # Workspace
├── config.yaml                  # Per-book settings
├── segments.json                # Extracted content
├── state.json                   # Translation progress
└── markdown/                    # Markdown export
    ├── 001_chapter-1.md
    └── images/
mybook_bilingual.epub            # Output: both languages
mybook_translated.epub           # Output: translation only
mybook_web/                      # Web viewer

Audiobooks

mybook/
├── audiobook@edgetts/           # Edge TTS audiobooks
│   ├── mybook.m4b               # Final audiobook
│   └── segments/                # Cached audio segments
└── audiobook@openaitts/         # OpenAI TTS audiobooks
    ├── mybook.m4b
    └── segments/

Provider-specific folders let you create both versions for comparison.

Advanced Features

Resume Interrupted Work

TEPUB automatically saves progress. To resume:

# Just run the same command again
tepub translate book.epub --to Spanish
tepub audiobook generate book.epub

Parallel Processing

Speed up translation (uses more API credits):

# In config.yaml
translation_workers: 5    # Default: 3
audiobook_workers: 5      # Default: 3

Custom Translation Style

# In config.yaml
prompt_preamble: |
  You are a literary translator specializing in preserving artistic voice.
  {language_instruction}
  {mode_instruction}
  Maintain the author's style, tone, metaphors, and cultural nuances.

Selective File Processing

After extraction, edit book/config.yaml:

# Only translate specific files
translation_files:
  - Text/chapter-001.xhtml
  - Text/chapter-002.xhtml
  # - Text/appendix.xhtml    # Commented = skipped

# Different files for audiobook
audiobook_files:
  - Text/chapter-001.xhtml
  # - Text/copyright.xhtml   # Skip copyright in audiobook

Debug Commands

tepub debug workspace book.epub    # Show workspace info
tepub debug pending                 # What's left to translate
tepub debug show-skip-list          # What was skipped

Cost Estimates

Translation (300-page book)

• OpenAI GPT-4o: ~$0.50-2.00
• Anthropic Claude: ~$0.30-1.50
• Ollama (local): Free (requires powerful computer)

Audiobook (300-page book, ~750,000 characters)

• Edge TTS: Free
• OpenAI tts-1: ~$11.25
• OpenAI tts-1-hd: ~$22.50

Recommendations

• Best Quality: OpenAI GPT-4 + OpenAI TTS-1-HD (~$25 total)
• Best Value: OpenAI GPT-4 + Edge TTS (~$1.50 total)
• Free: Ollama + Edge TTS (requires local GPU)

Troubleshooting

"API key not found"

# Set environment variable
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"

# Or create .env file
echo 'OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here' > .env

"ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'openai'"

pip install -e .[dev]
# Or specifically: pip install openai

Audiobook has no sound

# Install FFmpeg
brew install ffmpeg           # Mac
sudo apt install ffmpeg       # Linux
# Windows: download from ffmpeg.org

Translation fails

# Check status
tepub debug pending

# Reset errors and retry
rm book/state.json
tepub translate book.epub --to Spanish

More solutions: GitHub Issues

Privacy & Security

• Local processing: Books stay on your computer (except API calls)
• No telemetry: TEPUB collects no usage data
• Provider privacy: Translation APIs see text but don't store it long-term
• Maximum privacy: Use Ollama for fully local operation

Requirements

• Python: 3.10 or newer (3.11+ recommended)
• OS: macOS, Linux, or Windows 10+
• Disk: ~500 MB
• RAM: 2-4 GB
• FFmpeg: Required for audiobooks (auto-installed on Mac/Linux)

Support

• Documentation: You're reading it!
• Installation: INSTALL.md
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Command help: tepub --help or tepub <command> --help

Credits

Built with:

• lxml - EPUB parsing and writing
• edge-tts - Free text-to-speech
• OpenAI - Translation and premium TTS
• Rich - Beautiful terminal output
• Click - CLI framework
• Pydantic - Configuration validation

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

For Developers

git clone https://github.com/xiaolai/tepub.git
cd tepub
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .[dev]

pytest
pytest --cov=src --cov-report=html

ruff check src tests
black src tests

src/
├── cli/              # Command-line interface
├── extraction/       # EPUB extraction
├── translation/      # Translation pipeline
├── audiobook/        # TTS and audiobook creation
├── injection/        # Insert translations into EPUB
├── web_export/       # Web viewer generation
├── epub_io/          # EPUB reading/writing
├── config/           # Configuration management
└── state/            # Progress tracking

Made with ❤️ for language learners, audiobook enthusiasts, and book lovers everywhere.

Version 0.2.0 | Changelog | Issues