url_to_book

CLI tool to extract article content from a web page and save it in various formats (PDF, EPUB, FB2, Markdown).

Features

• Extracts article text, title, and images
• Preserves text formatting (bold, italic, links)
• Multiple output formats: PDF, EPUB, FB2, Markdown
• Filters out ads and tracking images
• Supports Cyrillic text
• Multiple font choices with Unicode/Cyrillic support (Noto Sans, Liberation, DejaVu, Free fonts)
• Automatic font detection and fallback

Installation

From PyPI (recommended)

pip install url-to-book

From source

git clone https://github.com/RomanAverin/url_to_book.git
cd url_to_book
pip install -e .

Usage

# Basic usage (uses default font)
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf

# With custom title
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf --title "My Title"

# Without images
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf --no-images

# Verbose output
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf -v

# List available fonts
url-to-book --list-fonts

# Use specific font (sans-serif)
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf --font noto-sans

# Use serif font
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf --font noto-serif

# Use Liberation Sans (metrics-compatible with Arial)
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf --font liberation-sans

# With verbose output showing which font is used
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf -v --font noto-serif

Output Formats

The tool supports multiple output formats. Each format has different capabilities and use cases.

Supported Formats

Use --list-formats to see available formats:

url-to-book --list-formats

Output:

Available output formats:
  * pdf (features: fonts, images, links)
  * epub (features: images, links)
  * fb2 (features: images, links)
  * md (features: images, links)

Format Comparison

Feature explanation:

• fonts - Customizable font families (8 options for PDF)
• images - Embedded images support
• links - Clickable hyperlinks preserved

Format Usage Examples

Extract to PDF (default)

# Default format (PDF)
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf

# Explicit format specification
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf -f pdf

# PDF with custom font
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.pdf --font noto-serif

Extract to EPUB

# For e-readers
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.epub -f epub

# EPUB without images (smaller file)
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.epub -f epub --no-images

Extract to FB2

# For Russian e-book readers
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.fb2 -f fb2

# FB2 with limited images
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.fb2 -f fb2 --max-images 5

Extract to Markdown

# For version control or further processing
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.md -f md

# Images will be saved to article_images/ directory

Converting Markdown Files

You can convert previously extracted Markdown files to other formats:

# First, extract to Markdown
url-to-book https://example.com/article -o article.md -f md

# Then convert to PDF
url-to-book article.md -o article.pdf -f pdf

# Or to EPUB
url-to-book article.md -o article.epub -f epub

# Or to FB2
url-to-book article.md -o article.fb2 -f fb2

This workflow is useful for:

• Extracting once, converting to multiple formats
• Editing content before final conversion
• Version control of article content

Format-Specific Notes

PDF:

• Only format supporting font selection (use --font option)
• Best for printing and archiving
• Supports 8 font families (see "Available Fonts" section)

EPUB:

• Standard format for most e-readers
• Reflowable text (adapts to screen size)
• Wide compatibility (Calibre, Apple Books, etc.)

FB2:

• XML-based format popular in Russia
• Good for Russian-language e-book readers
• Embedded images as base64

Markdown:

• Human-readable plain text
• YAML frontmatter with metadata (title, authors, source URL)
• Images saved to {filename}_images/ directory
• Can be edited before converting to other formats

Available Fonts

Note: Font selection is only available for PDF format.

The tool supports the following font families with Unicode/Cyrillic support:

• noto-sans (Noto Sans) - Google's comprehensive sans-serif font
• noto-serif (Noto Serif) - Google's comprehensive serif font
• liberation-sans (Liberation Sans) - Metrics-compatible with Arial
• liberation-serif (Liberation Serif) - Metrics-compatible with Times New Roman
• free-sans (Free Sans) - GNU FreeFont sans-serif
• free-serif (Free Serif) - GNU FreeFont serif
• dejavu-sans (DejaVu Sans) - Popular Linux sans-serif font
• dejavu-serif (DejaVu Serif) - Popular Linux serif font

The tool will automatically detect which fonts are installed in your system and use the first available one as default. Use --list-fonts to see which fonts are available on your system.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync --extra dev

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Run linter
uv run pylint url_to_book

License

MIT