epub2pdf

Convert an EPUB into a PDF with accurate print-edition page numbers — so you can cite ebook passages by the same page numbers as the physical book.

The problem

EPUB is reflowable: when you convert one to PDF (including via Calibre), the page numbers depend on the chosen font and margins and match no published edition. That makes page-level citation impossible — a "page 42" in your PDF isn't page 42 in the print book.

How this solves it

Many EPUBs ship with the print edition's page list baked in as metadata (EPUB 3 doc-pagebreak markers or the older NCX pageList). epub2pdf reads those markers and forces each print-page boundary into the PDF as a labelled break, so a passage on print page N lands on a sheet labelled N. The result is a PDF you can import into a reference manager (Paperpile, Zotero, EndNote) and cite with real, verifiable page numbers.

Requirement: the EPUB must contain a print page list

Not every EPUB has one. Before converting, check:

unzip -p book.epub '*nav*' | grep -i 'page-list'      # EPUB 3
unzip -p book.epub '*.ncx' | grep -i 'pageList'       # older NCX fallback

If neither command prints a match, the EPUB has no print pagination data and epub2pdf will refuse to run (you can override with --force, but the output won't have meaningful page numbers).

Desktop app (no terminal required)

Download the latest build for your platform from the Releases page:

• macOS: epub2pdf-mac.zip — unzip, move to Applications, double-click
• Windows: epub2pdf-windows.zip — extract and run epub2pdf.exe
• Linux: epub2pdf-linux.tar.gz — extract and run epub2pdf

Pick an EPUB, click Convert to PDF, done. The app will tell you if the EPUB doesn't have a print page list and offer to convert anyway.

Command-line installation

With uv (simplest)

uv run epub2pdf.py book.epub

uv handles the Python packages automatically. You still need WeasyPrint's system libraries:

• Debian / Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libcairo2 libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0
• macOS: brew install pango cairo gdk-pixbuf libffi

With pip

pip install weasyprint beautifulsoup4 lxml
python epub2pdf.py book.epub

With Docker (nothing to install but Docker)

docker build -t epub2pdf .
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" epub2pdf book.epub

Usage

python epub2pdf.py book.epub                        # -> book.print-paginated.pdf
python epub2pdf.py book.epub -o output.pdf          # custom output path
python epub2pdf.py book.epub --compact              # inline [N] markers, shorter PDF
python epub2pdf.py book.epub --page-size letter     # letter instead of 6x9

Options

Flag	Default	Description
-o, --output	<name>.print-paginated.pdf	Output file path
--page-size	6x9	6x9, letter, a4, or "W in H in"
--margin	0.7	Page margin in inches
--font	Georgia serif	CSS font stack
--font-size	10.5	Font size in pt
--leading	1.5	Line height
--compact	off	Inline [N] markers instead of one sheet per print page
--force	off	Convert even without a print page list

Reading the output

• The footer "print p. N" is the citation page number — use this in your references.
• The faint number in the bottom-right corner is just the physical sheet count; ignore it for citation.
• The PDF is faithful at the page level (content maps to the correct page number), not the line level — physical layout won't mirror the publisher's typesetting.
• Dense print pages may overflow onto a second sheet; the footer still shows the correct print page number on both sheets.

License

MIT