epub-chinese-cleaner

Converts Chinese epub files from vertical (直排) + RTL page flow to horizontal (橫排) + LTR page flow.

What it does

1. Detects whether the epub needs conversion (checks CSS writing-mode and OPF page-progression-direction)
2. Converts writing mode from vertical-rl to horizontal-tb (including vendor prefixes)
3. Normalizes punctuation from vertical Unicode forms to horizontal equivalents
4. Fixes page direction by removing page-progression-direction="rtl" from OPF spine
5. Preserves original — outputs a new file with _horizontal suffix

Usage

Ask the agent to convert an epub by name or description:

• "Convert 三體.epub to horizontal layout"
• "This epub has vertical text, can you make it horizontal?"
• "Check if book.epub needs conversion"

The agent runs:

python3 scripts/convert_horizontal.py <input.epub>

Output is <input>_horizontal.epub. The script auto-detects whether conversion is needed and picks the best method (Calibre if available, direct manipulation otherwise).

Punctuation mapping

See references/punctuation-map.md for the full vertical → horizontal punctuation mapping.