-
1. Re: ID CS4 — Any success at all with ePub?
Mr. Met Apr 15, 2010 4:43 AM (in response to myDwayneSmith)Have you read this white paper from Adobe regarding epubs?
InDesign Secrets also has some decent info and videos to check out.
-
2. Re: ID CS4 — Any success at all with ePub?
myDwayneSmith Apr 15, 2010 3:25 PM (in response to Mr. Met)Yes, thanks Mr Met
I've read and watched just about everything I can find, including Adobe's Best Practices Guide, white papers, technical papers, etc, etc.
Gabriel Powell's stuff is brilliant — eg. http://www.creativepro.com/article/making-ebooks-indesign-part-1
and http://instantindesign.com/index.php?view=413And Colin Fleming's video cast is also helpful — http://2009.max.adobe.com/online/session/238
But I'm having trouble with things like:
InDesign does NOT add references to the embedded fonts in the opf manifest as per IDPF spec;
Exporting from a book will not render apostrophes, quotes or bullets correctly (but exporting from a file will);
And the css invariably needs to be fixed (eg. margins measured in ems is an ePub no-no)
In trying to rectify these problems I've managed to destroy the styling of the ePub in either Calibre or Digital Editions or, sometimes, both.
I've figured out how to get on top of those issues now, but I'm a bit paranoid that something else is going to jump up and get me with a gotcha!
d.
-
3. Re: ID CS4 — Any success at all with ePub?
Jeremy bowmangraphics Apr 16, 2010 12:07 AM (in response to myDwayneSmith)myDwayneSmith wrote:
"margins measured in ems is an ePub no-no"
I didn't know that! -- But why is it a no-no?
-
4. Re: ID CS4 — Any success at all with ePub?
P Spier Apr 16, 2010 5:02 AM (in response to Jeremy bowmangraphics)I don't know how you could measure margins anywhere in ems. An em is a relative measurement, not a fixed unit, based on the size of the type. Change the type size and you change the size of an em.
-
5. Re: ID CS4 — Any success at all with ePub?
Jeremy bowmangraphics Apr 16, 2010 6:34 AM (in response to P Spier)In web design it's standard practice to use ems as a measure for margins, sidebars, etc., so that they change size proportionally with alterations in text size. An epub book is really a self-contained website, with variable text size as one of its main features.
On the basis of my own experimentation with the epub format, I think I would be inclined to recommend ems in preference to any other unit of measurement for margins.
-
6. Re: ID CS4 — Any success at all with ePub?
P Spier Apr 16, 2010 8:32 AM (in response to Jeremy bowmangraphics)Thanks for the explanation.
-
7. Re: ID CS4 — Any success at all with ePub?
myDwayneSmith Apr 18, 2010 3:21 PM (in response to Jeremy bowmangraphics)Yes, but an epub is more frequently viewed on an ereader or even something as small as an iPhone — no where near as much real estate as a computer screen. My understanding is that setting margins in ems can lead to very short line lengths when people start increasing their text size. So, setting fixed width margins is the safer option for small screens. But I'm new to all this, so I could be wrong.
d.



