In-Design CS 6 - Epub exports with lines in some images?

[TorQueMoD2]

I'm using In-Design CS 6 (only version I have access to) and when importing a PDF into in-design and then exporting as an Epub file, some of the photos are displaying with horizontal white lines through them. In In-design everything looks fine but on export it's not.

Left Side is viewed in In-Design, Right is viewing the epub file.

These are my export settings:

[Steve Werner]

Moving to InDesign EPUB forum

[BobLevine]

They look like stitching artifacts to me but why are you placing PDFs to output to EPUB?

[TorQueMoD2]

Thanks Bob,

Stitching artifacts? I don't know what that means or why they'd be showing up. The photos are a single 300 DPI image so there shouldn't be any stitching.

Because I'm trying to convert a PDF to an epub format and this was the easiest method I could find to do it. The original Document is a word file and it's got loads of photos in it so I don't want to lose the formatting etc. I tried importing the word doc to in-design but it didn't work well. I suppose I could leave it as a PDF but I'm unsure if that will display as well on an e-reader as the PDF is originally 8.5 x 11"

[BobLevine]

You're going to have to indulge me but what exactly are you trying to achieve here? Why not just distribute PDFs? What you're doing here is not going to improve the reader experience and in fact, will likely make it worse.

The PDF will be searchable and scaleable. An EPUB created like this will not.

[TorQueMoD2]

Ok So I'm trying to make a digital copy of the book for posting on Amazon. I was under the impression that they had to be in epub and mobi format in order for people to be able to view it on their e-reader or other device as a digital book. If they don't then sure I'll leave it as a PDF. Would I need to adjust the page size of the PDF though so it's readable on an e-reader screen? I'd imagine that if it's an 8.5 x 11" PDF and they're viewing it on a 7" screen that the font would be too small to read when the pdf is fit to the page.

Thanks again for the help.

[BobLevine]

Here’s my $0.02 and you can take it for whatever it’s worth.

Hire a professional with updated software that knows what he or she is doing. Or, take a few steps back, update to InDesign CC2017 and watch the course on lynda.com concerning EPUB.

The very fact that you’re comparing paper size with screen size tells me that you haven’t done nearly enough to learn how all of this works and you’re going to be in for a world of disappointment.

[TorQueMoD2]

Okay? That's fair that I'm no expert in creating digital books, I wouldn't even call myself an amateur (I'm just doing this to help my mother) but the paper size of a PDF would determine the resolution of the file and hence the scale that it displays at on a smaller screen. I'm not wrong in saying that when the PDF is set to 8.5 x11" that the font will be too small to view on a 7" device. When you create the file inside word or in-design, they use paper size to determine the scale/resolution. I'm not computer illiterate, I'm a video game designer. I've just never used In-Design before nor have I made a digital book. And I know you're not meaning offence but telling me I'm a noob doesn't help much. If I had the money to hire someone else or upgrade the software and buy the lynda tutorial I would but unfortunately I don't.

This is all still a little off topic from my original issue which is the fact that the images are getting lines through them on export and that doesn't make sense. They look fine in In-Design and the photos are all 300DPI at 6000x4000 resolution. Is this just In-Design scaling the images incorrectly? I could probably scale them all in Photoshop down to a lower res and export a new PDF.

[BobLevine · Accepted solution]

You can watch on lynda for 10 days for free: lynda.com/trial/boblevine

As for the lines, I still think they're stitching artifacts from being flattened. And again, the print size and screen size are totally irrelevant. All you've done here is create a picture of your page. The readers will not be able to change the font, the font size or anything else.

Do yourself a favor and send Amazon the Word file and let them do the conversion. What you're trying to do here is just not right.

I know I may be coming off like a jerk but that's my intention. I'm trying to help but you're so far off the mark I don't know where to start.

[TorQueMoD2]

lol Ok. I didn't want the readers to change the font size though because then it would mess up the layout.

And why would there be artifacts from being flattened if I'm feeding it a PDF to begin with? There aren't layers in a PDF.

[BobLevine]

That is not how EPUB works!

With reflowable you give the readers the possibility of switch fonts and size. Flattening has nothing to do with layers, it’s about any transparency that might be there and it’s quite possible those artifacts are already in the PDF but you’re not seeing them until you rasterize the whole thing.

[TorQueMoD2]

Why would there be any transparency in the images though? They're jpegs that don't even support transparency. So confused. Anyway I am taking your advice. I didn't even know Amazon would do the conversion for you so definitely going with that route. Thanks Bob!

[BobLevine]

Without seeing the files it's really hard to know exactly what's going on. Good luck with the book.