InDesign to ePub: Preflight question about "char width"

mtrahan · 03-28-2013, 12:38 PM

Hi guys,

I'm working on a 300 pages book that is a disaster in InDesign: the guy who made the print version barely used any style. That means, yes, that I have to do correctly the formatting all over again to get a decent ePub export. I finished that annoying part. Usually, at this point, I use Preflight to spot all the manual overrides in a document. The profile I use is supposed to ignore kerning and tracking overrides. But, I still end up with 971 errors spotted by Preflight, and almost all of them say: "(char width: 97%; tracking: -10)".

I'm using InDesign CS6, by the way. And I'm kind of an InDesign n00b: I usually try to get out of it as quickly as possible and work directly in the ePub.

So my question is: what is this "char width: 97%" thingy? Is there any way for me to remove this for the whole book at once? That way I could get Preflight errors down to under 100 and finally be able to see the real errors I gotta do something about.

Thanks in advance,

Michael

JSWolf · 03-28-2013, 12:39 PM

Easiest solution (IMHO) is to expert the book (as is) to an ePub and work with the ePub.

mtrahan · 03-28-2013, 01:14 PM

You mean exporting the manual overrides aswell? Usually I export the ePub WITHOUT the manual overrides to get a cleaner ePub, that's why I try to remove all the overrides first. I check them one by one, because sometimes the guy who makes the print version did manual italic formatting, or superscript or things like this and only way I can spot them is Preflight.

I could try to export it with the overrides and see what it looks like.

amyg · 03-28-2013, 03:30 PM

How about do a global search/replace for 97% char width. To do that, go to the Find/Change dialog box (Cmd or Ctrl F) and click the icon to the right of the Find Format field. A dialog box will open letting you select the format attributes you are looking for. From the Advanced Character Formats tab, Put 97% in the Horizontal Scale field. Then in the Change Format, make that same attribute 100%. If you want to also remove the tracking, that's on the Basic Character Formats tab. Then click Change All.

Save a copy first just in case.

mtrahan · 03-28-2013, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amyg

How about do a global search/replace for 97% char width. To do that, go to the Find/Change dialog box (Cmd or Ctrl F) and click the icon to the right of the Find Format field. A dialog box will open letting you select the format attributes you are looking for. From the Advanced Character Formats tab, Put 97% in the Horizontal Scale field. Then in the Change Format, make that same attribute 100%. If you want to also remove the tracking, that's on the Basic Character Formats tab. Then click Change All.

Save a copy first just in case.

That's it! Exactly what I was looking for! I just tested this solution and it worked perfectly. Thanks a lot.

03-28-2013, 12:38 PM	#1
mtrahan Colonel Mustard Posts: 90 Karma: 1426 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Montreal Device: iPhone 6, Kindle Paperwhite 2, iPad 2	InDesign to ePub: Preflight question about "char width" Hi guys, I'm working on a 300 pages book that is a disaster in InDesign: the guy who made the print version barely used any style. That means, yes, that I have to do correctly the formatting all over again to get a decent ePub export. I finished that annoying part. Usually, at this point, I use Preflight to spot all the manual overrides in a document. The profile I use is supposed to ignore kerning and tracking overrides. But, I still end up with 971 errors spotted by Preflight, and almost all of them say: "(char width: 97%; tracking: -10)". I'm using InDesign CS6, by the way. And I'm kind of an InDesign n00b: I usually try to get out of it as quickly as possible and work directly in the ePub. So my question is: what is this "char width: 97%" thingy? Is there any way for me to remove this for the whole book at once? That way I could get Preflight errors down to under 100 and finally be able to see the real errors I gotta do something about. Thanks in advance, Michael

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03-28-2013, 12:39 PM	#2
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 76,370 Karma: 136466962 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Easiest solution (IMHO) is to expert the book (as is) to an ePub and work with the ePub.

03-28-2013, 01:14 PM	#3
mtrahan Colonel Mustard Posts: 90 Karma: 1426 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Montreal Device: iPhone 6, Kindle Paperwhite 2, iPad 2	You mean exporting the manual overrides aswell? Usually I export the ePub WITHOUT the manual overrides to get a cleaner ePub, that's why I try to remove all the overrides first. I check them one by one, because sometimes the guy who makes the print version did manual italic formatting, or superscript or things like this and only way I can spot them is Preflight. I could try to export it with the overrides and see what it looks like.

03-28-2013, 03:30 PM	#4
amyg Enthusiast Posts: 40 Karma: 56 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Los Angeles, CA Device: Nook simple touch, iPad	How about do a global search/replace for 97% char width. To do that, go to the Find/Change dialog box (Cmd or Ctrl F) and click the icon to the right of the Find Format field. A dialog box will open letting you select the format attributes you are looking for. From the Advanced Character Formats tab, Put 97% in the Horizontal Scale field. Then in the Change Format, make that same attribute 100%. If you want to also remove the tracking, that's on the Basic Character Formats tab. Then click Change All. Save a copy first just in case.