08-13-2014, 10:51 AM | #1 |
Member
Posts: 86
Karma: 12586
Join Date: Nov 2012
Device: Ipad and Kindle Fire
|
Adobe Indesign's Export to Fixed Layout Epub
The latest version of this software available through Adobe Creative Cloud includes a feature to export to fixed layout EPUB.
I was wondering if people had tried this and what their opinion is. At a superficial first glance, I was very impressed, but upon opening up the resultant EPUB, the code looked pretty horrendous, with span tags for each and every word - to give them absolute positioning. The result looked fine when viewed on iBooks - live text positioned around and over graphics, exactly as you would want, but I would think it would be almost impossible to edit or update the resultant xhtml files. This software makes it possible to produce a fixed layout EPUB almost effortlessly but I wonder how stable the result would be? |
08-13-2014, 11:23 AM | #2 |
Addict
Posts: 398
Karma: 96448
Join Date: Dec 2013
Device: iPad
|
Even when exporting to reflowable ePub the result is mostly horrendous :/
It usually happens when people who don't know how to use Adobe InDesign, design a book for someone and that book happen to come to you. Although, Adobe's conversion is not perfect regardless, if it was as simple as pressing a few buttons and getting a fixed layout ePub, ePub conversion service companies wouldn't be in business now would they? I wrote a post here about how to turn a reflowable ePub to a fixed layout one in a few steps, it's really simple if you know basic html/css. |
Advert | |
|
08-14-2014, 08:53 AM | #3 |
Member
Posts: 86
Karma: 12586
Join Date: Nov 2012
Device: Ipad and Kindle Fire
|
Actually I find Indesign a really useful tool to produce reflowable ebooks, as long as you have everything in paragraph styles and character styles, it produces pretty good code, which can easily be cleaned up with an html editor. Certainly a lot quicker than coding everything manually.
|
08-14-2014, 02:09 PM | #4 | |
Ex-Helpdesk Junkie
Posts: 19,421
Karma: 85397180
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity
Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)
|
Quote:
Or by writing in calibre editor/Sigil. Then add in styles as needed. Manual coding is not needed, as all the stuff that would be handled automatically in Word/InDesign can be done through the CTRL+B/I/U keys plus something to automatically insert "</p>\n<p>" instead of enter. e.g. Saved clips, AutoHotKey. Last edited by eschwartz; 08-14-2014 at 02:26 PM. |
|
08-14-2014, 02:17 PM | #5 |
Wizard
Posts: 4,520
Karma: 121692313
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Heemskerk, NL
Device: PRS-T1, Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura
|
If you use styles correctly in Word, ePUB's generated by my tools will honor those styles.
|
Advert | |
|
08-19-2014, 06:36 PM | #6 | |
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
Posts: 11,473
Karma: 158448243
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
|
Quote:
a) I agree, 100% on the resulting code. It scares my pants off. b) if one more person emails me with some horribly-laid out beginner effort in INDD, and tells me (not asks) that "[I] should be able to make a FF ePUB with the push of a button, and would [I] do it for a few bucks," my head is going to freaking explode right here, all over MR. Not that it's MR's doing, mind you, but it's the ONLY place I have that I can be myself. And then they want me to "auto-magically make it for Kindle, too," for like, $25.00. I want to blow up Adobe and their "plug-ins" and promotional crap. I mean... Hitch (being a teeny, weeny bit cranky. I know, the shock is horrifying). |
|
08-19-2014, 07:18 PM | #7 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 75,764
Karma: 134321338
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
So how does fixed layout for the Kindle work when you have different Kindles with different screen resolutions? Does it in fact work without having to make different eBooks?
In the same vain, how does it work on the iPad when you have different resolutions there too? |
08-19-2014, 10:35 PM | #8 | |
Addict
Posts: 398
Karma: 96448
Join Date: Dec 2013
Device: iPad
|
Quote:
|
|
08-19-2014, 10:39 PM | #9 | |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 75,764
Karma: 134321338
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
Quote:
So you make a fixed layout eBok that looks god on a Kindle Touch, but on a Kindle Paperwhite, it's not even filling the screen. Might as well not even bother. |
|
08-22-2014, 04:25 AM | #10 |
Member
Posts: 86
Karma: 12586
Join Date: Nov 2012
Device: Ipad and Kindle Fire
|
Devices which can read fixed layout, such as iPads, Kindle Fire and Kobo Arc, will enlarge the page to the width of the screen, regardless of the size of the page in pixels. So for example a fixed layout page with the dimensions of 1241 pixels high x 857 wide will fill the screen of the different versions of iPads with respective resolutions of 1024 x 768 and 2048 x 1536. Rather than the actual size of the page in pixels, the proportions become more important. So for example a page size of 1241x857 pixels will fill the width of the tall thin screen of Kindle Fire range (1280 x 800 or 1920x1200) but leave gaps at the top and bottom, due to the different proportions. Interestingly enough, whilst Amazon until very recently restricted the download of fixed layout ebooks to the kindle fire range, which were basically the only kindle devices capable of reading them. It now seems that the software has been updated and fixed layout can be downloaded and read on all kindles with KF8 - all be it in black and white on the Paperwhite and e-ink. As an addendum to the above, I notice the ebook mentioned above (1241x857) will fill the height of the screen on the e-ink kindle but leave gaps on the left and right - again due to the proportion of the screen. (I am not sure if anyone is interested in all this-probably talking to myself).
|
08-22-2014, 04:38 AM | #11 | |
Member
Posts: 86
Karma: 12586
Join Date: Nov 2012
Device: Ipad and Kindle Fire
|
Exporting pubs from Indesign vs Word and writing in Sigil
Quote:
|
|
08-22-2014, 02:43 PM | #12 |
Wizard
Posts: 4,520
Karma: 121692313
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Heemskerk, NL
Device: PRS-T1, Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura
|
No problem, my add-in can export to ePUB fine. You also get clean code (I think cleaner than Indesign if what I am told is true), an opf and a ncx. Ok, no toc.xhtml. That is true.
|
08-22-2014, 06:55 PM | #13 | |
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
Posts: 11,473
Karma: 158448243
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
|
Quote:
And nobody seems to keep an eye on the endless spans. Both programs are careless, to some extent, about using spans for various styles, but I've seen so many horrible "can't you just export to ePUB for me for $25" InDesign files that I'll take Word over it most any day. At least in Word, I can clean it with a modicum of effort; but the time spent figuring out what "char-override-61" was intended to do...that's honking. (And vis-a-vis spans: we're pretty sure that we've uncovered that KDP has a "span limitation." A point at which the book will simply stop doing what the spans tell it to do. I'm composing an email for ECR now, about it, and my Tech Account Manager, but....hmmmmmm.) Hitch |
|
08-23-2014, 03:06 AM | #14 |
Member
Posts: 86
Karma: 12586
Join Date: Nov 2012
Device: Ipad and Kindle Fire
|
Yes I agree, export from indesign only works if you get rid of any extraneous formatting, other than specified in character and para styles. So usually a lot of work has to be done on the indesign file before exporting. I tend to delete any character overrides that get through. Also span tags are an issue. I haven't tried Toxaris' add in, as I couldn't get it to work, maybe I'll try again sometime.
Last edited by verydeepwater; 08-23-2014 at 03:16 AM. |
Tags |
adobe indesign, creative cloud, fixed layout ebook |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Creating Fixed Layout ePub3 from InDesign | flipick | ePub | 12 | 03-14-2013 09:22 AM |
Export to ePub from InDesign CS5 | gardefjord | ePub | 42 | 10-29-2011 10:42 AM |
InDesign CS 5.5 Epub Export Problems | SamL | ePub | 1 | 09-16-2011 07:06 PM |
InDesign export as ePub? | Alda | General Discussions | 3 | 01-24-2011 12:59 PM |
EPUB Expert Needed: Cant properly export epub from InDesign | crottmann | ePub | 17 | 08-27-2010 10:23 AM |