IGP:FLIP Gets Better - Now Synchronize Print and ePub Design

[Munish]

We have just upgraded IGP:FLIP with synchronizing print and ePub design features. The inbuilt IGP: Document Designer now allows you to create print design and map the same design features automatically to the ePub. The details on the product upgrade can be found here...

We rolled out our digital content production and multi-format generation system, IGP:FLIP on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model for small and medium publishers a few weeks back. The platform outputs ePubs, print PDFs, Mobipocket, online packages and more-all in real time. The hosted solution empowers any publisher of any size with immediate digital publishing capabilities, and a digital content strategy.

Happy Publishing ....

[charleski]

What's the difference between epub - standard and epub - simplified (ADE)?

[Munish]

Originally Posted by charleski

What's the difference between epub - standard and epub - simplified (ADE)?

ADE has certain styling problems with CSS centering using auto, and does not support the display:table model. These are important for highly laid out content as can now be achieved with iPad and its fuller CSS model. It's a transparent option. This has been discussed on our blog and here ...

Styles on <table> <tr>
Content centered using margin: 0 auto 0 auto;
Content blocks using display: table and column/row children. In this case ADE doubles the text and dumps it on the page twice. This is a bug noted by ADE.

While the spec CSS properties footnote says "Reading Systems may set the value of any margin property whose specified value is auto to 0." in the real world that destroys a lot of content presentation value. The demands for ePub are moving beyond the novel!

As more and more publishers of rich and interactive content are moving to ePub, specifically targeting iPad, dumbing down ePub XHTML/CSS for a device series such as those using the two plus year old ADE engine doesn't delivery the required end-user experience. (iPad has it's share of issues too by the way!)

So we have provided an option to process left-aligned, de-style-bugs as an overt option for content owners targeting better layout and rendering for advanced devices. It only affects content that uses these properties.

OK, I know it looks like a small deal, but when it matters it matters.

[charleski]

Interesting. The issues with centered margin: auto text aren't entirely clear from your blog posts, since in the one where you discuss your formatting system the css for print is identical to the code that's 'dumbed down for ADE'.

ADE certainly has a lot of issues (and clearly isn't a big priority at Adobe), but the real problem is the increasingly decrepit state of the ePub spec. I'm not entirely surprised that there's a move to jump ship to a de facto standard based on the strengths (and manifold weaknesses) of the mobile Safari platform, but it's a very worrying development.