List of ePub Resources
Below is a list of ePub resources developed in conjunction with the MOGO Media InDesign to ePub Seminar. You can click the individual links below, or download the PDF here.
This page and the PDF will be updated on an ongoing basis (this page will probably be more current), so check back regularly for changes!
Also, the newest version of the seminar hand-out is here: InDesign to ePub Seminar Handout.
Desktop ePub Readers
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Calibre
Firefox ePub Add-On
Stanza
Adobe Digital Editions (also comes with Creative Suite)
Publishers and Aggregators
Books and Websites
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Liz Castro’s “ePub: Straight to the Point” eBook
Liz Castro’s Blog: “Pigs, Gourds, and Wikis”
Cari Jansen’s Blog
Rufus Deuchler’s “How to Create an eBook with Adobe InDesign CS5” eBook
ISBN Information
Additional ISBN Information
Informative blog entry on using the various publishing and uploading services
Workflow and ePub resource information
Look at type, formatted with CSS
A clear breakdown of the new ePub 3 spec
If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #eprdctn for ongoing ePub/eProduction discussions.
Software
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Sigil – working with code in finished ePub; indicating cover file; adding metadata, including the missing date metadata
FlightCrew – checking ePub validity
ePubChecker – ePub Validation
Calibre – converting ePub to .mobi for Kindle; choosing cover file; eReader (when it works)
Springy Archiver – for cracking open ePub files; use to edit the code in a separate text editor; zips the ePub back after edits
BBEdit – text editor
Text Wrangler – text editor
Oxygen – create, edit, validate ePubs
Scripts and Plug-ins
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Teus De Jong’s export to ePub script – fix the date; fix hyperlinks when using top-level headers; done at export; look for InDesign Utilities, then scroll down to “Correction of links in ePubs…”
Show/Hide Local Formtting
Kindle Export (beta) – export to .mobi directly from InDesign; beta
Layout Zone – for removing InDesign layout/objects and replacing as one .indd file
Apply Nested Styles – does the find/change for you to extract styles from a nested style to be recognized by the CSS
Code Snippets
COVER:
Defined in the metadata section of content.opf:
<meta name=”cover” content=”cover-image” />
Defined in the manifest section of content.opf:
<item id=”cover-image” href=”images/Tales_Spies.jpeg” media-type=”image/jpeg”/>
DATE:
Defined in the metadata section of content.opf (currently should show empty date tag)
<dc:date>2011-03-10</dc:date>
Must have at least a 4-digit year. Can also use YYYY-MM-DD
ITEMS DEFINED IN THE CSS (values will vary, just for example):
Drop Cap character style:
span.dropcap {
color: #3D5430;
font-size: 3em;
float: left;
margin-top: 0.3em;
margin-right: 0.08em;
font-weight: bold;
}
Text wrap of grouped images and captions (creates a group and classes for the image as well as the caption):
div.group {
margin: 0 .3em 0 0;
float: left;
width: 50%;
line-height: 2em;
}
img {
width: 100%;
vertical-align: text-top;
margin-bottom: .5em;}
p.caption {
font-size: .7em;
font-style: italic;
line-height: 100%;
text-align:center;
}
Other values for items such as floating sidebars:
width: 50%;
float: left;
border-color: gray;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 1px;
margin: 0 .75em 0 0
padding: 0.5em;
background-color: blue;
Colors can be specified with named-colors or hex colors (remember the # before hex colors).
A basic working knowledge of some CSS and HTML (XHTML) is needed to fully customize these elements in your ePub.
