Line Spacing in Sigil?

[markjoseph]

I'm trying to create blank lines in my book. For example I used three asterisks between sections and would like a blank line above and below them. The code I see is:

<p class="calibre2"><br /></p>

<p class="calibre2"></p>

<p class="calibre2"></p>

<p class="calibre4">***</p>

<p class="calibre4"><br /></p>

<p class="calibre2"></p>

In the Nook for PC and the Adobe Reader the line spaces are not there. What code will work? I'm using Sigil 5.3. Thanks, Mark

Oh, by the way, the line <p class="calibre2"></p> appears all over the place. Do I need to worry about deleting it?

[Jellby]

Instead of blank lines or blank paragraphs, use top and bottom margin for your asterisks. These are CSS properties, you have to learn the basics of CSS if you haven't yet.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by markjoseph

I'm trying to create blank lines in my book. For example I used three asterisks between sections and would like a blank line above and below them. The code I see is:

<p class="calibre2"><br /></p>

<p class="calibre2"></p>

<p class="calibre2"></p>

<p class="calibre4">***</p>

<p class="calibre4"><br /></p>

<p class="calibre2"></p>

In the Nook for PC and the Adobe Reader the line spaces are not there. What code will work? I'm using Sigil 5.3. Thanks, Mark

Oh, by the way, the line <p class="calibre2"></p> appears all over the place. Do I need to worry about deleting it?

Have a look at my ePub tutorial (see my signature). Look for the section on "scene changes."

[JSWolf]

<p class="center">* * *</p>

And in the CSS...

.center {
text-align: center
margin-top: 15px;
margin-bottom: 15px
}

There you go.

[Toxaris]

Personally I would use:

.center {
text-align: center
margin-top: 1.2em;
margin-bottom: 1.2em;
}

This will adjust the blank line with the font size to keep it in proportion.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Personally I would use:

.center {
text-align: center
margin-top: 1.2em;
margin-bottom: 1.2em;
}

This will adjust the blank line with the font size to keep it in proportion.

I agree with using em units, particularly since such scene breaks occur in the general flow of the text and not as "headings" at the top of a screen.

While a style name can be any string of characters, I would suggest using a more descriptive name like "scene" or "scenebreak" instead of "center" for this. That way you can use "center" for a simpler centering style without the wide top and bottom margins. It makes reading the code at a later date much easier.

My personal approach is to style the <p> with the asterisks, or more often an image, using my .heading style and then style the first <p> in the new scene using my .scene style. This allows me to omit the asterisk line when only a blank gap is desired without having to add a unique style for that book. Using the same style names in all (or most) of my books makes creation and editing much easier.

.heading {
  text-indent: 0em;
  margin-top: 1em;
  margin-bottom: 0em;
  text-align: center;
  }
.section {
  text-indent: 1em;
  margin-top: 1em;
  }

[JSWolf]

Sory, but it actually works better with 15px then 1.2em.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sory, but it actually works better with 15px then 1.2em.

how so? if I change my font size, it wouldn't scale.

[ghostyjack]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sory, but it actually works better with 15px then 1.2em.

That's personal preference.

I personally prefer 1em for this. Anything larger looks too big, but smaller doesn't look to me like there is a gap.

[DiapDealer]

how so? if I change my font size, it wouldn't scale.

Jon doesn't like his spacing to scale with font-size... and he doesn't like anybody else's to do so either.

[theducks]

I like em
I also play with the font-size and font-weight for scene breaks
YMMV (john's doesn't )

[JSWolf]

But if you keep your section break space the same, you'll know it's a section break as it will be the same size regardless of the font size.

[markjoseph]

Thanks everyone! That's a great help. Now I just need to get "search/replace" going. *Warming up function*