image order in an epub

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by joseph harris

Here are the first half dozen as they appear:
Sheppard-10 lower leads.gif
Sheppard-12 to Mr Bird's roof.jpg
Sheppard-13 into Mr Bird's house.gif
Sheppard-14 Thornhill plus.gif
Sheppard-2 escape from condemned hold.gif
Sheppard-3 blueskin cuts wild's throat-150.jpg
Sheppard-6 door with bolt.gif

Ah yes, there's the problem...it's a problem that has caught many a fine folk...and it is not limited to Sigil or Calibre Editor!

The sequence you describe is quite logical when you realize that the alphanumeric comparison is done on a character-by-character basis. The first 9 characters are the same (Sheppard-), so we move to the 10th. In your example they are in order:
1
1
1
1
2
3
6

To fix this you simply have to use leading zeros to "pad" all numbers to the same number of characters:
Sheppard-01
Sheppard-02
...
Sheppard-09
Sheppard-10
Sheppard-11

If you have more than 99 images, then you would need two leading zero's (001, 002, 003, 098, 099, 100)

Cheers!


EDIT: In Sigil, and Calibre Editor, when you use the rename feature to add those zeros the program automatically updates the links within the html and opf (manifest) files...saves a great deal of work.

I recommend highlighting each of the first 9 files using ctrl-click (Sheppard-1 thru Sheppard-9), right click on one and rename. Then give it the name: "Sheppard-01"...without quotes. It will automatically put the zero in front of each.

If you have more than 100 images, then you would have two steps: select 1-9 and rename "Sheppard-001", then select 10-99 and rename "Sheppard-010".

Originally Posted by joseph harris

Even if it were raw computer logic one would expect "1" at the top and "11", "15" and "16" in the top batch. And niether "4" or "5" appear in place. The problem is not in the html, since they are in the desired order in that file, "content.opf".

I would check the file name for 4 and 5...you probably have an errant space, or maybe a lower case letter??
Again...don't worry about the order in the .opf manifest. There is absolutely no requirement for those to be in order - at all. The file simply needs to be listed in the manifest. Of course, you are always free to reorder them using copy/paste, but it would be a big waste of time...

[Toxaris]

If you are in the process of renaming, ditch the spaces in the filenames...

[theducks]

Originally Posted by joseph harris

Turtle91 and the ducks,

Thank you both for your further comments. I see I have not been clear enough.

Here are the first half dozen as they appear:
Sheppard-10 lower leads.gif
Sheppard-12 to Mr Bird's roof.jpg
Sheppard-13 into Mr Bird's house.gif
Sheppard-14 Thornhill plus.gif
Sheppard-2 escape from condemned hold.gif
Sheppard-3 blueskin cuts wild's throat-150.jpg
Sheppard-6 door with bolt.gif

That is a standard ASCII sort
Use a leading 0 (lower ASCII weight than a 1) to pad single digits

01
02
10
20

the file text you includ here is for your benefit only. the average, heck, most, users will never see that name

[Turtle91]

Just a little more explanation:

If you use the Bulk Rename option you will lose the descriptive portion of the filename. They will end up like:
Sheppard-01.gif
Sheppard-02.gif
...
Sheppard-09.gif
Sheppard-10.gif
Sheppard-11.gif

If you absolutely MUST keep the descriptive portion, then you will have to add the zeros manually by right clicking on each file, select rename, and inserting the appropriate number of zeros manually.

Again, that descriptive portion in the filename is only there for you, the creator, and the 0.001% of readers who will open up the book using an editor. They won't see it with a standard reader.

If you want to add a descriptive text to the <img> tag you would add it to the alt="" element. As in:

<img alt="lower leads" src="../Images/Sheppard-10.gif" />
<img alt="Mr Bird's roof" src="../Images/Sheppard-11.gif" />
<img alt="into Mr Bird's house" src="../Images/Sheppard-12.gif" />

The alt element is normally blank in an ebook. It is used to describe the image in case the actual image can't be found, or the settings are set to not display images, or somesuch. They can also be used by those read aloud programs - they would read aloud the alt element when they came to the image. It is not normally used in ePub 2 because most apps can't/won't read aloud, and the images are packaged inside the ePub - so they wouldn't be missing. The technique of putting the filename inside the alt element is technically incorrect, although occasionally used.

I hope all this helps!

Cheers,

[Notjohn]

I think Amazon requires/requests an "alt" for the benefit of sight-impaired viewers who use the text-to-speech feature. At least it used to.

[joseph harris]

PeterT, No dispute about the technical need for a particular order being nought or zero. But it is the visible that interests me.

Turtle91, You cracked it. Capital and lower case mix, together with Sigil not being scripted to recognise single digit numbers. My particular thanks to you for thinking through something I should have spotted in the first place.

And thanks to everybody for several extra points, like the reminder and discussion on the use of <alt>.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by joseph harris

Turtle91, You cracked it. Capital and lower case mix, together with Sigil not being scripted to recognise single digit numbers. My particular thanks to you for thinking through something I should have spotted in the first place.

No worries - glad we found it!

That number padding issue has been around for a long time - ever since the good 'ol DOS days, it's not just Sigil. There are a very few programs that actually take the time to script a different sorting algorithm to handle them...it's just too difficult to read the mind of the creator to know if they really meant it to be 9, or 09, or 009. So they leave it up to the creator to put it in there. Just remember 0-9A-Za-z for each character in the filename - one at a time.

Cheers!