Inconsistent Spacing - Page 2

N00ter · 04-12-2012, 11:20 PM

Here is some more information to work with. As I dig through the ePub with Sigil I find that the first paragraph of each new section is classified as "OpeningParagraph." So I went to the css stylesheet and this is what it says under the .OpeningParagraph section:

Quote:

.OpeningParagraph {
color: black;
display: block;
font-family: MinionPro-Regular;
font-size: 0.875em;
line-height: 1.2;
margin-bottom: 6pt;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-top: 0;
text-align: left;
text-autospace: none;
text-justify: inter-ideograph
}

Does the key lie in changing some value in this section that I am just totally missing?

N00ter · 04-12-2012, 11:25 PM

Above was a quote from the stylesheet css. Here is a quote from one of the paragraphs that has the screwed up spacing. Maybe something in here will make sense to some of your more trained eyes:

Quote:

<body class="calibre">
<a class="calibre20" id="Chapter11">11</a>

Revolutions in American Religion and Society: 
the Shadow of Civil War

 

Christianity was a highly pervasive feature of the dynamically changing nineteenth-century American society, helping to mould its national cultural values, yet it was competed over and divisive territory. The freedom which Americans enjoyed to practice the religion of their choice did not bring greater tolerance, but a diversity of approaches to the interpretation of Christian teaching and models of Christian practice. The first Amendment deregulated religion, but made no attempt to establish what ‘the’ religious truth was, and as the nineteenth-century progressed, a multiplicity of claims about it were unleashed. A free market in religious opinion followed, with religion hawked across the land like any other product in the years before the American Civil War.<a class="calibre23" href="../Text/ePub%20Version_split_043.htm#_ftn632" id="_ftnref632" title="">[632]</a> Many had their own vision of what godly America would look like, with little prospect that those visions would be united through compromise or consensus.<a class="calibre23" href="../Text/ePub%20Version_split_043.htm#_ftn633" id="_ftnref633" title="">[633]</a> Over the big issues confronting America, such as the role of women in society, or slavery, the churches had much to say, but it was often delivered by means of diametrically opposing arguments, usually based on varying interpretations of the Bible.

Sorry if I'm sharing information you all don't need. I know my way around HTML just a bit, but this is my first time really digging through the code of my ePub file before.

mrmikel · 04-13-2012, 09:19 AM

It pays to check the code when you have this kind of problem. Sometimes seemingly unrelated things have an effect on spacing. It depends on the readers internal programming.

With relatively limited memory in readers, support for hyphenation is necessarily limited. Better support would be the key for prettier text. Some day....

sellew · 04-13-2012, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N00ter

Above was a quote from the stylesheet css. Here is a quote from one of the paragraphs that has the screwed up spacing.

1. This piece:

 

is creating an extra blank line between the chapter title and the first paragraph.

2. The hyper-links like that one:

<a class="calibre23" href="../Text/ePub%20Version_split_043.htm#_ftn632" id="_ftnref632" title="">[632]</a>

can create higher space between lines depending on the CSS code of class "calibre24". If the vertical-align property is set to 'super' then most probably this is the cause. Usually, setting it to 'text-top' or 'top' solves the issue.

Jellby · 04-13-2012, 03:14 PM

... or add a "line-height: 0" to the footnote style. Depending on the other settings, it may cause the footnote to overlap with the previous line, but it can also look fine. I do it quite often.

ProDigit · 04-14-2012, 04:32 AM

looks to me you have your text layout justified instead of left aligned.
That's perhaps why the weird spacing.

N00ter · 04-14-2012, 08:39 AM

I'VE DONE IT! Sorry for the all-caps. Here is what I did.

I had to tinker with the file. I have no idea why it was this way, but I went into the CSS Stylesheet and started experimenting with different line heights, but only in the Opening.Paragraph section. I left the line height at 1.2 for all other sections, but I changed Opening.Paragraph to 1.4. Sure enough, I go back into the book and it's perfect. I wonder if there is something in the iPad that is causing the line spacing in the Opening Paragraph of a new section to skew tighter for some reason.

Oh well - problem solved! Thanks, all!

JSWolf · 04-14-2012, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N00ter

Every line-height: property in the ePub is set to 1.2. All of the vertical-align properties were set to middle.

Here is a new piece of information, because changing those two properties listed above haven't worked. It is the first paragraph under each new section-heading that has the tight spacing. I have examined almost the entire book and am finding very consistently that this is the case. Why would only the first paragraph after a new section heading have this tight spacing?

You don't change them. You remove them. You get rid of line-height and vertical-align. Just delete them.

JSWolf · 04-14-2012, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N00ter

Here is some more information to work with. As I dig through the ePub with Sigil I find that the first paragraph of each new section is classified as "OpeningParagraph." So I went to the css stylesheet and this is what it says under the .OpeningParagraph section:

Does the key lie in changing some value in this section that I am just totally missing?

Should become...

Code:

.OpeningParagraph {
display: block;
font-family: MinionPro-Regular;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-top: 0;
text-align: justify;
}

If you aren't using an embedded font, you can delete the font-family command. As for a line-height of 1.2em, that's just way too big and should be deleted.

JSWolf · 04-14-2012, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N00ter

Above was a quote from the stylesheet css. Here is a quote from one of the paragraphs that has the screwed up spacing. Maybe something in here will make sense to some of your more trained eyes:

Sorry if I'm sharing information you all don't need. I know my way around HTML just a bit, but this is my first time really digging through the code of my ePub file before.

That is some really bad code.

Code:

<body>
<p class="ChapterNumber">11</p>
<p class="ChapterTitle">Revolutions in American Religion and Society:<br/>the Shadow of Civil War</p>
<p class="OpeningParagraph">Christianity was a highly pervasive feature of the dynamically changing nineteenth-century American society, helping to mould its national cultural values, yet it was competed over and divisive territory. The freedom which Americans enjoyed to practice the religion of their choice did not bring greater tolerance, but a diversity of approaches to the interpretation of Christian teaching and models of Christian practice. The first Amendment deregulated religion, but made no attempt to establish what ‘the’ religious truth was, and as the nineteenth-century progressed, a multiplicity of claims about it were unleashed. A free market in religious opinion followed, with religion hawked across the land like any other product in the years before the American Civil War.<a class="calibre23" href="../Text/ePub%20Version_split_043.htm#_ftn632" id="_ftnref632" title=""><span class="calibre24">[632]</span></a> Many had their own vision of what godly America would look like, with little prospect that those visions would be united through compromise or consensus.<a class="calibre23" href="../Text/ePub%20Version_split_043.htm#_ftn633" id="_ftnref633" title=""><span class="calibre24">[633]</span></a> Over the big issues confronting America, such as the role of women in society, or slavery, the churches had much to say, but it was often delivered by means of diametrically opposing arguments, usually based on varying interpretations of the Bible.</p>

That is somewhat better looking now.

N00ter · 04-14-2012, 09:00 AM

Well, JSWolf, I did try a version of the book with the line-heights deleted completely. For some reason, the iPad was still making the first paragraphs a little tighter than the rest.

By manually causing the opening paragraph to space wider, it's counteracting whatever iBooks is doing with the opening paragraph. The problem is solved, but it isn't elegant.

You may have seen how I'm generating this eBook, but I write the whole thing in Word, export it to HTML, and then convert with Calibre. How am I supposed to get better code? Is manually changing it in Sigil the only way to go?

JSWolf · 04-15-2012, 09:51 AM

The only way to get better code is to manually edit the mess that Word makes. Sigil will allow you to easily edit the mess. As you can see from my posts above, it's possible to edit manually like I did. Have you looked at the XML code where the spacing is off to see if there is anything there?

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04-13-2012, 09:19 AM	#18
mrmikel Color me gone Posts: 2,089 Karma: 1445295 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Central Oregon Coast Device: PRS-300	It pays to check the code when you have this kind of problem. Sometimes seemingly unrelated things have an effect on spacing. It depends on the readers internal programming. With relatively limited memory in readers, support for hyphenation is necessarily limited. Better support would be the key for prettier text. Some day....

04-13-2012, 03:14 PM	#20
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,515 Karma: 18512745 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	... or add a "line-height: 0" to the footnote style. Depending on the other settings, it may cause the footnote to overlap with the previous line, but it can also look fine. I do it quite often.

04-14-2012, 04:32 AM	#21
ProDigit Karmaniac Posts: 2,553 Karma: 11499146 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Miami FL Device: PRS-505, Jetbook, + Mini, +Color, Astak Ez Reader Pro, PPW1, Aura H2O	looks to me you have your text layout justified instead of left aligned. That's perhaps why the weird spacing.

04-14-2012, 08:39 AM	#22
N00ter Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle	I'VE DONE IT! Sorry for the all-caps. Here is what I did. I had to tinker with the file. I have no idea why it was this way, but I went into the CSS Stylesheet and started experimenting with different line heights, but only in the Opening.Paragraph section. I left the line height at 1.2 for all other sections, but I changed Opening.Paragraph to 1.4. Sure enough, I go back into the book and it's perfect. I wonder if there is something in the iPad that is causing the line spacing in the Opening Paragraph of a new section to skew tighter for some reason. Oh well - problem solved! Thanks, all!

04-14-2012, 09:00 AM	#26
N00ter Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle	Well, JSWolf, I did try a version of the book with the line-heights deleted completely. For some reason, the iPad was still making the first paragraphs a little tighter than the rest. By manually causing the opening paragraph to space wider, it's counteracting whatever iBooks is doing with the opening paragraph. The problem is solved, but it isn't elegant. You may have seen how I'm generating this eBook, but I write the whole thing in Word, export it to HTML, and then convert with Calibre. How am I supposed to get better code? Is manually changing it in Sigil the only way to go?

04-15-2012, 09:51 AM	#27
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,897 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	The only way to get better code is to manually edit the mess that Word makes. Sigil will allow you to easily edit the mess. As you can see from my posts above, it's possible to edit manually like I did. Have you looked at the XML code where the spacing is off to see if there is anything there?

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