observation about ADE page numbers

[Abecedary]

This might be common knowledge to some of you, but it's something that I recently discovered that I thought was pretty interesting. By using the page-map.xml file, you can control the page numbering scheme in ADE ePubs.

For instance, the book I'm currently reading has ePub page numbers that correspond to the printed version's page numbers (the introduction is numbered with small roman numerals, while the main text uses regular numerals). However, this only applies to the page numbers in the margin--the numbering on the Sony menubar is absolute (cover is page 1, title page is 2, etc). Interestingly, the desktop ADE app actually shows both sets of numbers (both 'paper version' and absolute).

I know many of you despise the margin page numbering, but one place where this could be incredibly useful is in a classroom situation where some students have a paper copy and others have an ebook copy. The teacher need only say "2nd paragraph on page 51" and everyone can easily end up in the same place.

[mbagsh55]

I agree there are situations where having a predictable page-number that is unaffected by font-size or reading device is useful. However the majority of my reading on the Sony reader is reading fiction for pleasure and I dislike the ADE enforced page numbers on the side of the page and the fact it "messes" up my Sony number bar, giving page numbers like '80-81'.

If this was something that could be toggled on and off in the reader settings it would without question be a feature rather than an irritation. So fingers crossed it appears as an option in the next Sony firmware.

[DaleDe]

I would also like to know how ADE computes these numbers. I have an eBook that has lots of internal reference to page numbers and I would like to make them accurate.

[JSWolf]

Is there any way to use page-map.xml to not have page numbers on the right side?

[AnemicOak]

Is 'page-map.xml' normally in an ePub? I've looked at three commercial ePub's and a couple made in Calibre and none of them have it.

[Abecedary]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I would also like to know how ADE computes these numbers. I have an eBook that has lots of internal reference to page numbers and I would like to make them accurate.

I'm not entirely certain how it calculates page numbers by default, but I seem to remember seeing it mentioned that ADE puts a page number in for every x characters or bytes or something.

As for the page-map.xml file, it's pretty straightforward. The file for the book that I have is simply as follows (btw, the book is The Suspicions of Mr Whicher):

<page-map xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
<page name="" href="cover.html"/>
<page name="i" href="halftitle.html"/>
<page name="ii" href="other.html"/>
<page name="iii" href="title.html"/>
<page name="iv" href="copyright.html"/>
...
<page name="1" href="part1.html"/>
<page name="3" href="chapter1.html"/>
<page name="4" href="chapter1.html#page_4"/>
<page name="5" href="chapter1.html#page_5"/>
<page name="6" href="chapter1.html#page_6"/>
<page name="7" href="chapter1.html#page_7"/>
...
</page-map>

You'll notice the cover doesn't get a page number, and page 2 (the blank verso page) has been omitted. If the html file is just a single page, it gets referenced as is. For multiple pages (as in chapter 1), you just drop an anchor tag into the correct place in the html text flow (<a id="page_4"/>).

The only other things that I can see that are needed are adding the following to the opf file:

<item href="page-map.xml" id="map" media-type="application/oebps-page-map+xml"/>

gets added to the manifest section, and

<spine page-map="map" toc="ncx">

gets added as the start of the spine.

[Abecedary]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Is 'page-map.xml' normally in an ePub? I've looked at three commercial ePub's and a couple made in Calibre and none of them have it.

I believe it's another of the Adobe-specific extensions, similar to the page-template.xml file. This is the first commercial ePub I've come across that has one (out of about a dozen or so), but a number of others have the <a id=xxx> anchor points in the html that correspond to the print edition (but they're not referenced or used anywhere that I can find). It looks like this is something that InDesign can do when exporting an ePub file (hence the matchup to the print edition numbering scheme).

I haven't even attempted to untangle a Calibre-generated ePub. The few conversions I've made with it have had multiple stylesheets (some completely blank) and repeated styles (with different names) within the stylesheets. I mean, it does the job (and fairly well at that), but it certainly isn't nice and tidy.

[Abecedary]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is there any way to use page-map.xml to not have page numbers on the right side?

I think you know the answer to this. Sorry, Jon.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is there any way to use page-map.xml to not have page numbers on the right side?

According to Abecedary's example, maybe just this?

<page-map xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
<page name="" href="cover.html"/>
</page-map>

i.e., just set the whole book as a single unnamed page.

[Abecedary]

Good point, Jellby. I hadn't thought of that.

[DaleDe]

The new firmware from Hanlin actually uses the page numbers as the only page number indication in the file. A Goto aimed at a page number is the exact page referenced by Adobe. This is unlike the Sony implementation that has screen numbers. However if the Sony firmware is upgraded it may be like this also.

Dale

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

The new firmware from Hanlin actually uses the page numbers as the only page number indication in the file. A Goto aimed at a page number is the exact page referenced by Adobe. This is unlike the Sony implementation that has screen numbers. However if the Sony firmware is upgraded it may be like this also.

Dale

This is also the way it works on the Opus. Without the page numbers you'd have no indication of how far through the book you were.

[AnemicOak]

Found some info about this here...
http://groups.google.com/group/epubc...a61114e2a831d3

Any way to hide the page numbers appeared in epub output viewed by
adobe digital edition

There is a way but I don't know, if it makes any sense to you.
its as follows:

1. Add page-map attribute in the OPF file.
2. remove the page links from the pagemap.xml file (if exists any), so that
ADE will not find any page numbers to display.
3. Then make an ePub out of it.

But why do you need to hide ADE page numbers?

I've epub file and I want to hide the page number and I didn't
understand your reply, would please to tell me how can I hide it

Please check to my page-template.xpgt and tell me how can I hide page number

Hi,

The page-template file does not control the display of page numbers.
What you're looking for is the page-map.xml file.

Go to http://www.adobe.com/devnet/digitalpublishing/ and download the
"EPUB Best Practices Guide". There's a section on "Adobe Extensions"
which discusses the page map file. To suppress page numbering, you'll
need to create such a file, but use an empty name attribute (note that
I haven't tried this). If the page-map file doesn't exist, ADE will
generate page numbers based on the algorithm discussed in the best
practices guide.

Thanks,

Dave Cramer

[Abecedary]

Yup. I just tried stripping out the page numbers in the file I have (as per Jellby's comment) and the ADE desktop client didn't display the margin page numbers for those. I didn't go through the whole file, though (there are ~380 pages)--I just did the first 20 or so. However, it looks like it probably will mess with things in other unpredictable ways--mainly the inability to skip to any arbitrary page, or as Harry mentions, even know where in the book flow you are.

[DaleDe]

I found the answer as to how ADE creates a page number if there is no page file. It uses 1024 unicode characters per page to compute arbitrary page numbers. It will also increment pages based on chapter separations if they start a new file. Looks like I will be building a page document manually for the book "FourFold Gospel" previously uploaded here.