Invisible text in Book View

erikjacobson · 11-18-2010, 10:22 PM

Hello.

Perhaps someone here has had a similar issue. I am exporting to ePub from Indesign CS4. When I open the file in Sigil the text is invisible in Book View. The text is there in the code, and the images (there are two) are visible but I am unable to see the text in Book Biew.

I've tried various changes in the CSS: using the hex value and "black" to replace the rgb values that Indesign defaulted to.

I've changed the fonts to basic serif instead of New Times Roman and I've tried other font families. And when viewed with an ebook reader (other than Sigil) they are visible (see image attachment).

Could this be a platform issue? I'm running Mac/Intel Snow Leopard 10.6.5.

This has been an issue for me for 2 months now and i keep coming back to it and trying different things. This is an update of a client's book (see attachment) that gave me no problem when using Sigil to edit last spring, but when i updated to the latest version of Sigil in September this is what is happening.

I've also tried using different fonts prior to exporting from InDesign. This current version uses Times New Roman. I was using Adobe Garamond originally (which InDesign would warn me that it wasn't embedding) and with that font the italics would show up in Sigil's Book View but the regular text would disappear. When trying out different things with the Adobe Garamond I found that in the CSS if i substituted a generic serif instead of specifiying a font family the regular text would appear but the italics would disappear. But even this doesn't work with the Times New Roman (which i got no warning about not embedding).

I'm stumped. If anyone has an idea i'm all ears. It's probably something stupid

but at this point i can't see it.

erikjacobson · 11-19-2010, 01:16 AM

i went back to look at my older ePub version that looked great before I downloaded the new version of Sigil, just to see. I thought maybe if it looked ok i could steal the CSS from it and paste it into the new version but it now has the same problem. It's slightly different from the posting above because the italicized text shows up but the regular test is invisible.

Attached is a screen capture. I highlighted the invisible text and also am in Split Mode so that you can see there's text but it's not visible. I know this doesn't help you figure out the code problem but felt it might help you understand what i'm talking about.

Valloric · 11-19-2010, 04:50 AM

I just opened this file successfully on Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.10 and Snow Leopard. The text appears just fine.

It must be something with your system.

theducks · 11-19-2010, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikjacobson

i went back to look at my older ePub version that looked great before I downloaded the new version of Sigil, just to see. I thought maybe if it looked ok i could steal the CSS from it and paste it into the new version but it now has the same problem. It's slightly different from the posting above because the italicized text shows up but the regular test is invisible.

Attached is a screen capture. I highlighted the invisible text and also am in Split Mode so that you can see there's text but it's not visible. I know this doesn't help you figure out the code problem but felt it might help you understand what i'm talking about.

I also opened withSigil on Ubuntu 10.04 and saw text (and thought I was missing some special point).
Maybe you have a custom desktop "Theme" installed that ripples over into this?

erikjacobson · 11-19-2010, 12:10 PM

Theme? Any guesses as to what? Nothing is custom. It's all Mac-factory default except for my desktop image. I've changed that, too, to a mac default, and there's no difference in the Sigil file...

I've run "Disc Utility" and repaired all permissions and the startup disc is fine. Ran the 3rd party utility OnyX, which does a similar thing, too, and the system is fine tuned. Everything works great but Sigil and the invisible text.

11-19-2010, 01:16 AM	#2
erikjacobson Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	i went back to look at my older ePub version that looked great before I downloaded the new version of Sigil, just to see. I thought maybe if it looked ok i could steal the CSS from it and paste it into the new version but it now has the same problem. It's slightly different from the posting above because the italicized text shows up but the regular test is invisible. Attached is a screen capture. I highlighted the invisible text and also am in Split Mode so that you can see there's text but it's not visible. I know this doesn't help you figure out the code problem but felt it might help you understand what i'm talking about. Attached Thumbnails

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11-19-2010, 04:50 AM	#3
Valloric Created Sigil, FlightCrew Posts: 1,982 Karma: 350515 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Kobo Clara HD	I just opened this file successfully on Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.10 and Snow Leopard. The text appears just fine. It must be something with your system.

11-19-2010, 12:10 PM	#5
erikjacobson Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	Theme? Any guesses as to what? Nothing is custom. It's all Mac-factory default except for my desktop image. I've changed that, too, to a mac default, and there's no difference in the Sigil file... I've run "Disc Utility" and repaired all permissions and the startup disc is fine. Ran the 3rd party utility OnyX, which does a similar thing, too, and the system is fine tuned. Everything works great but Sigil and the invisible text.

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