I need to make an ebook library

[ahmed_rdi]

Dear;

I need to make an ebook library to be purchased on iphone, ipad, android and blackberry

I have the books made on indesign but they are in Arabic and when I exported to epub, the Arabic is not displayed correctly on Adobe Digital Editions software

Can you help in that?

Am I right to choose epub or do you prefer other extentions as folio builder for example?

Thanks in advance

[Jellby]

Adobe Digital Editions (and most ebook readers) sucks for Arabic: it does not have Arabic letters in its default font, it does not render right-to-left text, and it does not apply ligatures.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ahmed_rdi

I need to make an ebook library to be purchased on iphone, ipad, android and blackberry

I have the books made on indesign but they are in Arabic and when I exported to epub, the Arabic is not displayed correctly on Adobe Digital Editions software

Can you help in that?

Am I right to choose epub or do you prefer other extentions as folio builder for example?

ePub is your best bet, I think, but most ebook readers use Adobe Digital Editions for their software, and I don't think it supports Arabic text properly (or at all?)

You're really at the leading edge of ebook software and technology with Arabic text. There isn't a simple solution at present, as far as I know. You'll need to search out people and companies interested in getting it to work.

Of course, if you do get a good solution, you'll be in at the start of things, which can be profitable.

[pholy]

I recall seeing - but I can't find them now - pictures of an ereader displaying Hebrew text. It looked correctly right justified, but I can't say if it was properly rendered. Hebrew is the only other right-to-left text I can think of. I realize that Arabic is a more complicated text form, but it is a step in the right direction.

Can anybody recall which reader was pictured?

By the way, the Unicode documents describe how to handle rtl languages, even mixed with ltr text, so it's not completely unmapped territory.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pholy

By the way, the Unicode documents describe how to handle rtl languages, even mixed with ltr text, so it's not completely unmapped territory.

Oh, not at all. Fonts and algorithms exist to display Arabic text pretty well, even with the varying forms in words and at word ends, and I think even for the extended character form of justification.

But I don't think ADE uses this info at the moment.

[ahmed_rdi]

I see from your reply that epub has problems with Arabic, ok

I tried folio using adobe folio builder from indesign CS5 and the arabic is displayed in the right manner and hyper links are working well too while there are no searching cababilities in the folio builder preview.
What can we make to have it searchable?
Can we say that folio can be a replacement for epub specially with Arabic? or epub still having extra capabilities than folio?

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by ahmed_rdi

I see from your reply that epub has problems with Arabic, ok

No, ePub has no particular problem with Arabic. ePub supports UTF8 and OpenType, and those together should be enough for Arabic. It's only ADE (a specific implementation of ePub reader) that does not properly support ePub, and therefore Arabic.

[ahmed_rdi]

How do you evaluate folio extension?

[HarryT]

Although it pains me to say this, you might be better off using PDF for Arabic until ADE gets its act together. A PDF created for the correct page size of a reader can look very good.

[ahmed_rdi]

I am searching for a type that can be viewed on ipad, iphone, blackberry and android in arabic with searching capabilities to be sold on Apple and android market.

I don't know if we can make that via pdf that is why I am searching for other type and that is why I am trying to evaluate epub and folio types.

Can any one help me to choose the right type.

[Jellby]

If your target is Apple and Android, you probably don't need to care about ADE, but I don't know how's the Arabic support there.

[ahmed_rdi]

Is there anyone know about Arabic support in Apple and Android?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ahmed_rdi

Is there anyone know about Arabic support in Apple and Android?

Someone posted an interesting link to some instructions on using Apple's Pages to create Arabic ePubs that worked with Apple's iBooks application for iPhone/iPad.

I don't know anything about Android support, although I would hope that there were some non-ADE ePub renderers fot Android that might work with well-formatted Arabic ePubs.