[Hitch]

Originally Posted by phossler

Sigil seems to be a lot smarter that the epub readers that I can find, esp. ADE.

The CSS below was an experiment and Sigil has no problems displaying it as expected (i.e. correctly), but ADE seems to ignore the :first-line and :first-letter selectors. ADE also seems to be a little flaky with embedded fonts also.

Using Calibre to convert to Kindle AZW3 will show correctly in the Kindle Previewer (haven't actually tried my touch yet)

p {
text-indent: 0;
text-align: left;
font-size: 1em;
margin-top:0;
margin-bottom: 1em;
font-size: 1em;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
font-family:serif;
}

p:first-line {
	font-size: small;
	font-style: italic;
	text-decoration: underline;
	font-variant:small-caps;
	font-family:sans-serif;
}

p:first-letter {
	font-size: 1.75em;
	font-weight: bold;
	font-style: normal;
	font-family:sans-serif;
}

(Yes, I know it's ugly .. it was just an experiment)

So ... is there a more 'accurate' epub viewer for Windows?

Paul

Paul:

I can guarantee that psuedo-classes like "first line" and "first-letter" are hopeless, if you expect them to work on numerous reading devices. I haven't tried them in a while, but when I did, they worked on iBooks (of course, because Liz tested them, eh?), but not Nook, or most of the ADE-based readers. Generally, they don't work for any ePUBs destined to be converted to MOBI. (n.b.: the K Previewer also tends to err on the side of displaying stuff that doesn't really work on the devices, as it too is essentially browser-based, rather than using the same software as the actual devices.) And the results you'll get from Calibre--which is still getting rejected at KDP, by and large--will NOT be the same as what you'll get if you feed an ePUB to KindleGen/KP. If you're writing an ebook to be viewed strictly on browsers--say, something you're going to upload to Goodreads--you're STILL stuck with ADE, because they use ADE to render, and then display in the browser.

As, I think, Diap said, stick with testing on ADE if you have no device(s). As Jellby said, there's no substitute for the devices themselves, but ADE will give you a reasonably decent version of what you will see on the vast majority of the reading devices. I'm actually sorry to hear that the Previewer for Sigil displays this (I realize the issues making it not do so, but just thinking aloud here), because now we're sure to be inundated with questions that ask the same question--"X" works in Sigil Book Preview, but not on ADE/iBooks/Bob's Big Book Browser, etc. ;-)

Hitch