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Originally Posted by PoP
Sure, if you have the time to detail a bit more.
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I'll do it within the coming days, I will mark the thread as "Tutorial: ".
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Originally Posted by PoP
I don't want to hijack this thread but I would apply the idea in my Nadsat Translation Dictionary where I have strings of multiple characters (in alien language fonts). Since dictionaries are KF7 only, I could not use font embedding or svg and it annoys me that the images of text that I included cannot scale when font sizes are changed. |
Hopefully everyone can piece together some code and figure this out. In my experience, usually you can get code like this working in:
Sigil + ADE, and break in Kindle
Sigil + Kindle, and break in ADE
Work in all three, and then explode in iBooks
Work everywhere, and explode in an otherwise perfectly compliant ereader that has never treated you wrong...
UNTIL NOW.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtrahan
OK. Trying to please every e-reader around is enough to literally drive a man crazy. I spent way too much time in this &%!&% ePub and every time I manage to get something working I seem to break something else.
[...]
The most confusing thing is that when I open Text2002ans's AppleTest.epub in ADE, it works just fine! The Apple symbol is shown at the good size. So I tried to import his exact code in my ePub, same PNG file, copied the CSS and HTML. And it doesn't work anymore! Giant Apple in ADE again...
Frankly, this is getting insane. I really have no idea what is causing this. At this point I'm a little desperate. I spent way too much time trying to get this ePub to work this week...
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I know your pain!!!
This is why working on such a strict deadline is just asking for gremlins... this EPUB requires a break (of a day or two, maybe a week or two)... and when you come back to it, the gremlins will have disappeared, everything will magically be working, the good ideas will flow right to your brain! It happens in programming all the time!
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Originally Posted by mtrahan
The Apple symbol. Yes, it works in Sigil: I set "height: 1em;" and the symbol is the size I want (just as Text2002ans showed). But as soon as I open the ePub in ADE the Apple gets back to its giant size. And frankly, I have no idea why.
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I will have to see if I hunt down that EPUB I mentioned and see what I did in the code.... What happens when you do 165+ EPUBs is that your brain gets a little rusty, and you forget what you used where.
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Originally Posted by mtrahan
I can't upload the ePub here because of copyright, but if anyone is curious about this and wants to have a look at it, let me know and I'll send a link in private.
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Send it on over.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtrahan
EDIT: Oh and by the way, the AppleTest.epub (with the PNG file) doesn't work in iBooks either. I get giant apples there too... The most frustrating thing is that iBooks is pretty much the only reader where I wouldn't even need to do this: Apple symbols are already embedded in it so the symbol appeared automatically on the first try...
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I don't have any apple device. I test on ADE (my first-generation Nook, and every so often Bluefire reader on my phone) + Sigil + at work there are people who test on Kindles and report any problems.
From what I gather on the forums, iBooks creates horrors for rendering.
I gave up on iBooks with two things:
- When people were recommending that empty <span> surrounding everything "workaround".
- When I had an EPUB that had gremlins just like you. A reader contacted me saying that the cover of ONE BOOK wouldn't work on iBooks (the tens of EPUBs with the same exact code worked all fine). I went through maybe six or seven iterations of tiny tweaks to the gremlin EPUB... and right when I thought I was getting down to figuring it out... poof... the original EPUB worked!
You reach a point where you code your EPUB as compliant code, it renders good on 99% of the stuff you test on, and the other 1% can fix their crap, the user can tweak the EPUB to their liking, or they just ignore the one giant sized apple (hopefully you don't use the apple symbol too often?
).
The philosophy in my ebooks is:
Keep your code as minimal code as possible.
I keep things pretty much down to "left" + "center" + "right" + "noindent" + "negindent" + "margintop" + "smallcaps" (I use the CSS bold + font-variant:smallcaps to keep clean code, if the device can't handle smallcaps, the text is bold at least).
If I stray far from my CSS template code with odd code like this, I make sure to mark that it needs some extra testing. But at a point, you just can't have one EPUB file that handles them all! You will pull your hair out!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtrahan
Only problem is: it is useless. Neither my book or Text2002ans's AppleTest.epub works in iBooks (for the scaled symbol that is). I still get giant apples with both... And frankly, I'm beginning to think to only way to do this is to do downsize the PNG file directly to something very small, similar to a letter.
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No no no... you never want a tiny image that is scaled UP. It looks ATROCIOUS.
Since iBooks seems to have the Apple character built into the fonts, why not generate two EPUBs
JUST FOR THIS SINGLE CASE.
iBooks version: Toss out the PNG and just use the embedded fonts + it seems like the Apple character works on its own.
Everything else version: Toss in the Apple PNG and scale it in ems instead.