[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

I did use paragraph styles instead of headings. Knowing how intrusive some conversions tend to be, I was trying to hide my numbered headings so that they would be left alone. When I saw that they weren't, I just removed the numbers. I like the result for a few reasons.

• The headings look cleaner without numbers.
• The numbers can be seen just by clicking the heading, which takes the user back to the TOC.
• No conversion process can possibly figure out that they're headings and so will have no excuse to make assumptions and change them.

Sorry--I don't think I understand why "numbered headings" are involved here. Do you mean, when you say that, "Chapter ONE," for example, or is your document using Outline numbering, perchance?

Also, what do you mean when you say that you know how "intrusive" some conversions can be? What are you talking about? Which conversions, and the like? I find that generally, even the worst automatic converters out there recognize headings set in a source document, even if they don't recognize anything else. As you said, initially, that you were learning ePUB, what other methods have you used, to which you are referring?

I'm importing directly from DOCX into Calibre without any intermediate steps. Whatever stylesheets Calibre gets were created by Word without my direct participation, except by defining and using styles as much as possible to reduce the complexity of the document.

Okay...

Given that there could potentially be a large number of cycles in the polishing phase, I prefer to assert my wishes in the Word source document. The only manual remedial steps I'm willing to consider at this point are ones that I can't achieve any other way.

OK--so, really, discussing this at all on the eBook Software--Sigil==> forums is a bit of a misnomer. If you're only going to work in Word, I'd guess that this thread should move over to the Workshop, as Diap suggested. However, when it comes to embedding fonts, normally, Word can't do that for you. You cannot embed fonts into an HTML document using Word. I am inferring that Calibre, what, pulls the referenced font files into your ePUB, is that right? When you convert the Word file using Calibre, to ePUB?

With regard to the cycles and the polishing phases...didn't you say that this was a learning exercise? As opposed to a commercial book? You downloaded a txt from Gutenberg, and all that? Or have I misunderstood?

• One of these exceptions is that I post-process the ePub using BBEdit to lock in my font-family definitions using the !important qualifier.
• Based on something you said about guarding against font stripping, I'm anticipating perhaps one more such exception but don't yet know what that might be.

Well, I expect we're about to get to this.

Right now I'm using the fonts included in Word.

• Do I need to license those separately if I'm going to use them in an eBook? Monotype Corsiva, for example.

I will use foundry fonts where needed by law. Yes, I subset my embedded fonts using Calibre.

Firstly, any font that you actively put in an eBook will most likely need licensing. Most fonts are simply licensed for "desktop publishing" purposes, which is very different than "embedding" or "redistribution." Don't get confused by font licenses saying "commercial;" that is unrelated, usually, to redistribution/embedding. Be aware that licensing a font for redistribution/embedding usually increases the desktop publishing price by a factor of 10 or more. I just today looked at a font that was $79.50 for both Desktop Publishing and Webfonts (websites, essentially) licensing, and it was $795.00 for a single eBook license. That's not unusual if dealing with foundry fonts. ( As someone who messes with this commercially, I have a boatload of alerts set up for sales and deals on fonts licensed for these uses, just so I can scoop them up at a good price.)

Second--Remember that in the normal course of things, you'd have to add the font file, the entire font file, either to Calibre in the ePUB Editor or in Sigil, to make it work. Simply putting CSS into a stylesheet, calling for (e.g., "Monotype Corsiva") won't make the font display. It might display on your computer because you have Monotype Corsiva on your system. But if you send that file to someone who doesn't, they won't see Monotype Corsiva. They'll see whatever the device substitutes for it. I'm not familiar with Cailbre for conversion, which is what you must have used, but my comprehension is that it "pulls" the fonts from the system's fonts folder, that are used in the eBook file? That's the deal?

Due in part to tax season, I’ve had to push this project down a few frames on my stack lately but will be happy to let you know the upload results when I have them.

Great, thanks.

Yes, I understand now about the indents that I never asked for. Besides taking the numbers out altogether as I did in one of my 2 books, another way to outmaneuver automated structuring is to use words in place of numbers - One, Two, Three, etc. - which I was already doing in the other of my 2 books, again because it looks better in that book. I know it sounds extreme but as I said, I do like the result and there's no way the automated format-bots in the conversion code can figure out what I'm doing and change it.

Honestly, you're doing this the hard way. You seem to have started with Calibre and Sigil first, rather than cleaning and styling your Word file first. I really don't understand where you're coming from with the "outmaneuver automated structuring" part, or even why you want it. You can make ANY bit of text, any heading, any paragraph, etc., look how you want it to, in both Word and in HTML. You're making things hard on yourself for no reason.

@Diap: as the poster doesn't really want any HTML/XHTML/CSS information, but only wants to work in Word, I guess this should move to the Workshop forum. I'm sure that more folks who do the lifting in Word will be there, instead of here at the Sigil forums...that's my guess.

Moderator Notice
Taking the advice. Moving this section to workshop

Hitch