[mattmc]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I dunno, man. I've seen the code output from iBA, and I know you're a programmer. I find it odd that you aren't yanking your hair out about what's in the underside.

Eh, it's not particularly worse than the InDesign output, really. Perhaps I've become numb to it. But really, since I'm only targeting iBooks, and the output is consistent and high-quality in iBooks, I don't need to mess with it particularly. If I was in there scripting it up, I'm sure I'd be more upset

One cool thing is that they run the book through a word-stemming and indexing process when they export, so you have these files which are used by the Search process within iBooks. Makes for wicked-fast searches compared to the normal WebKit iBooks renderer; would be cool if Apple could contribute that functionality and stuff to the broader ecosystem.

Originally Posted by Hitch

I don't mean to be dense, but...then why use it? Saleability-wise, it certainly seems that the ONLY platform really using ePUB3 is indeed iBooks, and from what my clients tell me, they don't want to be stuck only selling there. Most sell one book on iBooks for every thou that they sell on Amazon. Seems like a ton of work for very, very little return. Didn't I see a post from you around here, with you pulling aforementioned hair out, because it was doing something or the other?

Yes, you did see such a post

Fortunately or unfortunately, it boils down to features. Doing the whole iBA-authored ePub3 adds some secret-sauce features that I needed, that are difficult to execute with any grace on normal ePub2 files and readers. Makes it worth rebuilding a whole separate file (quite a statement, I know).

Originally Posted by Hitch

We are asked, fairly frequently, to "revamp" an iBA file, to make it usable for other platforms, and fixing that code would take longer, 10 times out of 10, than just making the book from scratch. Granted, that's pretty much true for trying to fix anyone else's eBook/HTML coding, but the iBA files are just egregiously bad. It's like looking at Pages' output into ePUB. Yikes. I assume that you've already tried using Pages-->ePUB, etc.

That's interesting and good to know. I was wondering if the iBooks output could be used as the basis for broader-scoped files; guess not. (No, never tried Pages-->ePub.)

Originally Posted by Hitch

We have customized templates that we use for iNDD. Granted, that's mostly useful for fiction, but I have House Style (stylesheets, translating for non-INDDers) set for INDD for all types of books, both fiction and non.

I have a couple of my own I use, but I'm curious what you have in yours. I guess those are trade secrets?

Originally Posted by Hitch

I'm working on developing a more streamlined and/or regulated workflow, facilitating straight-up style mapping, from word-processor to INDD to ePUB to MOBI. This doesn't have anything to do with what you're asking, EXCEPT that we're strong in the Force of Sigil, at my shop.

Now, we're not Mac folks. One of my people is a Mac user, but she's mostly handling admin stuff (emails and that). So, our expectation in interfaces is decidedly different than yours. We do also use Epsilon, but, pretty much post-HTML, everything is Sigil. I expect that even with the new processes, Sigil will play a key role.

Interesting. Well I have print INDD files to start with basically, so so no word processor involvement.

Epsilon...like the Eclipse/Java/XML transformation suite? o.O

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, no custom CSS would be the death-knell for me. I don't have the luxury. To me, iBA sounds a bit like Vellum, which some of my clients have raved about, and gone on to use. Mostly because it's simple to use. And, compared to using us, it's cheap.

I did scope out Vellum some. There are aspects of it which are really appealing, but it's very non-power-user. Which makes sense given their business model.

Originally Posted by Hitch

Ideas for the Holy Grail of eBook production? Gosh.

I've seen a dozen different programs/apps, all aimed at being THIS. None of them are. I've been asked to alpha/beta test most, and while many seem somewhat promising, none do what a company like mine needs done.

If I had the time I'd write it myself Ah, well.

Originally Posted by Hitch

Not to insult your programmer-fu, have you tried Jutoh? It has ePUB2 and 3, I believe, can do fixed-layout and regular, and builds MOBIs using KG. It's not my cuppa, again, because I don't like having to redo everything into Julian's (Julian Smart, the developer) odd take on "styles." (At my last gander, you can't put your own Stylesheet in there, and when you want to use a style, you have to scroll through 500 listed styles. That irks me, BUT, I've seen some people who claim that's not true.)

No, haven't tried Jutoh, but you kinda un-sold me on it in that paragraph

Originally Posted by Hitch

There's Bookalope, and another one (can't think of the name). Some people have touted Blue Griffon's ePUB editor, but it looks like the dog's breakfast, to me. Sigil's better, more powerful, and more advanced...and BG is quite expensive, for what it does. Obviously, Sigil isn't.

I did see BG as well and was curious about it, but you're right it's unfortunately rather expensive :-/

Originally Posted by Hitch

Push come to shove, for me, it's INDD->ePUB-->Sigil, and then onward from there. If you're married to the ePUB3 idea, you can do ePUB3 now with Sigil as well.

I don't know of any viable replacement for Sigil, or for INDD, for that matter. Quark's pretty badly outdated, in my experience.

Hitch

Thanks for your wisdom, Hitch. I guess for now I'll stick to INDD->ePUB->Scripting. Maybe there's like, some INDD plugin I can get that will make it easier to control that beast.