Setup in CSS a <body> and a <p> style. Make <p> what you use mostly.
This is what I use...
Code:
body {
widows: 1;
orphans: 1;
margin-top: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
text-align: justify;
}
p {
margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
text-indent: 1.2em;
}
It sets up no margins so apps/Readers that have margin setting can work properly. It has no line-height so apps/Readers what allow adjusting the line-height can do so. It also sets widows and orphans both to 1 otherwise, it doesn't look so good on screen. As for <p>, it sets up <p> to have an indent of 1.2em and no top/bottom margins as paragraphs spaces are not nice.
So you wrap each paragraph in <p>text of the paragraph</p> and just use <p class="someclass"> when you need to such as a paragraph with no indents.
Here are some other classes that work...
Code:
.center {
text-align: center;
margin-top: 1em;
margin-bottom: 1em;
text-indent: 0;
}
.noindnt {
text-indent: 0;
}
.spacebreak {
padding-top: 2em;
text-indent: 0;
}
h2 {
margin-top: 1em;
margin-bottom: 1em;
text-align: center;
}
The center class is for when you want to offset text and center it. The noindent class is obvious and the spacebreak class is for when you just want blank space for a spacebreak. H2 works for the chapter title.
One note. When you use a text-align: center, you also need to use a text-indent of 0 when the class is to be used with <p>.
The rest of the classes can be made as you need them. Oh and for the copyright page, a font size of small is usually used. for paragraph spaces in the copyright page, a space of 0.8em works well with a font size of small. If you are using smallcaps, a font size of 0.8em works.
Code:
.smallcaps {
font-size: 0.8em;
}
The idea is to make the code as simple as possible. It makes it easier for you to deal with it. also, by naming the classes in a logical manner, you will know what they mean when you look at the class names.
It's not hard. Once you make your CSS and you are happy with it, save it so you can use it again. But don't leave any unused classes in the CSS.
Now as to the graphics, you can do a lossless compression to remove anything that doesn't need to be there to make them smaller without changing the quality.
For the cover, a line height of 1600 is optimal. Amazon agrees with this in their guidelines. If your titlepage is a graphic image, again 1600 lines. The width is whatever it is based on 1600 lines.
And if you don't need ePub 3, make your eBook ePub 2.