[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by BookWalker

The print version looks great, but I made one vital mistake that does not go over to epub the same. I placed an image behind every chapter number. Image attached.

I'd like to keep it the same, if at all possible.

I don't see an attached image.

But what you want won't be possible and/or will break across many actual ereaders.

What may be possible is making the entire "Chapter + Number + Background Image" an image, but I recommend strongly against that. (See Note below.)

Originally Posted by BookWalker

I've searched endlessly to find help to accomplish getting this image behind the chapter number, and came across the following:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=227739
https://ebooks.stackexchange.com/que...-or-epub-books

Completely ignore the ebooks.stackexchange answer. There's absolutely no way that can work on actual devices.

And the MobileRead thread, "Background image with text on top?", was mostly just musings. (And many, many years old. The thread was 2013.) ... Things that might work, but definitely not something to do if designing a book for sale in the major stores.

Originally Posted by BookWalker

I did have the speech bubble floating where it belonged while using Edit Book, but when I saved and looked at it as an epub, it was not showing up in Calibre E-book viewer the same.

Most likely using complicated snippets of CSS3 you found online, which many ereaders don't support.

Originally Posted by BookWalker

Does anyone have any advise on how to overcome this problem?... I just want the eBook to look like the print version if possible, and to function across all or most devices properly.

Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS).

Note: I've written about this many times over the years. Here's one a few years ago:

• "Why is it so hard to preserve blank lines?"
• "Any tips on adding ornamental art in Sigil or Scrivener?"
  
  • This is where I warn against chapter titles as images.
• "How to Format Scene Breaks?"
  
  • This is where I discuss replacing IMAGES of fleurons/scenebreaks with actual characters + reasoning why.

Originally Posted by Quoth

[...] but there is lots you can't do at all. Headers, footers, text flowing around the shapes of an image and matching the size of text and images.

Text flowing around is possible in CSS3 (EPUB3) by using CSS Shapes... but support in actual devices... probably close to 0.

But the good news is, if support isn't there, shapes should fallback to thinking the image is a rectangle.

Originally Posted by BookWalker

So it looks like in reality I should be producing print in one program and eBooks in another. I'm not a fan of Word, but understand it's value if it performs well in certain areas. I need to employ the right horse for the job.

InDesign is fine for Print, but when you export EPUB, it requires a hell of a lot of massaging.

If you've designed your document with Styles, your job may be partially easier.

I just wrote about how/why Styles are so important a few months ago:

• Post #10, "How to export indexes from indesign to epub"

but there's still a lot that has to be done after the EPUB export to clean up InDesign's mess. :P

InDesign exports an EPUB that "looks good" for iBooks, but fails miserably across other devices.

Originally Posted by BookWalker

I downloaded Sigil a couple of days ago, seeing that it has great reviews for doing eBooks, but when opening the program it pops up a bunch of error windows and then finally the program but it never runs.

What's the errors?

There is a bunch of crap that InDesign might insert in there that Sigil WARNS you about, but it should definitely open it.