tabs in epub?

[AlanHK]

I've got some text arranged on the page to make patterns.
So I want to have the horizontal position exactly set.
Is there a way to have something like tab stops, either in em or percent, so this will work with any font or size?

Otherwise, I suppose I'll have to use a monospaced font.

[Jellby]

There are no tab stops, but you could use tables, margins, or elements with fixed width (I think you'd need "display:inline-block" for that).

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

I've got some text arranged on the page to make patterns.
So I want to have the horizontal position exactly set.

With e-books, IMHO, that's a Bad Thing. Be aware that the older Kindles don't support much in the way of tables, and that includes the DX, still on sale. And of course your book is going to look different in my iPhone 4 in vertical mode! And finally, anyone can throw off the design by selecting a larger font size.

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

With e-books, IMHO, that's a Bad Thing. Be aware that the older Kindles don't support much in the way of tables, and that includes the DX, still on sale. And of course your book is going to look different in my iPhone 4 in vertical mode! And finally, anyone can throw off the design by selecting a larger font size.

I know all that.
Did you read my post :

Is there a way to have something like tab stops, either in em or percent, so this will work with any font or size?

Anyway, what I've done is use <pre> text. Not the most aesthetic, but it keeps the text in the right place. And it should convert to to mobi easily.

It will probably look crappy on a small phone and run off the screen, but it's either that or use images of text.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

I know all that.
Did you read my post :




Anyway, what I've done is use <pre> text. Not the most aesthetic, but it keeps the text in the right place. And it should convert to to mobi easily.

It will probably look crappy on a small phone and run off the screen, but it's either that or use images of text.

I suspect, that when you convert that to MOBI format, you are going to be quite surprised at the results. I'm sure we'll all be very interested in your report on the end product.

Hitch

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I suspect, that when you convert that to MOBI format, you are going to be quite surprised at the results. I'm sure we'll all be very interested in your report on the end product.

Mobi isn't my target. I posted in the epub forum. Though I expect if not mobi it would convert to kf8 okay.

But if you were more specific about what disaster I'm courting, it might be helpful.

-- PS. Ran the current version through Kindle Previewer,and the mobi it made looks okay.
Only thing is that it ignored the "inline-block" style and put pagebreaks in the "graphic text" blocks. So I will insert pagebreaks before if I make a proper mobi.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Mobi isn't my target. I posted in the epub forum. Though I expect if not mobi it would convert to kf8 okay.

But if you were more specific about what disaster I'm courting, it might be helpful.

-- PS. Ran the current version through Kindle Previewer,and the mobi it made looks okay.
Only thing is that it ignored the "inline-block" style and put pagebreaks in the "graphic text" blocks. So I will insert pagebreaks before if I make a proper mobi.

You said, a few posts back:

And it should convert to to mobi easily.

So, naturally, I assumed that you did intend to do a mobi. If you're not, fine. And if you're happy with the result, great.

You may run into issues at the KDP, if you were going to upload at Amazon, as it's taken to stripping ALL fonts, font-calls (rather than embedded fonts, even stuff like "monospaced") from mobis, for the last few weeks, but if yours is working, good!

Hitch

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by Hitch

You said, a few posts back:
So, naturally, I assumed that you did intend to do a mobi. If you're not, fine. And if you're happy with the result, great.

It was just an aside. I know some things go screwy on conversion, but this seemed simple enough.
If it was necessary, I'd make sure.

(The only thing that I'd have to fix are pagebreaks, since a straight conversion didn't respect the "display: inline-block" styling. So I guess I'd put in hard pagebreaks before the sections that need to be continuous.)

Originally Posted by Hitch

You may run into issues at the KDP, if you were going to upload at Amazon, as it's taken to stripping ALL fonts, font-calls (rather than embedded fonts, even stuff like "monospaced") from mobis, for the last few weeks, but if yours is working, good!
Hitch

You mean that embedded fonts still work? That seems sensible enough.

Actually recently I made a ebook for a publisher who was very specific that it use the same font as the print edition. So of course I embedded them. There'd be hell to pay if that ended up in a default font.

But in this book I didn't specify a font beyond "'pre" implying a monospaced font. Surely that has to work.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

It was just an aside. I know some things go screwy on conversion, but this seemed simple enough.
If it was necessary, I'd make sure.

(The only thing that I'd have to fix are pagebreaks, since a straight conversion didn't respect the "display: inline-block" styling. So I guess I'd put in hard pagebreaks before the sections that need to be continuous.)




You mean that embedded fonts still work? That seems sensible enough.

Actually recently I made a ebook for a publisher who was very specific that it use the same font as the print edition. So of course I embedded them. There'd be hell to pay if that ended up in a default font.

But in this book I didn't specify a font beyond "'pre" implying a monospaced font. Surely that has to work.

No. I mean that all fonts, whether embedded or called from the firmware (e.g., device fonts) are being stripped. This doesn't affect books that have already been through the process; only new ones. If your client's book is up and selling, s/he is fine.

All the usual ways of creating MOBIs, with fonts, are currently not working. One of our closest competitors called me today, looking for a way to get monospaced to work.

Hitch

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by Hitch

No. I mean that all fonts, whether embedded or called from the firmware (e.g., device fonts) are being stripped.

Obviously that's a major screw up.
They'll have to fix it quick.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Obviously that's a major screw up.
They'll have to fix it quick.

They've known about it since not later than the 10th of this month, when I wrote to ECR and told them about it. After myriad emails, I'm fairly sure that it was accidental (a byproduct of something else they decided to update that week) and they don't know what is causing it.

Hitch

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by Hitch

They've known about it since not later than the 10th of this month, when I wrote to ECR and told them about it. After myriad emails, I'm fairly sure that it was accidental (a byproduct of something else they decided to update that week) and they don't know what is causing it.

Unfortunately, the more I deal with Amazon, the more convinced I am that a lot of their non-storefront systems are basically "protoduction" code, tossed together under too-tight time deadlines, resulting in fragile code that is constantly breaking whenever they make changes.

At some point, they're going to have to pay the piper—throw out all of KDP's ingest code and start over, creating a replacement that's actually robust.