Joshua Tallent on the Single Epub Challenge

[Notjohn]

This looks interesting. I'd be glad of comments on what he says here:

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015...&rid=245585020

[JSWolf]

Rubbish!

[Notjohn]

Thank you!

[Turtle91]

Not sure why Jon thought it was "rubbish"...I thought it was a basic article about why the author thought it better to have a single source ePub rather than multiple formats catering to the different venues. He even ends by saying "test, test, test"...which sounds like good advice.

I tend to agree with a single source ePub, but then I'm unencumbered by business concerns.

I code my ePub assuming that my reading app/device will support the standard. If it doesn't, then I submit a bug report. In the event the app isn't updated, then I get a new app/device that DOES support the standard. I don't let old/outdated/nonstandard devices dictate how I code my books.

[DiapDealer]

Yeah ... not sure "rubbish" is applicable. More like "meh." Not much really got said. The ability to maintain a single epub source for ebooks would be great, but it's not always possible. Do what you gotta do. *shrug*

[Turtle91]

I just noticed a comment to the article that spoke of the benefits of having the sole source ePub as an ePub3.

Bill Kasdorf
May 18, 2015 at 10:10 am

Good post, Joshua, and I agree with everything you said. I just want to point out one common and useful variant. Even when files need to be tweaked to adapt to the requirements and limitations of certain reading systems (a bigger issue the more complex your ebooks are), it is still far and away the best practice to _start with an EPUB 3_ and then just tweak that for the needed variations. And that EPUB 3 should have fallbacks for things that may work in one reading system and not in another, to minimize the amount of tweaking and management of multiple versions needed.

Joshua Tallent
May 18, 2015 at 11:04 am

Thanks, Bill! That is a point that I definitely should have made more clear, and is certainly one that everyone should consider. A well-formed EPUB 3 file is a perfect foundation for any variant EPUB or Kindle files you have to create. Start with the best, then water down as needed.

I haven't yet taken the dive into ePub3 with Sigil or Calibre. How well does it work? Do they fully support "the standard" HTML5/CSS3??

edit: Sorry didn't mean to sidetrack the thread...

[JSWolf]

Sigil does not work well with ePub 3. You load in an ePub 3 ePub and it will become corrupted.

ePub 3 is a poor choice for a source format unless you are using features in ePub 3 that are not possible to use in ePub 2. But most eBooks these days that are being turned out as ePub 3 have np need at all to be ePub 3 and would work perfectly as ePub 2.

[eschwartz]

EPUB3 is a complete waste of space, on account of if you create an EPUB2 it will already work everywhere. The only reason to start with an EPUB3 as the comments suggest is if you are actually trying to produce an EPUB3 ebook.

Which is extra work for no net gain, although people are more than welcome to waste their efforts doing so anyway. They have free will.


Unless you are creating an ebook that actually uses EPUB3 features, in which case you won't have ever been asking the question "which one should I use" in the first place.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yeah ... not sure "rubbish" is applicable. More like "meh." Not much really got said. The ability to maintain a single epub source for ebooks would be great, but it's not always possible. Do what you gotta do. *shrug*

Considering that Joshua is no longer making ebooks, and that eBookArchitects is no more, really???? Single source would be lovely--but it's not always possible, as Diap already stated. And making multiple ePUBs, IME, which is not insignificant, almost always, always, always leads to issues with the clients uploading the wrong file at the wrong damn place.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

As a practical matter, Hitch, when is a single epub not sufficient? That's all I have done since 2012 when you pointed out that I could upload epubs to the KDP.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sigil does not work well with ePub 3. You load in an ePub 3 ePub and it will become corrupted.

ePub 3 is a poor choice for a source format unless you are using features in ePub 3 that are not possible to use in ePub 2. But most eBooks these days that are being turned out as ePub 3 have np need at all to be ePub 3 and would work perfectly as ePub 2.

Sorry, should have been clearer. I was more wondering about how Calibre and Sigil handled them rather than if it's a good format.
I thought I read that Sigil had a "convert to ePub3" function? If it can do that, it doesn't seem to make sense that it would become corrupted if you turn around and open that same file in Sigil...is that really true??

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I thought I read that Sigil had a "convert to ePub3" function? If it can do that, it doesn't seem to make sense that it would become corrupted if you turn around and open that same file in Sigil...is that really true??

Sigil currently has no such function. There exists a third-party Sigil plugin which if properly installed, can export the current epub as an EPUB3. And yes, it's true that you cannot turn around and open that exported EPUB3 for editing with Sigil. Because Sigil is currently only an EPUB2 editor.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

As a practical matter, Hitch, when is a single epub not sufficient? That's all I have done since 2012 when you pointed out that I could upload epubs to the KDP.

A single ePub might not be sufficient when you also are submitting to Apple for iBooks.

[JSWolf]

I have loaded one of these new publisher ePub 3 into Sigil and it caused errors where none existed. This was just loading with no editing.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

As a practical matter, Hitch, when is a single epub not sufficient? That's all I have done since 2012 when you pointed out that I could upload epubs to the KDP.

As our resident Curmudgeon has pointed out, usually, it's when Apple is involved. They have some display glitches, usually for images, that might need extra tweakage. In fact, I have one right now, that has come back, 6 months later...{sigh}, and the client is claiming that now it doesn't work right. It works a treat on ADE and Readium and SonyReader and Nook for PC and Nooks of all sizes...but it's doing something funky on bloody Apple. When I see more, I'll let you know.

Hitch