Creating Fixed Format ebooks of spreads

alland · 05-17-2020, 09:14 AM

Hopefully somebody knows the answer to solving my problem converting fixed layout PDFs that apparently have to display as a spread in ePub and AZW3:

• We have created a series of children's picture books using Affinity Publisher, outputted them as flattened PDFs (because that's the only way to reliably preserve the layouts. That works perfectly.
The problem comes when I try to convert using the current version of Calibre to create ePUB and AZW3 files:

The biggest challenge is that the drawings are designed for a spread (i.e. the two facing pages) so I have to ensure that the two facing pages display jointly in the ebook reader (Kindle, Apple, etc).
If I generate single pages, what I get in the reader is apparently unpredictable i.e. some show one page, some show both pages, some don't match the facing pages! But if I generate spreads (i.e. the two facing pages outputted as a single page), then the ebook readers can display two of these spreads at a time or some other unsatisfactory result.

There must be a good solution as many other people have successfully published kids's picturebooks — but I sure can't figured how to make this work to get output that will reliably display in readers like Kindle, Apple, etc.

FYI - just to be clear, with Affinity Publisher the only good option would seem to be to output to PDF, so that's pretty much got to be my starting point for the ePub and Kindle output.

Any help or advice will be hugely appreciated as I have spent (wasted?) hours trying to make this work reliably ... Thanks!

jhowell · 05-17-2020, 10:08 AM

I don't know much about this topic, but it seems to be something differs across the different distribution/reading platforms.

For the Kindle platform this topic is discussed in the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines in section 12.4.1: Requirement #1: Using a Synthetic Spread When Orientation-Lock Equals None.

alland · 05-17-2020, 10:27 AM

Thanks! Downloading the info now!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

I don't know much about this topic, but it seems to be something differs across the different distribution/reading platforms.

For the Kindle platform this topic is discussed in the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines in section 12.4.1: Requirement #1: Using a Synthetic Spread When Orientation-Lock Equals None.

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05-17-2020, 09:14 AM	#1
alland Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2020 Device: ipad pro	Creating Fixed Format ebooks of spreads Hopefully somebody knows the answer to solving my problem converting fixed layout PDFs that apparently have to display as a spread in ePub and AZW3: • We have created a series of children's picture books using Affinity Publisher, outputted them as flattened PDFs (because that's the only way to reliably preserve the layouts. That works perfectly. The problem comes when I try to convert using the current version of Calibre to create ePUB and AZW3 files: The biggest challenge is that the drawings are designed for a spread (i.e. the two facing pages) so I have to ensure that the two facing pages display jointly in the ebook reader (Kindle, Apple, etc). If I generate single pages, what I get in the reader is apparently unpredictable i.e. some show one page, some show both pages, some don't match the facing pages! But if I generate spreads (i.e. the two facing pages outputted as a single page), then the ebook readers can display two of these spreads at a time or some other unsatisfactory result. There must be a good solution as many other people have successfully published kids's picturebooks — but I sure can't figured how to make this work to get output that will reliably display in readers like Kindle, Apple, etc. FYI - just to be clear, with Affinity Publisher the only good option would seem to be to output to PDF, so that's pretty much got to be my starting point for the ePub and Kindle output. Any help or advice will be hugely appreciated as I have spent (wasted?) hours trying to make this work reliably ... Thanks!

05-17-2020, 10:08 AM	#2
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,026 Karma: 90000009 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Charlottesville, VA Device: Kindles	I don't know much about this topic, but it seems to be something differs across the different distribution/reading platforms. For the Kindle platform this topic is discussed in the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines in section 12.4.1: Requirement #1: Using a Synthetic Spread When Orientation-Lock Equals None.

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