Help needed - How to make a photography book epub?

[otco]

Hello everyone!

I'm a newbie when it comes to ebooks, and i'm tryine to learn as much as i can.
The first thing i'm trying to make is a photography ebook. A dear friend has made a pdf of 18 pictures and i want to make an epub version of it. tried looking for a similar thread, but couldn't find anything specific on this.

How do i make such thing?

OS: Mac OSX Snow Leopard.

I tried converting the pdf to epub through Calibre, but of course it only makes two chapters, one cover with the first image, and one chapter which basically is all the other images glued together.

Question: can i make an epub with 18 pages if i have 18 images?

thanks in advance for any advice and lesson that i'll get in the thread

[DaleDe]

Yes you can. Use Sigil to create the eBook. Do you have separate images? If not you may need to capture them from screen shots.

[otco]

Thanks a lot for the fast answer!

Yes i have 18 images, and just downloaded Sigil.

So how exactly do i make this? should i make 18 chapters, each one of them consisting of a single picture?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by otco

Thanks a lot for the fast answer!

Yes i have 18 images, and just downloaded Sigil.

So how exactly do i make this? should i make 18 chapters, each one of them consisting of a single picture?

Pick your way.
In Sigil the only way to place a new picture is to use the Picture tool.

I would suggest that you first place all the pictures and set the styles, THEN Sigil-split. That way, Sigil copies the Styles to the New split (and saves loads of work).

[otco]

Ok!

I'll spend a few days learning how to use Sigil, plus a few more to craft the book - i'll probably get back with more questions though. One more thing: thanks a million, fantastic help.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by otco

Ok!

I'll spend a few days learning how to use Sigil, plus a few more to craft the book - i'll probably get back with more questions though. One more thing: thanks a million, fantastic help.

Remember to test on a number of reading devices. What you see in Sigil, is not always what the device does.

f32 (Ansel Adams favorite)
These are B+W to view on e-Ink (16 levels ) ?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by theducks

Remember to test on a number of reading devices. What you see in Sigil, is not always what the device does.

f32 (Ansel Adams favorite)
These are B+W to view on e-Ink (16 levels ) ?

JPG does not have a 16 level capability. The smallest is 256 gray scale. Others have smaller but the compression on real photos are not as good as JPG. There is no real reason to limit to black/white anyway as the reader will handle color and convert it just fine in most cases.


Dale

[theducks]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

JPG does not have a 16 level capability. The smallest is 256 gray scale. Others have smaller but the compression on real photos are not as good as JPG. There is no real reason to limit to black/white anyway as the reader will handle color and convert it just fine in most cases.


Dale

I wasn't suggesting that he limit images to 16, just test view it on a device that is limited to 16 (like the EZReader PP ). Not all of us have (or want) color displays.
A coffee table IPAD book
the mind boggles

[DixieGal]

This project simply screams "bad idea"

[bobcdy]

Otco,
I'm not sure why the epub would be such a bad idea, as long as the creator realizes the limitations of ereaders. I threw together an example with 7 color photos formatted for a 6" grayscale reader and attached it to this post. The css was borrowed from other epubs and is more complex than you need but at least this will allow you to see what such an epub might look like (without any captions, etc. - only the 7 images on separate pages (and separate files), and how I handled the images. I used an jpg image size of 5" height and 200 dpi for each photo, and each image was scaled to fill 100% of the ereader screen width. It was checked on my bebook one. With a color ereader, of course, the images would look much much better. I hope this helps a bit.
Bob

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by bobcdy

Otco,
I'm not sure why the epub would be such a bad idea, as long as the creator realizes the limitations of ereaders.
Bob

Hi Bob.... Making picture books for ePub right now is like tiling a bathroom. You can pick the size tiles to suit your bathroom but if you try the same tiles in your neighbour's bathroom they don't fit and because they all get tipped into your neighbours bathroom and don't fit they end up everywhere except where you want them. That what happens with pictures unless you get very particular with code for individual devices. (Gawd I hope that makes some sense )

Your book on my Mac in Digital Editions is oriented CCW 90°. Bummer too. Because half the image is missing on my 21" monitor. You said they were formatted for 6" screens. Aim for 72dpi. The screen varies from device to device. With Apple you can have images large and it will size to fit. With Digital Editions you need to code the CSS for the size you want.

But you are in luck if you want to limit your audience to the ipad/phone/touch. New (hated by lots) iBooks has a format for just what you are doing.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=120744

That will work. But if you want to please everyone (phone readers as well) I can't see any other way around it other than making all your pictures no more than 450 pixels wide and informing readers to lock reading devices that auto orient to horizontal.
Another thought. I don't think owners of 6" grey scale e-readers are your target audience mate.
Colour tablets (as mentioned) and web sites I would think would be more promising.
I think Dixie Girl's "Bad Idea" comment may not be far from the mark if you are trying to bring these picture to a wide audience.

[bobcdy]

wannabee,
Thanks for the comments. Actually, the images SHOULD be oriented in a 90 degree orientation so that the long direction of the image is parallel to the long ebook screen direction. On the 6" ereader the photos almost completely fill the screen. The photo should look fine on a six inch ereader. I've also checked the photos on my Sony 950; again the images are oriented so that the long dimension of the photo is parallel to the long dimension of the Sony, and the photos completely fill the screen width but are not long enought to fill the screen length, so that there is a much larger absence of any photo at the bottom of the screen because the Sony has a long dimension much greater than my 6" bebook one. To fill the entire Sony screen would require photos of a larger length to width ratio than for filling a 6" ereader screen.

I think that these images will look fine on any ereader that will comply with the css requirement that an image should fill 100% of the screen width.

As far as a color image on an ereader, I don't have an ipad or equivalent but I assume that the 100% css width will work appropriately for an ipad so that the photo is correctly sized, except of course the photo will be much larger and in color. I think the photos will look very good on an Ipad. I've found that my ereaders will easily handle 200 dpi, and this should provide a better image for an Ipad than 72dpi.

As for the image on a computer screen, assuming you are using Adobe DE on the computer, if one adjusts the width of the Adobe DE appropriately, the photo will show completely. This is because the photo width is set to 100% of the width of the Adobe DE screen, so that as the image width is compressed by adjusting the adobe DE screen size on the computer, the image will get smaller and smaller until the whole image is showing. Of course if one runs Adobe DE full size on the computer screen, then much of the photo length will run off the screen.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by bobcdy

I think that these images will look fine on any ereader that will comply with the css requirement that an image should fill 100% of the screen width.

Note that there's no guarantee that an ebook reader will be used in portrait mode, or that the screen's aspect ratio is 4:3. Unfortunately, there's currently (in the ePUB format) no satisfactory solution that will work fine everywhere; in other words, there's no reliable way to detect screen size and orientation.

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by bobcdy

I think that these images will look fine on any ereader that will comply with the css requirement that an image should fill 100% of the screen width.

Nope. I've already cheesed off folk with this assumption. Everything is fluid. Everything is wobbly. Stick by the rules and you can have novels with lovely little pictures. If you want to do what you want to do you can only have iPad.
Or just stick it on the web.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Note that there's no guarantee that an ebook reader will be used in portrait mode, or that the screen's aspect ratio is 4:3. Unfortunately, there's currently (in the ePUB format) no satisfactory solution that will work fine everywhere; in other words, there's no reliable way to detect screen size and orientation.

I do not believe it is unreasonable to think that a user can rotate their device to see a picture. Paper books even require that on occasion. I would not expect ePUB to address this issue. Perhaps screen resolution would be reasonable but most eBook readers scale the images already so that is one way to handle the problem.

Dale