Centering an ornament between paragraphs

[Psymon]

Thanks folks (once again)! That's reassuring -- I was worried there might be concerns about file size limitations (as far as the text goes).

I'm ALMOST tempted to add in even more stuff now!

[JSWolf]

The thing is, on a Reader, there is a lot smaller amount of memory available for opening books. While newer Reading software (ADE based)may not have the same limitations as they originally did, there comes a point where opening a book as one large XML file will fail due to limits on the Readers hardware. So sticking to the Mobil ADE specification is best for all and it means that a rather large book won't fail to open if it's properly made.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

there comes a point where opening a book as one large XML file will fail due to limits on the Readers hardware.

Oh, you mean having the whole, entire book as one file? I certainly don't -- each and every chapter (or separate essay or whatever, as the case may be) is a separate file.

I gather from what you said that that would help?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Psymon

Oh, you mean having the whole, entire book as one file? I certainly don't -- each and every chapter (or separate essay or whatever, as the case may be) is a separate file.

I gather from what you said that that would help?

I second making more splits helps performance, rather than just doing them as you near the 260K limit. This is especially true if the page is image rich. Give the reading software some breathing room.



OTOH really image rich documents (eg The Calibre catalog) can have the NCX file grow overly (to the point of failure) huge because every file is an entry.
Balance and compromise

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So sticking to the Mobil ADE specification is best for all and it means that a rather large book won't fail to open if it's properly made.

What's the "Mobil ADE specification"? I did a search and can't seem to find anything (although this thread shows up in the search results -- ha ha).

[dickloraine]

I think he means the 260kb limit per xml that theducks mentioned. It is simply what the epub spec requires. You could make an epub with bigger xmls, but that would be invalid regarding the spec.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by dickloraine

I think he means the 260kb limit per xml that theducks mentioned. It is simply what the epub spec requires. You could make an epub with bigger xmls, but that would be invalid regarding the spec.

By violating the spec, on some Readers, the ePub would fail to load.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by dickloraine

I think he means the 260kb limit per xml that theducks mentioned. It is simply what the epub spec requires. You could make an epub with bigger xmls, but that would be invalid regarding the spec.

Ah, okay. Well, no worries for me in that regard, as I always split my books up into chapters (or separate essays, etc., as with this current book I'm working on) and actually find it much easier to work on books like that, rather than one GIANT file. So I guess I'm good to go!

[mrmikel]

Originally Posted by Psymon

Ah, okay. Well, no worries for me in that regard, as I always split my books up into chapters (or separate essays, etc., as with this current book I'm working on) and actually find it much easier to work on books like that, rather than one GIANT file. So I guess I'm good to go!

This is why I have never understood why some people get all hyper over not being able to have a giant file. It is much harder to maintain, makes some devices barf entirely and leaves the rest, except notebooks and laptops, gasping for air and when you do an errant search and replace, you more easily wreck the whole book instead of the section you are currently working on.

[grumbles]

Here is another way of creating ornaments that I have found to work well. At least with Sony readers and ADE. The method may be more complex than you would like but it has worked very well for me.

Find a free (unrestricted) font that has the ornaments that you want. Load the font into FontForge and export the glyphs as SVG images. The resulting SVG image will scale perfectly.

If you can't find the ornament in a font, then the alternative is to take the image and trace it in InkScape. From this you create a SVG image of the ornament. Once you have created it, it's available whenever you want it.

This may seem to be overly complicated but the procedures are quite simple and you only have to do it once for each image. FontForge and InkScape are free programs.

[JSWolf]

FontForge does not work under Windows.

[DaleDe]

I usually put ornament graphics in a paragraph by itself as inline graphics. Mulitiple can be included if needed and then center the paragraph itself.

[Freehunter]

I thought FontForge ran on Windows

http://portableapps.com/apps/utiliti...forge-portable


http://fontforge.org/

[Toxaris]

It does, JSWolf is mistaken. Although I must admit it runs much better on Linux.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by grumbles

Find a free (unrestricted) font that has the ornaments that you want. Load the font into FontForge and export the glyphs as SVG images. The resulting SVG image will scale perfectly.

If you can't find the ornament in a font, then the alternative is to take the image and trace it in InkScape. From this you create a SVG image of the ornament. Once you have created it, it's available whenever you want it.

And there's zillions of ornament graphics all over the 'net that one can use, too -- for this current book, I grabbed one and then modified it to make it a little more "original". I also have a whole pile of clipart books, too, that I can scan stuff from, full of ornaments from the Baroque era to the present day.

On a separate note, re Font Forge and Windows, I was able to use it before on WinXP, although it did have a tendency to crash all the time (which was VERY annoying). I've since upgraded to Win7, but haven't had occasion to use (let alone install) it yet -- no idea how it'll perform in that. Guess I'll find out whenever I find out!

I also have a registered copy of High-Logic FontCreator installed -- had great intentions of getting into font design at one time, many years ago, but never quite got around to it. I'd learned how to do that in Fontographer, but when that up and stopped working (in XP) I kinda lost interest.

Hmm... maybe I should try installing it again (Fog)? I've had other proggies that stopped working in XP, but then miraculously worked again in Win7. It's definitely an old, old program, with an old, old interface, but it totally kicked butt as far as font design/editing goes.