Exporting epub with InDesign: I lose blank lines! - Page 2

tjpanda · 12-09-2010, 09:04 PM

Not fair to call it poor code, that is CSS as ID generates it. There is an advantage of doing it this way: it provides a basic set of key attributes whose values can be easily modified, even by someone who is not skilled with CSS.

Using extra spaces and blank lines for formatting is poor form even in layouts intended solely for print. HTML is designed to suppress such extraneous content and at its heart EPUBs are just a version of HTML. Controlling white space on the page is the job of CSS. Doing it any other way is really futile.

grapplegirl · 12-14-2010, 10:05 AM

do not create your blank lines with paragraph returns. ePub doesn't support that. apply a style sheet with space after that matches your leading.

Toxaris · 12-14-2010, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grapplegirl

do not create your blank lines with paragraph returns. ePub doesn't support that. apply a style sheet with space after that matches your leading.

ehm, ePub does. Just add an   and your off to go. Not a nice solution, but it works. It is better to do it with stylesheets though.

eBookLuke · 12-14-2010, 09:00 PM

InDesign is not the best tool to create ePubs…
After many tries I loose all hopes* and I build my own tool to build professional looking ePubs.

Luke

*Italian locution, I don't know if it is the same in perfect English

Adjust · 12-15-2010, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eBookLuke

InDesign is not the best tool to create ePubs…
After many tries I loose all hopes* and I build my own tool to build professional looking ePubs.

It is if you are converting Print editions to ePub.

Dan_Smith · 07-13-2020, 11:08 AM

I found epub lost the space above paras so I started to use returns to create space. This has worked for years until now, when all of a sudden it doesn't. I'm just baffled. I think I updated Calibre which I use to edit it so maybe it's that

Dan_Smith · 07-13-2020, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grapplegirl

do not create your blank lines with paragraph returns. ePub doesn't support that. apply a style sheet with space after that matches your leading.

You need to 'export to Kindle' from InDesign rather than 'Export>epub' then blank lines are preserved

JSWolf · 07-13-2020, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eBookLuke

InDesign is not the best tool to create ePubs…
After many tries I loose all hopes* and I build my own tool to build professional looking ePubs.

Luke

*Italian locution, I don't know if it is the same in perfect English

IMHO, the two best tools for ePub creation are Calibre and Sigil. Both excellent and both free with excellent support.

JSWolf · 07-13-2020, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adjust

It is if you are converting Print editions to ePub.

After you create the ePub from InDesign, the best thing to do is load the ePub into Calibre's Editor or Sigil and fix the code. InDesign code can be a right mess.

JSWolf · 07-13-2020, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan_Smith

You need to 'export to Kindle' from InDesign rather than 'Export>epub' then blank lines are preserved

How does that get you an ePub?

DNSB · 07-13-2020, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan_Smith

I found epub lost the space above paras so I started to use returns to create space. This has worked for years until now, when all of a sudden it doesn't. I'm just baffled. I think I updated Calibre which I use to edit it so maybe it's that

Dan, did you notice that you are responding to a 10 year old thread?

phillipgessert · 07-13-2020, 01:38 PM

Assuming these are basically section breaks, I would do a F/R within InDesign to replace every doubled carriage return with some trivial asterism, then replace that with something in the resulting ePub as needed. Incidentally you should not feel badly for the designers if they have to do some extra work here. Positioning via carriage returns is frowned upon anyway. They goofed. Also:

Quote:

Originally Posted by jttraverse

Likewise, having to export InD to ePub then open the file in Sygil or something to edit the ePub sounds a bit embarrassing for a program like InDesign. (If you export to Pdf it comes out looking perfect, blank space and all...so why not handle it going to ePub?)

This because WYSIWYG software allows people to do all sorts of arbitrary and semantically meaningless things that can work ok for print but not one bit for ebook.

Edit: old topic noooooo!

exaltedwombat · 07-13-2020, 07:10 PM

Try VERY hard to get hold of the source before it's passed through InDesign. All of the stuff that lets InDesign produce beautiful printed pages just has to be ripped out again.

JSWolf · 07-14-2020, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

Try VERY hard to get hold of the source before it's passed through InDesign. All of the stuff that lets InDesign produce beautiful printed pages just has to be ripped out again.

The easiest way (IMHO) is to take the resulting ePub and put it in Calibre's editor or Sigil and clean it up from there. I've cleaned up eBooks that came from InDesign. So I know it's not that difficult to do.

phillipgessert · 07-14-2020, 10:33 AM

Thing that always gets me on InDesign cleanups is how often they use spans instead of em for italics. Really easy to forget that and accidentally wipe em out when cleaning up all the other cruft.

12-14-2010, 09:00 PM	#19
eBookLuke Writer2ePub creator Posts: 354 Karma: 121129 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Genova, Italy Device: Cybook Bebook iLiad Kindle HanlinV2 Readius SonyPRS500 SonyPRS700 etc	InDesign is not the best tool to create ePubs… After many tries I loose all hopes* and I build my own tool to build professional looking ePubs. Luke Italian locution, I don't know if it is the same in perfect English Last edited by eBookLuke; 12-14-2010 at 09:03 PM.*

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12-09-2010, 09:04 PM	#16
tjpanda Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: iPad	Not fair to call it poor code, that is CSS as ID generates it. There is an advantage of doing it this way: it provides a basic set of key attributes whose values can be easily modified, even by someone who is not skilled with CSS. Using extra spaces and blank lines for formatting is poor form even in layouts intended solely for print. HTML is designed to suppress such extraneous content and at its heart EPUBs are just a version of HTML. Controlling white space on the page is the job of CSS. Doing it any other way is really futile.

12-14-2010, 10:05 AM	#17
grapplegirl Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: none	do not create your blank lines with paragraph returns. ePub doesn't support that. apply a style sheet with space after that matches your leading.

07-13-2020, 11:08 AM	#21
Dan_Smith Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2020 Device: Kindle	I found epub lost the space above paras so I started to use returns to create space. This has worked for years until now, when all of a sudden it doesn't. I'm just baffled. I think I updated Calibre which I use to edit it so maybe it's that

07-13-2020, 07:10 PM	#28
exaltedwombat Guru Posts: 878 Karma: 2457540 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: none	Try VERY hard to get hold of the source before it's passed through InDesign. All of the stuff that lets InDesign produce beautiful printed pages just has to be ripped out again.

07-14-2020, 10:33 AM	#30
phillipgessert Addict Posts: 316 Karma: 3200000 Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Madison, WI Device: Kindle 5th Gen	Thing that always gets me on InDesign cleanups is how often they use spans instead of em for italics. Really easy to forget that and accidentally wipe em out when cleaning up all the other cruft.