Page Breaks for Epub with InDesign

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by charleski

Unfortunately, page-break-before won't work on the iPad, which may be why you're having problems.

Sorry to butt in on someone's thread here, but are you referring to the iBooks app on the iPad? Or does the "page-break-before" CSS attribute simply not work at all for any reader app on the iPad? I can live with the former, but the latter would cause me all kind of headaches.

[charleski]

That's a good question, since the defect quite possibly lies in the underlying WebKit code that iBooks uses. Unfortunately I don't know the answer.

[DiapDealer]

Hmmm. I believe the WebKit code is used by calibre's ebook viewer, too, and if memory serves... it doesn't honor page-break-before either.

[markdraper]

no problems DiapDealer, I am still learning all this, so any information is very helpful.

[virtual_ink]

DiapDialer, I can at least confirm this is the case for iBooks but I'm yet to try any other apps on the iPad.

Markdraper, I am using the method outlined by charleski (thanks again!). Followed by a multi-file find/remove of all <p class="break"/> lines in the resulting files, using TextWrangler. That the best solution I can find to date.

[coldplayplayer]

Reading the thread, perhaps you still don't have an answer. I see you are using InDesign CS 5.5. One method is to create lots of mini documents within InDesign, IE break your Document up into logical smaller documents. Then you create a book in InDesign and all your smaller documents then are added to the book. I can guarantee you that when InDesign exports the book to ePub, each document will start on its own page. If you try this method, you can't use the File -> Export method. Instead on the Books window in the top right hand corner, you select the down arrow and from the drop down list select export to ePub from there. This had me stumped for a few minutes a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not sure why people say you iBooks on the iPad and iPhone wont recognise page breaks from the CSS. I've done it, I do it every day and it works, I promise you. Here is a sample of my CSS and note the last line.

p.Header {
font-family : "Qlassik Bold", sans-serif;
font-weight : bold;
font-style : normal;
font-size : 2em;
text-decoration : none;
font-variant : normal;
line-height : 1.2;
text-align : left;
color : #d90000;
text-indent : 0px;
margin : 0 0 4em 0;
page-break-before: always;
}
So everything tagged in the XHTML as a header ie: <p class="Header">Logbook 463</p> has a page break before it.

I've attached some images to show that it works. Also an image showing the menu you use from InDesign to export a Book to ePub.

I'm happy to send you some of my XHTML and CSS if it will help?

[virtual_ink]

CPP, wow, this is working for me - great stuff.

This has made me revisit this post. In the comments section, there is still some differing reports: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/20...ibooks-12.html

To the RHS of this site: http://threepress.org/document/epub-validate/ I noticed this suggestion: "Once you have validated your document, consider uploading it to Ibis Reader to view it in our highly-conformant EPUB reader."

I've just tried viewing my epub using this CSS in Ibis, and it doesn't work there. If Ibis is highly-conformant, does that mean page-breaks are not supported officially by epub? And that some other e-readers may also ignore this CCS?

[charleski]

Originally Posted by coldplayplayer

One method is to create lots of mini documents within InDesign, IE break your Document up into logical smaller documents.

Splitting the ePub into separate files at every point you want a page break is the only sure way of getting it to work universally. There are enough reports of people still having problems with the CSS method in iBooks that it can't be regarded as reliable. Creating a Book with separate Documents in it is the old way of doing this in InDesign, and it still works, but InDesign will now split the output for you if you use a particular style at the top of each new page, as I outlined.

Originally Posted by virtual_ink

CPP, wow, this is working for me - great stuff.

This has made me revisit this post. In the comments section, there is still some differing reports: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/20...ibooks-12.html

To the RHS of this site: http://threepress.org/document/epub-validate/ I noticed this suggestion: "Once you have validated your document, consider uploading it to Ibis Reader to view it in our highly-conformant EPUB reader."

I've just tried viewing my epub using this CSS in Ibis, and it doesn't work there. If Ibis is highly-conformant, does that mean page-breaks are not supported officially by epub? And that some other e-readers may also ignore this CCS?

Threepress' Ibis is NOT 'highly-conformant', despite their claims. This is just one example of the problems with their on-line reader. The sad fact is that there isn't any reader that fully matches every part of the ePub2 spec, though Adobe's probably comes closest.

[coldplayplayer]

but InDesign will now split the output for you if you use a particular style at the top of each new page, as I outlined.

Charleski, do you mean that the result of your method will produce an individual XHTML for each break? I'm still very much a NewB to ePub but I can see a some value in this. It would be easier to manage changes with individual XHTML files rather than one behemoth for a 240+ page book.

[Adjust]

I still work with the book feature. Even in CS5.5

I can't find/don't know of a way that 5.5 will break a document into separate files...From everything I've read/watched all it does is insert the Page Break code... So a graphic heavy document WILL exceed the required File size limit...

[charleski]

Yes, if you look at the files I attached in my earlier post, you'll see that InDesign is actually breaking the ePub up into separate files with this method rather than simply using a css attribute. This method still causes extraneous empty paragraphs at the top of each page break, so it's not ideal, though.

[amarie0]

In CS5.5 there's a workaround you can use to force ID to split the doc (at export, into multiple XHTML files, thus creating a real page break) at any given point, even if there's no paragraph style there (the style you choose in the Export to EPUB Options dialog box).

The trick is to anchor a small, white-filled frame (no border) as an inline object in an empty paragraph right *before* where you want the page to break:

Last line of text in previous section/chapter.
[anchor graphic here in its own paragraph]
New Chapter or section starts here

Then select the placeholder graphic with the Selection tool and go to Object > Object Export Options (new in CS5.5). Turn on Custom Rasterization in the EPUB/HTML panel so the object gets included in the output and rasterized. (Since it's white you shouldn't see it.) In that same dialog box, turn on Insert Page Break: After Image.

Now you can copy/paste that paragraph with the graphic to any other spot you want a page break.

You want to paste it *before* the page break because otherwise you end up with extra white space above the first line of text in the new chapter.

I didn't get a chance to include this cool tip in my Lynda.com video (the InDesign CS5.5 to EPUB one just came out) but will be writing it up at some point on indesignsecrets.com.

AM Concepcion

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by coldplayplayer

Charleski, do you mean that the result of your method will produce an individual XHTML for each break? I'm still very much a NewB to ePub but I can see a some value in this. It would be easier to manage changes with individual XHTML files rather than one behemoth for a 240+ page book.

Actually, splitting the book into separate XHTML files for each chapter is regarded as common sense. It gives you more flexibility regarding maintaining and editing the book and limits the change you hit the filesize barrier on some reading devices.

[JSWolf]

if you do not follow the mobile ADE standards, it won't work on some readers and that's not going to be good at all.

[douglsmith]

Originally Posted by amarie0

The trick is to anchor a small, white-filled frame (no border) as an inline object in an empty paragraph right *before* where you want the page to break

I tried a bunch of variations on that technique but was not able to get it to force a break in the current version of InDesign 5.5 (7.5.1).

However, I was able to make it work by creating a text frame containing only a space character and give that the paragraph style I'm using to break the ePub into multiple files on export. Then I just place a copy of that text frame somewhere on the page where I would like the break to appear.

I also created an object style for the text frame with the name "break", which shows up as the class of the exported div tag. That makes it easy to search for it in the HTML and remove it from the final ePub files.