Humor Wodehouse, P.G.: The Swoop!, or How Clarence Saved England. v8 26 Sep 2009

[Jellby]

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975) was a popular English comic writer. His books are usually set around pre-war upper-class English society.

"The Swoop!, or How Clarence Saved England" is a short comic novel published in 1909. No fewer than 9 different armies invade England on the same day, but the boy scout Clarence Chugwater manages to save his homeland. A funny light read for the winter.

This is an ePUB test. I've been learning a bit about this format and created this book as a test (all manually, with the only help of copy/paste). Since I don't have any ePUB reader, I don't really know how well it works... Anyway, I hope it goes right. If a reasonably feature-rich ePUB reader becomes available for the Cybook, I'll upload more ePUB files.

The index.zip file includes what's needed to view the book in a browser. Just unzip the .epub and the .zip files in the same directory (the index.html should be at the same level as mimetype). You can then tweak index.css to your liking

Any kind of feedback is welcome.

EDIT (v2): Added a TOC for systems which don't support the ncx TOC. Added headers (does any ePUB reader support headers?). Improved the formatting, including drop caps.

EDIT (v3): Wrapped the cover in an XHTML page, now it should pass epubcheck, and loads OK in bookworm.

EDIT (v4): Tweaked a bit the CSS to improve the drop caps (hopefully), and work around lack of header support, and changed the index.zip (now it should work with Firefox).

EDIT (v5): Added "description" to the metadata and a note about the source of the text.

EDIT (v6): Two required elements were missing from the .ncx file.

EDIT (v7): Modified the drop caps code to make it work with Adobe Digital Editions (and the Sony reader).

EDIT (v8): Updated to support the epub2pdf script.

(previous download count: 157)

[zelda_pinwheel]

very nice edition jellby !! thanks so much for uploading it !

[Jellby]

I uploaded a new (hopefully improved) version. How do you read the ePUB file, by the way? How does it look there? I could only test the XHTML files directly in the browser...

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Jellby

How do you read the ePUB file, by the way? How does it look there? I could only test the XHTML files directly in the browser...

well, actually i made my comment after looking at in a browser as well. but i can also read epub files by opening them with mobipocket reader ; it automatically converts them. sadly, it doesn't do a very good job of it (screen cap attached), so the mobi reader isn't nearly as nicely formatted as your version viewed in the browser. however, epub viewers are improving and becoming more available, so don't let that stop you ! soon we won't need to convert it in mobi reader. it's really a nice version.

just one question, i see you did not include an index for the new version, is there a reason ? (just curious)

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

just one question, i see you did not include an index for the new version, is there a reason ? (just curious)

No other reason than trying to get a cleaner ePUB file. I have the files in my working directory, but don't include them when zipping (I also changed the svg logo to png). I attach here the new index files, using a javascript trick to override the css in a browser (which normally won't support the "oeb-page-head" property).

[zelda_pinwheel]

nice !!! thank you !

[Jellby]

I am still testing and improving. I noticed the previous version didn't pass epubcheck... so I wrapped the cover in an XHTML page, now it loads OK in bookworm.

I also modified a bit the index files, they should be put in the top directory (not inside OEBPS), and the javascript trick should work better.

[mtravellerh]

Well, I guess you're not to fault.

It's just a fact that the implementation of the epub standard is not really up to scratch yet (this is true for both reading and creation software) What bugs me most is the lack of possibility to create or/and view a justified text in epub.

I have given pretty much up on epub for now and wait till a working reader and creator software shows up.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

It's just a fact that the implementation of the epub standard is not really up to scratch yet (this is true for both reading and creation software) What bugs me most is the lack of possibility to create or/and view a justified text in epub.

But this book is justified, and it is displayed so if you open it with a browser (using the index.html file), or in Bookworm, or with Openberg Lector (Firefox plugin), or with the Opera Ebook reader widget. So if it's not justified in some other reader, it's entirely the reader's fault.

I gave up most kinds of creation software long ago. I create my eBooks by manually editing the (X)HTML, CSS, etc. files. This gives me greater control of things and I usually get much cleaner code. In this case, creating justified text is as simple as adding in the CSS:

body {
text-align: justify;
}

Now, what none of the readers I've seen support is the Epub headers (the "display: oeb-page-head" property). They are supposed to remove these elements from the normal page flow and either display them as header or just ignore them. But all of them just leave the text in the page, which is not nice at all. (It's the "1.3 — England’s Peril" and similar, after each chapter heading).

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Jellby

But this book is justified, and it is displayed so if you open it with a browser (using the index.html file), or in Bookworm, or with Openberg Lector (Firefox plugin), or with the Opera Ebook reader widget. So if it's not justified in some other reader, it's entirely the reader's fault.

I gave up most kinds of creation software long ago. I create my eBooks by manually editing the (X)HTML, CSS, etc. files. This gives me greater control of things and I usually get much cleaner code. In this case, creating justified text is as simple as adding in the CSS:

body {
text-align: justify;
}

Now, what none of the readers I've seen support is the Epub headers (the "display: oeb-page-head" property). They are supposed to remove these elements from the normal page flow and either display them as header or just ignore them. But all of them just leave the text in the page, which is not nice at all. (It's the "1.3 — England’s Peril" and similar, after each chapter heading).

Exactly what I said. The readers mentioned by you just open the integrated (x)html pages and display them, hence the correct justifying. When you use readers like ADE, that just won't work. My texts are ALWAYS justified, but epub readers will just display them wrongly.

I use
p {
text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;
} with a p .noident for special cases in my stylesheet, but the principle is the same.

[Hadrien]

A best practice would be to avoid both left and justify for the text-align property and leave this choice to the reading system/user.

oeb-page-head is barely defined in the official specs and it's a bad idea anyway. With DE you could display this as a header using their XPGT extension (XSL-FO) but overall, the IDPF need to take a decision regarding paged media. It is a very complex issue though: CSS3 modules are not finalized and Adobe will probably push forward XSL-FO.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

A best practice would be to avoid both left and justify for the text-align property and leave this choice to the reading system/user.

While that is true, I think it's also desirable that the reading system has a way to override a book's settings. I'll try removing the text-align from the epub css and putting it in the index.css (to be used only with a web browser)

oeb-page-head is barely defined in the official specs and it's a bad idea anyway. With DE you could display this as a header using their XPGT extension (XSL-FO) but overall, the IDPF need to take a decision regarding paged media. It is a very complex issue though: CSS3 modules are not finalized and Adobe will probably push forward XSL-FO.

At least it says: "The content of an element assigned display: oeb-page-head should be presented only as a header, and the content of an element assigned display: oeb-page-foot should be presented only as a footer. Neither should be simply presented as if it were inline or block.". The underlined part is what all readers I could try are doing.

But by reading again the documentation I found a simpler work-around, just use:

display: none;
display: oeb-page-head;

Systems recognizing "oeb-page-head" would use it, while systems that don't recognize it would ignore it and use "none"... So it seems I don't need the javascript trick for the browsers

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by Jellby

While that is true, I think it's also desirable that the reading system has a way to override a book's settings. I'll try removing the text-align from the epub css and putting it in the index.css (to be used only with a web browser)

I disagree: overriding a book CSS can be very difficult. The best situation would be for publishers to avoid styles that shouldn't be necessary, this way it would be much easier for the reading system to handle everything.

Some styles might be absolutely necessary to display part of the text and in this case, shouldn't be overrided.

I really believe that we need to issue best practices regarding this issue. I mentioned this among other problems to the working group:

Thanks to CSS and embedded fonts, publishers can create some very nice looking books in EPUB. But for most consumers, e-books are fantastic for another reason: unlike paper-books, they can select how everything is displayed. Based on my experience, users love to customize the following things:
- Font Family
- Font Size
- Margins
- Line Spacing
- Paragraph Spacing (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31316)
Let's take the example of the font family.
I just got a new book, and for some reason, I find that the embedded font is quite difficult to read. Unfortunately for me, it might be difficult for the reading system to switch to a different font, based on how CSS is used.
There's usually 2 different situations:
- a font is defined as the default font for the book
- a font is used for specific parts in the text (headers for example)
In the second situation, the reading system should require me to use the font, while in the first one, I should be able to override the CSS settings and use my own font if I'd like. Unfortunately, most of the time, the font will be declared the same way, and it'll make things very complex for the reading system.
A best practice would be to declare the fonts in a different way. For example, reading systems could be allowed to override the default font families (serif, sans-serif, monospace...) while custom font families would always display the embedded font.
I really believe that we could find the right balance between what a publisher recommend a book to look like and what a user is allowed to modify, but we need to define a set of best practices, otherwise it'll be nearly impossible for a reading system to handle this.

[Jellby]

Yet another version uploaded. I tried to improve the drop caps, touched the metadata, and work around the lack of support for oeb-page-head.

[Jellby]

New minor update. I added a "description" to the metadata and a note about the source of the text.