First Ebook-Many Questions

[rickwilmath]

I want to publish an ebook about landscape design. There are some photos but many designs originally done in Autocad then exported as .bmp and then brought into Photoshop to be cropped and then saved as .png file.

I then created a manuscript in Serif PagePlus. I am able to publish as epub3 fixed with only a few problems that I fixed but there seems to be a lot of problems with epub3 flowable. The preflight says that most, if not all of the designs are "object out story"

There are also problems with the master pages which I can fix but I am not sure what the problem is with the designs.

If I can get these problems fixed can I submit the entire manuscript to kindle or do I need to build the ebook one page at a time in Kindle Create.

A big thanks in advance.

[rickwilmath]

I just tried Kindle Preview and it published the epub3 flowable manuscript. The designs did not show up at all. I tried publishing as epub3 fixed and it came in very good.

I have been reading the posts on this forum and some have said that epub3 fixed is not a good idea.

Is there a tutorial or overall explanation of this process that I can look at.

Thanks

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by rickwilmath

I just tried Kindle Preview and it published the epub3 flowable manuscript. The designs did not show up at all. I tried publishing as epub3 fixed and it came in very good.

I have been reading the posts on this forum and some have said that epub3 fixed is not a good idea.

Is there a tutorial or overall explanation of this process that I can look at.

Thanks

I seem to think that I've discussed this with you before. Maybe I'm hallucinating.

I don't know anything about SerifPagePlus, but if the exported output is anything like Indesign's, then you cannot use a fixed-layout ePUB3 to create a viable MOBI. Yes, yes, I know, when you run it through KP3, it seems to be fine.

However, if you proceed and upload it at the KDP, and make an eBook with it, the for-sale version will be a huge problem. Yes, you can use ePUB3, but the fixed-layout requirements, for a MOBI, are completely different than the fixed-layout ePUB requirements for iOS. Just night and day. It's device- and platform-specific.

That's the best information I can give you. I don't know why your reflowable is "missing" elements, but what I can say is, dive into the code and find out.

Spoiler:

Had some guy this morning, made his book with Blurb. Exported an FXL ePUB, right? Came to me, complaining that it wouldn't work at KDP. I told him it wouldn't. Explained why. THEN he said that his other book worked fine. I took a look at it, and it's not fine--it's made the same way, a fixed-layout ePUB3, uploaded to the KDP. Told him that that book was going to have problems, too, and he's decided I'm full of sh*t, because when HE checks it on his IOS device, it looks FINE. Has he checked it on anything else? NO. Did he check an AZK? NO. Why the hell do people ask freaking experts, and then argue with them, anydamnway? Sorry to threadjack, but I've just replied to this person again, and it's irritating the holy s**t out of me.

Hitch

[rickwilmath]

Thanks for the help. Your ideas make sense to me and I would like to deal with the problems now rather than later.

Can you recommend publishing software that will do a good job of creating a .mobi ebook with flowable text?

I am new to ebooks but have some experience with html but not much.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by rickwilmath

Thanks for the help. Your ideas make sense to me and I would like to deal with the problems now rather than later.

Can you recommend publishing software that will do a good job of creating a .mobi ebook with flowable text?

I am new to ebooks but have some experience with html but not much.

Well...I mean, you're kind of asking for a unicorn. The only piece of software out there that's purpose-built is Jutoh, which is something like a word-processor that makes ebooks. It has a learning curve.

The other option is of course, InDesign. However, there's also a steep learning curve, and you'd end up where you are now--with an output ePUB that you can't really use, as-is. My firm uses INDD for our print books--and then we export the HTML/ePUBs (reflowable), strip out all the cruft, in HTML, and then recode them. I mean, the advantage of INDD is that we know all the content is there, and we can map them to our existing CSS, but that's about IT.

You can write in Word, export to HTML, and do the same thing.

One other possibility is AWP--Atlantis Word Processor. It's cheapish, too, aroun $45. You can do your book in that, and it will export a moderately decent reflowable ePUB for you.

The one other thing I wanted to say--make sure that you understand the realities of reflowable eBooks, before you get started. you said that you're doing a book on Landscape Design--and I'm a bit concerned that you might be wishing for print capabilities that won't be doable in ebooks. Do some research, before you start investing in software, etc.

One last option that I almost forgot about--there's an app called Kindle Create, put out by Amazon--you can put a Word file in there, and make a reflowable ebook. You can also put a PDF in there, and make a Print Replica ebook. It's very DIY, push-button-y kind of thing. I will warn you that you need to have a VERY clean, ready-to-go Word file, before you pour that into KC, from what the KC experts say. (We don't use that, as we code by hand, so...).

Hope that helps. The short of it is, there really isn't any "type here, output ebooks there" sort of thing, other than Jutoh. And if you need fixed-layout, Jutoh won't do it for you, either. Make SURE you've looked into what ebooks do/don't do, and decide which way you're going to go, before you make another pass at this.

Sorry for any typos. I started my office day today at 4:20am and now it's...12:40 a.m. Hell, at this point, I should just stay up, but I'm getting too old for that s**t. Anyway, tired hands and brain, so forgive the crap typing.

Hitch

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well...I mean, you're kind of asking for a unicorn. The only piece of software out there that's purpose-built is Jutoh, which is something like a word-processor that makes ebooks. It has a learning curve.

One other possibility is AWP--Atlantis Word Processor. It's cheapish, too, aroun $45. You can do your book in that, and it will export a moderately decent reflowable ePUB for you.

The one other thing I wanted to say--make sure that you understand the realities of reflowable eBooks, before you get started.


Hitch

I've used Atlantis and it works well enough for my simple needs. I got it on a free offer, which seems to be once a year or so (no support or free upgrades).

Note also that Google Docs will download as ePUB, which is much the same but avoids installing anything.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by rickwilmath

Can you recommend publishing software that will do a good job of creating a .mobi ebook with flowable text?

Also you could consider LibreOffice Writer, that not only is free, but in its last version, it has a very decent engine that allows you to export any .odt (or .doc/.docx) file as a reflowable epub. After that you can tune that epub in Sigil or Calibre and conver it in a .mobi file. Of course, you'll need to learn about CSS and HTML if you want to improve/enhance the output.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

Also you could consider LibreOffice Writer, that not only is free, but in its last version, it has a very decent engine that allows you to export any .odt (or .doc/.docx) file as a reflowable epub. After that you can tune that epub in Sigil or Calibre and conver it in a .mobi file. Of course, you'll need to learn about CSS and HTML if you want to improve/enhance the output.

I dunno, Ruben. I tried LO/OO. I didn't see any actual, quantifiable difference between exporting content from LO and exporting it from Word. Not a darned thing, really. I suspect that the affinity stems from a mental association that simply says "this ain't MS." :-)

Your buddy,
Hitch

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by rickwilmath

designs originally done in Autocad then exported as .bmp and then brought into Photoshop to be cropped and then saved as .png file.

You should be aware that any PNG images sent through kindlegen will be converted to either GIF or JPEG.
(Disassemble the azw or mobi and see what the images have become.)

A JPEG might be much larger and/or much blurrier than your PNG.
Best to convert diagrams to GIF yourself and they will stay as-is.

You can make them more compact. I use Irfanview -- first make greyscale if not already. Then look at the colour depth. 2 colours gives you brutal jaggies; 4 colours may be OK with decent resolution, 16 is enough for almost all diagrams unless you have subtle shading, rarely do you need 256 except for photos (and they are better as jpegs).

[dwig]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

You should be aware that any PNG images sent through kindlegen will be converted to either GIF or JPEG.
(Disassemble the azw or mobi and see what the images have become.)

A JPEG might be much larger and/or much blurrier than your PNG.
Best to convert diagrams to GIF yourself and they will stay as-is.

You can make them more compact. I use Irfanview -- first make greyscale if not already. Then look at the colour depth. 2 colours gives you brutal jaggies; 4 colours may be OK with decent resolution, 16 is enough for almost all diagrams unless you have subtle shading, rarely do you need 256 except for photos (and they are better as jpegs).

+1

Also, if using Photoshop, DO NOT use "Save as..." when saving images for ebooks. Use the "Export>Save for Web (legacy)" method instead. This will create more compact files for PNG, JPEG, or GIF than the "Save"/"Save as..." functions. "Save for Web" omits a bunch of Ps specific metadata that is useless except when reopening the file in Ps and otherwise only makes the files larger.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by dwig

+1

Also, if using Photoshop, DO NOT use "Save as..." when saving images for ebooks. Use the "Export>Save for Web (legacy)" method instead. This will create more compact files for PNG, JPEG, or GIF than the "Save"/"Save as..." functions. "Save for Web" omits a bunch of Ps specific metadata that is useless except when reopening the file in Ps and otherwise only makes the files larger.

Yeabbut, doesn't that also get you 72DPI??????

Hitch

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by dwig

Also, if using Photoshop, DO NOT use "Save as..." when saving images for ebooks. Use the "Export>Save for Web (legacy)" method instead. This will create more compact files for PNG, JPEG, or GIF than the "Save"/"Save as..." functions. "Save for Web" omits a bunch of Ps specific metadata that is useless except when reopening the file in Ps and otherwise only makes the files larger.

I use Irfanview for most image conversions (PS seems more oriented to high quality print work). When I use Photoshop to do something more complex, I usually save to PNG and then use Irfanview to convert to the jpeg or gif format I need for the ebook.

In Irfanview's JPEG save window deselect the options to save EXIF/IPTC/Comment, which can add several kB on every file, significant in small files, and that loses most of the metadata.