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[Daniele Giampà]

Hello community!

I have created a large work with InDesign, enriched with animations, and exported it as an EPUB3:
https://www.edgedpub.com/sample_work_4.php

I have edited the work on Sigil, and luckily, all the animations work fine.
However, I edited two pages, and they don't appear in the EPUB3 document.
These are the pages with the credits and the title page: credits.xhtml and titlepage.xhtml.

1) These two pages can't be seen in the EPUB3. When you open the document, you see the cover, and then you jump to the title.

2) EPUB-Cheker reads that these two files are not in the manifest and are not spine items. But I inserted them in the manifest and the spine.

3) Because of these two files, the entire TOC is shifted by 2 pages. For example, if you click on Title, which is on page 4, you go to Introduction, which is on page 6.

4) There are a few errors related to the fonts, but I think they are irrelevant.

I have created two different versions of the same EPUB3 document to test whether it works either way: version 02 includes the two files, and version 03 does not.

I don't see the error. The files are in the spine and the manifest.
I would be happy if somebody could help me sort this out.

Thank you.

Daniele

[Doitsu]

Manifest:

<item id="Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml" href="Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
<item id="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage.xhtml" href="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>

Spine:

<itemref idref="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage"/>
<itemref idref="Tale_of_Tales_credits"/>

You also might want to fix the many incorrect mime types and create fallback items for non core mime types, e.g. application/x-bplist and text/xml.

[Daniele Giampà]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Manifest:

<item id="Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml" href="Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
<item id="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage.xhtml" href="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>

Spine:

<itemref idref="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage"/>
<itemref idref="Tale_of_Tales_credits"/>

You also might want to fix the many incorrect mime types and create fallback items for non core mime types, e.g. application/x-bplist and text/xml.

Thank you for the quick reply!

In Version 02, I wrote the code strings in the same way.

Manifest

610 <item id="Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml" href="Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
611 <item id="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage.xhtml" href="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>

Spine

619 <itemref idref="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage"/>
620 <itemref idref="Tale_of_Tales_credits"/>

And they are also present in the TOC:

13 <li><a href="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage.xhtml">Title page</a></li>
14<li><a href="Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml">Credits</a></li>

86 <li><a href="Tale_of_Tales_titlepage.xhtml">i</a></li>
87 <li><a href="Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml">ii</a></li>


I don't understand why EPUB-Checker doesn't find them. (screenshot attached)

[Jellby]

"Tale_of_Tales_credits.xhtml" is not the same as "Tale_of_Tales_credits".

[KevinH]

Yes the spine uses idrefs to the files in the manifest. So the spine entries must exactly match the id specified in that manifest entry.

Next time use Sigil and its menus/tools to create the proper OPF and spine entries for you.
Then no need to hand edit the OPF.

[Daniele Giampà]

Great! The pages are visible now.
Thank you very much.

Now I can also fix the minor errors.

1) RSC-004 file is encrypted, its content will not be checked.
Is there a way to fix this?

2) CSS-007 fonts face reference refers to non standard font type.
I often see this error message. How can I avoid it?

3) PKG-026 obfuscated resource must be a Font Core Media Type.
How can I fix this?

4) When I open Sigil, I see the following message:Warning:
The OPF contains missing or unrecognised media types. Temporary media types have been generated. You should edit your OPF to fix these.

There are 15 suggestions stating the following:

html/_idGenFolder0-Zeza/Assets/Zeza.hyperesources/529072-restorable.plist
'application/x-bplist' -> 'application/x-bplist'

I don't understand how I should correct these strings.

5) The logo on the title page is visible, but EPUB-Checker reads:
RSC-007 Referenced resource "...logo.png" could not be found in the EPUB.

[KevinH]

An epub has a specified set of allowable core media-types. You can find that list here:

https://www.w3.org/TR/epub/#sec-core-media-types

These are the only media types allowed to be in epubs unless you specify a fallback resource for them. But that said, very few epub3 e-readers support fallbacks as listed in the opf. See the next part in the spec on fallbacks, in the link provided above.

Try to stick with recognized file types (media types) and you should be fine.

Note: "application/x-bplist" NOT a recognized epub3 core media type.

Since I have no idea what a bplist is, I can not help. If it is a binary Apple plist, then remove the need for it as epub files are not writeable. If it is a network backup thing, then remove the need for it as epubs can be read offline.

Pulling in javascript libraries from npm is rarely something that will work in an epub unless they were properly designed to do so.

Perhaps if you want to create "advanced" epubs, you should read and understand the epub3 specification and its limitations. It can't hurt.

[KevinH]

You may be better off making a web digital publishing project that will be hosted on your own server, than trying to shoehorn things into an epub, unless you only want to target one specific platform like Apple's Books which have looser specifications in many instances. Or a full web application. Things to think about.

I see from your first post, you already do that. Is there some reason you want to constrain yourself with what works in epub3?

Sigil has a full blink webkit engine inside it. So Sigil accepts much more than what the epub3 spec allows. Detecting when that happens is what epubcheck is all about.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Daniele Giampà

1) RSC-004 file is encrypted, its content will not be checked.
Is there a way to fix this?

It's an INFO message, which you can ignore. To get rid of it right-click the font select Font Obfuscation > None.

Originally Posted by Daniele Giampà

2) CSS-007 fonts face reference refers to non standard font type. I often see this error message. How can I avoid it?

Use media-type="font/ttf"

[KevinH]

Okay, I took a look at your fixed layout epub3. BTW, it assumes a huge screensize in the layout so many readers will not be able to compensate.

Your logo is in OEBPS/image and the file that references it is OEBPS/Tale_of_tales_titlepage.xhtml.

But in that link you use an incorrect url:

<img src="../image/edge_dpub_logo.png" alt="company logo" width="300" height="300"/>

and that location does not exist. Instead you should have used:

<img alt="edge_dpub_logo" src="image/edge_dpub_logo.png" width="300" height="300"/>

Again if you use Sigil's tools and menus to add that link, mistakes like this will not happen.

As for your unrecognized media-types. They are all text based apple plist files. Effectively, xml files in a format Apple devices recognize.

They are not a core media type. If they are read-only xml data files, then you should move all of those files to be inside the epub's META-INF folder where e-readers will not touch them and then modify the javascript you use to look there for them there. Ditto for your pure xml file.

Then you can remove them from your manifest and prevent the errors both epubcheck and Sigil detect while keeping things working.

If they are read-write then very few systems will support them. If that epub is read on a system with support for "local-storage", you could modify the javascript to copy them there and read/write as needed.

Hope this helps.

[Daniele Giampà]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

It's an INFO message, which you can ignore. To get rid of it right-click the font select Font Obfuscation > None.



Use media-type="font/ttf"

Great! The RSC-004 is fixed.

I am not sure if I edited the media type correctly. Now I get:
Error RSC 005
Errr CSS 007

[Daniele Giampà]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Okay, I took a look at your fixed layout epub3. BTW, it assumes a huge screensize in the layout so many readers will not be able to compensate.

Your logo is in OEBPS/image and the file that references it is OEBPS/Tale_of_tales_titlepage.xhtml.

But in that link you use an incorrect url:

<img src="../image/edge_dpub_logo.png" alt="company logo" width="300" height="300"/>

and that location does not exist. Instead you should have used:

<img alt="edge_dpub_logo" src="image/edge_dpub_logo.png" width="300" height="300"/>

Again if you use Sigil's tools and menus to add that link, mistakes like this will not happen.

As for your unrecognized media-types. They are all text based apple plist files. Effectively, xml files in a format Apple devices recognize.

They are not a core media type. If they are read-only xml data files, then you should move all of those files to be inside the epub's META-INF folder where e-readers will not touch them and then modify the javascript you use to look there for them there. Ditto for your pure xml file.

Then you can remove them from your manifest and prevent the errors both epubcheck and Sigil detect while keeping things working.

If they are read-write then very few systems will support them. If that epub is read on a system with support for "local-storage", you could modify the javascript to copy them there and read/write as needed.

Hope this helps.

I am going to create a better version of this work with the original text and the animations in every chapter. So, I have to understand what I did wrong in this sample work.

I noticed that the screensize is huge when I open the EPUB for the first time. I have to click the links in the TOC to see the pages in the correct size. Is this issue due to the viewport of the InDesign files?

<meta name="viewport" content="width=2732,height=2048"/>

The first four pages that I edited in Sigil have a different viewport.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Daniele Giampà

Great! The RSC-004 is fixed.

I am not sure if I edited the media type correctly. Now I get:
Error RSC 005
Errr CSS 007

Most likey a copy & paste error:

    <item id="TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT.ttf" href="font/TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT.ttf" media-type="application/x-font-ttf"/>
    <item id="TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT.ttf" href="font/TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT.ttf" media-type="application/x-font-ttf"/>
    <item id="TimesNewRomanPSMT.ttf" href="font/TimesNewRomanPSMT.ttf" media-type="application/x-font-ttf"/>

should be:

    <item id="TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT.ttf" href="font/TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT.ttf" media-type="font/ttf"/>
    <item id="TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT.ttf" href="font/TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT.ttf" media-type="font/ttf"/>
    <item id="TimesNewRomanPSMT.ttf" href="font/TimesNewRomanPSMT.ttf" media-type="font/ttf"/>

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by Daniele Giampà

I am going to create a better version of this work with the original text and the animations in every chapter. So, I have to understand what I did wrong in this sample work.

I noticed that the screensize is huge when I open the EPUB for the first time. I have to click the links in the TOC to see the pages in the correct size. Is this issue due to the viewport of the InDesign files?

<meta name="viewport" content="width=2732,height=2048"/>

The first four pages that I edited in Sigil have a different viewport.

The error was whatever software you chose to use created data storage xml-like files in Apple plist format that are not allowed in the epub3 spec. Other choices might be to convert them to json and then convert those to pure javascript. Or as I suggested, change their location to be inside the META-INF folder where apple plists can safely be stored and therefore not part of the epub manifest.

The viewport size of 2732 in width and 2048 pixels in height is outside the range of many Desktop screens. So yes, this viewport was set by InDesign and that should be reduced to be closer to what most e-reader screen sizes.

[Quoth]

InDesign ought only to be used for PDF / Paper publishing. Or at worst other fixed layout formats.