Simplest way to import multiple images at once, and turning them into an Ebook?

[DigitalPencil]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for the simplest way to turn about 100 images(they are all with the same size/resolution) into an epub ebook(so every image becomes a page + the cover image)

I do not know how to program, nor to use command lines and html stuff

There is no need for any flowable solution for the text, as any text within the images is an integral part of the graphics, so just consider everything as a "pictures-based" ebook.

My question-

Is there a simple way(maybe a plugin or something) to import multiple images at once(as well as turning the images into pages), instead of importing/handling one image at a time, in Sigil (or any other software)?

I only found a way to do that one image at a time, which takes a lot of time and effort, so really hope for an alternative, simpler, approach.

I am flexible with the images' formats- PNG, or any other formats are possible.


Any advice is thankfully welcome

Thanks.

[BetterRed]

Why ePUB, which is primarily targeted at flowable text. So, why not a comic book format; such as CBZ, which is a solid ZIP archive renamed as .CBZ, or CBR, which is a solid RAR archive renamed as .CBR. Or PDF, some of the widely used image utilities have built in tools to make multi page PDFs from a bunch of images - e.g. IrfanView.

BR

[DiapDealer]

Importing multiple images into a Sigil epub at once is easy. "Add Existing" from the File menu, or the context menu in Book View, will allow you to do that. But there's no built-in feature or third-party plugin that I know of that will create a page for each image imported. That would remain tedious.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DigitalPencil

I am looking for the simplest way to turn about 100 images(they are all with the same size/resolution) into an epub ebook(so every image becomes a page + the cover image)

You could try zipping them all into an archive, giving it a CBZ extension instead of zip, importing it into calibre, and try converting to ePub.

I have no idea if this will work, but it might.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You could try zipping them all into an archive, giving it a CBZ extension instead of zip, importing it into calibre, and try converting to ePub.

I have no idea if this will work, but it might.

This is exactly the way I create image-only PDFs in Calibre. Should work equally well for ePub, although ePub is not an ideal format for such a book.

[DigitalPencil]

Thank you all for the kind and helpful replies.

I'll give them a try. Thanks.

Most publishing platforms, that I found, use ePub or Mobi(Kindle), so I considered going directly with those options.

Although PDF, docxs etc can also be used, most publishing platforms eventually convert them to ePub/Mobi.

My personal experience with this converting process(done by myself), resulted with loss of images' quality(I tried many methods and programs), so I now consider anything that will create ePub directly.

Concerning the above, are they any alternatives to ePub/mobi, for pictures-based books(fixed-layout) creation (not necessarily comics), that are commonly used within ebooks publishing platforms?

Again, thank you for the help.

[Turtle91]

There is a plugin for Sigil, InsertImageSVG, that'll mostly do the trick. It allows you to add and/or insert images that are either external or in the ePub images folder. Once you have the images identified in the plugin you just have to select each individual image and click on the "insert" button. When you've done that for each image click on the "close" button and all the images will appear on their own page with an SVG wrapper.

I use the "insert before" option and select the last page in the book, then select the images in the order I want them to appear in the ePub.

I think the author is working on a way to import multiple images at a time, but for now this is a fairly simple procedure.

edit: while this is certainly not a "push the button once and everything is done for me automatically" it is quite simple and you can do 100 images in about 2 minutes...literally... (and I mean literally in the original definition of the word not the "figuratively" that literally replaced "literally" in the dictionary)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DigitalPencil

Thank you all for the kind and helpful replies.

I'll give them a try. Thanks.

Most publishing platforms, that I found, use ePub or Mobi(Kindle), so I considered going directly with those options.

Although PDF, docxs etc can also be used, most publishing platforms eventually convert them to ePub/Mobi.

My personal experience with this converting process(done by myself), resulted with loss of images' quality(I tried many methods and programs), so I now consider anything that will create ePub directly.

Concerning the above, are they any alternatives to ePub/mobi, for pictures-based books(fixed-layout) creation (not necessarily comics), that are commonly used within ebooks publishing platforms?

Again, thank you for the help.

If you are talking about publishing the book commercially, then, no, you are really stuck with ePUB/MOBI. Sure, you can publish a PDF here and there, but not anywhere that actually makes money. You can use CBZ or one of the comic-book formats, but again--those are useless for selling books, unless they are, in fact, comic books.

There are a bunch of other "formatting" methods, like Snapfish and Blurb, but again, you are then limited to their sales platforms, which is...well, suffice to say, I have yet to find anyone that's made any real sales, other than to family, off of either.

If you are trying to make the equivalent of a "coffee table" book, then a) you need to learn how to make separate chapters/files in HTML, in Sigil, and b) you'll need to figure out how to put the images in the file in such a way that you're happy with the quality of the outcome. We do this all the time. It's not impossible to do, but it's certainly impossible to do if you don't know how to work with the medium.

Creating ePUB directly WILL, absolutely, give you a lot more control over what you're doing. Almost every Word program out there, used by normal people, has the setting "compress images automatically upon saving," so you're likely fighting yourself. There's also NO real way for PDF to be "converted" into an ebook format, so there are a number of steps--involving scanning and OCR--so of course, your images are being screwed up.

It's unfortunate that you'll have to create the pages one at a time, but you could make one, dupe it and then import the images, at one go, and work your way through them, simply editing the image name in the image tag in the HTML Tedious, but not undoable by any means. In fact, it's a pretty simple task, and doable for someone new to the medium.

Hitch

[DigitalPencil]

Thank yo Turtle91 and Hitch for the helpful and detailed explanation.

InsertImageSVG is extremely effective.
As you mentioned, I wish many images could be uploaded at once, nevertheless, it makes everything much simpler

Thank you all for the kind advice.

[JSWolf]

Does this have to be images? If it's text based, you can scan/OCR.

[Herman Schmidt]

I've been converting a 300 page book from Word for Mac with a lot of boxes, charts, and graphics into ePub. I think you'll have to place each image into one program, Pages, Word, Word for Mac, InDesign, PhotoShop, or whatever. Then Calibre (free) will convert it to an ePub doc for Kindle, and iBooks. Pages from Apple converts to ePub. Create a Kindle account (free), upload it and use Kindle's previewer to see what it looks like, as Kindle is one of the main publishers. Or do so with iBooks, which I'm getting to next.
For the Table of Contents for Word, try using hyperlink with bookmarks to jump to each chapter. The usual Headings method that is shown for Word works, but the result is clunky looking, which then needs HTML work to spruce up.