How are e-books created?

[SwaaX]

Hi there everyone!

How are ordinary books becoming e-books?
Are they scanned into some kind of machine and then suddenly on screen instead of on paper?
Are they written on a computer or something else?

Mads Andersen

[HarryT]

All modern books are created electronically, so it's simply a matter of using the appropriate software tools to convert them from the format they are written in (generally a Word Processor), to the format used by ebooks (generally an HTML-based format).

To convert old printed books to ebooks, they're converted to digital images with a scanner, and then to text using an optical character recognition (OCR) program.

Hope this helps,

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by HarryT

All modern books are created electronically, so it's simply a matter of using the appropriate software tools to convert them from the format they are written in (generally a Word Processor), to the format used by ebooks (generally an HTML-based format).

However, I bet there's still a non-negligible number of publishers with a workflow similar to this:

1. Author writes in a word processor and sends file to publisher
2. Publisher creates a print-ready document (PDF)
3. Book is printed
4. Someone thinks that an ebook would be nice
5. Word processor file is lost, or it doesn't include all the modifications (formatting etc.) done by the publisher

At this point, an ebook is created either from the PDF, if available, or from a scan of the printed book.

[mrmikel]

All of which creates a lot of work because:

The best scanners still make a number of mistakes in optically recognizing the page.
Epubs reflow, which means that there is no fixed layout to the page.
Most ereading devices are smaller, which means that if it is published as a hardback, it needs to be re-laid out for the smaller format.
Eink readers are only gray/black and white and not as sharp as a printed page by a long shot.


If produced electronically to begin with it is much less work, so long as the text is not heavily formatted. Much heavy formatting doesn't translate well to many readers.
Calibre can convert to/from many file formats and it is a free program. Its only shortcoming is that its output, which is quite useable, can be hard to edit and figure out if you want to tweak it.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by SwaaX

Hi there everyone!

How are ordinary books becoming e-books?
Are they scanned into some kind of machine and then suddenly on screen instead of on paper?
Are they written on a computer or something else?

Mads Andersen

(©image used w/licensing and permission of caraman, ©iStockphoto, 2014, all rights reserved, and used in the ©BooknookBiz quickstart Guide comic, 2014, all rights reserved).

Hitch

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Jellby

However, I bet there's still a non-negligible number of publishers with a workflow similar to this:

1. Author writes in a word processor and sends file to publisher
2. Publisher creates a print-ready document (PDF)
3. Book is printed
4. Someone thinks that an ebook would be nice
5. Word processor file is lost, or it doesn't include all the modifications (formatting etc.) done by the publisher

At this point, an ebook is created either from the PDF, if available, or from a scan of the printed book.

You left out a critical step in the process.\

It is extremely unlikely that any print-orientated publisher would create the "print-ready PDF" from a Word Processing program. They would have imported the author's WP file into a page layout program that can better deal the the niceties of typesetting and layout that are necessary to decent quality print. With recent books, it would generally be that program that programs native file that would be used for the generation of the ebook and not the "for output only" PDF.

True, in some cases of older print books that were produces electronically it may be impractical to use the layout program's file due to the age of the software that created it leaving them with the PDF as the only resort shy of scanning a print copy.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by dwig

They would have imported the author's WP file into a page layout program that can better deal the the niceties of typesetting and layout that are necessary to decent quality print.

Right, I implicitly included that step in the second one (create PDF).

With recent books, it would generally be that program that programs native file that would be used for the generation of the ebook and not the "for output only" PDF.

But that program's file may be unusable in practice, as you say, or even lost ("we already have the PDF, why would we need anything else?").

[eschwartz]

This all assumes of course that they don't simply use the PDF because that is what they used to do, and never mind they have a perfectly good .docx

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

This all assumes of course that they don't simply use the PDF because that is what they used to do, and never mind they have a perfectly good .docx

We get these to "fix" all the time. MOBI's that were created at the KDP, because someone uploaded a PDF. it's a ridiculous nightmare. And no matter HOW MANY TIMES I ask for the damned source file, all I ever get is the PDF. Or, (this is my fave) a "faux-Word file" that somebody creates by outputting the PDF "to Word." UGHGHGHGHGHGH. I cannot tell you guys how many hours I've spent explaining "that's not really WORD you're looking at," because it comes out sounding like "who ya gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?"

;=)

Hitch

[dwig]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

...and never mind they have a perfectly good .docx

It's quite likely that the vast majority of the DOCX files that they are are far from "perfectly good". They won't contain the final fixes, as those would have been done from proofs from the page layout program after importing the DOCX. To fix these, they wouldn't have edited the DOCX and then reimported. They would have edited in the page layout app. The old DOCX will have retained all of its typos and other unedited text.

[JSWolf]

eBooks are created by an inifinate number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of computers all running Microsoft Works.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

eBooks are created by an inifinate number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of computers all running different versions of Microsoft Works.

I completed that by adding the bold

[AlexBell]

If the original poster is still with us there is a helpful thread in the ePub forum stickies at

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43230

I worked through the suggestions when I started learning, and found some others. One of the things I found helpful was to take well formed ePubs apart to see how others did it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I completed that by adding the bold

I didn't think there was an infinite number of different versions of Microsoft Works.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I didn't think there was an infinite number of different versions of Microsoft Works.

Not infinite, but take it from someone who really DOES know: entirely too freaking many!!!

(Jon, I seem to be following you around today.)

Hitch