Where do I put the font EULA?

[Psymon]

Yes, this is an epub question! I'm embedding a number of fonts in my first epub, which I've managed to do successfully, but the freeware fonts that I'm using come with a EULA (End User License Agreement) file which states that it's free to use them "anywhere", as long as that EULA is included in the package.

They're just plain text files, and I presume it's good enough to just bury them somewhere hidden in the epub file where nobody will see them (unless they go poking around in there), but where would be the place to put them?

Can I just copy/paste the info from them into a new file in Sigil somewhere/somehow and have it included in there that way (in a "hidden" way), or would I have to unzip the whole thing and plop them in that way (and where?)?

[Toxaris]

Just add them to Sigil. It will probably put it in the Misc folder.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Just add them to Sigil. It will probably put it in the Misc folder.

I tried that, but when I go to validate my epub after doing so, for each of those EULA files it gives me the error: "This resource is present in the OPF <manifest>, but it's not reachable (it's unused)." So adding them in that way prevents my epub from validating.

Any suggestions?

[Psymon]

Hmmm... thinking about it, I suppose I could just mention at the end of my epub the fonts that I use in, simply as a matter of courtesy, and then provide a link to the EULA text file (which I suppose I could even convert to an xhtml and give some nicer formatting to, too!).

I think I'll just do that -- thanks for your help, still, Toxaris! Cheers!

[mrmikel]

I have seen paper books that put a mention of the font used at the front just after the title page. This wonderful Bookman font that makes this book so readable was created by Mortimer Snerd in 1888, etc, etc.

[WillAdams]

My suggestion would be to put in a colophon and link to the EULA files from there.

Here's a StackExchange post which discusses this for LaTeX files: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questio...peset-with-tex

(ob. discl. it mentions the colophon which I did for my version of _The Book of Tea_)

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

My suggestion would be to put in a colophon and link to the EULA files from there.

Ha! Funny, it's exactly in my "colophon" that I was putting that info (that's the name of the xhtml file as well as how it's listed in the ToC). I was also going to put my CIP data there, too, instead of at the front (but with a very small copyright notice on the title page linking to the colophon/CIP page).

The only problem that I seem to be having with this method is doing this nicely. The EULA files for the fonts are just plain text (.txt) files -- I can only presume that ebook readers can read those (although I haven't tested this out yet!) -- but since they look so ugly and have lousy formatting I thought it would be nice to do those EULA pages up as XHTML files instead, with nice styling and embedded samples of the fonts in question.

However, I don't want to just add in those full, entire EULAs at the end (pages of legalese), but just wanted to include a little link in my colophon saying "View license agreement" with a link to a non-linear XHTML page.

I can't seem to figure out how to add in a NON-LINEAR page, though, and still have the epub VALIDATE. I'd like to have those EULA files in the "misc" folder, not in the "text" folder, too, but I also can't figure out how to get Sigil to allow an HTML file to be in there, either. I suppose I could put up with those EULAs being in the "text" folder, but still I'd like them to be non-linear (and validate).

I've been poking around the forums here and anywhere else on the 'net I can find, but can't seem to find the answer to that -- I'm still looking, and will continue looking! If you know of a solution to that, I'd be most grateful!

In the meantime, thanks for your input!

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Psymon

I tried that, but when I go to validate my epub after doing so, for each of those EULA files it gives me the error: "This resource is present in the OPF <manifest>, but it's not reachable (it's unused)." So adding them in that way prevents my epub from validating.

That shouldn't be an error, but a warning. The ePub is still valid (provided it has no other errors).

[Lancelot]

Just remember, non-linear code is not supported by all ereaders, so place it at the end of your epub.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by Lancelot

Just remember, non-linear code is not supported by all ereaders, so place it at the end of your epub.

Thanks to you, Lancelot -- and to everyone else -- for the replies!

For the time being, since I only have an iPad, I'm just sticking with designing for that platform (i.e. iBooks) -- I'm really very, very hesitant to design for any other platform without actually having the "real" reader to see/test things in.

As far as epubs for iBooks go, though, in the end I did just plop my font EULA files into my epub as plain ol' text (.txt) files, and then linked to them from within my book -- works just fine (when you click the link the text files pop up in a "new window") and the epub validates no problem!

So that's the solution I've gone with -- at least for now, for my epubs that are intended for iBooks. I'll worry about other platforms whenever I get there, I guess (still a long way down the road right now).

[mrmikel]

There is nothing wrong with designed for a specific platform if that is what you want to do. It is a huge amount of work to make sure it works across most of them and really there is no fully optimizing between 5" screens and 10" screens anyway.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

There is nothing wrong with designed for a specific platform if that is what you want to do. It is a huge amount of work to make sure it works across most of them and really there is no fully optimizing between 5" screens and 10" screens anyway.

Actually, it's easier to make things work for ADE then it is to make things work for iBooks and if you make thins work for iBooks, they may not work for ADE and in terms of sales, you'd sell more selling for other platforms then iBooks only.

As for ADE and most Readers, find a copy of Sony's Reader Library. That will show you what the ePub will look like on a 6" screen using ADE 1.7.2. So you can see how the ePub will look/work. Then you don't actually need a Reader for testing.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Actually, it's easier to make things work for ADE then it is to make things work for iBooks and if you make thins work for iBooks, they may not work for ADE and in terms of sales, you'd sell more selling for other platforms then iBooks only.

The only reason -- or reasons -- that I'm designing for iBooks only right now are twofold: the only "real" portable ereaders that I have access to are an iPad and a Mac laptop, and I'd really like to be able to SEE (for sure) that my designs are coming out okay, not just through some simulated "previewer" program for on my PC. Secondly -- and perhaps more importantly -- I'm still only working on my very first ebook, which unfortunately incorporates something that apparently will only work correctly on the iPad (and on that, it works just beautifully!).

That latter issue leaves me in somewhat of a conundrum over what to do if/when I'd like to publish my ebook on Amazon and/or wherever else -- but I'll worry about that down the road, I'm still just trying to get my ebook done and out on iBooks for now.

As for ADE and most Readers, find a copy of Sony's Reader Library. That will show you what the ePub will look like on a 6" screen using ADE 1.7.2. So you can see how the ePub will look/work. Then you don't actually need a Reader for testing.

Oh, that's certainly encouraging to know -- I do have that installed on my PC now. I've got ADE 2.0, though, and I seem to recall mention elsewhere somewhere that for getting an accurate perspective on what my ebook will look like on "real" readers that make use of ADE, I should actually have the version you mentioned (1.7.2) -- is that correct?

If so, won't those readers eventually be upgrading, too?

Also, on a related note, I'm still quite new to all of this -- which readers make use of ADE? Is it much of a market share that I'd be losing out on if I decided to not concentrate getting my book to look good on that (if only for now)?

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Psymon

[...] which unfortunately incorporates something that apparently will only work correctly on the iPad[...]

May I ask what you are using in your book that only works in iBooks?

Originally Posted by Psymon

which readers make use of ADE?

Pretty much every dedicated ereader that is not Kindle or iBooks.

This is an immense share of the market.

Also, in non-US countries, the ADE marketshare is even higher (Amazon/Kindle has much less ebook presence outside of the US).

Originally Posted by Psymon

Is it much of a market share that I'd be losing out on if I decided to not concentrate getting my book to look good on that (if only for now)?

Yes... Apple MIGHT be 20% of the ebook market share (if being very generous).

I know somewhere in the forums, Hitch gave an estimates on sales from her companies' conversions in iBooks, and they were PALTRY (<5% of the sales occured through iBooks, could have been closer to 1% if I recall correctly).

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

May I ask what you are using in your book that only works in iBooks?

16th century typography -- I kid ye not.

Here, I'll include a screen shot -- see the attachment here -- of one of my pages (actually two pages, of course), as it looks in iBooks. I'm using a digitized period font, of course, to pull this off, embedded in the epub, that has tons of ligatures and stuff, both in roman and italic.

And just to show you how screwy the coding is for this, here's the HTML for the selection of text that you see in that screenshot...

<p class="olde"><span class="dropcap drop1"><img alt="I" src="../Images/init-t.png" /></span>hou <span style="white-space: nowrap">appere¥</span> in my thouwts <span style="white-space: nowrap">ƒo</span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">o¤en</span> of lait and I can nowth healpe bwt thynke hauw vniqwe thou hauef becom, hauw <i>eccepcionall</i> ytt <span style="white-space: nowrap">ha¥</span> aull bine in gyttynge to kno thee. Thou art <span style="white-space: nowrap">ƒempylly</span> that rayre kynde of parrƒen oan ƒild metes in a lyfetyme, that <span style="white-space: nowrap">ƒwmme</span> newyr mete; they <span style="white-space: nowrap">reƒpeck,</span> they <span style="white-space: nowrap">fornneƒs</span> and warmthe that I feel ƒeem to hauef becom ane <span style="white-space: nowrap">a¤eccion</span> of <span style="white-space: nowrap">my¥ickal</span> proporcions, whythe a deppyt that reches to they vary coore and brethe of my Sawle. For they <span style="white-space: nowrap">for¥</span> tyme in my lyfe I no longar nide to tallk of whot hys <span style="white-space: nowrap">poƒcibell,</span> of whot <i>coold</i> by, for whythe thee euere thouwt that entres my mynd as I penne <span style="white-space: nowrap">thoƒe</span> wordes hys a ƒoung of pres, a celibracion and a <span style="white-space: nowrap">thannkeƒgeuyn</span> for whot <span style="white-space: nowrap">ƒempylly</span> <i>hys,</i> for whot whe aulredy do <span style="white-space: nowrap">¬ar</span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">ƒo</span> ioyefolly betwhene ws.</p>

What it would appear doesn't seem to work in ADE is the "nowrap" style -- despite my having that in there, whenever it hits one of those special characters (like ƒ or ¥, etc.), if the word happens to be at the end of the line and can "break", it will, and it won't do so with a hyphen, so there's no indication to the reader (and it's hard enough for the average reader to read as it is, of course) that those two "parts" actually belong together.

I'm not sure -- I haven't done extensive testing on it -- but I think my ebook might be okay in ADE apart from that, but that's definitely a big bug for me. If you have any ideas on how to overcome that, I would certainly be most grateful!

Pretty much every dedicated ereader that is not Kindle or iBooks.

This is an immense share of the market.

Oh, okay. I'm still very new to all this epublishing stuff, so I have a great deal to learn yet.

One thing at a time -- and since I only have access to an iPad and a Mac (although I'm actually a PC guy, which is what I do all my work on) that's all I can test things on.

Yes... Apple MIGHT be 20% of the ebook market share (if being very generous).

I know somewhere in the forums, Hitch gave an estimates on sales from her companies' conversions in iBooks, and they were PALTRY (<5% of the sales occured through iBooks, could have been closer to 1% if I recall correctly).

All those figures you mentioned are pretty much what I've heard, too (i.e. from 20% down to 5% or even less). I know iBooks isn't much, but for the moment -- for this, my first project, anyway (with all that "olde" text) -- it's what I'm concentrating on.

I could do that whole section of my book up as graphics, of course, but it's just not the same as having it in reflowable text -- that's what is half of the "art" behind it, pulling off that 16th century typography in that way.