best way to add numbered chapters to a book with no chapters

[KevinH]

@Tex2002ans
Do you now much about futurepress's epub.js. Is it both epub2 and epub3 compliant? How does their "serve it up as a webpage" approach compare to other e-readers. Does it handle fixed layout? Does it handle embedded fonts?

I asked because I was thinking about adding a more advanced "proof my finished work" function to Sigil and thought that by integrating these epub.js javascripts into a Qt QWebKit or QWebEngine (effectively serving them as if they came from the web) might be a good way to allow users to get a better feeling for how their epub would be viewed by end users.

Any thoughts on either the appropriateness of using epub.js (possibly with the annotation feature for proofing) or even on the entire idea of a better cross-platform proofing tools for standard epubs being added to Sigil. I thought about trying with Readium but it being tied to Chrome so closely make it hard to use and integrate into other projects like Sigil.

Thanks

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Do you now much about futurepress's epub.js.

I must admit I only began looking into EPUB.js a few months ago after I watched that speech.

Originally Posted by KevinH

Is it both epub2 and epub3 compliant?

EPUB.js is mostly focused on EPUB3. It doesn't support things like the NCX. Not too sure how much of EPUB2 it does support.

Originally Posted by KevinH

Does it handle fixed layout?

According to their example files they do "support Fixed Layout".

Though I personally haven't tested it + I don't really dabble in Fixed Layout. I also don't have any really good/hard examples on hand (just the horrifying stuff output from InDesign).

Originally Posted by KevinH

Does it handle embedded fonts?

I think so? But the only real reference to it I could find was this closed bug:

https://github.com/futurepress/epub.js/issues/123

Originally Posted by KevinH

How does their "serve it up as a webpage" approach compare to other e-readers.

Well I can tell you quite a few of their example EPUBs on their site are messed up... which isn't a great sign. :P

As a reader, I personally wouldn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole. The customization options seem absolutely abysmal (unless you have a lot more in-depth access in the code itself?). And it reminds me a lot of trying to use Scribd over an actual PDF reader... there is just NO comparison!

If I was reading on my PC, I would go with the Chrome Readium plugin (which isn't that amazing either compared to many Android/dedicated readers).

Readium is updated quite often + gets very high scores on eputest.org:

http://epubtest.org/

Although getting a "Supported" score on their tests doesn't mean much... as you know, the code/files people come up with can sometimes get real weird/obscure.

Originally Posted by KevinH

I asked because I was thinking about adding a more advanced "proof my finished work" function to Sigil and thought that by integrating these epub.js javascripts into a Qt QWebKit or QWebEngine (effectively serving them as if they came from the web) might be a good way to allow users to get a better feeling for how their epub would be viewed by end users.

I am probably the wrong person to ask about a lot of EPUB3 stuff.

I know with EPUB2 you could really say, "If it runs in ADE, it'll probably work the same on the EPUB readers". Don't know if you could say the same about EPUB3.

The ReadiumSDK seems to be used as a backend for a lot more readers (Bluefire, ADE, Kobo, Mantano, [...]):

https://readium.github.io/applications/

If you wanted to aim for a how actual readers would view EPUB3s, that would probably be your better bet. And as pointed out above on epubtest.org, it does seem to support quite a large chunk of EPUB3.

It also seems to have a lot of commercial support behind it as well... and since large companies like Adobe + Kobo rely upon it, I suspect that would be the better bet.

And yeah, being reliant upon Chrome is a big minus.

Originally Posted by KevinH

Any thoughts on either the appropriateness of using epub.js (possibly with the annotation feature for proofing) or even on the entire idea of a better cross-platform proofing tools for standard epubs being added to Sigil.

Probably better to avoid EPUB.js. Plus it seems like their Web Annotation support broke a while back and hasn't been fixed yet (maybe it if fixed later in the v0.3 branch?).

From what I could quickly tell, the whole Web Annotation thing seems to be.... rough. But I didn't spend too much time researching actual implementations that exist (this is something I am interested in researching in the future).

Side Note: I don't know how many of you stumbled across this post on The Digital Reader, "eBookcraft Conference Presentation Videos Now Online":

https://the-digital-reader.com/2017/...os-now-online/

one of the speeches given there was by the guy behind Bluefire (and I think he also was one of the main coders for RMSDK/ADE initially?).

"Ebook Apps from the Inside Out - Micah Bowers":

https://booknetcanada.wistia.com/medias/6fhcu89ivx

He has now one of the main forces behind Readium.

I also recommend checking out a lot of the other speeches, there was some nuggets of information in there (and large pushes for Accessibility).

[Toxaris]

I wish the SVG support for Readium would improve... Image in pure SVG or a wrapper do not work that well in Readium.