Page numbering for apple books

[abbrowna]

Hello all, I have this problem that's bothered me for days on end.
I am compiling a book of song lyrics in reflowable epub 3 format. Each song is structured like a poem and has its own xhtml file. Each song is therefore a chapter in itself. My target devices are IOS devices and in particular, using the inbuilt Books app. What bugs me is that Books assigns it's own page numbers according to the screen size. What I would prefer is that 1file=1chapter=1song=1page. I prefer this because the songs are also numbered (as you will see in the attached epub) and conflict with the page number. How can I override/guide the Books numbering according to my requirement.

I'm working in Calibre on windows10

Thank you for your time and help.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by abbrowna

How can I override/guide the Books numbering according to my requirement.

You can define your own page numbers by adding a page-list nav section to the nav document.
If you're also familiar with Sigil, you might find my Pagelist plugin helpful.
Note that you'll have to select the Tap to show printed page numbers option in the toc to display page-list page numbers in iBooks/Apple Books.

[abbrowna]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

You can define your own page numbers by adding a page-list nav section to the nav document.
If you're also familiar with Sigil, you might find my Pagelist plugin helpful.
Note that you'll have to select the Tap to show printed page numbers option in the toc to display page-list page numbers in iBooks/Apple Books.

So, I actually landed on that particular site during my days of frustration and here's what I tried... Because there are over 1000 songs/chapters, I created a page-list nav element only listing the first 3 chapters and the title page file. However, I did not refer to any page-break within the song only listing the xhtml like so...

<nav epub:type="page-list" hidden="hidden">
 <ol>
   <li><a href="titlepage.xhtml"></a></li>
   <li><a href="song_1.xhtml">1</a></li>
   <li><a href="song_2.xhtml">2</a></li>
   <li><a href="song_3.xhtml">3</a></li>
 </ol>
</na

This had no effect in the Books app (iphone7). I wonder if the mistake is in not adding actual page-breaks, not including all chapters/song or both? I really appreciate your help by the way.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by abbrowna

This had no effect in the Books app (iphone7). I wonder if the mistake is in not adding actual page-breaks, not including all chapters/song or both?

Of course, you'll also need to add pagebreak markers to .xhtml files. For example, you'll need to insert the following pagebreak marker in a block-level tag in song_1.xhtml.

<span epub:type="pagebreak" id="page1" title="1"/>

Note that you can add sequential numbers in Calibre with a regex function.

[abbrowna]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Of course, you'll also need to add pagebreak markers to .xhtml files. For example, you'll need to insert the following pagebreak marker in a block-level tag in song_1.xhtml.

<span epub:type="pagebreak" id="page1" title="1"/>

Note that you can add sequential numbers in Calibre with a regex function.

Hey There, So I created a test book with just the first 3 chapters of my book and added a page-list to the nav section and corresponding page breaks in the xhtml files. No luck unfortunately. The Apple books app still insists on assigning its own page numbers. I did confirm that the page list works by shifting the marker to the end of the chapter. Clicking on the page-link took me to the end of the chapter rather than the beginning as expected.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by abbrowna

No luck unfortunately. The Apple books app still insists on assigning its own page numbers.

Maybe there's a syntax error in the page-list or the pagebreak markers or maybe you didn't create a valid epub3 book.
Have you checked your book with the IDPF validator?
Download and test this very simple Public Domain epub3 book with iBooks/Apple Books and you'll see that the embedded printed page numbers work.

[abbrowna]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Maybe there's a syntax error in the page-list or the pagebreak markers or maybe you didn't create a valid epub3 book.
Have you checked your book with the IDPF validator?
Download and test this very simple Public Domain epub3 book with iBooks/Apple Books and you'll see that the embedded printed page numbers work.

Opened the public domain book on Books app and here's a screen-shot of the last page. It shows the book has 121 pages and I'm on the 119th. Opening from Calibre, I can see the book should have 61 pages. Thanks for the validator link, my book checks out with no errors.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by abbrowna

It shows the book has 121 pages and I'm on the 119th.

You've most likely forgotten to select Tap to show printed page numbers in the toc, because on my iPhone the correct number is shown.

[abbrowna]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

You've most likely forgotten to select Tap to show printed page numbers in the toc, because on my iPhone the correct number is shown.

Yep, that's exactly it! It finally worked. I've missed it all the while. Thanks a bunch.

As a side note, I also removed the page break marker inside the file, used just the file names in the page list and it still works.