Image Maps in ePub

[NewBabyProd]

My first question is: "Are Image Maps allowed in ePub?"
I am creating iPad versions of our graphic novels and I would like to create a clickable link to our web site from one of the pages. Is this even possible?

My second question is: "If possible, how can I do it?"
Are there any special considerations that I should take into account?

Thanks!
Eric Mullarky
New Baby Productions
www.NewBabyProductions.com

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by NewBabyProd

My first question is: "Are Image Maps allowed in ePub?"

Yes, image maps are included in the ePUB specification. A different question is whether the reading software supports them, last time I checked, ADE didn't.

I am creating iPad versions of our graphic novels and I would like to create a clickable link to our web site from one of the pages. Is this even possible?

Note that links to web sites can never work in devices that have no network capabilities.

My second question is: "If possible, how can I do it?"

They can be done by hand, although that's a bit cumbersome: have a look here. There are probably other tools to visually create image maps, the Gimp has one, if I'm not mistaken.

[NewBabyProd]

Originally Posted by Jellby

...last time I checked, ADE didn't.

That explains why my test files were not working in ADE. Can anyone verify whether the iPad has this functionality? That is the only device I am concerned with (at the moment).

Eric Mullarky
New Baby Productions
www.NewBabyProductions.com

[HarryT]

If you upload a test file, I'll be happy to try it out for you on my iPad.

[Jellby]

The test file here uses image maps (each comic page has links to every panel), and I would like to know how it works in the iPad too.

[HarryT]

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that the image map works just fine. Touching any panel in the "whole page" view takes you to the page containing a zoomed-in view of that panel.

The bad news is that the introductory page for each comic (I assume that's what it is) displays the following error message:

This page contains the following errors:

error on line 3 at column 22: xmlns:ops: 'http://www.ipdf.org/2007/ops' is not a valid URI

Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.

and then the page just displays a centred date, eg "30 April 1916".

But yes, it looks as though the actual image maps themselves work just fine.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The bad news is that the introductory page for each comic (I assume that's what it is) displays the following error message:

This page contains the following errors:

error on line 3 at column 22: xmlns:ops: 'http://www.ipdf.org/2007/ops' is not a valid URI

Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.

and then the page just displays a centred date, eg "30 April 1916".

I probably made some mistake there in that early version But there's no missing content, the page has just the date and the comic.

[NewBabyProd]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you upload a test file, I'll be happy to try it out for you on my iPad.

I would appreciate greatly if you could try the attached test file on your iPad. I have set-up image maps with links to our web site on three pages were there is web address shown. Thanks!

[HarryT]

It looks excellent on the iPad, but the URLs don't seem to be valid imagemaps. Where should they link to?

[NewBabyProd]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It looks excellent on the iPad, but the URLs don't seem to be valid imagemaps. Where should they link to?

They should link to my homepage at http://www.newbabyproductions.com.

[HarryT]

I suggest that you use a normal text hyperlink - they work fine. When you select the link, iBooks will ask you if you want to open it in Safari.