InDesign CS5 to EPUB, Kindle and iPad

These are my notes from watching the "InDesign CS5 to EPUB, Kindle and iPad" training from Lynda: 

What is an eBook – digital book (digital file eg can be a website)

types: epub (reflowable format – wraps depending on the size of the screen and size of type eg can open on mobile phone), pdf (type does not re-wrap ie layout ‘frozen’), mobi (kindle: similar to epub – reflowable format – wraps depending on the size of screen and type)

- can read on dedicated devices or on the computer: Adobe Digital Editions to read epub or pdf files – free to read epub files and can be used as proofer for epub files created in InDesign (Adobe reader for pdf files)

To read epub on external devices download ‘Stanza’ http://www.lexcycle.com (epub reader for lots of devices)

For android phones: aldiko – http://www.aldiko.com (e-reader)

To read epub in browser: ibis reader – http://ibisreader.com (go to this web address to open epub to read through browser – smartphone, computer, tablets or netbooks.

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com uses mobi format for ebooks – Adobe Digital Editions and Stanza cant open this format but Amazon offers free Kindle reading apps (don’t need a kindle to read books – can install the kindle app on iPhone, PC, Mac, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7) … or can access kindles directly in browser – Firefox has plugin that allows you to read directly in browser.

FREE ebooks:

http://www.epubbooks.com/books - find lots of free ebooks

http://www.feedbooks.com - free public domain and original books

http://ww.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page - over 33,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPone, Android or other portable device (lots are pdf but are being converted to epub)

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks - download free or buy but must use mobi file to read (can get Kindle e-reader from the site – see above)

Buy ebooks:

http://ebookstore.sony.com - Sony reader store

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks/index.asp - (nook apps available  free on site)

http://books.google.com/ebooks - just started ebook store – also has lot of free ones

http://www.takecontrolbooks.com - small business – help books for publishing

EPUB Production Basics

What is inside an epub is like a little website (convert InDesign to epub) … image and text – a compressed collection of files – like a zip file (… and can change extension to a zip and decompress the zip into its component parts - on Mac need expander to do this)

-       .xml files

-       .ncx

-       .opf

-       content folder with .xml files: each one of these files is a chapter

-       data folder with .png and .jpg files: the images inside the epub file

InDesign exports .xhtml files for every chapter in epub (images are put in separate images folder and exports them as .jpeg or as .giff)

EPUB readers are mini web browsers – to read the EPUB

InDesign to EBOOK Workflow:

Some edits are done in InDesign and some in EPUB editor.

1.  Export - To convert file to EPUB in InDesign: File – Export for – EPUB then click Export.

2. Preview and Rough Proof - Open in Adobe Digital Editions (default EPUB viewer) … download from http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions File then opens up in ePUB previewer eg Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) – can look different on different devices but use as checker that all images came in the text came in and they are in the correct order etc.

3.  Edit EPUB File – open the EPUB file and edit its component files(CSS, XHTML, XML files) as necessary

4.  Preview and Proof – view EPUB in a variety of eReaders and mobile devices (VALIDATE)

5. Final Validation – run ePubCheck on the EPUB file to ensure it validates after all edits – free service (links work etc)

6. Upload  - make the eBook available (if going to sell on Amazon – they will convert it to Kindle (mobi file) for you)

What can and can’t by converted from InDesign to EPUB

What is transferred

All text on ‘live’ page (including overset text and auto bullets/numbering) is exported except text from Master Page (because EPUB is constantly reflowed) including styles (paragraph and character) but not other formatting for same reason as Master Page info. … converted to CSS format for web.

All ‘live’ images are exported and will bring formatting of images (edge effects, crops etc)

The order that they appear may be different

Links are included

What does not get converted into the EPUB

… everything else eg pasteboard, page size, facing pages etc are ignored … Table of Contents Feature is ignored (can create yourself and it will be included)

Spacing between text frames is ignored as is multiple returns (they are collapsed) and space runs are also collapsed into one space, tabs are converted to a single space.

Tables are exported but not the formatting! (only info) so need to edit CSS code to edit

If Table Styles are used – make editing easier.

Text effects eg 90 degrees do not go over – only the text.

NB rollovers, interactivity, sound, animations, movies, diagrams – not included

Movies and sound can be added into EReader itself later but not all e-readers support embedded rich media and can convert artwork later as well.