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karlh97240927
Participant
May 3, 2019
Question

Epub text appears to be off the page

  • May 3, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 625 views

Hello,

I am using CC2014 on a windows 10 machine. when viewing epubs the system defaults to Edge.

the issue I am experiencing is, when I convert my book to an fixed layout Epub, the conversion process places the text off the page. the effect is that all of the pages are devoid of text. all of the images appear to be anchored correctly, even the text boxes are in the write place, but all of the text is missing.  I have included the HTML snippets below for reference. This page should  show the single line statement "This page intentionally left blank".

note the size of the view port. safe to assume these are in px?

    <meta name="viewport" content="width=612,height=792" />

Note the size of the "container" which I assume is the text box. I lifted this from the CSS file

    #_idContainer024 {

      height:152px;

      left:36px;

      position:absolute;

      top:320px;

      width:540px;

<body id="" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US" style="width:612px;height:792px">    // for proprietary reasons I removed the title of the document

      <div id="_idContainer024">

             <div style="width:10800px;height:3000px;position:absolute;top:1px;left:0px;-webkit-transform-origin: 0% 0%; -webkit-transform: rotate(0deg) scale(0.05);transform-origin: 0% 0%; transform: rotate(0deg) scale(0.05);">

              <p class="QuickReference ParaOverride-1"><span id="_idTextSpan318" class="CharOverride-7"           style="position:absolute;top:1328.96px;left:2883.43px;">This</span><span id="_idTextSpan319" class="CharOverride-7"           style="position:absolute;top:1328.96px;left:3629.44px;">page</span><span id="_idTextSpan320" class="CharOverride-7"           style="position:absolute;top:1328.96px;left:4438.21px;letter-spacing:-0.74px;">intentionally</span><span id="_idTextSpan321" class="CharOverride-7"           style="position:absolute;top:1328.96px;left:6472.88px;">left</span><span id="_idTextSpan322" class="CharOverride-7"           style="position:absolute;top:1328.96px;left:7056.3px;">blank</span></p>

So rather than using the styles I defined it has developed it's own. I used a naming convention with all lowercase letters and no spaces. I thought about camelCase but decided against it. I don't think that would solve the problem. i think of a good reason why it styles each word individually? Then look at the position for each word; it appears to be off the page. The whole book is like this. Does anyone know why is might be doing this and how I might correct it.

thank you

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1 reply

BobLevine
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 3, 2019

Why are you using such an old version of InDesign? There are have been improvements since then and I suggest trying InDesign 2019 before doing anything else.

Also worth noting is that beyond the Books app on iOS and MacOS, fixed layout epub support is pretty spotty.

Edit: What version of Windows 10 are you using. Edge support for FXL EPUB was improved dramatically in 1809. Anything prior is awful.

karlh97240927
Participant
May 7, 2019

Hello, and thank you for your thoughts.

I don't anticipate updating Adobe CC until Adobe stops supporting the version we use. I also don't anticipate a transition to Mac or iOS anytime, ever. 

your question about the version of Win10 is a good one.  I am very confident that the only platform I have to worry about is EDGE and IE for some legacy products. I don't know version we use, but I'm certain it's not the most recent because that hasn't been certified.

you did give me an idea. I'm going to grab the snippet I quoted above and try it on my home computer.

BobLevine
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 7, 2019

Windows version can be found under Settings > System > About.

Edge is updated with the O/S, AFAIK and anything earlier than Windows 10 1809 is going to be awful.

Nobody is going to fix old versions of anything. Not Microsoft; Not Adobe; Not Apple.

You're pretty much on your own here if you're refusing to update. Sorry.