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InDesign file configured for print, and now I would like to do a digital book epub configuration.

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
October 14, 2022
2 replies
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I have assembled a book using InDesign and it is configured for print (9 by 6) with the resulting pdf looking good.

I would like to do an e-book version. Probably exporting as an epub.

What is the best approach to do this?

A quick experiment to simply export what I have currently moved all the images to the back of the file and threw a few things out of alignment.

Do I open up a fresh InDesign file and then copy and paste the whole lot? Or is there a better method?

Thank you very much indeed for any advice

Cheers. Simon

EPUB

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Correct answer James Gifford—NitroPress

If you are going to do reflowable, which is the "proper" way to do an e-book, it's not likely your print format will produce a perfect (let alone good or acceptable) result by simply exporting it to EPUB. Maybe, if you were careful with styles and used simple formatting.

But more likely, you will have to save a separate copy and apply different formatting to the styles to get a great EPUB result. It may well look wonky in InDesign, but the export/conversion process will produce a better result than from print-optimized styles.

That's the starting point. You can also tune the EPUB output by writing a CSS style file, if you're familiar with HTML/CSS styling. You can even do a dual format doc that prints/exports to PDF and exports to EPUB from the same file, so that you don't have to maintain two versions and get tangled up in edits and changes.

That the book structure fell apart when you exported it, with everything falling to the end, means you don't have a proper structure. An EPUB export has to be from ONE text flow, with all elements like images anchored in place. Just pasting stuff on the pages and putting text in multiple flows won't work.

Ask all the questions you need. Oh, major suggestion, though: don't export/embed fonts. Let the fonts be generic and the EPUB reader take care of them. Trying to define fonts leads to all kinds of hassles, and embedding them bloats the EPUB file size enormously. It's not print. You just don't have (good) control of many aspects, starting with fonts.

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James Gifford—NitroPressCorrect answer

Legend

If you are going to do reflowable, which is the "proper" way to do an e-book, it's not likely your print format will produce a perfect (let alone good or acceptable) result by simply exporting it to EPUB. Maybe, if you were careful with styles and used simple formatting.

But more likely, you will have to save a separate copy and apply different formatting to the styles to get a great EPUB result. It may well look wonky in InDesign, but the export/conversion process will produce a better result than from print-optimized styles.

That's the starting point. You can also tune the EPUB output by writing a CSS style file, if you're familiar with HTML/CSS styling. You can even do a dual format doc that prints/exports to PDF and exports to EPUB from the same file, so that you don't have to maintain two versions and get tangled up in edits and changes.

That the book structure fell apart when you exported it, with everything falling to the end, means you don't have a proper structure. An EPUB export has to be from ONE text flow, with all elements like images anchored in place. Just pasting stuff on the pages and putting text in multiple flows won't work.

Ask all the questions you need. Oh, major suggestion, though: don't export/embed fonts. Let the fonts be generic and the EPUB reader take care of them. Trying to define fonts leads to all kinds of hassles, and embedding them bloats the EPUB file size enormously. It's not print. You just don't have (good) control of many aspects, starting with fonts.

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S

SimonInglisAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks. Some of your assumptions are a bit harsh.

"...That the book structure fell apart when you exported it, with everything falling to the end, means you don't have a proper structure. An EPUB export has to be from ONE text flow, with all elements like images anchored in place. Just pasting stuff on the pages and putting text in multiple flows won't work...."

In fact the text is in one text flow and the text came out fine. I did anchor pictures to text but for some reason they are all careening to the back with all the photos collected at the back even after being anchored, and three unwanted photos which seem to have appeared out of nowhere and are not visible in the original file. This is my first ever InDesign project. I uploaded my father's 340 page biography, and the export to Pdf went fine, working my way through any issues I came across. I did an online course of about 20 hours and did some reading, before doing this ( my first ever project) so everyone has to start somewhere. There was no attempt to be lazy or cut corners, I just did what I've learned so far. I'll do another Indesign file configured for web from scratch, simplify the picture arrangements and try again. Thanks very much and have a good day.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Nothing harsh intended, and I'm sorry you took it that way. The number one mistake designers make when exporting their first EPUB is not having everything in one text flow with everything anchored in place — typically, it's the TOC and they can't figure out why it keeps falling to the end of the book no matter where they place it. Second is illustrations that end up piled at the end as well.

Anchoring graphics etc. is very much a "Phase II" design step. Many designers, even good ones, never use it or learn it, because for print, images etc. do stay "where you stick them on a page." It's only when working with something like a catalog, textbook or text with images that's still being written that the need, and the technique, for anchoring images and other frames becomes apparent. So from your description, that was exactly the problem. And EPUBs will really misbehave when there is unanchored content.

The other problem is putting text in several text flows, as for a magazine or just from poor doc structure. EPUBs hate multiple text flows and will order them in strange ways even if they are sequential in the document.

So: "One text flow, all images and text boxes anchored in place." Just basic knowledge that is sometimes acquired after a long frustrating weekend of battling the export process.

Happy to answer further questions as you encounter issues. EPUB export is not... difficult, precisely, but especially from InDesign it's a bit of a crooked, un-obvious path.

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BobLevine

Community Expert

First thing we need to know is if you're thinking fixed layout or reflowable. Fixed layout wouldn't really require much work but reflowable is totally different animal.

S

SimonInglisAuthor

Participating Frequently

I am flexible. It is to upload to Amazon so I guess either one is ok?

What would you suggest?

and thank you very much for answering

BobLevine

Community Expert

What you saw in your experiment is exactly what I would have expected with a reflowable EPUB. You'll need to use the Articles panel to arrange things or anchor all of the images to the text. Fixed layout is far easier but the reader support is sadly lacking and Amazon is not the easiest place to deal with from what I understand.

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