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J
Joe-New-to-ID
Inspiring
June 23, 2023
Answered

Book | EPUB | Figures & Captions | Page Breaks | What Do eReaders See?

  • June 23, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1278 views

I put a print book and eBook together using InDesign. Everything is as I want it to be in the EPUB file as viewed by Kindle Previewer 3, except for two figures in the book, "Figure 2" and "Figure 3". Each full-page figure has a caption below it where the caption is followed by a page break leading the the next figure and caption all captured on the next dedicated page. Kindle Previewer 3 displays the two figures and captions adequately (i.e., they're readable), except the page break is excessive. In the print version, the page break makes perfect sense. In the EPUB file, the captions are on separate pages from the figures as viewed from Kindle Previewer 3. Figure 2 consumes an entire page where its caption is on the next page followed by a big blank underneath. The same holds for Figure 3 and its caption.

 

What do eReaders see? I don't have an eReader and I don't know if different eReaders see different things. Does this matter? Does anyone have any experience or recommendations on this matter?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer James Gifford—NitroPress

    I thought we covered this in a prior exchange. Maybe not; it's a perennial subject.

     

    When you create a reflowable e-book, you give up most page-layout control. It's inherent in a situation where every (human) reader might be using a different (machine) reader, and with individualized settings (for font size, spacing, margins, etc.) on top of that. You simply cannot control all text breaks perfectly.

     

    Kindle is more controlled and regular than general EPUB, but it still has its variations between generations of hard reader, mobile readers, resizable computer-screen readers, etc. (EPUB is a realm of madness that makes Kindle look like lead-type pages, however.)

     

    These may help:

     

    And if you want to deep-dive into the how and why and workarounds, the book in my sig will help a lot more.

     

    (Hmm. Maybe 'deep dive' isn't the right term this week.)

    1 reply

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPressCorrect answer
    Legend
    June 23, 2023

    I thought we covered this in a prior exchange. Maybe not; it's a perennial subject.

     

    When you create a reflowable e-book, you give up most page-layout control. It's inherent in a situation where every (human) reader might be using a different (machine) reader, and with individualized settings (for font size, spacing, margins, etc.) on top of that. You simply cannot control all text breaks perfectly.

     

    Kindle is more controlled and regular than general EPUB, but it still has its variations between generations of hard reader, mobile readers, resizable computer-screen readers, etc. (EPUB is a realm of madness that makes Kindle look like lead-type pages, however.)

     

    These may help:

     

    And if you want to deep-dive into the how and why and workarounds, the book in my sig will help a lot more.

     

    (Hmm. Maybe 'deep dive' isn't the right term this week.)

      J
      Joe-New-to-IDAuthor
      Inspiring
      June 24, 2023

      James: Thank you. Your answer and the links prompt me to delete the page breaks.

      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      June 24, 2023

      I would avoid trying to impose page breaks in the general text (the sort of slightly fussy stuff you do in print), but it's probably good/okay to use them for chapter headings, and maybe a small number of major section breaks. You can achieve them using file splitting, at the export step.

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