Em dash + nonbreaking space fixed width problem with Epub 3.0

[Syldar]

Hello everyone, I have a problem in InDesign, to generate correctly my Epub 3.0 ebook.

For the paper version of my book, I start every dialogue with an Em dash, followed by a nonbreaking space (fixed width), so it can display correctly, whatever the font I use next.

Problem, for my epub, the nonbreaking fixed width space (after the Em dash) seem to be a normal space in ibook. And this happen, whatever the font I use (all embeded in my epub).

If you look at the picture I made, you'll see that the space after the em dash change in length (with times new roman, or roboto, but also with 2 dialogues in times new roman).

Do you have any idea on how to address the problem? The rest of the ebook is fine, but this is very annoying. I must add that it is an Epub v3.0, reflowable. Thank you very much in advance for the help, as I need to publish my novel in a few days (I did not expected this to happen).

[Eric Dumas]

Hi,

Can you confirm the version of the software and the operating system you are using?

Also, is this a new issue after some upgrade/update on your computer?

Can you share screenshots of the Character/paragraph styles you have created to format your text?

[Syldar]

I use InDesign CC, with OSX 10.12.6.

No updates were made before the problem occured.

Please check the screenshot for the characters.

[Jongware]

It appears as if the nonbreaking space/fixed width -- Unicode U+202F -- has been changed to either a regular space or a regular nonbreaking space (Unicode U+00A0).

Are you able to open the generated ePub file with an appropriate editor and verify if that is what happened?

If that is the case, it's "built-in" in InDesign's Epub Export and you need to use a dedicated editor to find and change these spaces to the original ones.

Another possibility, however, is that the file is okay but the ePub viewer chooses to replace the U+202F with another character. It might choose to do so if this character is not available in the viewer's current font. Check if you can change the view font, and if the same thing happens with other ePub viewers than the one you are using here.

A viable alternative could be to use an en-space at half your current font size -- it might just work, but I am not entirely convinced if that will survive translation to Plain CSS/HTML.

[Syldar]

I opened the epub with a reader (some display it correctly, some not, while some keep my fonts, and some not ; the epub tech is really **** that way....). Anyway, i looked, and copied pasted the characters from the readers, and the special characters remain, BUT the s is in Capital:

[Jongware]

So yeah, I guess that means they're actually converted and stored in the ePub file into regular non-breaking spaces. The long route at fixing this it is posting it at https://indesign.uservoice.com/. You may call it either a bug (because it's an unwanted change, although this is deliberately done and therefore "by design") or a feature request ("please don't do this", or maybe "please give us a checkbox to tick whether we want our hand-inserted original Unicode spaces to remain or discarded").

For an immediate fix, you will need software and expertise to open and edit the ePub files, and change the actual HTML files therein.

[Syldar]

I found a solution, building on your help and other writers. The solution is pretty straight forward.

Once the epub is generated by InDesign, it needs to be edited by Calibre (available on OSX, Windows & Linux).

Then, in the code (not in the preview), you need to do a search & replace.

Search for all instances of: — 

Replace all those instances by: — 

And that's it, it work, everything is aligned, now. Case closed (even with using justified text and different set of fonts).