Formatting an ePub book with reflowabe AND fixed elements

[Michael_NextWord]

I have worked with print but an new to ePub. Can I combine reflowable and fixed elements in the same layout? Is it possible to anchor photos or illustrations to flow with a certain section of text, or would the graphic elements have to remain fixed with the text flowing around them?

[Derek Cross · Accepted solution]

Yes, you have to anchor images to the text in Reflowable ePubs. 

[Michael_NextWord]

Just what I needed. Thanks, Derek.

[Derek Cross]

Good! also, use Paragraph (and Character) Styles for all text and note that Master / Parent page content isn't implemented in Reflowable ePubs.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Just to straighten out the question a little — I think — there's a fundamental difference between reflowable and FXL (fixed) EPUB. Reflowable is just that, a single flowing stream of content, almost exactly like a web page, that can have elements like images anchored in the flow. They are thus 'fixed' in place within the flow but that doesn't make the document "fixed layout."

Fixed layout or FXL is a much more complicated format in which extensive code and PNG graphics are used to build a complete, fixed image of each page, almost exactly as if exporting to PDF. It's kind of a mess, harder to optimize and tweak and should not be used except for picture-page books (childrens, graphic novels, some kinds of technical publication based on drawings, etc.) IMHO, it's a last ditch option when reflowable can't be made to work and PDF is not the right distribution format.

But yes, as Derek noted, you have to use a completely clean, organized, style-based source doc, and anchor everything to a point in the text flow, to get the results you expect.

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