Guidance on ePub Formatting for a Graphic Novel Project in InDesign

Question

Hey all. So, i've got a project where i'm creating a kind of mystical grimoire in ePub format that's meant to create a graphic novel feel with multimedia as part of Into the Mythica project (https://intothemythica.com)

I'm just learning the in's and out's of inDesign and have for many years just sort of been approaching it in a kind of painterly way, but am starting to ground out into the formats.

So. I have a number of graphic novel sketches that i've made over time in various shapes & sizes, and i'm wanting to clarify if i'm on the right path with creating functional epubs. Whereas the idea of them being flowable is nice, it seems to throw off the absolute positioning of the graphics so i've been heading in a more fixed position though i'm open to advice.

I'm curious, are there any recommended sizes for the document that I should set as a standard for an ePub across my publishing? I'm using a particular image for a background that sets the visual tone for the content, and i'm just wanting to get clear on the best format / sizing for ePub distribution and am open to more knowledgeable people in inDesign helping me out. As said, i've been coming from more of a painterly than a graphic design space so i'm just getting into the angles of all of that 🙂

I've included one of my sketch pages as an example. The main background is of a mystical grimoire creating a visual context for the content

James Gifford—NitroPress · Answer

The only simple answer here is that your pages should follow the aspect ratio of the e-book platform you're publishing for, so that the pages can be as large as possible without margins. Everything else is... a lot more complicated.

If you're headed to Kindle, most readers are 1:1.4 or so. But also know that most of the dedicated readers don't handle fixed-page e-books, so you'd be limited to the mobile and desktop device versions of Kindle Reader, which can be rescaled by users.

If you're specific about publishing to EPUB, know that fixed-page layout (FXL) is a limited, difficult and largely obsolete format, in which you largely "get what you get" from any creation or export process, with little room to tweak or fine-tune. And EPUB is highly dependent on the reader used, of which there are a least a dozen in common use, and few of them present files in the same way.

And, InDesign's FXL export is not the best. When it works, it works fine; when there's any issue with the source file or export, it's nearly impossible to adjust/fix.

So if you want to proceed, I'd suggest you format your page images to be right about 1:1.4, which is a common page ratio overall, and then use a specific EPUB creation tool such as Sigil to build the book. That's probably the only way you will get an acceptable result outside of the dedicated readers used by the comics/GN publishers, and it's going to take some work.

(I strongly discourage creating any books in FXL, except for the very, very narrow range of some children's books — which opens another whole can of esthetic worms — and things like graphic novels. I also deeply discourage using the community "build a book" tools and, even more, methods. But you're in the 0.0246% of publishers who have few other choices.)

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