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Needing some assistance. How do I maintain the knockout text in my tables when exporting to epub from InDesign?
When I export to epub from InDesign — the header row in my table (which is black with knockout white text in InDesign table) defaults to gray text with white fill. My tables are not rasterized containers because book contains too many tables to render that way. Size restrictions. Any help is appreciated. Thank You.
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From Calibre Reader:
And from Kindle Previewer (not everything works in both EPUB and Kindle); note that Kindle added in the white vertical separators, which aren't set in my ID layout:
All I can say is set Table, Cell and Paragraph Styles for all elements. 🙂
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I'd have to experiment with this specific combination of elements, but it probably comes down to the annoying gulf between the way ID does (and exports) some things and the way CSS/EPUB does those things. The sme effect or layout can be done at both ends, but not in a straight export.
That said, I can't bring to mind any problems exporting reversed text in text frames or table cells, so it might just be a glitch in your styles. Let me tinker for a bit.
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
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From Calibre Reader:
And from Kindle Previewer (not everything works in both EPUB and Kindle); note that Kindle added in the white vertical separators, which aren't set in my ID layout:
All I can say is set Table, Cell and Paragraph Styles for all elements. 🙂
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
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Thanks so much for the response this is my first ebook with tables. I am familiar with setting the paragraph styles could you expand on setting the table and cell ones, please.
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Defining and using styles is pretty basic to effective InDesign use. You might want to find some tutorials on basic layout and styles and get a comprehensive grasp of how they work. They are even more essential for EPUB work, since EPUB really demands meticulous construction of the source files, which means meticulous use of defined styles.
But very briefly — You'll want to open the Table, Table Styles and Cell Styles panes. Just as with a Paragraph style, you want to create a Table style that, when applied to a newly inserted table, maps and styles it exactly as you want it to appear. Just as with Paragraph styles, you should never have to manually change any setting; all of the layout and style should be saved in a discrete, named Table style.
Cell styles, like Character styles, are how you override individual table elements. If you want black heading cells, you need to create a "Header Black" style and apply it to the heading rows, preferably as part of the above Table style.
Using these, along with Paragraph styles for the table headings and table body text, will give you consistent, globally controllable layout. You can tweak the table style in one place and have it affect all of the tables in your document.
The inverse rule here is to never, ever, ever use spot ("grab and paint") formatting for anything in InDesign, especially for anything to be exported to another format. You can get away with such sloppiness for print, and sometimes for PDF, but it has many downsides and will make efficient EPUB work almost impossible.
You might find this useful as an overall guide: https://nitrosyncretic.com/DPR/dpr_indesign_epub_basics.php
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
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I am very familiar with assigning Paragraph and Character styles for epubs. Looking at the table and cell dialog boxes there are no styles - so there inlies the problem. Thank You !!! I really appreciated your insite and pointing me in the right direction. Off to learn new things.
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Mastering the five ID styles - Paragraph, Character, Table, Cell and Object — will open up all kinds of layout options you didn't know you could do, as well as make your work much more reliable and efficient. Well worth the time to study and even work through a few tutorials to get the fine points.
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
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James, I loved the article on InDesign and EPUB that you sited above. Really excellent.
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Thanks! I first put most of it in an article here, but it was easier to move it to a fixed repository. It really should be titled "Ten Kind of Stupid Things You Need to Know about EPUB, and Getting There with ID." 🙂
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
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Do you have an RGB white swatch defined?
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Hi. It is cmyk for all my colors. = ]
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I doubt this has much to do with it — export converts everything to hex web color and I can't think of a time a CMYK or spot color wasn't exported as readily as an RGB definition.
Without looking at the OP's file, I'd wager it's all spot formatting on the tables and ID doing its dogged best to sort it out.
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
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Could I also get your opinion of the "best" or "your go to favorite" for epub validation. Thanks.
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I use NOTA.
That's "None of the Above." Validation is for old-school EPUB development, where the documents were built and assembled from hand-made parts, and the opportunity for mistakes and mismatches was endless. When exporting from a high-end tool such as ID, almost none of these mistakes can be made, and any validation faults are either trivial warnings or the result of file corruption (end notes in particular are very fragile and fussy). If the file exports and reads as desired in Thorium, Calibre or Kindle Previewer, there's very little a validator can add.
Sometimes, yes, there are faults that need a deep check. In that case, the only tool to use is EPUBcheck, which is both the standard and standards-based checker (i.e., free of lots of other "helpful" analysis and suggestions some third party thought was useful), and is free. It's also the core code for most of the pay and subscription validators, which just put a friendly wrapper on the tool (and, often, add all that 'extra' checking that is of little real value for export builders).
Put more clearly, there is absolutely no pay service worth paying for, unless you are hand-building your EPUBs, in which case you probably have a typewriter repair service on speed dial, too. 🙂
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
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Like the sense of humor. I am using Kindle Previewer and epubcheck. Thanks for the validation - lol - see what I did there. Have a great weekend. Footnote I did a test and ammended the cell style - yup it knocks out now. FaBULoUS !!!
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