I cannot for the life of me get linebreaks in an epub

[KathrineFrich]

HELP! (sorry for bad english)
So i have been trying to export my indesign file to an epub reflowable, and it removes all blank spaces, line breaks and blank lines. I have looked up how to fix it and found a place that told me to use a paragraph style that had "space after" the places where i needed it.. so i did that... and it didnt work.. any other helpful tips? Im not good with indesign, i do not know ANYTHING about HTML or CSS so i feel very very lost. 

[Derek Cross]

Creating Reflowable ePubs is not intuative. I suggest you take a LinkedinLearning online video course on creating Reflowable ePubs. They are in English but there is transcript. You can get 30-day free access.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/me

[BobLevine]

If you truly know nothing about HTML or CSS you're in over your head.

What version of InDesign are you using?

[KathrineFrich]

I have some basic knowledge of CSS and HTML. Where can I find the CSS files for the style in InDesign?

I'm using version 15.0.2 on 64x

[rob day]

HTML collapses white space—multiple returns and spaces get collapsed into a single space or return:

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/web-programming-with/9781284091809/xhtml/11_Chapter02_08.xhtml

[BobLevine]

You need to make sure everything has a paragraph style properly assigned and pay attention to what Rob already posted. If you're trying to force things with multiple line breaks, etc, stop doing that...it's futile.

I also would not overthink this. Reflowable epub is highly dependent on the settings that the reader would set in his or her own device with their own preferences for fonts, font sizes, etc.

[rob day]

You can open the epub contents by changing the .epub extension to .zip and use a utility like Stuffit Expander to open the zip archive:

[Derek Cross]

If you're on a Mac BBEdit is an excellent application for editing ePubs.

But you need to understand some concepts, such as no page size, no page numbers, no Master pages, all text to be styled (paragraph and character styles), all images to be anchored. You will be very lost until you get some training.

[rob day]

told me to use a paragraph style that had "space after" the places where i needed it.. so i did that... and it didnt work.. any other helpful tips?

Also, space after should work, but the epub’s relative space amount will be different. It will be defined as a margin-below in device pixels, while InDesign’s space below is the print output dimensions. Here I set a space below as 150 pixels which equals 2.083" when printed. You can also see the tabs and multiple returns are collapsed:

[Test Screen Name]

Bear in mind that when you choose to make a reflowable publication you are giving up full control. You are letting the viewing software make its layout decisions for you, and these decisions will be very different on diffferent device and apps. Some may squash your content or spread it very much, so blank lines will be sacrificed. Don’t worry! Your job is to deliver what matters: the content. 

If you can explain why, in a particular case, you feel you must break the reflow with extra blanks, new lines, or blank lines, someone may have a solution, or can tell you you cannot control it. Screen shots may help. 

[KathrineFrich · Accepted solution]

I made it work. 😄 

But im setting up a book for an author and he finds it very important that there is a line break between the chapter titles and the text. The other authors i have worked with didnt think it was important so i have never had to deal with it before. But now i found a solution that works thanks to people in here and other forums. 🙂 

[raissarang__]

How did you make it work? I'm having the same issue.

[alexr45624708]

Anyone, please? I understand basic HTML and I was wondering was there a code I can put in to force line breaks.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom]

It's called a Hard Return or Carriage Return and you insert one by using the ENTER or RETURN key on your keyboard.

Yes, just like you're in word processing, it ends one paragraph and begins a new paragraph.

To get white space in between the paragraphs, use HTML/EPUB CSS styles (or an InDesign style that will convert to a CSS style) that programs in white space before an/or after the paragraphs (those things with the Hard Returns).

Dont do this!

Do This Instead!

This is correct.

In the above screen capture, there is only ONE hard return, at the end of each paragraph of text.

Edit the Basic Paragraph style or other body text style to add white space above/after the paragraphs.

These instructions are basic InDesign 101 issues that are taught in elementary classes.

@KathrineFrich , You stated "i do not know ANYTHING about HTML or CSS so i feel very very lost."

I'm amazed you'd think that you could tackle 2 complex programming issues (InDesign and EPUB) without know anything about them, and without any training. Essentially, you are asking us to do the work for you, rather than take an introductory free class on how to use InDesign. And making EPUBs from InDesign is an advanced class.

We are unpaid volunteers here, not paid employees, and we are not here to do your work for you. We're here to help other users with problems...REAL problems, not someone's lack of basic knowledge of a software program.

I 100% back the guidance from @BobLevine and @Derek Cross. You might not like their answers, but they are truthful and accurate. Get some training. Derek suggested a free 1-month subscription to LinkedIn Learning where you could easily learn these details.

[ink pot]

Thank you. You have saved me hours of frustration.

[ben-erwin]

I have returned to this page several times. I would like to report both Bob Levine and Derek Cross for being very unhelpful to put it politely. Their community professional credentials should be revoked. Either answer the questions or dont say anything at all. Saying "go get training" or "you're in over your head" is just obnoxious and these guys have no business being in help forums. 

[BobLevine]

Telling people that they require training is sometimes the best response. InDesign has a high learning curve and if you want to use it for EPUB without any knowledge of CSS and HTML you are in over your head.

If you don't like it, that's just too damn bad.

[alexr45624708]

Hey BobLevine,

Can I just check please if you have provided the answer. You mentioned before 'If you're trying to force things with multiple line breaks, etc, stop doing that...it's futile' how can you force it? I don't mind going through my both and insert something like <br> or something.

I just want any solution to make it work so I can put simple line breaks in between my paragraphs where it needs to be 🙂

Thank you for your help

Alex

[BobLevine]

For reflowable the best advice I can give is to make sure that everything has a paragraph style assigned. If you want more space, set the space after and see how it looks. You're going to have to experiment and you need to remember that the user will have full control over the font choice as well as size.

This will effect the way the epub looks and of course each reader device has its own quirks.

And one last point...NEVER use soft line breaks. 

[rob day]

Anyone, please? I understand basic HTML and I was wondering was there a code I can put in to force line breaks.....I just want any solution to make it work so I can put simple line breaks in between my paragraphs where it needs to be 

As I mentioned above in my post from last year HTML doesn’t allow you to create space with empty paragraph returns—you have to use the CSS margin or padding property. If you generate a CSS style sheet with the epub export, InDesign Paragraph Styles with Space After will export to a CSS style with a margin-bottom property in pixels. The CSS pixel dimensions are device pixels, but the InDesign pixel dimension is a static print output dimension of 1/72", so the InDesign print white space and the displayed HTML white space will not match exactly:

You can unzip the epub file and edit the CSS—the margin-bottom could be set as a percentage.

[BobLevine]

Or you can write your own CSS and add it during the export.

[Derek Cross]

I still stand by the two posts I made earlier in this thread, that is, creating Reflowable ePubs is not intuitive and a LinkedIn Learning tutorial may be helpful and that BBEdit is an excellent ePub editor for Mac users.

As for questioning Bob's credentials; he's provided 3,774 solutions and 7,721 likes in this forum. I note you've had 15 likes and offered 0 solutions and seem to feel we are obnoxious – I suggest you read the forum rules regarding politeness. 

[Nicholas5E61]

I agree. They were not helpful in the least. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

EPUB, like its HTML roots, inherently removes all duplicate white space, including multiple paragraph returns, tabs (converted to a space) and multiple spaces. You can't do spacing with multiple returns, tabs, spaces or anything of the like.

It usually removes soft returns (line breaks), and it's good practice to avoid them in layout, but there is an export option to allow or remove them. The spacing above and below, and left and right margins are the way to control text and paragraph spacing. (There are some gotchas with that as well.)

Spacing pretty much passes through from ID to EPUB, but it's tricky, and the ratio of one point to one display pixel (usually 144ppi) is not always clear.

Spacing above elements cannot be directly controlled. If you have spacing above a secondary heading and that heading falls at the top of a virtual page, it will be spaced down from the top. There is no automatic space-collapse as ID, Word and other layout programs manage it.

But ask away if you have any further problems. Most have solutions.

ETA: Didn't see this was an old thread. And while we can give answers to specific problems, some topics (such as EPUB creation) are broad and complex and it can be difficult to give a simple answer when a user doesn't have the full context of the process. I try to give answers on EPUB/Kindle creation that will help a newbie over a hump, but those answers may not be enough if a user doesn't have a full grasp of how the answer applies to their problem.

Training, of one form or another, is the complete answer. 🙂

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