Outer glow missing on EPub export

[FirstTimePublisher]

Good Afternoon,

I have been working with an illustrator on creating my first book with InDesign. She has set everything up but we find when exporting the file to EPub format from the tool the output file doesnt have the outer glow which has been added to the text. This means the font is extremely hard to read as it is overlayed on the images.

It looks fine when exported to PDF. Can somebody please help as this is stopping the release of my ebook.

Thanks in advance...

[Derek Cross]

Not sure that effect will work in ePub.

[FirstTimePublisher]

Thanks for replying. Is there an alternate method that could do a similar thing? my book is a full colour kids picture book and i need the outline effect to make sure it can be read.

As im new to all this is there a specific reason it may not work? purely from a learning view point.

[Derek Cross]

It depends whether you want the text to be selectable, if you don't mind if it's not, you can 'embed' the text with the glow into the image as (say) a JPG.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

Transparent effects including outer glow will not convert into a format for epub.

As for alternatives:

- You could create an image of the text and effect, but before suggesting this approach, I would have to see a visual example.

- You could use a bolder font instead of the glow
- You could edit the html after export

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Probably editing the HTML and matching CSS could produce a satisfactory visual appearance, but that requires good knowledge of HTML/CSS!

There's also another problem: Different EPUB reading devices interpret those special effects differently...or not at all.  EPUB is a relatively primitive file format and not well deployed by the various manufacturers of software and hardware. The latest standards were just released earlier this year and it will be a while before the manufacturers come into compliance and retool their software/hardware to match the standards.

At our shop, we've dropped EPUB from our workflow and do only the most basic of designs with it. It takes too much time to get one to work across most of the devices and software -- Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, Nook, Kindle, Kojo, etc (because I'll run out of room to write them all here!).

So not worth the effort! And what finally does work across most devices looks like cr*p, not anything I want in my design portfolio.

[FirstTimePublisher]

Thanks so much for this.. very helpful. Do you happen to know any way to get a document formated in indesign output into a format which will go to kindle with any quality? im almost at the point of exporting the 30 page out into JPG and putting one per page and uploading it as a pdf. Not the best but im not sure what else to do to get a book out on kindle specifically with some form of quality.

[rayek.elfin]

Exporting your pages as singular flattened images placed in a PDF may very well be the simplest approach. But at a potential cost when reading your book on an e-paper display.

The export resolution depends on a number of factors. iPad Retina screens are 2048x1536, and that should be the resolution to aim for.

For LCD-based Kindle screens, refer to this page:

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tablets/ft-device-and-feature-specifications.html

Simply stated, go with the 1920x1200 highest resolution as a catch-all solution. On smaller screens the images will be downscaled, although performance will suffer on older devices.

(PS Kindle's ebook dev docs state to use an image resolution of 300ppi. Yeah, well, that's just not the whole story.  https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200645710

Always check the target screen resolutions.)

For e-paper Kindles and Kobos it is more difficult, because these type of screens do not work the same way technically. The main issue with exporting your pages (including text) as one flattened image is that the result on-screen may look somewhat vague and greyish, which primarily affects the text dusplay: instead of nice crisp looking blacks, you get grey fuzzy looking type. This happens on my Kobo with books which rely on this "scorched earth" tactic.

Ideally you would separate the text from the flattened background/foregrond imagery. More work, though.

And don't forget that KIndles DO NOT SUPPORT IMAGES WITH TRANSPARENCY! No transparent PNG files, for example, are supported.

Check the Kindle guidelines:

https://kindlegen.s3.amazonaws.com/AmazonKindlePublishingGuidelines.pdf

And for children's books, check out Amazon's own kid's book creator tool to test your book. It accepts a pdf.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1002979921

[rayek.elfin]

PS before I forget, Amazon offers an InDesign plugin for Kindle export.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765271

[Derek Cross]

The InDesign Kindle plugin hasn't been updated, it's recommended to use the Kindle Previewer to convert an ePub to mobi.

[Derek Cross]

If you're experimenting with different formats, have a try with InDesign's Publish Online. It's relatively easy to produce interactive publications that can include animations of all kinds and more, and the books can be read on any device that has an HTML5 browser – computers, tablets and smart phones.

The only disadvantage is they can't be monetised.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

I would include another disadvantage:
Online Publish document is accessible only online, unlike an epub that can be downloaded, stored and accessed anywhere.

[FirstTimePublisher]

Thanks everyone, I wont be going for the online version as i want to see "ebooks" and print. print is fine but the ebook bit is a real headache with font effect 🙂 things you learn quickly hey 🙂

[Derek Cross]

With Publish Online, you can enable the document to allow the user to download a (static) PDF version.

One other approach you might want to consider if you want an interactive document produced from InDesign that can be read on all devices that have an HTML browser and you don't need to be online is in5: https://ajarproductions.com/pages/products/in5/

[rayek.elfin]

It is possible to rasterize the effect during export:

1) select the text with the glow effect

2) right-mouse click to open the Object Export Options, or use the Object menu.

3) change the Preserve Appearance From Layout to "Rasterize Container".

4) set the resolution to 72ppi

5) if the effect requires transparency to work on the background, set the format to PNG. Otherwise JPG

When exporting your epub, also make sure the resolution in the conversion settings is set to 72ppi. This means you are working at the resolution of the device IF you chose a mobile device template. If unsure what resolution works best, inspect the epub's images by unzipping the epub file and checking the images manually.

If you require the text to remain text (since the above method will convert the text to an image), place a copy of the text without the effect on top.

I always have to check the resolution of the generated images, because InDesign may mess things up regardless the settings used for export: for example, the text with a glow effect will NOT be rasterized to the actual required resolution (even though I set it up to 72ppi in the object export options) and generate a far too large graphic. For example, a 800x200px sized text object in the iPad Retina template should export at that size (plus some margin for the overflowing glow effect) when set to 72ppi.  But instead it generates a whopping 3831x1990px image, which is utterly unnecessary, blows up the file size of your ebook, and actually slows down the page as well as taxes a mobile device's video memory. Scaling this down in post to 25% of its original size and using a PNG optimization tool such as ColorQuantizer reduces it to a file size of 38kb (compared to 380kb of the InDesign generated version) and works at the exact resolution required for an iPad Retina screen.

InDesign's epub export has other issues: it will generate empty screen-sized PNG files under circumstances and these may be exported at ridiculous pixel resolutions as well, again causing performance issues.

Even a simple coloured background rectangle may be problematic. In the above one-page example I created a simple black background rectangle, a singular word and a rasterized glow effect. InDesign generated a black background PNG file at a humongous 8233x6121px size. This can cause issues on mobile device video hardware and gobbles up video ram like it's nothing. So again this should be fixed in post and re-saved, at a very low resolution like 16x16px since a black coloured png/jpg can be scaled and stretched without issues of course. This will have a dramatic positive impact on a book's file size (this background graphic was reduced from 207kb to 68 bytes) and performance when loaded and read.

Anyway, InDesign's epub export is a minefield in regards to image export. Don't rely on it, and always optimize the images before releasing the first release of your book.

In particular in your case: a colour kids picture book.