Using InDesign professionally

[Guest]

Hi, does anybody understand the terms and conditions for Creative Cloud?  I've got a personal, individual subscription plan.  Presumably it is ok for me to use InDesign for professional purposes with this individual plan if I am working on an individual freelance basis?  I can't tell from reading the terms and conditions.  Thanks

[Guest]

I have been continuing to look into the problem of not being able to open the zip file, the only problem that I can see is that I might need permissions to open the EPUB file, that is the only thing it could be.  Please can I ask if that is correct, do I need permissions to open an Adobe EPUB container?  Are the EPUB files that I export from InDesign basically locked containers?

[Guest]

I've got those files open. Bob - thank you, James - I will talk to you later

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

A collective answer:

–

1. You should be able to open any EPUB using a ZIP archiver, either standalone or built into the OS. I am not up to speed on Mac utilities etc. but there are no restrictions or locks on the format or the files. You may need a standalone archive tool, preferably one that recognizes the .epub file type for convenience, but that's it. Otherwise, you will have to change the extension to .ZIP to work with it, and then back to .EPUB to make it functional as an e-book.
   –
2. Macs sometimes have more complex file permission setups, and you may need to make sure that exported EPUBs are fully available for read, write and modification. (Can't help there in the details, sorry.)
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3. Yes, you can modify the files inside EPUBs and re-zip/re-assemble them. That's been the mainstream method for a long time and there are many tools and guidelines on "building" EPUBs from component files. It is, however, a practice I regard as outdated and obsolete for anyone who has a tool like InDesign that will export 'perfect' EPUBs that don't need further modification or "rebuilding." I'm very much a proponent of viewing EPUB as a final format, like PDF, and not as some intermediate work format. Get it right in ID, using CSS as needed, and rather than 'fix' an EPUB and likely causing a cascade of other problems, fix the export process and re-export instead.
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4. No, there are no licensing restrictions, from Adobe or anyone else, on the EPUB or ZIP formats. Adobe fonts are further licensed for export into EPUBs — although I strongly disrecommend embedding fonts — as long as they are encrypted as part of the export process.

Did I miss anything? 🙂

[Guest]

Thank you very much

[Guest]

and I will take your advice seriously about not messing around with the code but learning the intricacies of the export process in InDesign more fully instead, I'll look into everything you've written about that, but I think you fully understand why I want to see the code.  I am completely new to this, maybe I am completely wrong but I can't help thinking that not knowing about the coding and the files is a bit like wanting to publish a real book without knowing anything about offset printing.  Even though you are not going to do the actual printing yourself, if you want to publish a real book you are much more likely to get a good result if you know about offset printing even if you have a good printer advising you.  I have just started to look at ebooks and maybe I am completely wrong in what I am saying but I can't help thinking it's a little bit like that, I will find out over the next month.  Cheers James

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

There is enormous value in being able to unpack and examine an EPUB file; I do it all the time to determine exactly how InDesign has chosen to format or 'wrap' some element. That leads to a refined ability to change InDesign settings, or at least understand how they are being used, and define better CSS modifications.

I just don't put stock in modifying EPUBs as a work method, any more than it's a good idea to code-edit PDFs, or INDD or Word files, for that matter. Fix the cause, not the result. 🙂

[Guest]

thank you

[Laubender]

Bob said: "IIRC, this is more complicated on a Mac than it is on Windows. "

True!

When on Windows simply add the zip suffix to the file and open the EPUB in a new folder window.

That will not unpack the EPUB, but only reveals its contents. From there you could edit and save changes inside the EPUB.

The important thing here:

best find a utility for your system that is able to edit the files inside the EPUB container file without unpacking the zip structure.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Even with Windows' inherent support of ZIP files, I find the 7-Zip utility very useful because it inherently recognizes EPUB files as archives and allows them to be opened, viewed and extracted without having to go through any renaming or intermediate steps.

Is there no equivalent utility for Macs?

[Guest]

Yes, thanks James, if someone knows a utility that will unpack an EPUB, allow me to view/change the files and then repack them again as an EPUB on a mac then it would be a great help, I've got something at the moment that let's me unpack the folder and look at the files, I can turn the folder back into an EPUB again but no application will open it

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

There are EPUB tools that will do it, not only open and view the file contents but allow various ranges of editing and changes. Those are, however, tied to the whole "build from scratch" methodology I discourage, and EPUBs can be messed up by incautious "looking" with them. Verb. sap.

[Guest]

I know you don't like the approach!  I still want to experiment with it so that I can learn.  I don't need to do it at the moment, got plenty of other things to learn first (the next thing for me to find out is what elements and features the different ereader applications accept).  So might ask you about those tools later if nobody is forthcoming with suggestions about those type of tools that are available on a mac, thanks James 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Oh, by all means use your own approach and methods. My only argument is with the faction that says that's still the only way to do it, which is usually combined with the opinion that InDesign is lousy at the job. 🙂

[Guest]

i only asked you because I valued your opinion, I haven't got any approach at the moment though obviously it's difficult terrain

[Guest]

thanks Uwe, that's definitely what I'm looking for but can't find it yet

[Guest]

I am getting entirely two completely different pieces of information online, some sources say ebook content is primarily written in xhtml and others say that they are primarily written in html5, both sources seem authoritive (Kobo says it's written in html5, W3 say xhtml).  I've checked online so I know the 2 languages are different.  Please can somebody tell me which one is right?  Also, does anybody know if there is somewhere online with all the html and css elements that can be used in ebooks?  Thank you 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

The content files in EPUB are written in XHTML. If you've looked, you'll see that the files have that extension.

HTML5 is the generic form of all HTML these days, and is a fair (if slightly sloppy) description of those same files. It's like saying "written in English" or "written according to the AP Stylebook."

The differences between most versions of HTML, especially in the last several years, are almost indetectible and often come down to little more more than the language type definition in the first line. It's nothing to worry about unless you're going to write your own content code from scratch; nearly all mods you might make in an exported document will be the same.

However, no one professing to be an authority on EPUB should be saying that it is HTML5 and not XHTML. The "AP Stylebook" notion matters in that detail. W3 is the authority. Few of the tool and reader sets, and such, are.

AFAIK, all HTML code works in EPUB, and all but the most fringe CSS is applicable, as well; it depends on the reader once you get outside the more standard elements. All of the key CSS elements are fully documented in the Guide. I don't know of any other comprehensive listing or reference.

[Guest]

Thank you very much indeed James