Comments on: Tool of Change Notes: The Business of eBooks

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:14:21 +0000

Additional comment to Dereks from July 2009, same with me, where I do have photoprints with few text included into the photobook design.

Now I am about to recreate my book to let the text be at the end of the page for each photo to avoid this messing up.

Best from a German artist,
Christine

By: Alan Noblitt

Alan Noblitt — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:59:33 +0000

This is really interesting take on the concept. I never thought of it that way. I came across this site recently which I think will be of great useSelling Mortgage. Have a look!

By: Doug Gibson

Doug Gibson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:17:46 +0000

Just want to reiterate the importance of having a fully updated version of CS4. If you’ve got 6.0.2 or earlier, there’s a significant bug that makes exporting to Digital Editions pretty much a crap shoot in which the house always wins.

Specifically, documents in an indb book aren’t guaranteed to show up in the ePub doc. If you’ve got an indb with more than one section, it’s almost certain that you’ll loose some or all of the sections after the first one.

The updates fix this problem.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:02:22 +0000

@EM: I would suggest bringing this up in the forums (click Forums at the top of the page). Be sure to mention what actually happens when you export… what’s the result? What’s wrong? Thanks.

By: EM

EM — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:49:17 +0000

I’m trying to make an epub of a friend’s InDesign file but it just won’t export to Digital Editions. Just wondered what would commonly cause this. I’ve tried deleting all the images but that didn’t help. (This included a bunch of eps files that were embedded) I did notice, however, that there were a small number of eps files still visible in the links palette but with no page indicated. Could that be the problem?

Thanks for any help

By: SheriG

SheriG — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:24:10 +0000

I work for a publisher, and we sell both print and eBook versions of our titles. It’s only recently that we’ve even tried to use InDesign to export to ePub, and I have to say to get usuable results requires meticulous setup habits.

Here is a link to an article that discusses what you need to do to get better ePub files:

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitaleditions/indesign-epub.html

Before you begin, make sure you download all the latest CS4 patches because many of them addressed ePub export bugs.

Another useful tip I haven’t seen anywhere else: when you want to display a full-page image (such as your cover art, a map, a color plate, etc.) you need to create an .indd file that is precisely sized at 590×750 pixels. No margins or bleeds, please.

Now go out to PhotoShop, size your photo to 590×750 at 300 dpi and choose the “Save for Web” option. Set it for “maximum” .jpg output (which will still downsize the file significantly, but display even small text crisply inside your ePub) and save it. Now place it in your picture .indd file and save.

Keep in mind that you must use an .indb to generate really good ePub files. I’ve learned that the best way to ensure page breaks is to break something out as a separate .indd file within the .indb. The title page is a single page, separate .indd file, for example. As is the copyright page, the dedication page, the TOC, the “coming soon from author” page, a picture plate page, etc.

The only .indd files with more than one page are the chapter files. Use only “open type” fonts, and keep it to a minimum. Always create paragraph and character styles, keep it to an absolute bare minimum, and your ePub will look sharp and professional.

Practice makes perfect. Keep playing around until you get a template setup that gives you good results and use it to generate all your ePubs.

By: JK

JK — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:56:16 +0000

I am interested in testing export to ePub and DE. What I don’t understand — from the article above — what the process is.

Do you export > ePub and THEN > create a ADE from that? If so, what program does that? (I can only seem to find the DE viewer/reader downloads).

Can ID4 export direct to DE? And if so, how does the DRM bit work? I am interested in self publishing my own ebook but I don’t understand part about the DRM and how it is licensed/added to the exported document. Can anyone shed light on this?

By: TonyG

TonyG — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:45:48 +0000

@derek – To get your desired fonts to export from Indesign CS4 you need to define those in Para Styles as individual styles – for example H1 style may include Myriad, SemiBold,12pt, H2 (based on H1) will inherit Myriad Pro, SemiBold – but you can alter styles, i.e. 10pt, Regular. However, if you need another font to be added create another style with a unique name and define it as ‘based on nothing’. Then it will use the new font you select.
Then, don’t forget to tick the ‘include imbedded fonts’ tickbox in the export to ePUB dialogue.

By: derek

derek — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:11:30 +0000

I am new to CS4 having previously been a Quark operator, am now finding publishers want books set in Indesign, then exported to epub, when doing this fonts are not embedded, although they are open and active in indesign and PDF documents, can anyone tell me the answer?

By: Angela

Angela — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:46:11 +0000

Just a general comment re: ePub exports from InDesign CS4. It’s “working” fine, but the resulting files look absolutely terrible. We’re working with very art/photo heavy textbooks and all of those elements end up at the bottom of the file. We’re going to have to go in and edit all of the XHTML ourselves or send these files out for clean-up.

I wish Adobe would test these export tools with complex layouts.