Creating Fixed Layout Ebooks

Often referred to as "children's ebooks," "picture ebooks," "photo books," and similar monikers, fixed-layout ebooks are visually-rich layouts that offer much more than standard EPUB and KF8 format ebooks for iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Kindle Fire, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and more. Fixed-layout ebooks behave very much like PDFs or even digital magazines, displaying the design, typography, and page geometry exactly as designed on all devices. This specialty type of ebook tends to be very reliant on imagery, either or both as inline graphics or page background images, and sometimes even as spread-spanning images. They support advanced typographic control and pixel-precise layout, and they can contain read-a-long, on-demand, or ambient audio. Limited interactivity may also be achieved through JavaScript integration. Objects can be placed anywhere on the page, aligned relative to one another, with absolute precision, and type control goes far beyond standard, flowable EPUB in the forms of support for any font (with embedding), accurate line wrapping, hyphenation, leading control, tracking (letter spacing), and even multiple columns. Fixed-layout EPUBs may have real sidebars, note or tip boxes, and live text image captions. And, like flowable EPUBs, all the text—even in such special features—is searchable, live text. All of these features make fixed-layout ebooks ideal for such projects as children’s books, cookbooks, travel journals, photography and design books, game guides, and any other project where page presentation is important to reader experience and sales. ePublishing with InDesign: Creating Fixed-Layout eBooks will teach you: Understanding Fixed-Layout eBooks Planning a Fixed-Layout eBook Creating Fixed-Layout in InDesign Adapting the HTML Editing the CSS Adding Advanced Features Creating Read Aloud Narration Creating Fixed-Layout for Kindle Converting Fixed-Layout for Nook Creating Fixed-Layout for Sony Reader Creating Fixed-Layout for Kobo Other Fixed-Layout Creation Tools Creating Fixed-Layout eBooks by Pariah S. Burke is a companion to ePublishing with InDesign CS6 by Pariah S. Burke (ISBN: 9781118305591, Dec. 2012, Sybex), which is a prerequisite title, and is part of the ePublishing with InDesign series of books, videos, and instructor materials.

In this book, we will explain how to convert a PDF file to a fixed layout ePub version 3 file. This is possible since the version 3 of the ePub format which includes now the fixed layout mode in addition to the traditional flowing text mode. We will use free open source tools, mainly pdf2htmlEX, with an example under Linux. -- July 2020: A script (pdf2epubEX.sh) to convert a PDF to a fixed layout ePub is now availabale. You can find it in the dodeeric/pdf2epubEX repository hosted on github.com.

Whether creating ebooks from TXT files or word processor documents or converting existing print publications to EPUB, the basics are all the same. You must learn to think in terms of EPUB, to reevaluate how your content is organized, and to know how to structure it using InDesign’s built-in tools in order to produce well organized, readable ebooks. The yellow brick road to becoming a wizard of ebook production starts with this chapter and proceeds through the next several chapters, creating progressively more interesting, more marketable ebooks and other EPUB-based publications. In this chapter, you will learn about the following: Creating an eBook from Scratch Testing Your EPUB Styling Your eBook Converting a Print Publication to an eBook Setting the Reading Order of Text, Images, and More

Although the majority of ebooks are text-only novels and short stories, a large minority of ebooks—across all genres—include photographs, illustrations, charts, graphs, maps, other imagery, and even audio and video. Moreover, even novels and short stories typically have at least cover images. Whether your publication merely needs a cover or requires lots of figures, the process of creating and using graphics and multimedia in ebooks differs in several distinct ways from creating and using them in print or in other digital formats. In this chapter, you will learn about the following: Exporting Images to eBooks Preparing Images for eBooks Adding Audio and Video to eBooks Adding Vector Graphics to eBooks

The Business of ePublishing 2015 Edition explains in thorough detail what professional publishers, designers, and traditional, independent, and hybrid authors need to know about the world and business of digital publishing in 2015 and beyond. It goes beyond the rhetoric and paranoid proclamations rampant in social media, blogs, and news outlets to provide provable, unbiased insight into the users, devices, formats, and real world economics of ebooks, fixed-layout ebooks, digital textbooks, digital magazines, and more for all levels of publishing—enterprise, small- to medium-sized publishers, indies, and self-publishers. Whether you are an aspiring self-publisher or the CEO of a major publishing house, a freelance designer or sales person, this book provides you with the insight, background, statistics, figures, and examples to help you make sense of the business, economic, and marketing concerns of epublishing, and help you plot your future for a successful year in digital publishing. Whether your intent is to sell yourself, your boss, or your clients, or if you just want to educate yourself about the realities of the world of epublishing, you’ll find in this book a cornucopia of important, relevant data.

Here's the designer's guide to creating excellent e-books with InDesign Creative professionals are designing more and more e-books and e-zines as digital publishing increasingly gains market share. This book pulls together a wide range of essential information to help them maximize the versatility of InDesign for e-publishing. If you need to know how to build, deploy, and manage digital publications using InDesign, here's your guide to the process, from understanding the platforms and devices and how best to design for them to creating media-rich content for multiple formats using a variety of technologies. Designers are seeking to sharpen their skills to compete in today's e-publishing market, and this book is packed with necessary information about creating and adapting content for e-publication Explains how to plan a new digital publication, convert a print publication to digital, add multimedia and interactivity, and publish and distribute the finished product Covers platforms, devices, and formats; creating media-rich content; designing for different devices; and managing digital publications Examines Adobe's Digital Publishing System, CSS, HTML5, and other commercial vehicles available for e-publishing on multiple platforms, including iPad, Kindle, NOOK, and other tablets and e-readers ePublishing with InDesign is a valuable tool for designers seeking to boost their skills and create cutting-edge e-publications.

“...the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide for anyone new to self-publishing. Highly recommended.” —Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer “...a must-read for anyone thinking about publishing their own works. She’s a great friend to the indie community and provides this valuable resource as a gift of love.” —Robin Cutler, Director of IngramSpark This 2020 5th edition of the Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Independent Authors offers advice on marketing, editing, design, book production, and business author needs. It's meant for authors willing to do the work to create a readership and make real money from their books. It's meant for authors who want to do it all themselves and for those who want to hire out all or part of the tasks toward publishing. Authors who wish to set up a business as a small press will also benefit from the processes spelled out here. From beta publishing to distribution to media relations, authors will learn how to set a foundation for success from the idea stage to a quality, finished book. The step-by-step process includes recommendations for self-publishing products, tools, and services from reputable companies that are proven and trusted to help authors succeed. Reader's updates keep authors abreast of new offerings and changes in the self-publishing industry. Carla King has more than twenty years of experience as a writer, self-publisher, web developer, and book consultant. She started self-publishing in 1995 as a technology and travel writer. In 2010, she founded the Self-Publishing Boot Camp series of books, workshops, and online courses. She has been connected with the Silicon Valley self-publishing technology industry from its inception and has served as a trusted advisor to authors eager to use the tools to reach readers.