Tag Archives: epub

Why does list quality matter in your ePUB?

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Yea, I know, here goes David off on another of his “professional quality” rants again…. But this one’s important! Lists are #3 in reading importance The studies I’ve seen [and please prove me wrong if you know better] show that, after picture captions and headlines, lists are third in reader importance. Many readers look for lists as they start skimming when they get bored. They assume that a list will give them a synopsis and let them … Continue reading →

Walmart looking to best Amazon, with B&N?

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Maybe you saw my unfounded rumor posting the other day. I simply seemed to me that Wal-Mart could do well to buy B&N and Smashwords. Since then I have seen two other mentions of the possibility of buying B&N. The most recent one was this morning from DBW. In a post entitled “Amazon: A Cheetah Hunting Gazelles (Publishers)” we read this Real Competition From Barnes & Noble?  Industry consultant Joseph Esposito has also been studying Amazon and … Continue reading →

InDesign CC ePUBs now handle floating graphics fairly well

Skilled Workman Posted on by

There are always going to be complaints. But I can do everything I want to do with anchored graphics right now. With one major exception: It’s hard to predict what will happen with a graphic crossing a page break. If it’s floating, it may just not render. I can understand that. I really don’t have any idea how to handle that. But I can simply change my graphic so it doesn’t float and the page break will … Continue reading →

ePUB production just took a major leap upward with InDesign CC9.2

Skilled Workman Posted on by

The new InDesign CC9.2, released this week, gives us much to be happy about as book publishers Most of the changes affect book production. The long-promised TypeKit integration is now available with over 700 Adobe TypeKit fonts freely usable and licensed for print, Web, and ebook as part of Creative Cloud. It runs much faster. There has been a major reworking of the hyperlinks panel to simplify its use. There’s a full featured QR code generator. There is … Continue reading →

Book Production Services

Skilled Workman Posted on by

I regularly provide production help to Christian authors, as led by the Spirit. Feel free to contact me. What I want to do below is give you some idea of the options I offer. We can also negotiate custom relationships. Radiqx Press Production Charges Most of my books are done as a whole, so editing, proofing, formatting, exporting for upload are all part of the same process. I normally charge $60/hour for my billable time. To prepare a … Continue reading →

Why embedded fonts matter for your ebooks

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Today I want to talk about an area of ePUB and Kindle design which is never mentioned. The reason it is not mentioned is that only iBooks and Kindle Fire have the capability. There are a few peripheral apps that can: Bluefire on the iPad & Readium on Chrome, plus there may be more on Android, but I have no way to test that. There is a huge difference between the two options   You can clearly … Continue reading →

New Release: InDesign Ebooks Conversions, 2nd Edition

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Updating the ebook conversions techniques to InDesign CC Your book is ready to print How do I produce my ebooks? Here’s a set of workable techniques: InDesign Ebook Conversions for $2.99 If you had enough sense to fully format your book in InDesign, the answer to how to make ebooks is “easily, though not simply”. The largest problem most graphic designers have is that this whole “ebook thing” is a confusing mishmash of options and possibilities. This book … Continue reading →

Contrary to common opinion, InDesign CC has helped ePUB export a lot

Skilled Workman Posted on by

In the ePUB world, it is amazing how much bad press is given to InDesign. In fact, the coverage given to coders and developers of ePUBs matches the hype received in the media by Obama. But we won’t go there. I just received yet another posting in an author group I am in this morning. The writer stated that InDesign does not handle embedded fonts in ePUBs well. This is simply untrue. In fact, InDesign ePUB export … Continue reading →

InDesign CC begins the solution to ugly HTML lists

Skilled Workman Posted on by

One of the real issues with ePUBs and Kindle books are the horrendously ugly HTML lists which have no typographical relationship with the rest of the copy in the book. InDesign CC has made a large step forward by beginning their development of a robust convert-to-text option for our ePUBs. Let me show you the issues with a sample document:   Here we see a small bulleted list using an oversized red dingbat from the font, Embellishments … Continue reading →

Multiple linked TOCs in ePUBs for CC

Skilled Workman Posted on by

One of the new changes to InDesign CC is an innocuous checkbox at the bottom of the Table of Contents dialog box for: Make text anchor in source paragraph. What this does is make sure that any TOC has functional links in the exported ePUB. As Ron Bilodeau commented, “You can now have multiple ID-generated TOCs within your document(s) and they will all exist with correct links within your exported ePub file.” Now you can have custom … Continue reading →