Post on 23-Dec-2015
eBook Authoring Tools
alternatives to apple’s ibook publisher
For more detail on the process for making ebooks and for a more detailed description on making ebooks, I recommend Chris Jenning’s Page to Screen blog. This brief introduction is largely based on his presentation to the 2012 London Bookfair.
http://goo.gl/8F0SB
•familiar metaphor•user friendly and
accessible•great for media objects
that are primarily text-
based•straight-forward to
create•dependent on the e-
readers’ user interfaces
ebooks as alternatives to apps
Choice:
Choice:
ebook standard • determines the devices that can read the ebook
• determines the markup language & authoring tools that will be used to create the ebook
viewport form• determines whether the pagination is fixed or variable
• epub and .mobi ebooks have fixed or variable viewport options
epub
•open ebook standard
•XHTML5 (epub3)
•readable in:๏ browser plugins๏apps (bluefire,
stanza, etc.)๏non-kindle
ereaders (nook, sony, kobo, etc.)
•epub2 is XHTML1.1
public domain image
.mobi
•owned by amazon
•HTML w/ proprietary tags
•readable in:๏ kindle
ereaders (67% marketshare)
๏kindle apps ๏browsers through
amazon’s cloud reader
(Kindle format 8 kf8 uses HTML5 & CSS3,
but only on the kindle fire)
reflowable ebookshave no set pagination, font face or font size
readers & devices will customize fonts & appearance
requires a clear TOC structureobjects and images must be anchored or
inline
fixed-format ebookshave set pagination, like a print book
readers & devices will customize fonts & appearance
requires a clear TOC structureobjects and images can go anywhere
reflowable
ebook
user & device
can adjust
how text appears on the screen
fixed-formatebook
images and
objects stay in place
fixed paginatio
ncount the fonts on this page alone!
ebook authoring toolsuse your preferred HTML/XML editor
OxygenXML, TextWrangler, Dreamweaver, Notepad++, BBEdit, etc.
use your preferred document creation toolInDesign (some prefer 5.5), Quark Express, Pages, Open Office
use an ebook-specific tool•Sigil (open source ebook authoring tool)•Calibre (for converting between formats)•eCub
Sigil: an open source ebook authoring tool
https://code.google.com/p/sigil/
resources mentioned:
Chris Jenning’s Page to Screen blog: pagetoscreen.net
Going from InDesign to ebook resource guide: www.digitalbookw
orld.com/resources-going-from-indesign-to-ebook/
Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines: kindlegen.s3.amazonaws.com/AmazonKindlePublish
ingGuidelines.pdf
Sigil epub authoring tool: https://code.google.com/p/sigil/
Calibre ebook management & conversion tool: http://calibre-ebook.com/
public domain image