Learning about EPUB

As I've been moving forward with my final project (the draft is being updated via the link given in this blog post), I'm starting to move into dealing with the actual format in which my project will be distributed.

I'm comfortable with Adobe InDesign, so that is where I'll be laying out my ebook. From there, there are several options for formats. I can export to PDF, the easiest thing to do. All of my formatting will get pretty much perfectly preserved, and if people just read my book on their computers, there's no issue with that method. E-readers, however, often deal with different formats.

Kindle vs. Nook: the format matters.
Photo by James Britton (creative commons)

InDesign can also export to EPUB, a format gaining popularity and read by iBooks (so iPhones, iPads, and iTouches), the Barnes and Noble Nook, Adobe Digital Editions, and many more. Kindles are more difficult. They are only really meant to read .mobi formats, though they can now read PDFs (though often with some difficulty).

My decision for now is to make a PDF and EPUB version, with a possible .mobi version to come. In this process, I've learned a lot more about how to make EPUBs work layout-wise. You see, you can place elements wherever you want in InDesign and they'll show up just fine in the PDF. EPUBs, however, don't have a concept of side-by-side. They just take things in whatever order and put them right after another. So you have to make sure you format things in a way that will (1) translate well to a vertical layout and (2) be marked with anchors so EPUB will know what order things should go in.

This tutorial from Adobe was very helpful to me.

As you can see from this little prototype gem I made with some draft text, I still need to apply some serious formatting. It's all starting to come together though.