PUBLISHING

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Modularize the content and offer multiple small portions of a
catalogue, i.e. one art work for each entry, separate images, videos,
texts, etc.
Make sure that each module is tagged with relevant metadata as
early as possible in the workflow; this is absolutely necessary in
order to enable the selection and filtering process which will lead to
the aggregation of the various modules for a specific ebook.
Create separate low-resolution and high-resolution versions of the
EPUB files, for example through server-side scripting. This can also
be used as a business model: offer the low-resolution book cheap or
for free, and the high-resolution version for the regular price.
For a more or less direct conversion of a print book into an electronic
publication, it may be a good idea to target only one specific
reading platform (in most cases: tablets), simply because the market
for the publication is often limited, and because there are still major
technical constraints regarding practical file sizes, download times
and development costs. In this case we would recommend PDF
rather than EPUB if the publication/catalogue is primarily focused
on images, since PDF offers a fixed (and thus limited but easy-to-design)
image layout, and can be quickly generated from an InDesign
project. When cost constraints play a central role in the decision-making
process, it makes sense to focus on tablets and desktop
computers since these currently provide the best screen resolution,
color fidelity and reading comfort for image-oriented publications.
PDF is also suitable for at least some degree of interactive and multimedia
content. However, such a publication should be considered
a short- to medium-term product which may become technically
obsolete or outmoded within three to five years. The pragmatic
advice for such a rather short-lived publication is to design for a 10”
tablet screen with a resolution of 1024x768 to 1920x1080 pixels, to
work in InDesign, and to create if necessary a customized new page
layout for these specific screen dimensions. For possible small additions
of interactive and multimedia elements, consider using Adobe
Acrobat Pro as a final authoring tool, but be sure to test whether the
resulting PDF is also viewable in the default PDF viewing applications
on iPad and Android devices.
For a custom electronic publication which isn’t conceived as a printto-ebook
conversion but rather as a modularized hybrid publishing
project, EPUB is the file format of choice since it is internally
modular (being a ZIP archive of individual HTML files, images, fonts
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