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06 GUIDE: HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE EPUB ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ An EPUB file can be seen as a self-contained website with some metadata files, packed together in a zip archive. EPUBs can be created from scratch, with any text editor, simply by creating some HTML files and the required metadata files, and placing all these files inside specific folders. EPUBs can also be exported from InDesign projects, provided the workflow within InDesign is done in a highly structured way, and preferably using the very latest version of the software. The Open Source command-line program Pandoc is a powerful tool for converting various types of text-based files into EPUB. However, the quality of the converted document is highly dependent on the degree to which the markup of the input file is well-structured. The Open Source software Calibre, which features a graphical user interface (GUI), can alternatively be used for document conversion and editing. 58
Making an EPUB doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Since the EPUB standard is open and based on HTML (the same standard used for designing web pages), there’s an increasingly large number of ways of converting and exporting different types of source file formats to EPUB. For very simple publications, it may be possible to use a software tool that directly converts your document to EPUB. However, before exploring in detail any of these do-ityourself tools, we will first explain what an EPUB contains, how it works, and how to make one from scratch. This chapter consists of four sections: 1. Do-it-yourself EPUB from scratch 2. Do-it-yourself EPUB using InDesign 3. Do-it-yourself EPUB using Pandoc 4. Using Calibre and custom plug-ins DO-IT-YOURSELF EPUB FROM SCRATCH The process of creating an EPUB from scratch is similar to that of developing a simple website. The main difference is that while websites can and often do embed material located elsewhere on the internet, an EPUB is ‘self-contained’ and made for offline reading. This means that all pages or images displayed must be part of the collection. Making an EPUB from scratch, or manually, is useful for creating small and simple publications, for creating or modifying publications that make extensive use of the particularities of the EPUB format, or in order to explore and better understand the functionalities and inner workings of this format, which is what we will now do. An EPUB file is in fact a ZIP archive, but with the filename extension ‘.epub’ instead of ‘.zip’. As such, it is a compressed collection of HTML files, style sheets and images, much like the files found on a website, compiled together with some extra files which define the format and structure of the documents so that an e-reader can display them. Any file archiving software that can handle ZIP files can open and decompress an EPUB. In some cases this can be done simply by renaming the ‘.epub’ extension to ‘.zip’. 1 1 More information on how to automate the EPUB zipping process can be found here: EPUB Zip/Unzip AppleScript application for Mac OS X, http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55681. 59
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FROM PRINT TO EBOOKS A HYBRID PUBLI
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COLOPHON AUTHORS DPT Collective, co
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00 CONTENTS 01 INTRODUCTION Industr
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01 INTRO- DUCTION ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞
Page 10 and 11: For art and design publishers, the
Page 12 and 13: WHO IS THIS TOOLKIT WRITTEN FOR You
Page 14 and 15: Rotterdam University of Applied Sci
Page 16 and 17: 02 THE BASICS ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞
Page 18 and 19: emphasis’, (rather than ‘italic
Page 20 and 21: POSSIBILITIES OFFERED BY ELECTRONIC
Page 22 and 23: 03 GENRES OF PUBLICATION ∞∞ In
Page 24 and 25: simple and straightforward way. Als
Page 26 and 27: will determine from the start many
Page 28 and 29: (Embedding a Custom Set of Metadata
Page 30 and 31: The publisher may make use of a con
Page 32 and 33: 04 TECHNO- LOGIES FOR ELECTRONIC RE
Page 34 and 35: E-readers E-readers became widely k
Page 36 and 37: ECOLOGIES PLATFORM OPERATING SYSTEM
Page 38 and 39: Aldiko Aldiko is both a storefront
Page 40 and 41: stored online. 8 However it does no
Page 42 and 43: e-readers. Finally, Amazon renamed
Page 44 and 45: 05 DISTRI- BUTION PLATFORMS ∞∞
Page 46 and 47: tions, freemium models, consigment
Page 48 and 49: SCRIBD CHARACTERISTICS • Large co
Page 50 and 51: LULU CHARACTERISTICS • Lulu is th
Page 52 and 53: WORDPRESS CHARACTERISTICS • Exter
Page 54 and 55: Social reading platforms Social rea
Page 56 and 57: PIRATE PLATFORMS: THE PIRATE BAY, L
Page 58 and 59: The most well-known of these is Ubu
Page 62 and 63: For a better understanding of the f
Page 64 and 65: Creating the required files and dir
Page 66 and 67: The ‘metadata’ section contains
Page 68 and 69: DO-IT-YOURSELF EPUB USING INDESIGN
Page 70 and 71: Styles One of the most powerful too
Page 72 and 73: Mapping styles to tags Though InDes
Page 74 and 75: a. Select the ‘EPUB and HTML’ o
Page 76 and 77: 3. Choose Text Anchor from the ‘L
Page 78 and 79: Tables of contents Ebooks have two
Page 80 and 81: Metadata Metadata is information ab
Page 82 and 83: Checklist and export options Before
Page 84 and 85: DO-IT-YOURSELF EPUB USING PANDOC Pa
Page 86 and 87: 8. Open the EPUB from the folder, o
Page 88 and 89: Enhancement utilities: Adobe Digita
Page 90 and 91: 07 TOWARDS A HYBRID WORKFLOW BASED
Page 92 and 93: TRADITIONAL WORKFLOW text IMPORT .i
Page 94 and 95: finalize the publication. 1 The mos
Page 96 and 97: document. A graphic designer can qu
Page 98 and 99: Cleaning up Markdown Since Markdown
Page 100 and 101: 1. Excellent software support. Ther
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Page 104 and 105: 08 GUIDE: HYBRID PUBLISHING FOR EAC
Page 106 and 107: When it comes to choosing a publica
Page 108 and 109: RESEARCH PUBLICATION .md .md .md im
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CATALOGUE PUBLICATION image image p
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∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞
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ARTISTS’ / DESIGNERS’ BOOK .mov
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∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞
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ART/DESIGN PERIODICAL WEBSITE HTML
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09 FUTUROLOGY ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞
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of a convergence between these two
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libraries could be the next on the
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10 SOFTWARE CATALOGUE ∞∞ A cata
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Make The GNU Make program helps to
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11 GLOSSARY 128
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AZW Presumably an acronym for ‘Am
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Database An organized, structured c
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Graphical User Interface (GUI) Soft
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L LaTeX A document markup language
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fields other than software developm
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scripting. A related concept is cli
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142 PARTICIPATING PARTNERS
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