[LINK] RFI: Cross-Media Publishing under Linux/OO

[Kim Holburn]

On 2011/Aug/08, at 12:15 PM, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

> Kim Holburn wrote:
> <snip>
>> The only way I've been successful is to save the book as html, edit the html, convert using calibre, edit with sigil.  If you want your epub on lulu to go to the ibookstore it is a very painful process.  It really helps to try them out on an ipad.  Speaking as someone who has had 3 books accepted through the whole process and 6 still pending.  
> <snip>
> 
> The EPUB has to be in XHTML and reference the appropriate XML Schema. If you are using Open Office for the paper version, you have to strip the schema...
>> The advice was to break the book up into separate files for each chapter. I chose to go with 7 files of XHTML. The W3C Markup Validation Service's Tidy was useful in converting my HTML to valid XHTML.
>> Each image, in the book, will be a file. A css style sheet and three other files are also required, in a specific directory format, in the E-PUB Package. Harrison Ainsworth's Epub Format Construction Guide explained this structure well.

calibre sorts all that basic stuff out in the initial convert from html to epub.  It doesn't necessarily look good though and that's what sigil is for.  It allows you to edit the epub files in place without worrying about all the complicated css rules and the manifest and builtin TOC etc.  In sigil you can rename files and any links to them are sorted by sigil.  I found that for images, as mine were whole page images, the only way to get them looking any good on an ipad was to have a file break just before each image.  Otherwise they ended up half on one page and half on the next.

> ...
>> Before trying to import the HTML files, Strip out the EPUB XML & XHTML references from. ie Replace <?x...
> <http://ramin.com.au/linux/formatting-e-books-and-paperbacks.shtml>
> 
> Once Lulu accepted my EPUB, they published the EPUB version just about
> instantly and a day or so later, the itunes version was available.
> <http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/1890s-annandale-a-short-walk/16321601>
> 
> Marghanita
> -- 
> Marghanita da Cruz
> http://ramin.com.au
> Tel: 0414-869202

-- 
Kim Holburn
The Pinchgut Press
http://www.pinchgut-press.com.au
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
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