The ePub format (electronic publication) has established itself as the standard for digital books. It is an open and standardized format defined by the International Forum. It uses web technologies, namely HTML, CSS and possibly JavaScript for books containing animations. Designed to facilitate the display of text, the ePub allows an adaptation of the content to the support. We then speak of flow to designate this “fluidity” of the display.

• The ePub format can be generated from a variety of sources, such as Word, InDesign, XML, and PDF. Although based on a rigorous standard, reading applications interpret this format more or less well, the rendering of which then varies.
• So do not be surprised if your books have differences depending on the reader used. While the PDF format offers a fixed representation of a page, the ePub format interprets a hierarchical document and displays it in a fluid manner according to the styles defined during formatting. The elements that make up the document (chapters, sections, titles, paragraphs, typographic enrichments, etc.) must therefore be defined as such the source documents must be stylish.

With regard to the pdf file converter online , the notion of page is absent in the ePub format. The text being a stream, it resizes at a time depending on the reading device and the reader. We do not keep the layout of the paper. In addition, readers often allow changing the size of the text, to display it in one or two columns, to change the fonts.

• All these elements that require rethinking the book for production in ePub.
• Only the ePub Fixed Layout specification allows you to maintain a fixed layout. We will come back to this point in another post. With the epub to pdfconverter you will have the best deal here.

Good practices

Before embarking on digital production, the following tips will help you move easily from paper to ePub.

The sources

It is possible to produce ePub from stylish text files (Word, OpenOffice), a stylish InDesign, an XML file. The PDF printer is not the best source.

Think collection

Rather than working on separate collection titles and sparsely, working on a collection will save you time. The first ePub produced will be the definitive prototype of the titles in the collection. You will save time later and the homogeneity of the works will be ensured.

The classic possibilities of ePub formatting

If the ePub format does not allow models as complex as the printed versions, it still allows to respect the basics of the layout:

• use fonts (do not forget that they are displayed on a screen and that perhaps it will be – probably see – necessary to change them)
• Use of non-breaking spaces, special characters (bullets, symbols, em, etc.), line breaks, table integration, etc.
• detailed table of contents
• insertion of images in the text
• use of colors for text

On the other hand, some elements of models cannot be preserved, like the folios of page for example.

Rethink at least his work

Some pages, such as the completed print, no longer make sense. Pages whose orientation has been reversed to, for example, insert large tables, will also have to be redesigned. In the same way, too long paintings will have to be redone, otherwise they will be truncated.