Creating ePUB Ebooks
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About Ebooks
In the last few years, a large number of ebook reader devices and programs have appeared on the market. Reader programs are available for most smartphones, PDAs, and computers.
A huge market has developed selling or offering free ebooks online through many vendors and sites. People are reading ebooks in very large numbers.
Given the ubiquity of reader hardware and software and the fact that so many people are comfortable leaving behind hardcopy and doing their reading on-screen, how might you use ebooks? They are most suitable for sets of stable information that people may want to have with them as they go about their activities, particularly in circumstances where they do not have continuous Internet access. Some possible uses of ebooks are the following:
- Conference schedule and speaker descriptions
- Conference proceedings
- Visitor handbook
- Departmental magazine
- Emergency procedures
- Field guides
...and much more.
Ebook Formats
Ebook reader programs and hardware vary widely in their abilities and in the types of ebook files they can open and display. Some readers are very basic and can do little more than display TXT, RTF, and HTML files. More capable readers can display PDF files and various ebook formats such as Epub and Mobi. Some vendors push a format unique to their own readers, such as the AZW format for Amazon's Kindle reader. A large number of formats are on the market at present.
For the purposes of this page, we will focus on the ePUB format since it works on a large number of ebook readers and is a format that content created for Web pages can easily be converted to.
Note: Amazon's Kindle reader cannot read ePUB files. If your target audience has a lot a Kindles, an alternative format is PDF, which also can be generated easily from XHTML/CSS documents.
The Ebook Reader Provides the Interaction Interface
A key concept in developing an ebook is that the ebook reader device or program provides the interaction interface to the publication; you only provide the content in the required format and possibly some style instructions.
Most ebook readers have features such as being able to adjust font size, numbering paragraphs for reference, creating the table of contents, text search, and a means to take notes. You do not have to provide any of that functionality yourself as you might on a Web site.
In most cases, as document creator you only provide the content (the words) in clean markup (usually HTML) using semantic methods such as an H1 element for the main topic, H2s for subtopics, H3s for subsubtopics, and so on. The reader will use the headers to build the table of contents. You also usually provide a CSS stylesheet to control colors, default font size, spacing and other presentation characteristics.
Creating an EBook in ePUB Format
An ePUB file is essentially XHTML files, packaging files (listing files and organization) and container files (most relating to digital rights management, if any), all zipped into one file. To create a simple ePUB file, use the following steps:
- StepsActions
- Obtain an ebook editor that produces ePUB format ebooks. A good, free editor is Sigil, a WYSIWYG ebook editor available from Google.
- Obtain an ebook reader that can view ePUB format ebooks. Two good free readers are the Calibre ebook management program or Lucidor. Many other readers are available.
- Create your content in standards compliant semantic XHTML using your
standard tools (Dreamweaver, HTML-Kit, Amaya, etc.) for creating Web pages.
Use header elements (h1, h2, h3, etc.) to create a system of heirarchical
headings within your content where an h1 is the main document topic, h2s
are the document subtopics, h3s are the subsubtopics, and so on. This
system of headings is important because it will be used by the reader to
build the document table of contents.
- Validate your XHTML using tools such as Tidy or the W3C Markup Validator. Validated markup is much more likely to behave consistently and reliably in readers.
- Create a CSS stylesheet to style your document. The stylesheet can be in
a separate file or in a style element in the head of the document
- Validate your CSS with a tool such as the W3C CSS Validation Service.
- Start Sigil and open the XHTML file. You can do further editing in Sigil.
- Enter meta information by going to Tools -> Meta Editor. You can enter
a large number of different meta variables by choosing variables from the
Add Basic and Add Avanced lists and then entering values for the variables
you choose.
- Be sure to enter the Title, Author, Language, and Publication Date metadata. Many readers expect these values to be present and may complain if they are not.
- Note: This set of metadata is different from any metadata you specify within the XHTML file with meta elements.
- You can also edit the Table of Contents at this point by going to Tools -> TOC Editor. The default TOC will simply be all the heading elements.
- Save the document as an ePUB file by using by going to File -> Save As, choosing ePUB file type, and giving the file a name ending with .epub.
- Validate your new ePUB file using a validator such as Google's EpubCheck, which is available on the Web on the Threepress Consulting site.
Your ePUB format file is a self-contained package. You can place the Epub file on a server and link to it from Web pages.. Anyone clicking on the link will get their browser's download prompt asking if they want to save the file or view it in an application.
Example Project
As an example project, here is a Introduction to Linux guide (originally created for a now defunct class):
- Linux guide as an XHTML file without styling: Introduction to Linux, no styling
- Stylesheet created to control look and feel of the guide: linux.css
- Linux guide as a Web page with styling: Introduction to Linux
- Linux guide in ePUB format: Introduction to Linux Ebook
Try viewing the ebook in readers available to you. You are likely to see the following:
- Different readers will display the document somewhat differently. Fonts and sizing may be different, for example.
- Styling defined in the stylesheet may not be applied, or may work differently in a reader than on a browser.
Practical Considerations
- Keep in mind that your ebook may be viewed on small screen devices that may have limited memory. Keep graphics small. Keep text elements short (no 500 line tables, for example).
- Reliable performance by your ebook across many readers is best achieved by making your XHTML and CSS strictly standard and validated.
- Some publishing programs now generate ePUB format ebooks. An example is Adobe InDesign CS4.
