Comments on: Henry Melton on challenges of e-book conversion http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:19:30 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Joseph Gray http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/comment-page-1/#comment-1033671 Joseph Gray Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:37:56 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/#comment-1033671 You can do drop caps in epub. The problem is that not all reading software will display them correctly. FBReader won't display them at all, as it doesn't have full CSS capability. The first version of ADE didn't display drop caps correctly, but the current version does an ok job of it. You can do drop caps in epub. The problem is that not all reading software will display them correctly. FBReader won’t display them at all, as it doesn’t have full CSS capability. The first version of ADE didn’t display drop caps correctly, but the current version does an ok job of it.

]]> By: Moriah Jovan http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/comment-page-1/#comment-1033570 Moriah Jovan Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:27:16 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/#comment-1033570 No, I use a style, viz.: p.asterisk { text-indent: 0px; font-size: 1em; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em; } Then the corresponding tag in the body. <a href="http://theproviso.com" rel="nofollow">THE PROVISO</a> is somewhere around 300k words with all the front matter and back matter. In the book, there are e-mails, blog posts, news clips, transcripts (3 different formats). I also have a ToC, which is absolutely OBLIGATORY for any e-book. Styles were absolutely necessary to make everything look the way I wanted it to. No, I use a style, viz.:

p.asterisk { text-indent: 0px; font-size: 1em; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em; }

Then the corresponding tag in the body.

THE PROVISO is somewhere around 300k words with all the front matter and back matter. In the book, there are e-mails, blog posts, news clips, transcripts (3 different formats). I also have a ToC, which is absolutely OBLIGATORY for any e-book.

Styles were absolutely necessary to make everything look the way I wanted it to.

]]> By: Kirk Biglione http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/comment-page-1/#comment-1033555 Kirk Biglione Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:59:53 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/#comment-1033555 I know that your comment is several months old Moriah, but it's somewhat relevant to the discussion that's taking place re: problems with authoring ePub files. Do your recall how you attempted to center those asterisks? Was it a <center> tag by any chance? I know that your comment is several months old Moriah, but it’s somewhat relevant to the discussion that’s taking place re: problems with authoring ePub files. Do your recall how you attempted to center those asterisks? Was it a <center> tag by any chance?

]]> By: Moriah Jovan http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/comment-page-1/#comment-1008462 Moriah Jovan Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:54:21 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/#comment-1008462 Well. The asterisks were centered in the PREVIEW!!! Well. The asterisks were centered in the PREVIEW!!!

]]> By: Moriah Jovan http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/comment-page-1/#comment-1008460 Moriah Jovan Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:52:54 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/#comment-1008460 I use 5 asterisks, centered, with a space in between and a line above and below: * * * * * I don't think it's worth doing much more than that while e-book readers are so primitive and so few people read them. I could have embedded .pngs and such, but it would've only added to the size of the file, and it was already huge. You start adding in graphics and size starts to matter. I have a free e-book I got that has tons of .pngs for scene breaks and I can't load it onto my eBookWise. It's just too huge a file. I will probably never read that book because it'll take up the reader's entire space and I'll forget about it by the time I've read the other 85 books I've got in it. I use 5 asterisks, centered, with a space in between and a line above and below:

* * * * *

I don’t think it’s worth doing much more than that while e-book readers are so primitive and so few people read them. I could have embedded .pngs and such, but it would’ve only added to the size of the file, and it was already huge. You start adding in graphics and size starts to matter.

I have a free e-book I got that has tons of .pngs for scene breaks and I can’t load it onto my eBookWise. It’s just too huge a file. I will probably never read that book because it’ll take up the reader’s entire space and I’ll forget about it by the time I’ve read the other 85 books I’ve got in it.

]]> By: Shelley http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/comment-page-1/#comment-1008437 Shelley Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:03:22 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/30/henry-melton-on-challenges-of-e-book-conversion/#comment-1008437 A couple of books I've read recently put the first word of the break all in caps. It works quite well. I would think this would be a good algorithm to follow when converting from print to ebook. A couple of books I’ve read recently put the first word of the break all in caps. It works quite well. I would think this would be a good algorithm to follow when converting from print to ebook.

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