E-books: Gallery. Creating E-Books

Since creating an ePub file is an important step in ePublishing, I explored how to convert two of my existing "eBooks about eBooks" to ePub format as a demonstration. Since both books existed and were already in HTML format, I didn't need an authoring tool such as Word, Pages or Adobe inDesign. Since I had no plans to actually publish the books to stores, I tried the desktop tools: Sigil and Calibre, rather than other ePub export, conversion tools or services -- your needs, skills and budget may be different. The iPad and various desktop eReader apps displayed the resulting ePubs. Three examples:

  • {EB} this E-book course: I entered content in forms using Drupal book module; Drupal server software (a Content Management System (CMS)) generated HTML for pages automatically. Pages were designed with a wide 'slide' presentation style. Although the layout is flexible (e.g., resize browser window), graphics may not fit well on narrow screens. Screenshots were not updated after Sept. 2012 site redesign. Steps I followed (on Mac):
    • browser (e.g., Safari): main E-books course page
    • browser: Printer-friendly version (command at lower right) concatenates all sections; omits page header, footer, menus; slideshows become lists of photos
    • browser: File: Save as HTML (text only)
    • browser: File: Print; Open PDF in Preview (Safari browser includes links)
    • PDF viewer/tool (e.g., Preview): Save as .pdf -- with Reduced File Size for galleries (otherwise, resulting .pdf too large)
    • text editor (e.g., TextWrangler): open HTML file
    • text editor: remove most HEAD tags, e.g., META, BASE
    • text editor: assuming "images" folder contains graphics files, fix IMG attribute SRC="images/..."
    • text editor: replace 4 gallery image sequences with links to gallery pages (otherwise, resulting E-book too large)
    • text editor: Save HTML to same folder containing images/
    • Sigil: open HTML file; Save as ePub (note: Calibre could have been used to create ePub, but I think Sigil is faster and has a cleaner user interface)
    • Calibre: open HTML file; Convert to Mobi; Save
  • {NC} Newt's Cape documentation: I created HTML pages manually (this was in 1990s); each file a chapter, with few, small embedded graphics. Newt's Cape is a web browser for the Newton PDA; Newt's Cape displays web pages (including its own documentation) via the built-in Newton book reader, and could save the book as an application directly on the Newton.
  • {CO} Cocoa Fundamentals: free existing ePub. Opening E-books from iTunes
  • In the descriptions below , a 4-part label, e.g., {NC; ePub; iBooks; iPad} summarizes:
    • 1) the source example (EB, NC, CO)
    • 2) the source format (HTML, ePub, ...)
    • 3) the application (Firefox, iBooks, ...)
    • 4) the device (Mac, iPad).
{EB; HTML; Firefox; Mac}
  1. course as a web 'book'
    eb
  2. eBook course in narrower window
    eb
  3. ...too narrow(?) layout, scrolling issues
    eb
  4. bottom navigation: TOC; and prev/next sections in hierarchy; cmd: Printer-friendly version
    eb
  5. printer-friendly version displayed: sections merged, with no TOC (left or bottom), page header or footer
    eb
  6. Save As local HTML file
    eb
{EB; ePub; Bookle; Mac}
  1. Bookle manual
    eb
  2. EB in Bookle
    eb
{EB; HTML-to-ePub; Sigil; Mac}
  1. Sigil converted HTML file to ePub; left: files; middle: eBook; right: TOC (derived from headings)
    eb
  2. good page layout, images, links
    eb
  3. HTML code view below eBook; possible fixes: TOC nesting, slideshows, page footer? (not now)
    eb
{HTML-to-ePub; Calibre; Mac}
  1. Calibre can import a single HTML file (I had problems w/ multiple files for NC)
    eb
{EB; ePub; Calibre; Mac}
  1. Converted ePub in built-in eReader
    eb
{EB; ePub; Firefox; Mac}
  1. ePub in ePubReader addon
    eb
{EB; ePub; iBooks; iPad}
  1. ePub on iPad; missing images due to import/export error
    eb
{EB; iBA:iBooks Author; iBA; Mac}
  1. iBooks Author textbook templates
    eb
  2. cover page
    eb
  3. chapter
    eb
  4. section
    eb
  5. subsection
    eb
{NC; HTML; Firefox; Mac}
  1. Newt's Cape documentation
    eb
{NC; HTML; Newt's Cape; Newton MessagePad 2000}
  1. docs(About) in NC browser (c.1996) on Newton MP2K
    eb
{NC; HTML; Safari; iPad}
  1. docs in iPad's Safari browser
    eb
{NC; ePub; Bookle; Mac}
  1. ePub in Bookle
    eb
{NC; HTML-to-ePub; Sigil; Mac}
  1. Sigil converted NC HTML files to an ePub-format eBook
    eb
{NC; ePub; Firefox; Mac}
  1. ePubReader addon
    eb
{NC; ePub; iBooks; iPad}
  1. ePub on iPad
    eb
  2. TOC
    eb
  3. another eBook page
    eb
{CO; ePub; iTunes; Mac}
  1. iTunes Books folder
    eb
  2. ctrl-click, Show in Finder; note: no built-in iTunes reader!
    eb
{CO; ePub; Finder; Mac}
  1. Finder: within Music/iTunes, author folders for ePub files
    eb
  2. ctrl-click, Open with... an ePub-compatible application
    eb
{CO; ePub; Adobe Digital Editions; Mac}
  1. Adobe Digital Editions
    eb
{CO; ePub; Calibre; Mac}
  1. Calibre
    eb
{CO; ePub; Sigil; Mac}
  1. Sigil
    eb
{CO; ePub; Firefox; Mac}
  1. ePubReader: Firefox addon
    eb