Creating an ePub
I’d like to learn how to create eBooks. ePub sounds like its the best format to go with, as it is the beginning of an industry standard and is supported by Apple and its iPad.
The reason I love the iPad over other eBook readers, is that it supports basic HTML5 – which allows for the inclusion of multimedia. For a long time you have been able to create eBooks using programs like Sigil and Calibre. These are free OSS products which support the basic ePub standard. Apple’s Pages then had the ability to export documents with video embedded to create an ePub document which would support multimedia embedded. It meant though that Apple was using proprietary software to create a proprietary format, and hijack the epub format.
I don’t have a Mac any longer, and am back to Windows. I needed to find a product which would allow me to start creating eBooks with the primary aim the inclusion of multimedia of sound and vision. Here are the ones I found:
- Sigil - Great to create simple eBooks (think static almost ‘PDF’)
- Calibre - This also has more widely supported conversion options, as well as some fancy aspects of creating content from RSS feeds and automated content from websites. It also has a built in ‘library’ interface for your eBook management with a web-server to support the interface. For FOSS, its great to see such a full-featured commercial product.
- Adobe InDesign CS 5.5 – The really disappointing thing about it being CS 5.5 is the subtle changes from CS 5. I have purchased a site license for CS 5 for school – and not the maintenance option. In CS 5, you can export as an ePub, but doesnt support the HTML 5 embedding of multimedia. It packages the eBook for Adobe’s desktop reader – Digital Editions. The CS 5.5 update for InDesign however specifically includes an update to the export tool which allows the exporting of multimedia. There is no patch to support the upgrade to CS 5.5 from CS 5 – its a re-install, new version situation. Bummer!
Jutoh - I may have found the holy grail of eBook creation. It is basically a desktop publishing client – albeit simple – but allows exporting of embedded multimedia files. It is platform independent (client for most OS’s). It cost’s money.
Some sites I have been reading to find out more information about ePub documents and creation:
- http://www.elizabethcastro.com/
- http://ereads.com/2011/06/dont-get-too-used-to-epub.html
- http://tomorrowsbook.com/20100409147/dev-tools/news/epub-creators-epub-sucks.html
- http://www.ghacks.net/2011/04/22/firefox-epub-reader-read-epub-ebooks-online/
- http://www.ghacks.net/2011/05/29/create-ebooks-in-epub-format-with-grabmybooks-for-firefox/
