Creating an eBook.

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stupidget
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Creating an eBook.

Post by stupidget »

Does anybody know anything about creating eBooks specifically MOBI, Epub, Kindle books?

My missus has written a kids book which is in Landscape view and all the illustrations and even the text have all been drawn in Photoshop. So far she's saved it all a one big PDF but when I try and use the Kindle Kids Book creator the pages are all empty.

Of anybody can help it'd much appreciated. Happy to pay somebody to help.
Bizzley
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Re: Creating an eBook.

Post by Bizzley »

Have you had a look at the (free) Calibre software as this can convert between a whole slew of popular epub formats. From the documentation:

Input Formats: AZW, AZW3, AZW4, CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, DJVU, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, FBZ, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ
Output Formats: AZW3, EPUB, DOCX, FB2, HTMLZ, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PMLZ, RB, PDF, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ, ZIP


Loads more info about it at https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.ht ... on-to-from
though they do go on to say "PDF is a terrible format to convert from"

MOBI\Kindle format is a bit tricky if you want to put it up on Amazon though, you have to adhere to a whole lot of guidelines regarding the layout and content which is why I didn't bother and just made the one I wrote available as a downloadable MOBI from my own website. More details on those guidelines in this doc - https://kindlegen.s3.amazonaws.com/Amaz ... elines.pdf
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Seven.FFF
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Re: Creating an eBook.

Post by Seven.FFF »

Yes, I've done some scanned and OCR'd ebook conversions, and used Calibre to create the mobi and epub versions. You feed it a zip file with some html content and xml metadata, and it does the conversion really nicely.

Here are a few of my more successful conversions, that had intertextual graphics:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m5he5dkyqhm4 ... 7Rk_a?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7626j5zvszxa ... UzU0a?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dga47nupvbpk ... 1Z1ka?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/80iljumtafj6 ... nXcoa?dl=0

You should be able to see my source zip files inside these folders, as well as the converted result, to get an idea of how it is done.
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R-Tape
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Re: Creating an eBook.

Post by R-Tape »

This thread could potentially be useful to people making a retro ebook.

[mention]stupidget[/mention] any objection if I trim the title to just "Creating an eBook"? We don't have an general offtopic section, I know we're getting tenuous but it would save me having to bin it :mrgreen:
Bizzley
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Re: Creating an eBook. I know it's not retro, but, can't think of anywhere else to ask the question!!

Post by Bizzley »

MOBI files can be viewed on what is basically a Kindle emulator for all supported models to make sure everything displays properly without having to spend a penny on hardware. It's the official Amazon Kindle Previewer and can be downloaded for free at :

https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html? ... 1000765261
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: Creating an eBook.

Post by Ast A. Moore »

I use Sigil (mostly for editing and adding metadata). Pages can export directly to ePub, I believe.
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Joefish
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Re: Creating an eBook.

Post by Joefish »

I experimented with eBooks but got thoroughly sick of it when I found out that most readers don't implement anywhere near the complete specification for the standards they claim to display. ePub for example has features for sections of a book that should only be accessible by programmed hyperlinks on the pages (e.g. pop-up call-outs and footnotes, or choose-your-path options). But most readers ignore the settings and just slap these sections into the middle of the main document as extra sequential pages, wrecking the layout.
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stupidget
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Re: Creating an eBook.

Post by stupidget »

R-Tape wrote: Tue Jul 24, 2018 4:07 pm This thread could potentially be useful to people making a retro ebook.

@stupidget any objection if I trim the title to just "Creating an eBook"? We don't have an general offtopic section, I know we're getting tenuous but it would save me having to bin it :mrgreen:

That fine with me R-Tape
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g0blinish
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Re: Creating an eBook.

Post by g0blinish »

Does anyone tried Sigil?
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: Creating an eBook.

Post by Ast A. Moore »

g0blinish wrote: Tue Jul 31, 2018 7:18 am Does anyone tried Sigil?
viewtopic.php?p=13557#p13383
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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R-Tape
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Re: Creating an eBook.

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