Getting Started with Fixed-Layout ePUBs
If you need to create fixed-layout ePUBs for iBooks, there are a number of resources available for doing so. First, take a look at the iBookstore Asset Guide for Apple’s current specification.
This week Anne-Marie Concepcion (@amarie) released her new Lynda.com tutorial “Creating a Fixed-Layout ePUB”. This three-hour-and-fifteen-minute session with walk you through the creation of fixed-layout ePUBs using mainly Adobe tools like Acrobat Pro, InDesign, and Dreamweaver. Anne-Marie does a great job of exploring the basics of fixed-layout to begin the tutorial, then shows how you can make a fixed-layout ePUB from scratch, from a PDF, and from an InDesign file.
Anne-Marie’s session joins a number of other notable resources on fixed-layout ePUBs. Liz Castro’s (@lizcastro) miniguide Fixed Layout EPUBs for iPad and iPhone was one of the first publications after the launch of iBooks with instructions on how to create fixed-layout ePUBs for iOS. Liz breaks the process down into nice, bite-sized chunks: specifying the fixed layout, defining the size of the page, adding images, adding text, and additional settings to finish the ePUB. It is a bargain at $4.
Liza Daly (@liza) has a good deconstruction of the Apple fixed-layout format on her Threepress Consulting blog in the post “Understanding Apple’s fixed-layout EPUBs.” Her forensic process explains what is in a fixed layout file, how it works, and how you can make one yourself. She even provides a DRM-free fixed-layout ePUB you can download, open up, and explore yourself.
Over at the MobileRead Wiki, there is a great page on Fixed layout ePub that not only walks you through the iBooks fixed-layout format, but also provides information on making fixed-layout ePUBs for Kobo, B&N’s Digital Replica Plus (DRP) [B&N has not released their spec publicly for some unknown reason and you literally need to “know a guy/gal” at B&N if you want to see the full spec], and even Amazon’s KF8.
One of my favorite tutorials on creating fixed-layout ePUBs is R. Scot Johns’s (@RScotJohns) seven-part series of posts “How To Create Fixed-Layout iBooks” on Scot’s Blog: The Adventures of an Independent Author. In Part 1, Scot covers the basics of what a fixed-layout ePUB is, the template for creating one, and resources available to help you. In Part 2, he covers the file structure, the mimetype file, the container file, and the com.apple file. In Part 3, he covers display resolution, file size limits, iPad screen size, and spanning images. In Part 4, he covers how to create a fixed-layout page, including the head element and the body element. In Part 5, he covers the CSS file and the .NCX file. In Part 6, he covers metadata, the manifest, the spine, and the guide. In Part 7, he covers embedding fonts, creating content, calling your fonts, and positioning your text. Scot’s test ePUB, Theft of the Rhinegold, looks beautiful by the way, and you can get a sample chapter here.
Hopefully, these resources can help you start creating fixed-layout ePUBs yourself. Remember, most of this information is for iBooks-only ePUBs; they won’t work anywhere else at the moment. I have another post on fixed-layout in the ePUB 3.0 spec coming soon.
Have you found other resources for creating fixed-layout ePUBs? What tricks and tips do you have for creating them?
Thanks Matt!
A few of the videos in my Creating a Fixed-Layout ePUB title are free samples, but if you want access to all of them, you need to be a subscriber. Non-subscribers can use this form for one week of unlimited access to all the Lynda.com tutorials, including mine: http://www.lynda.com/trial/indesignsecrets
I’m not sure if the free trial gives users access to the sample files, but I wanted to note that I have a ton of them there, including a fully-functional fixed-layout epub template (in chapter 3) for those of us who just want to publish one without having to get our hands dirty messing around with code.
Thanks for the mention Matt. I’m pleased to hear you enjoyed my tutorial. And thanks as well for the compliment on my sample chapter. I’m hard at work on the next section.
I also just wanted to let everyone know you can now download the iBooks sample file directly from my website at http://www.fantasycastlebooks.com, and that there is also a KF8 version up now as well. Enjoy!
Too bad Anne-Marie wasn’t able to include the coding for the Read Aloud feature in her Lynda Fixed Layout tutorial…
With the help of all the resources above–Thank you! Thank you!–I have created a read-aloud fixed layout iBook. I am now attempting to add a feature that allows individual words to read and highlight when touched. So far, I can make them read individually, but when one word is touched all of them highlight and it doesn’t go off. The iBooks sample has one word which changes color and triggers a wind audio, which is how I got this far, but it remains highlighted until touched again. Any suggestions? References I might check to learn how to do this?
momanna:
This is basically what you need to do (from the eBook Architects blog here: http://ebookarchitects.com/conversions/fixedlayout.php)
If you have audio narration available for your eBook, we can add that narration as a media overlay to fixed-layout ePubs in Apple’s platform, allowing readers to have the eBook read to them as they follow along. We place a marker in the code around every word in the book. Then we connect start and end timestamps from your audio files to each of those words, allowing the iBooks software to play the specific portion of the audio file while highlighting or changing the font color of the word for the reader.
You need to create a list of timestamps that correspond to when each word is spoken in the audio file. You then need to link that to the text and have it highlight during that timestamp.
If you are a registered iTunes Connect member, the guidelines will tell you how to do it. See this post from Teleread: http://www.teleread.com/epub/apple-explains-how-to-sync-narration-tracks-in-epub-files-for-ibookstore/
You can also buy Liz Castro’s miniguide Read Aloud ePUB for iBooks for instuctions. The book will cost you $5. There’s a description and a link on Liz’s blog here: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2011/08/new-miniguide-read-aloud-epub-for.html
Or you can go here for an example of how to do it: https://tofannayak.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/creating-read-aloud-content-epub/
Matthew,
Thanks for the reply. I have all of Liz Castro’s very helpful books and the iBooks Assets guide, etc.. My narration is synced and highlights fine.
What I am now attempting is for the child who is reading to herself (narration off) to be able to touch a word to hear just that word. I have created individual audio files for each word and have that part working, but would like the word to highlight briefly when touched along with the audio.
This is fairly standard in book apps and it seems like it should be possible in an iBook, as well. Any further suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Hi Momanna,
Did you ever get your fixed-layout ibook working triggering sound effects when you select the words? I too am looking at creating a read-aloud epub and trying to do something similar. I’m beginning to think a lot of what I want to do would be better achieved in an app…
No, I wasn’t able to do that in epub and have moved on to apps for my picture books.
I have other books I’d still like to do as read-aloud pubs…but it all takes time.
I’ve watched Anne-Marie’s “Creating a Fixed-Layout ePUB” tutorial and I’m trying to make a fixed layout epub from InDesign and after exporting and unzipping I can’t find the css folder with the style.css file in it. My question is, do I have to manually create this folder and the file or am I doing something wrong while exporting it?
I’m doing fine till the end of chapter 4 but in chapter 5 the folder just shows up there and I don’t know where it came from!
I need help!
Best way to create Fixed Layout ePub is to use Book Creator from Red Jumper, then customize it after the book is compiled. We just completed our first Read Aloud ePub, adding the voice track after we’d done the book. If you have all your assets, you can create a fully functional ePub in Book Creator in about two hours, load it onto your iPad, and off you go!
As much as I like inDesign, it just was conceived with Fixed Layout or even ePubs in mind. They’ve been added in, not too gracefully.
Which version of InDesign are you using? To generate the style.css file from InDesign CS 5.5, you need to make sure that on the “EPUB Export Options” panel under the “Contents” menu under the “CSS Options” area you click on the button next to “Generate CSS.” You probably also want to check the boxes next to “Include Style Definitions,” “Preserve Local Overrides.” If you intention is to upload the file to Apple, you probably don’t want to check “Include Embeddable Fonts” because Apple doesn’t support the way ID embeds fonts in ePUBs. The CSS file should automatically be placed in the OEBPS file with a .css extension; in will appear with all the content/chapter .xhtml files.
I get a template.css, should I edit on this one?
Our starting idea was to end hand-coding while creating fixed-layout EPUBs, maximize layout-quality and deliver the simplest possible XHTML that is human readable and editable for enhancement…
We have been building our own internal conversion framework since Apple implemented their fixed layout feature in iBooks. And we have been successfully using it to produce high precision fixed layout eBooks for our customers. Now we developed a web-based converter which is able to convert from PDF to fixed-layout EPUB (and KF8, too) within minutes and with a astonishing layout-precision. You are welcome to test the converter. We are now in public beta. Register, read our manual how to prepare your PDFs and convert some demos for free at:
http://beta.magicepub.com
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If you’re trying to create Fixed Layout EPUBs from InDesign, I have to strongly recommend you use Rorohiko’s script, ePubCrawler.
It works with CS3 to CS6 and is currently donation-ware, as it’s in beta. But I would suggest a donation of $50 or more because it is that good! And we want Kris (Rorohiko owner) to keep making it great.
It basically automates just about everything. There are many options you can set before the export (e.g., do you want pixels or ems). It even comes with its own drag-and-drop epub compressor and extractor (to create an epub from a folder and to crack an epub open into a folder). When we create fixed layout epubs for clients in my studio, if they give us an InDesign file, that’s the script I use. It is a NO-BRAINER if InDesign is the source file.
I reviewed Rorohiko’s ePubCrawler.jsx script and showed how it worked on a client’s supplied InDesign layout (a children’s book she wrote and illustrated) in issue #50 (October 2012) of InDesign Magazine.
You can download the review (5-page PDF) here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3hid7tdmpahzt47/ePubCrawler_review_IDMag50.p df
Two other solutions to look at for InDesign > FXL epubs are Flipick (http://flipick.com) which I’m testing at the moment, and CircularFlo (http://www.circularsoftware.com) which gets better with every version.
As far as I know earlier the eBooks used to be converted in reflow manner under which the text displayed varies itself to fit the screen for different types of E-readers. Fixed Layout Conversion is very important in respect modern days E-publishing.
Is there an open source tool for converting fixed layout EPUB3 files from print PDFs?