Re: [docbook-apps] RE: Who is supporting epub on this list?

[Nic Gibson <nicg@corbas.net>]

Hi Robert

The tutorial sounds like a great idea. 

I'm doing a lot of Kindle work at the moment - one of my clients has a system that generates DocBook XML from (very carefully styled) InDesign documents and then uses that to create EPUB. That client and myself share a publisher client (publishing is just a tad incestuous) who is having major Kindle issues because of exactly the problems you describe. I've been wondering how hard it would be to create a variant on the current stylesheets that generates 'simplistic html'.

Related - in the UK my two largest publishing clients (two of the more major trade publishers) are selling over 80% of their eBook output on Kindle so this is a real issue.

cheers

nic

On 4 Mar 2011, at 17:50, Robert Nagle wrote:

> I certainly don't have Keith's programming skills, but I have been
> compiling a lot of docbook-to-epub tips over the last year
> 
> http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/2010/11/ebookepub-production-secrets-tips-tricks/
> 
> Eventually I plan to make an online tutorial about it.
> 
> Actually I'm finding the biggest challenge is not producing epub
> files, but producing an epub file which can be processed by kindlegen
> without causing major problems. I know the Kindle format is not
> "standard," but in the US it will remain important for a while.
> 
> For example, just a day ago I discovered that when viewed  on the
> Kindle 3 device
> (but not the KindlePreviewer software), kindle files produced by
> kindlegen processing epub files  will insert
> lots of blank pages in chapters which use sections. (The reason is
> that the kindle device  processes DIV tags very strangely). In a
> chapter with just
> 2 sections, I found that kindlegen had inserted up to 20 blank pages
> at the end of the chapter in the Kindle file.
> 
> (One solution is to substitute SECTION tag with BRIDGEHEAD and modify
> the css for the toc to have bridgeheads indent, and I am working on
> the XSLT to accomplish that hopefully).
> 
> By the way, I learned something interesting from an Oxygen staff
> member. Version 12.2 of Oxygen should support docbook-to-epub output
> with ANT. (should be out in a few months).
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Robert Nagle
> 12777 Ashford Point Dr #1417
> Houston, Texas 77082
> 713 893 3424
> http://www.robertnagle.info
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-apps-unsubscribe@lists.oasis-open.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-apps-help@lists.oasis-open.org
> 

--
Nic Gibson
Corbas Consulting
Digital Publishing Consultancy and Training
http://www.corbas.co.uk, +44 (0)7718 906817