Off the Page: Designing for eBooks

1
Off the Page Designing for eBooks

• Cimarron Buser
• Texterity, Inc.
• 144 Turnpike RoadSouthborough, MA 01772tel
  [phone]cbuser_at_texterity.com
• September 9, 2003

2
Agenda

• Texterity Introduction
• What Is An EBook?
• Determine Target Formats
• File Preparation
• Conversion to OEB / XML
• Ebook Format Creation
• Ebook Resources

3
Texterity Introduction

• Texterity Over 12 Years in digital publishing
• Last 4 years major provider of eBook logistics
  and conversion services to publishing industry
• Our Focus Digital Delivery Made Simple
• Making PDF available on the web using without the
  need for any application or plug-ins
• Leveraging Published Web Format

4
Customers and Partners
5
I. What is an eBook?

• eBook electronic content
• E-books are not appliances
• eBook reading experiences differ
• Hardware - Dedicated to the reading experience
• Software - Cross-platform (but mostly Windows)
• Multi-Function Devices - PDAs, cellular, hybrids
• Browser - Websites with HTML or Applet driven
  content

6
The eBook Landscape (2003)

• Hardware Readers
• E-Book Devices
• Dedicated devices dead (Gemstar)
• Tablets
• Microsoft Tablet PC
• Personal Computers
• Laptops, Desktops
• Multi-Function Devices
• PDAs Palm, PocketPC, Franklin
• Cell phones
• PDA/Cellphone Hybrids

• Software Readers
• Distribution independent
• Web Browser (plug-in may be required!)
• Adobe Reader
• Microsoft Reader
• Distribution specific
• netLibrary
• Baker Taylor ED
• Questia, ebrary,
• Cross-platform
• Palm Reader, Mobipocket

7
II. Determine Target Formats

• If possible, determine what formats are required
  by first deciding what channels eBook will be
  sold in
• Decision will be driven by factors including
• Content type (novel, scholarly, niche travel,
  etc.)
• Target market (general trade, library)
• Marketing/sales issues (budget)
• Major decision page oriented versus flowed
  format
• Page-oriented format (i.e., PDF) somewhat easier
• Flowed formats requires more work

8
Page View vs. Flowed View

• Page View is that view that we typically relate
  to pages of a book, magazine, or other reading
  material
• Page view constrained with todays landscape
  screens (desktops/laptops)
• On PDAs or small format devices, forget it!
• However, resolution and screen sizes are
  increasing
• New devices, such as TabletPC are making it
  easier to read
• Flowed View is the view from the browser long
  screens of text that can be resized, and will
  flow to the width and height
• Flowed view is great for text
• Not possible for multiple columns, side bars, and
  other complex layouts
• Image quality and vector graphics may suffer in
  browser environment
• On small format devices, images/graphics may
  become unreadable

9
Page Formats

• PDF (Portable Data Format)
• Proprietary Standard Format published by
  Adobe
• Viewable with Adobe Reader (Adobe eBook Reader),
  plug-ins
• Variations on PDF may be viewed with plug-ins or
  applications
• Maintains all information in binary images,
  fonts, line drawing
• SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
• W3C Standard
• Viewers from Adobe, Corel, Batik
• Maintains all information in XML images, fonts,
  line drawing
• PWF (Published Web Format)
• Based on XML and SVG standards based
• View from any web browser without a plug-in or
  application
• Maintains all information in XML structure
  word index

10
Flowed Formats

• HTML
• W3C Standard most browsers now support
  Javascript for better viewing
• Viewable with web browsers IE, Safari, Netscape
• Images must be converted to raster version text
  limited to fonts on PC
• OEB (Open eBook)
• OEB Standard based on XHTML
• Viewable after conversion into eBook formats
• Microsoft Reader (LIT)
• MobiPocket (PRC)
• Gemstar deceased
• Used as basis for on-line systems
• netLibrary (nlOEB)
• Baker Taylor (BT-OEB)
• Other
• Palm Reader

11
III. File Preparation

• First make a good PDF file!!
• Ensure that file has bookmarks (table of contents
  links) folio page numbering
• Create properly (fonts embedded, distilled to
  ebook job options)
• Decide on Form Factor
• Should you use same form factor (size) as print
  edition?
• Smaller (e.g., 6x9 may be better!)
• Additional value-add for navigation
• Enhanced linking of page numbers in Table of
  Contents
• Linking URLs, Email addresses, see page links,
  and linking of indexes
• Link to Multimedia (audio, video, etc.) or
  Embed?

12
IV. Conversion to OEB/XML

• Convert from PDF to OEB or from application file
• Word-to-OEB possible via HTML export editing
• Quark/Other Applications require hand/text export
  scripts
• eBook Export Xtension from QuarkXPress
• PDF-to-OEB automation available
• TextCafe from Texterity
• If converting to single format may be able to use
  special tools
• Palm -- Palm eBook Studio
• Microsoft LIT -- Read in Microsoft Reader add-in
• Special XML conversion
• If syndicating data will require scripts, DTD
  (or conversion partner)

13
IV. ebook Format Conversion

• Convert from OEB into Target Formats
• OEB although standard, is interpreted
  differently
• HTML already XHTML, minor work to make browser
  ready
• Microsoft Reader Uses baseline OEB standard
• MobiPocket Subset of OEB (not all styles
  supported)
• netLibrary OEB Page Oriented (requires page
  break data)
• Baker Taylor ED-OEB Page Oriented (requires
  page break data)
• Palm possible if converted, or use simple HTML
  tags
• Consider special versions
• Chapter excerpts for web, or promotional eBooks

14
eBook Resources

• Adobe How to Create Adobe PDF Files for eBooks,
  Adobe
• http//www.adobe.com/products/acrdis/createbooks.h
  tml
• Microsoft Source Materials and Conversions,
  Layout Guide, Markup Guide (all for Microsoft
  Reader)
• http//www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/
• Open eBook Forum Standards Information
• http//www.openebook.org/

15
E-Book Process - Overview
PREPARATION
CREATION
DELIVERY
CONVERSION
PDF to OeB

• File Preparation
• Create eBook ready PDF with
  bookmarks, links, embedded fonts, screen-quality
  images
• PDF may have different layout than print PDF

QualityControl

• Create eBook
• Microsoft Reader
• Palm
• Adobe eBook
• MobiPocket
• netLibrary
• Baker Taylor
• OeB, HTML, XML
• Sample Books
• PDF for POD

• To Distributors
• Amazon
• Barnes Noble
• Palm
• Lightning Source
• Overdrive
• netLibrary
• Baker Taylor
• Franklin
• MobiPocket
• eBrary

• Pre-process
• Evaluation
• Segment front and back matter
• Zone tables, line art and TOC for extraction
• Set column preferences

• Post-ProcessNormalization
• Verify successful processing
• Normalize OeB markup and CSS class usage

Tool-based Or ManualConversion

• Structure
• Confirm hyphenation
• Check page breaks
• Identify head levels
• Prepare file for note and index linking
• Validate OeB
• Verify TOC links

• Style
• Add feature markup (poetry, code, extracts,
  etc.)
• Adapt print styles to eBook formats

• Promotion
• Sample chapters
• Galley delivery
• Wireless Library