2 README file for epub directory
3 ------------------------------
5 This directory holds the scripts and programs used to build e-books of the
6 Project Aon released books based on the existing XML files.
10 - build-epubs.sh: A shell script that runs a build of all the books.
11 The result of the build is a number of e-books in epub format
12 which will be available once the script finishes in the English
13 directory for ePubs (from this directory available at ../../en/epub/)
15 - Makefile: a makefile file to build the ebooks (in all available
16 formats) in the existing subdirectories. It will build the ePub files
17 required and copy them to the appropiate subdirectory.
23 - Conversion is done using Calibre's command-line interface. All ebooks are
24 converted from the 'standard' the ePub format into other common formats
25 (such as .mobi or .pdb)
27 (see http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cli/cli-index.html)
29 For formats see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats
31 If you run 'make' (without arguments) the Makefiles will automatically
32 build the following formats:
34 - .epub: ePub format - appropiate for most electronic Readers
35 - .mobi: Mobipocket format - appropiate for the Kindle
36 - .pdb: eReader / Palm Media format - appropiate for some PDAs (including
38 - .lrf: Broadband eBooks (BBeB) format - appropiate for Sony ereaders
40 Other formats can also be built but are not built by default nor removed
47 - Navigating the pages
48 - Navigation to other illustrations (Random number table, map of
50 - Zoom feature (in Kindle, maybe not in other readers)
51 - Links outside the book (such as the frontmatter note about the errata
52 asking anyone to contact Project Aon)
57 The following lists some improvements suggested by readers of the ebooks:
60 * Improve navigation as it is sometimes a little unclear. Because page
61 length and font size are variable with device settings, many sections wrap
62 to a second page. In some sections the page might split between section
63 choices. Readers might not detect that there are additional choices.
65 There should be some kind of indicator to show the end of section
66 pages. Otherwise there might be a page break and only way to be sure
67 is to turn to the next page.
70 - add an 'end of section' marker of some kind.
71 - Maybe consider using a "Table of Contents" link similar to the one on
72 the HTML book pages on the web site.
74 * toc.ncx is basically a table of contents, so it could contain all
77 * More references to the content.opf's <guide> section.
79 <reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="toc.htm"/>
80 <reference type="title-page" title="Title Page" href="title.htm"/>
81 <reference type="dedication" title="Dedication" href="dedicate.htm"/>
82 <reference type="acknowledgements" title="Acknowledgements"
84 <reference type="other.sections" title="Numbered Sections"
86 <reference type="text" title="Section 1" href="sect1.htm"/>
87 <reference type="loi" title="Table of Illustrations" href="illstrat.htm"
94 - There's an Action Chart limitation. You need to have a pen and paper
95 chart along with you while you read.
97 Possible alternative: Add a frontmatter link to PDF action charts and
98 suggest ebook readers use it.
100 - Local linking to other books does not work. Linking from one book to
101 others should be removed.
103 NOTE: Probably to be done in the XSTL files.
105 - The titles of the illustrations sometimes span multiple lines when they
106 could show up in one single line.
108 - The ebooks could be improved by including the official covers (we
109 currently do not hold distribution rights for covers as far as I know,
112 - Images (at least in my Android device) are not always scaled properly.
113 Although my e-reader (Fbreader) can zoom in the images some could be
114 scaled to fit better in the "page".
116 Note: This seems to be related to this issue posted in the mailing list:
118 " There seems to be an issue with viewing the images correctly on a
119 Kindle. They are not correcly aligned and are chopped at page edges, etc.
121 All images seem to be within HTML tables, probably for layout, but this
122 means that the Kindle cannot find the image size and correctly re-size the
123 image to fit it on the page.
125 I used Calibre to do a very simple conversion on the original files from
126 MOBI to MOBI with the 'linearize tables' option set. All other options I
127 left at the Calibre default settings.
129 When using the new MOBI files on my Kindle all of the images are now
130 automatically sized and centered, are not chopped at page edges, and they
131 can be zoomed to full screen using the standard Kindle function by
132 clicking on the image. I think that this is because the layout tables
133 were hiding the real image details on the Kindle."
135 - The map is too large and not scrollable some readers (reported: Sony
136 PRS-T1, Nook). Ebook readers might not allow zooming or panning of large
137 images, so the map is of limited utility.
139 Alternatives to fix this:
140 * providing a text alternate alongside the image.
141 * split the map in two (like in the PDF files)
143 - In the Sony PRS-T1 a contributor indicates that:
145 * Thin space (U+2009) is rendered as a question mark.
146 It says "The Story So Far?...?" in a few places.
147 * PNG images don't render correctly at all. There is some kind of vertical
148 banding resulting in lack of resolution and fewer shades of grey. GIF and
149 JPG work fine though.
151 Some other problems with PRS-T1 not apparent in the ebooks as far as I
154 * PRS-T1's ebook reader does not allow links for images to be followed:
155 <IMG> tags aren't clickable even if enclosed in <A>.
156 * ISO-8859-1 doesn't seem to be supported at all (I'm not sure if EPUBs
162 - A cover is not provided. Some readers (Calibre) just pick an image
163 at random do display as a cover. A generic 'all text title page' cover.
164 (Name, series, author, illustrator, ProjAon note.. etc) should be
167 DONE: Implemented through changes in the XSLT and also by generating
168 a cover page JPEG through Imagemagick. In addition, if the project
169 provides a "nice" cover page with a given illustration in the common/
170 subdirectory this will be used instead.
172 - There is some metadata missing. The ebooks have the "Title" and
173 "Language" set but are lacking "Author" and "Series" so sorting in an
174 ebook manager is somewhat limited.
176 DONE: Sources modified and the information is also extracted by the
177 script that generated the ePub in order to set this in the
180 - Metadata with multiple authors does not show up properly in Calibre,
181 it is shown as a single author concatenating both names.
183 DONE: Fixed in the XSL