Text squashed in epub

Hi
I'm exporting my book from InDesign CC 2014 to fixed layout epub, but some of the text gets squished together (or spaces seem to be left out)
I have removed overrides and tried different fonts to no avail. Any ideas?
Andy Grogan - An Accidental Encyclopedia of Web & UX Design

WOW! - That is staggering! - This is like working in the 1980's with technology. Everything is so BAD! With every on-line or off-line tool I use I get completely different results.
But its not stuff like text wrap around images or subtle kerning in titles - that I gave up long ago - its words missing - spaces missing - things just completely, illegible wrong!
How can I produce something that I can assume will be consistent and of even minimal acceptable quality? I've even been reduced to using Verdana.
I'm out of words!!! I don't even know where to begin.
Sorry, this is not a rant against InDesign - it's just staggering in this day and age that files for an e-reader is so- primitive!

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How do I copy text from an epub book?

how do I copy text from an epub book?

Just some observations.
PDF page content that is an image (and music notes may very well be that in a given PDF) then all that can be exported is the image.
Only an image editor can "edit" such eh.
As to textual content - once in TXT, RTF, DOC or DOCX yes, expect to have to do "cleanup"
Of course there's the old school alternative that is always available.
Paper copy beside you as you transcribe to a fresh word processing file.
Be well...

In text equations in epub do not format correctly.

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I am authoring a text which uses mathematical equations quite frequently. (These are made with Framemaker's equation and not mathml) I notice, however, that equations (say a three by three matrix) leave white space correctly above the matrix, but that the bottom of the matrix bleeds into the following lines of text. Any way to fix that? The document publishes just fine as a pdf with no problem. thanks! Phil Wood

It kind of depends how the equation is set in FM and what paragraph style follows. This affects the CSS setting used in the epub for the line height properties and consequently the paragraph separations. You might have to tweak the CSS being used in the epub.
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How do I view text in long ePub chapters?

Hi! I've created a couple of ePub books with a page area of 800 x 600. Each chapter is short and so fits on the page area. If the text does overrun slightly I click the bottom right corner of the page to make it bigger, I see the text and edit it if need be, then I drag the bottom right corner back into place (sorry I don't know the correct terminology.)
However I'm now creating a new ePub book that has much longer chapters that have text and images and I want to be able to easily read everything. Dragging the bottom right hand corner to be able to view the content will be cumbersome. Is there a better way to do things?

Thank you Bob. I copied over my whole Word doc into Indesign and each page flowed into the next. I set the ToC to chapter title style headings. Cheers!
But a new problem! Now when I try to export the file Indesign just hangs and cannot export it. I went back to an earlier version of the file without the ToC and it still doesn't work although different Indesign files export correctly. Could this may be a bug in the software? I would start from scratch but after I set the text & paragraph styles I adjusted the text for about 65 pages and don't want to lose this. Looking on the forum I saw a person with a similar problem but that was related to links. I just have a couple of basic links and even with them removed it still doesn't work.
I'm thinking of creating a new doc with separate chapters then copying and pasting text from this Indesign file into the new one but I don't want to lose my formating. How do i import textand para settings from one file to another?

Text Flow in ePUB and Accessible PDF

I have a newsletter in InDesign. I have all the text flow marked. Each article is a separate "story". Story1 flows onto page 2, with the text flows linked correctly. On page 2, story2 begins in the text box below the end of story1.
So on page 2, why does accessble pdf read story2 before the second portion of story1?
I have the same behavior in the version extracted to EPUB.
Any ideas what I am doing wrong? or how I can correct it without having to create a single column of text throughout?
Thank you,
Joyce

I've never seen that. In both accessible PDFs and EPUB, when I export all of a story will be read before going on to another object.
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Thanks
Jen

My experience is that you can't apply a background color to the main text flow frames, even if you apply an object style with a background color
However, if you have sidebar frames or caption frames which are anchored or inset in the main flow, and if you apply an object style with a background color, those frames retain the color.
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Ive just started to use CS5 for the first time , and when I go to any preference box the text is ahown squashed up, as shown below . Ive been to the general preferences panel and its set all ready to ... Small Font. I am using a 24 inch iMac . I'm not too sure what to do next , can some one please
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Now things have changed, when I try to apply my font in an area, I will see a small square but it will not show the vertical line. It will only show the font in a small horizonal line coming out of the very small square.
This thread actually originally concerns something different, so you might want to start a new thread – and why not post some screenshots (with the camera-symbol) and save yourself having to type an elaborate description?
And have you tried resetting the Type Tool Presets in the Options Bar’s Tool Preset Picker’s fly-out menu? (See how easily I could have saved myself a couple of words by posting a screenshot there?)

Why does embedding Adobe fonts in EPUB cause all text to display as oblique?

I have been having this problem for a while now to various degrees, and I stopped using InDesign to build and export EPUB files for a long time because of it. Lately I have decided to try reintroducing InDesign into my EPUB workflow. However, I have found that whenever I try to export an EPUB 2 file from InDesign CC 2014.1 while embedding Adobe fonts, all the text in the EPUB displays as oblique when I open the resulting file in Sigil or Calibre. Removing and then re-adding the fonts with no obfuscation does not correct the issue. Not embedding the fonts during export -- or removing them from the EPUB entirely -- eliminates the display problem, but obviously I can't expect people to have these fonts installed on their computers.
I do believe most Adobe font licenses allow for embedding, so I don't think this is a security issue. For the sake of this discussion the issue I am having is with Arno Pro OTF (Regular, Italic, Bold).
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Allen

Here's another piece of information to add to the puzzle. The first screenshot is from Calibre on an PC with Windows 8.1 (using Google Chrome as default search engine). The second is from Calibre on a Mac with Yosemite 10.10.1 (using Safari 8.0.2 as default search engine). Both with the same ePub file created on CC2014 on the Mac using Arno Pro for the Latin text, Adobe Song for Chinese, and Deja Vu Sans for the Hexagram

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Ok my images are removed...
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I have an old post regarding the same problem on my previous Mac Pro here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3311368
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Indesign CS5.5 Not Splitting at Chapters on ePub Export

I have a single document book in InDesign CS5.5. (Version 7.5.2)
The file is DFSS55ePub.indd. It is just a single .indd file, not a .indb
Every time on export to ePub, it is not respecting the Break Document at Paragraph Style: Chapter Title.
I get a single 444K .html file in the OEBPS folder of the resulting ePub.
Since that is over the 300K limit, it fails validation.
I've defined a table of contents called TOC
Level 1: Chapter Title (using a numbered List called Chapter)
Level 1: Chapter Title FM (No numbers for these headings in the front matter)
Level 2: QH (These are subheads within the chapter. There are admittedly a lot of these - 160 across 10 chapters)
The file started its life as DFSS55Print.indd with facing pages, a printing table of contents and index. The current file is a single story, no facing pages. I deleted the index and table of contents since I knew the export to epub would do this anyway.
I did generate a Table of Contents in a frame on the pasteboard based on a suggestion in another topic.
When I export, the settings on the Contents tab are:
Format for EPUB Content: XHTML
Use InDesign TOC Style: TOC
Break Document at Paragraph Style: Chapter Title
Generate CSS
Include Style Definitions
I even tried exporting to IDML, opening, updating the table of contents, and re-exporting. Same problem.
I realize I could open in Sigil and split the html, but I swore after I upgraded to 5.5 I would never have to go back to Sigil.
Any ideas on what could be causing this?
Thanks in advance
Bill

I've got it working.
Perhaps the problem was the numbered list used in the Chapter Title paragraph style? I had said to convert numbered lists to text in the ePub Export dialog.
Some combination of these steps solved the problem in case others encounter the same thing:
a) Changed the chapter headings using the Chapter Title paragraph style to Chapter Title FM. This style does not used a numbered list. Of course, I had to manually type "Chapter 1" - before each chapter title.
b) Once all occurences of the Chapter Title paragraph style were gone, I redefined the TOC definition to remove Chapter Title. This leaves me with a single Level 1 and a single Level 2.
c) Updated the TOC with the new definition.
d) Moved the TOC frame from the pasteboard to some blank space in the front matter. I did not bother to make the frame large enough for all the text, since InDesign will delete this upon export.
e) Export to PDF. On the third panel, changed the "break at: Chapter Title" to "break at: Chapter Title FM"
My theory is getting rid of the numbered list in the chapter paragraph styles probably solved the problem. Thanks to all who took the time to check out the discussion.
Bill

Converting a PDF to an EPUB using InDesign

I have four finished books in PDF files, totaling 1857 pages including over 600 photographs, which I need to convert to EPUB files in InDesign. I used a script to import all of the pages of one book into InDesign into a document reflecting the page and margin parameters of the original Microsoft Word document file. The imported PDF looked perfect in InDesign once I switched to a high-quality display performance in the View menu. However, when I exported the document into an EPUB file, I ran into two problems that I cannot fix.
Problem #1: Both the Digital Editions EPUB reader and the Nook recognize the EPUB document as having only two pages (displaying 1 / 2 on the screen, even though I can scroll to or page to all 430 pages in both Digital Editions and the Nook. This happens despite the fact that the correct number of pages correctly displays in the InDesign document settings.
Problem #2: The document text in the EPUB file is so poorly rendered it is almost illegible. Each letter is chunky and fragmented and partially pixelated. However, the same text in InDesign perfectly reflects the high quality fonts used in the original PDF and Microsoft Word Documents.
I can find no documentation in the InDesign help system to explain why I am getting these results. When I cut and paste a few pages of text from the PDF into an InDesign layout, it looks fantastic when I export it to an EPUB. But the text in the script loaded PDF pages look horrible. And for what it is worth, Problems #1 and #2 persisted, even when bypassed the script and I hand placed a half dozen pages from the PDF into an InDesign document and exported them to an EPUB file.
Also, if I export back to a PDF from InDesign, the text looks perfect and the page numbering is correct in Digital Editions. The only reference I found related to InDesign text quality on export is in Object Export Options, but they remain disabled to me.
And as a final test, I script loaded all 710 pages of the indesign_cs5_help.pdf to see if it would display the same problems. Not surprisingly, the text was just as poorly rendered in Digital Editions, which then displayed the first page of the document as 1 / 3 instead of 1 / 710.
Is there some method I can use to fix these problems? Or am I going to have to recreate the layout for all 1857 pages painstakingly object by object in InDesign?
Thanks for all assistance.

I have managed to work out the entire process over the past three weeks both working with InDesign with EPUB and by helping a friend post a series of books directly from Microsoft Word via MOBI to Amazon. I will discuss the latter process first to point out the inherent problems with the direct approach, so the reasons for using InDesign become more apparent.
From Microsoft Word
First, I recommend you reformat your Word document into a smaller book size to simulate the maximum text display you will get on a Kindle (3.0 in. x 5.3 in. margins) or Nook (3.3 in. X 5.5 in. margins). Next, make sure you are using style tags and paragraph and page layout options everywhere (no tabs or spaces in formatting), and a TOC object for the table of contents. All photos or images must be centered, and if you want them to have horizontal width, then stretch them from side to side. Leave your cover photo out of the document, and add it via the author panel specifying you want the uploaded cover image to be used inside the book. This will assure that the cover photo will correctly fill the frame.
Next save your DOCX document as a FILTERED HTML. Then close Word and load the HTML into the Kindle Previewer to review to verify your images are correctly displayed. When you do this, it creates a MOBI file that you can upload to a Kindle to view first hand. Then when you are satisfied with the results, you can upload this MOBI book file to Amazon Authors Direct. The upload dialog does not say it will accept a MOBI file, but the HTML file it recommends does not contain any image data. As it accepts an EPUB file, it only made sense it would accept the MOBI file, and it does (even the Amazon technical staff did not know this).
Using InDesign
The results of going from Word direct to MOBI are far from perfect. But I would judge they are minimally acceptable. However, if you want complete control of a book’s layout I recommend going the InDesign route. Without exception, the pages, text and images laid out in InDesign are (or will be soon) perfectly reflected on the Nook and Kindle. Granted, it takes time to lay out a book page by page, but if you do it right by using the InDesign paragraph and object styles, the process goes quickly.
Create an InDesign Book with each chapter a separate document in the book to ensure chapters start on a new page.
Make document pages small to maintain the look and feel. They need not be 3.5 x 5.5. I used a 5 x 7 inch document page and everything looked fine on the Kindle and Nook. Get used to the idea that the text will always flow differently based on the text size selected, So only worry about inline image placement, chapter headings and such, and leave the rest to fate.
After you get one chapter finished, use it to create a template document to use for subsequent chapter documents to facilitate laying out your book. A photo in a graphic frame with an anchored caption text box is easily copied and pasted elsewhere to standardize all image objects. Be sure to synchronize styles and swatches for each new chapter added.
InDesign footnoting did not work correctly in the EPUB for me, but I found it easy to use the hyperlink system to emulate footnoting functionality. By placing the footnotes at the back of the book and implementing a hyperlink back to the inclusion point of the footnote in a chapter, the reader can use the footnote pages like a hot index as well as a hot footnote.
When generating an EPUB,
Select No cover image
Select ordering same as Article panel
Set Book margin to 0
Image size relative to page
Contents XHTML
Use InDesign TOC (set style used)
Generate CSS with all boxes checked.
One thing to be aware of is that the digital readers will read the HTML page objects left to right then top to bottom, so I recommend the following:
In InDesign Guides and Pasteboard preferences, set the Snap to Zone to 1 to guarantee all page objects line up on the left margin exactly. Manually adjust each object box X location as necessary. Lock object when completed to minimize inadvertent movement
Always guarantee all text box objects stretch from left to right margin. Use the Indent controls to vary text placement and make this a new paragraph style.
Always anchor a photo (inset in a graphic frame) to a caption text box stretched margin-to-margin to ensure the photos will not sink to the bottom of a page in the EPUB.
Photos snapped to each margin will display full width and will display larger when the Kindle is rotated 90 degrees.
Add 0.25 in, Space After on the last paragraph before an image and 0.25 in, Space Before on the first paragraph after an image to create a bit of white space around the image and caption.
Always use the Article list to verify the placement of page objects in each chapter document. I have had a few images sink when the article list is generated despite all the above precautions. But it is easy to manually make adjustments.
Kindle Tools
Amazon released a series of tools and PDF documents a few weeks ago that greatly simplify the process of posting a book for sale via Direct Publishing. That said, rabbit holes abound waiting to catch anyone who is not already familiar with HTML and document layout software technologies. So the non-tech masses should be wary.
The Amazon Tools are at https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A3IWA2TQYMZ5J6 .
KindleGen v2.4 – a command line tool used to build eBooks that can be sold through Amazon's Kindle platform. This tool is best for publishers and individuals who are familiar with HTML and want to convert their HTML, XHTML, XML (OPF/IDPF format), or ePub source into a Kindle Book.
Kindle Previewer v2.4 -- a tool that emulates how books display on Kindle devices and applications. Kindle Previewer makes it easy to preview the layout of a book and make sure its text displays properly for any orientation or font size. This tool is recommended for publishers, eBook conversion companies, and individual authors in combination with KindleGen to produce the highest quality Kindle books. It is available for both Windows and Mac OS X platforms.
Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign® v0.96 (Beta) -- a plug-in which can be used to convert documents or books created in Adobe InDesign® to Kindle format. For more information on creating books for the Kindle platform from Adobe InDesign®, please see the Publishing Guidelines for Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign® available for download in PDF, Kindle and Adobe InDesign® formats.
I found that the Previewer and the DOS KindleGen produce identical MOBI files, so I recommend the previewer for its ease of use. After extensive testing I have found the Kindle InDesign plugin will perfectly convert the text from InDesign; however, it fails to size, place and display photographs and captions in all cases. It also does not render the InDesign TOC correctly. But remember, it is Beta software . I sent in a bug list to Amazon via the Export Book to Kindle dialog in InDesign and never got a response, but presumably someone is working on the problems and will eventually get them fixed. On the other hand, currently the Previewer perfectly displays photographs in a MOBI file when the InDesign EPUB file is fed into it; and the only problem with the text is that the line spacing is incorrect so paragraph lines are somewhat scrunched together. While this is not a problem for developing a book, I would wait until the final release of the Kindle Plugin for InDesign before generating and publishing a MOBI book.
I hope this helps.

Two ePub Questions

Hello,
I am formatting a novel to epub format. Everything has gone perfectly using character and paragraphy styles, etc. My two questions are as followes:
1. I've used the first page of the document to be the book cover without problem, however, where do I assign an icon for the epub file itself? For example, if I drag my epub file into iTunes > Books, there is only a default icon until I associate an icon with the book in iTunes. What am I missing? Is there a way to associate an icon with the epub file, so it automatically shows up in iTunes, iBooks, etc. without having to manually associate a file with it in iTunes?
2. In the book there is some foreign language. (Russian) This of course only renders out as ???????? in the epub file. I tried to trick ID into creating the text in the epub by using the Type > Create Outlines on the offending bits of text. That didn't work. It went from ???????? to deleted text. Any ideas how to make the foreign text viewable in the epub in the foreign language?
Thanks.

Thanks DerekC1000. I actualy just went through and deleted the offending Russian text. There wasn't a ton, and just couldn't find a way to make it show properly. As for the cover image however, I'm not sure you understood my first question, or I may not have clearly explained what my question was. The first page of my ebook is the cover. All is well there...
However, when I drop my epub into my iTunes Book library, there is just a generic iTunes icon. To correct this, I have to upload artwork to iTunes to correct this. What I'm wondering is, how do I make my epub file have a proper default icon for the book when brought into a reader?

Epub export problems - missing last page and 'Page error'

I couldn't find answers to this elsewhere - my apologies if this has been answered. My version of InDesign is 6.0.4 on Windows 7, 64 bit. I have two issues with exporting from InDesign to epub format.
The first is that on some longer documents, which display OK in Sony's Reader Library software, I get a 'page error' when trying to read them on Sony Reader Touch Edition. I have found that I can 'correct' them by loading into Calibre Library Mangement software then saving them out from there. This may be a problem with the Sony Reader Touch software in which case has anyone come across a similar problem? The Reader can cope with the files, but not how they are exported from InDesign.
The second problem is that even when I appear to export OK the epub document occasionally has just the last page missing - a few lines that have run over onto a final page do not get incorporated. These are simple InDesign documents, not books with chapters or linked files. The problem does not happen all the time but appears to depend on just where the flowed text in the epub happens to finish. I have found a workaround for this too - in the original document I add one full stop/period per line (adding blank lines is no good as the export ignores them) to force an extra page in the InDesign original. This is OK as a workaround but it would be nice if I didn't have to do it!
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Colin

you need the 7z file in addition to the exe
Downloads available:
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Contribute: CS5 | CS4, CS3
Download and installation help for Adobe links
Download and installation help for Prodesigntools links are listed on most linked pages. They are critical; especially steps 1, 2 and 3. If you click a link that does not have those steps listed, open a second window using the Lightroom 3 link to see those 'Important Instructions'.

Small Caps ePub Issue

I am working on putting text into the ePub format and keep running into the same issue.
I want the title of the chapter to utilize Small Caps. Within InDesign I've got it look exactly the way I wish for it to - "Chapter One" appearing with small caps.
I've Highlighted the phrase "Chapter One" and applied a paragraph style that has the following features:
[no paragraph style] + next [same style] + Times New Roman + size: 24 pt + small point
When I export to ePub to view the document in Adobe Digital Editions these changes are not present. I've tried just about everything from applying character styles and nested styles, but nothing is working. I'd like these Small Cap appearances to work in the ePub versions as well.
Any thoughts on why this is not working?
Any help is much appreciated. Scouring the internet for a while has not turned up any advice.
Thanks in advance.

Hi- I have a problem with small caps and epub export too, in InD 5.0.
I defined a style with a nested stye that applies small caps for the first four words. I see this definition in the CSS output by InD:
span.no-style-override-2 {
font-variant: small-caps;
I do not see this style applied in any of the content. If I manually code it in:
<p class="first-graph" xml:lang="en-us"><span class="no-style-override-2">Eric and Kate, young</span> ....
it is correctly displayed. I'd like to get InDesign to export it correctly. I notice the same behavior in 5.5.
What can I do to have my nested style properly marked up in the epub export?
Thanks.

Facing problem to Upload epub to smashwords

Hi, I am trying to upload my epub to smashwords but got a message that "Please supply an EPUB with at least two working items in the NCX (your EPUB's built-in Table of Contents); otherwise, some vendors will reject your book." I made my epub on indesign CC, IDPF Epub validator didn't find any error and ADE shows TOC perfectly. Can anyone help me regarding this issue? Thank you

That is not something InDesign can do. I requires an editing application for text, or an EPUB editor, and some knowledge of how to open EPUB files and editing them.
There may be some people here who can tell you what to do. I case they don't, here is a reference which may help. It's a little out of date, but I believe it covers what you need:
EPUB Straight to the Point: Creating ebooks for the Apple iPad and other ereaders
You can also learn more about creating EPUBs from InDesign by going to www.Lynda.com and watching videos on creating EPUB from InDesign by Anne-Marie Concepcion. You can watch videos for a week before paying for a monthly subscription.

Text squashed in epub

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