EBook Publisher
eBook Technologies' eBook Publisher is the content conversion and publishing tool for creating professionally formatted content for the eBookwise-1150 and the REB 1200. Click Publishers if you were looking for companies that publish eBooks.
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[edit] Overview
This GUI-based tool runs under Windows and MacOS and provides the capability to import, manage and preview content before packaging it for viewing on an eBook device. The eBook Publisher allows you to create unencrypted personal content that can be moved directly from your PC/Mac computer to your eBook's SmartMedia or Compact Flash memory card. It is important that you upgrade your eBook firmware to version 3.3 or higher for this to work correctly.
[edit] Tools available
EBook Publisher includes a built in editor and IMP viewer.
There are three tools in the Publisher suite.
- eBook Publisher - fully customizable professional eBook creation. Uses OEB.
- Bulk Convert - automatic conversion of multiple input file formats (OEB, Microsoft Word DOC, RTF and/or PPT) and output to multiple file formats IMP for ETI-1 and ETI-2 and/or OEB at the same time.
- RB2Project - Converts RB files to OEB or IMP files.
[edit] Best Conversion Practices
The purpose of this section is to present tips, tricks, usage instructions, and best methods or practices for this software package. For ETI eBook Publisher bug reports / workarounds / update requests , see this forum thread.
- TIP: Certain .jpg/.gif images used within an ebook may sometimes fail to display properly in the resulting .imp. When this happens use a standard image editor to just re-save the same file format onto that image file. Particularily useful is IrFanView, a freeware graphics viewer/editor for Windows.
- TIP: HTML code changes that can easily modify the default "look" of your ebook (used in Mobi2imp):
#add to <body> tag, any and all:
<BODY style="margin-left:2%; margin-right:2%"> # for small margins for entire ebook, or
<BODY style="margin-left:2px; margin-right:2px"> # for tiny margins for entire ebook, or
<BODY style="margin-left:5%; margin-right:5%"> # for large margins for entire ebook, or
<BODY style="margin-left:0%; margin-right:0%"> # for no margins for entire ebook (eBook Publisher default)
<BODY style="margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em"> # for no line spacing between paragraphs (may need small indent per below)
<BODY style="padding-top:0em; padding-bottom:1em"> # for default line spacing between paragraphs (eBook Publisher default)
<BODY style="text-align:justify"> # justify body text for entire ebook, or
<BODY style="text-align:left"> # left-align body text throughout (eBook Publisher default)
<BODY style="text-indent:1em"> # small indent to the beginning of every paragraph, or
<BODY style="text-indent:0em"> # no paragraph indent throughout (eBook Publisher default)
<BODY style="font-size:x-small"> # set body text for entire ebook (eBook Publisher default for REB1200), or
<BODY style="font-size:small"> # set body text for entire ebook (eBook Publisher default for EBW1150), or
<BODY style="font-size:medium"> # set body text for older eyes
<BODY style="font-family:serif"> # set font used for throughout to Times-like font (eBook Publisher default), or
<BODY style="font-family:sans-serif"> # set font used for throughout to Arial-like font, or
<BODY style="font-family:monospace"> # set font used for throughout to Courier-like font, or
<BODY style="font-family:smallfont"> # set font used for throughout to small crisp font
<BODY bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> # set background page color throughout (eBook Publisher default), or
<BODY bgcolor="#B0C4DE"> # set background page color for entire ebook to LightSteelBlue color (#B0C4DE), or
<BODY bgcolor="#FFDAB9"> # set background page color for entire ebook to PeachPuff color (##FFDAB9), or
<BODY bgcolor="#F5DEB3"> # set background page color for entire ebook to Wheat color (#F5DEB3)
- TIP: HTML code enhancements for entire ebook:
#add following style to any <p>, <div>, <h1> or <span> to easily insert a page break there
<p style="page-break-before: always">
Note that <PB> will also force a Page break although this is not legal HTML.
#no paragraph separation (text-indent is optional)
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
p {text-indent:1em; margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em}
</style>
</head>
#use blank line paragraph separation (eBook Publisher default)
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
p {text-indent:0em; padding-top:0em; padding-bottom:1em}
</style>
</head>
- FIX: When <br> precedes a <div> construct, eBook Publisher sometimes ignores it. If so, just add a second <br> to fix this "feature"
#force <br> to work in eBook Publisher when precedes <div> construct, by adding a second <br>
change "<br><div>"
to "<br><br><div>"
- TIP: HTML code similar to the one used by GEB Librarian to produce running headers. Important parts are header in <style> and <header>...</header> inclusion after <body>. You can re-use the <header>...</header> code again to redefine a new header, say for each Chapter Title. Then, to later remove headers, just use an empty pair <header></header>.
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
header {display:none; display:oeb-page-head}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<table border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td align="left"><small>PUT_TITLE_HERE</small></td>
<td align="right"><small>PUT_AUTHOR_HERE</small></td>
</tr>
</table>
<hr>
</header>
<p>EBOOK_TEXT_HERE</p>
</body>
</html>
- HTML code for defining a running page footer (similar to above <header> code). A great use for a footer is as an 'Index' to the rest of the ebook, i.e. Letters A B C ... Z, or Chapters 1, 2, ... Last, or mini TOC.
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
footer {display:none; display:oeb-page-foot}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<footer>
<table border="0" width="100%">
<hr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><small>PUT_FOOTER_TEXT_HERE</small></td>
</tr>
</table>
</footer>
<p>EBOOK_TEXT_HERE</p>
</body>
</html>
- TIP: Getting the jump to TOC to work.
If you hold the music icon down a menu will appear that lets you customize the command for this icon. One choice is Table of Contents. Tapping this choice will jump to the TOC or the first page if there is no TOC. To get the reader to recognize the TOC it must have the following line in the html file just ahead of the TOC itself.
<a name="toc"></a> or it can have <a name="toc" />
- HACK: I have taken a .IMP file originally produced by Ebook Publisher in 'small' font size and after directly hex editing the 'Styl' record therein (all '14 00 00 00 03' changed to '14 00 00 00 02'), I have been able to get it to display in 'x-small' font size. Unfortunately, the other way round doesn't work as you can't easily make the text wrap around if it gets bigger. By the way, XVI32 is a very good (free) HEX editor. Contributed by Nick Rapallo
- TIP: Mobipocket Creator can read .opf projects created by eBook Publisher, but not the other way round. It appears that Mobipocket Creator strips all the data within the <x-metadata> ... </x-metadata> block except for an embedded cover. However, eBook Publisher requires its standard information there. Solution, just insert the following text into the .opf created by Mobipocket Creator, then load in eBook Publisher and adjust Edition Settings to your liking:
---TEXT STARTS HERE--- <x-metadata> <meta name="x-SBP-logging" content="on"/> <meta name="x-SBP-encrypt" content="off"/> <meta name="x-SBP-compress" content="on"/> <meta name="x-SBP-widow" content="0"/> <meta name="x-SBP-orphan" content="0"/> <meta name="x-SBP-zoomstate" content="both"/> <meta name="x-SBP-undlinks" content="on"/> <meta name="x-SBP-csssupport" content="2"/> <meta name="x-SBP-projectversion" content="1"/> <meta name="x-SBP-RLEtrigger" content="25"/> <meta name="x-SBP-devicemodel" content="gs"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-Initial-Content" content="false"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-Require-ISBN" content="false"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-KeepAnchorLinks" content="false"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-PreScaleImages" content="true"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-ColorDepth" content="0"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-Grayscale" content="false"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-ConvertToJPEG" content="true"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-CreatedBy" content="2.2.4.5"/> <meta name="x-SBPNuvo-Build-ID" content="ebook:guid-03d46d97e9524b0b8befb1c6b98f8ada"/> <meta name="x-SBPNuvo-Timestamp" content="108-02-14T12:31:20Z"/> <meta name="x-SBPNuvo-Content-Is-Periodical" content="no"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-PriceBinding" content="no"/> <meta name="x-SBP-destdir" content="."/> <meta name="x-SBP-category" content="General Interest"/> <meta name="x-Gemstar-ModifiedBy" content="2.2.4.5"/> </x-metadata> ---TEXT ENDS HERE---
Another reason eBook Publisher may complain and refuse to load is if the media type of '.html' items within the <manifest> block is not the following:
media-type="text/x-oeb1-document"
If not, change all '.html' item media-types to the above, save the .opf and load it in eBook Publisher. You should now have a .opf project file that will load in eBook Publisher!
[edit] Converting ePub to IMP
How to Convert ePub files to IMP.
1. To open a .epub ebook, use the File menu item Open... and ensure the Files of type Archive files (.epub, .oeb) is selected. When the OCF Container Settings screen opens up, click the Unpack button and make a new folder to hold the unpacked ebook contents and save the .opf file within there!
2. A new instance of eBook Publisher will load and be ready to convert that .epub ebook to .imp (be sure to change the Edition Settings... to your preferences). Just close the first instance of the eBook Publisher that remained open.
3. Continuing with eBook Publisher, select your "Build Target" from the drop down menu, namely "Grayscale Half-VGA".
4. Select "Edition Settings..." under the Project menu, and change the following:
- - under the "Edition Info" tab, select a new unique ID by clicking the "New ID" button and optionally edit any other info to your liking under the "Bookstore" tab, enter/select a Bookshelf Category (required)
- - under the "Build Options" tab, click the "Compress" and "Underline links" option boxes to turn them on!
5. Now, go back to the main menu and save your new .opf.
6. Finally, convert to .imp using "Build Edition..." under the Project menu!
7. To transfer the final .imp to the EBW1150, just copy the .imp into the EBWLibrarian's default/current bookshelf. After you launch EBWLibrarian, then transfer it to your EBW1150 as usual.
Other choices include: copying to a SmartMedia card.
[edit] Links
http://www.ebooksystem.net/support_download.htm download for eBook Publisher and additional items.
[edit] IMP documents
These are all formatted for the eBookwise-1150 but are usable on a REB 1200.
- CSS Version 1
- Open eBook Publication Structure V1.01
- Gemstar eBook Formatting Standard
- eBook Publisher Windows Users Guide - Note that a REB 1200 version of this document ships with the eBook Publisher.
