FrameMaker -> PDF -> ePub format?

[Keith Soltys]

Formatting for ebooks is very different for formatting for fixed layout like print or PDF. It's more akin to formatting for an online help format like CHM or webhelp. Your reader has a little 4x6 window into which you have to shoehorn your text, and you don't know what font size or possibly even what font they are using. Additionally, the formats themselves (EPUB2, EPUB3, MOBI) have major limitations in how they handle common formatting elements (indents, bullets, interline and paragraph spacing), tables, and graphics. You have tools that introduce their own bugs (Calibre, InDesign)  And finally, you cannot assume that your carefully crafted file, which displays perfectly on the device you tested it on (a Nook, for example) will display properly on another device from a different manufacturer (a Kobo or an iPad).

It’s like the wild west out there right now - think of the early days of the web, with incompatible browser standards and various flavours of HTML - but worse.

If you have to distribute a highly formatted document, ebook formats may not be the best solution, especially if that document contains tables with complex layouts. PDF works well on tablets, but not so well for E-Ink based readers. You really need to test your documents on the devices your readers will be using to see what gives the best results.

Regards
Keith

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Rickaby [mailto:srickaby at wordmongers.demon.co.uk]
> Sent: Friday, April 05, 2013 12:18 PM
> To: Keith Soltys; Framers Mailing List (framers at lists.frameusers.com)
> Subject: RE: FrameMaker -> PDF -> ePub format?
>
> At 15:05 +0000 5/4/13, Keith Soltys wrote:
>
> >While the E-Ink based Kindles will display PDF files, I've never found viewing a
> PDF on them a very satisfactory experience.
>
> Maybe so, but I've seen good FrameMaker books wrecked in Kindle-native form.
>
> --
> Steve

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