Here's another InDesign bug. Curiously it happens only in non-English versions of CS4, confirmed for now in Spanish and Italian. I tell you about it here so that you don't spend hours wondering what you're doing wrong. It's so not you!
If you have defined and applied a Character Style with Italic in InDesign and then export to EPUB, InDesign creates this CSS:
font-style: normal;If I export that exact same file from my American version of InDesign CS4, the code comes out correctly:
font-style: italic;The same thing happens with bold.
Of course you can edit the CSS by hand (as described in my book!), but what a hassle? And what weird thing is going on with InDesign CS4 that the localized version should act differently than the original one?
A similar, or at least related error occurs when you export an entire book from the Spanish version of InDesign CS4. The
@font-face rules at the top of the CSS file all reference font-style: normal; and font-weight: normal; which results in the last @font-face rule applying its referenced font (in this case, italic) to the entire book.@font-face {
font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
src:url(Fonts/AGaramondPro-Bold.otf);
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
src:url(Fonts/AGaramondPro-Regular.otf);
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
src:url(Fonts/AGaramondPro-Italic.otf);
}Since few ereaders are even supporting embedded fonts, the best way to solve this problem is to delete all of the
@font-face rules completely.Do you have a non-English version of InDesign CS4? Please let me know if you can reproduce this bug. Thanks!
And Adobe, if you want us to take InDesign seriously as an EPUB generating tool, you have to take it seriously too. Even in your localized versions.
[And an aside. I used to localize software so that's one of the reasons I'm so intrigued with this problem.]
And thanks to Jorge Portland who brought this problem to my attention, and Letizia Sechi who confirmed its existence in the Italian version of CS4.
I am scratching my head for ages and I still don't get it: why is this Planet Earth using InDesign to export to ePub?
ReplyDeleteInDesign is not specifically designed for ePub creation, this is just an added features, and it shows.
InDesign is too expensive if your only intention is ePub creation.
InDesign can only export to ePub, it can NOT open/import an ePub -- this is utterly ridiculous!
Yet you, most of you Apple fans, are happy with Adobe's InDesign. WHY???
(No, Calibre is not necessarily better. In fact, there is NO proper software to produce ePub files -- only half-baked, pathetic applications nobody should buy nor use.)
@Béranger: I completely agree with you it's an imperfect solution, but it's also true that there isn't yet a great program for generating EPUB. The advantage that InDesign does have over other imperfect solutions is that it is the format of many, many existing books. For the publisher with an existing catalog, InDesign represents a decent solution for converting that catalog to EPUB. Will there be better solutions? Sure. But I don't feel like waiting.
ReplyDeleteWell, when in need to convert complex files, I use Calibre (horrendous software!), but then I need to perform some cleanup and adjustments in the resulting file (which is a ZIP archive, so I can manually fix it).
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I can make XHTML and everything else by hand, and so can I create the ePub file: My first… hand-made ePub.
I am so glad I found you on Twitter. Your tweets and blog posts are really interesting. I'm a book designer but have yet to delve into the e-book world. I've been trying to learn as much as I can from you and the other eprdctn folks on Twitter. Thanks for all you do!
ReplyDeleteThere is the same troubles in French InDesign CS3 and CS4.
ReplyDeleteQuote: "Since few ereaders are even supporting embedded fonts,"
ReplyDeleteAll my ereaders that use ADE support the use of embedded fonts. That's a Sony 505, a Hanlin V3 & V5, and a Kobo, just to name a few. I suspect your Nook does as well. I think it's only FB2 and the Apple readers that are non-conforming...
So, keep on embedding fonts unless you are doing iBook epubs.