Recommendations for Typesetting Books in Adobe InDesign Intended for EPUB Conversion

Recommendations for Typesetting Books in Adobe InDesign Intended for ePub Conversion

Do you want your book’s conversion to ePub format to go smoothly, without wasting unnecessary time (and therefore money)?
Below are a few simple guidelines worth keeping in mind already at the typesetting stage.

Text and Styles

• Place all text in a single text thread.

• Do not break headings with hard return (soft returns are acceptable).

• Avoid inserting ‘enter’ in the middle of sentences.

• Paragraphs of the same type (same appearance) should share the same paragraph style.

• Minimize any manual style overrides.

• Use rules and borders as part of style definitions, not as separate graphic objects.

Language

• Set the appropriate language for each style. Foreign language insertions should be marked using a character style with the correct language setting.

Anchoring Elements

• Graphics should be anchored exactly where they are intended to appear in the ePub.

• Images at the beginning or end of a page, or those occupying an entire page, don’t need to be anchored (though they can be). At Have a Book, we handle these via a custom export process using our proprietary tool.

• Tables (if not part of the text thread) should be anchored within the main text flow.

• If captions are placed in separate text frames, they should be anchored immediately after the graphic.

• Multi-part graphics forming a single figure should be grouped before anchoring.

• Figures and tables should not be grouped with their captions.

References

• Cross-references (internal references) should be created automatically.

• Indexes and tables of contents don’t need to be automatic — we have solutions for those at Have a Book too.

Lists

• Do not mix list types — choose either all automatic (preferred) or all manual lists.

• Manual numbered and bulleted lists should each have their own unique style names.

• Do not override the styles of automatically generated lists.

Files to Provide

• A complete InDesign package including all linked files and fonts used in the document.

Fonts

• Fonts without web publishing licenses cannot be used in an ePub. We recommend using Google Fonts or other freely licensed fonts suitable for digital publishing.

Note

These are recommendations, not strict rules. It's worth considering whether to apply them during typesetting or later in the ePub export process.

Most problems arise from inconsistently prepared documents — avoid this if you want to save time and money.