Kindle Forum banner
1,621 - 1,640 of 1,650 Posts
I only have android devices and was paying someone with Vellum to format my book but why does the letter I (when it's capitalised) and other letters come out kind of bold in the print versions when they are not bold in my word document?  :-X
 
Marseille said:
Hi, I am using the paperback print feature. I have URL's in the ebook that I also want in the paperback. But when printed, Vellum "full justifies" the links and breaks them up. Example: https://int. nyt. com/data/documenthelper/6916- george-barnhill-letter-to-glyn/b52fa09cdc974b970b7/full. pdf

How do I fix this? Not good.
We were able to work this out via email, but for any one else who finds this, you'll want to make sure that you don't have any spaces within a URL. Making sure a URL is marked as a Web Link will also ensure it has proper rules for hyphenation and breaking across lines.

Lisa5 said:
I only have android devices and was paying someone with Vellum to format my book but why does the letter I (when it's capitalised) and other letters come out kind of bold in the print versions when they are not bold in my word document? :-X
It's hard to know without looking at an example, but that may be how the font that was selected by the formatter appears in print. We'd recommend getting in touch with the person you hired to format the book; they should be able to tell you the font they've selected, and whether using a different font affects how that's rendered.
 
I got an error report from Amazon which stated that I had "words and sentences overlapping" in my ebook.  Have you heard of this? Do you have a quick fix?  I looked again at the book within Vellum and did not see this issue. But apparently it was enough for them to put a warning on my sales page the day of my launch, which has killed my sales.
 
Is there a way to use custom fonts with Vellum Print? I want more of a diary-style font, but the built-in ones are very proper and for adult books. Might be a feature worth adding to make it better suited for Middle Grade and Chapter Books :)
 
Hello,
While I do not have an answer for your question, I have question my own that you may be able to answer.
I am a new Vellum Press user, and I have assigned drop caps to the first paragraph of each of a novel's chapters. However, the drop caps are also appearing following a section break, and I would like to avoid same, but have not been able to determine how to accomplish that task, or if it is even possible?
Thank you in advance,
Ron
 
Discussion starter · #1,626 ·
D. Zollicoffer said:
Is there a way to use custom fonts with Vellum Print? I want more of a diary-style font, but the built-in ones are very proper and for adult books. Might be a feature worth adding to make it better suited for Middle Grade and Chapter Books :)
Hi D.,

Embedding commercial fonts into ebooks can present some technical and legal challenges. In addition, in your print edition, Vellum requires special knowledge of the font, so allowing arbitrary, custom fonts isn't supported.

We do have suggestions for this on file, and we're keeping it in mind for the future. We don't have a timeframe for when this might be available in Vellum, however.

We've answered the other two questions above via email.

Since kboards seems a little quiet lately, if you are looking for answers from a larger community, you might want to check out the Vellum Users group on Facebook. We are unaffiliated with that group, and are not members, but we hear great things.

As always, the best way to get in touch with us directly is via our contact page.
 
If Brad or anyone knows a solution...I'm trying to upload the Nook epub to B&N but it keeps saying it's not a valid epub? So then I tried the generic one, and that one has the same message. I'm stumped.
 
Discussion starter · #1,628 ·
JumpingShip said:
If Brad or anyone knows a solution...I'm trying to upload the Nook epub to B&N but it keeps saying it's not a valid epub? So then I tried the generic one, and that one has the same message. I'm stumped.
Hi JumpingShip,

We occasionally hear reports of the Barnes & Noble website refusing to accept epubs, only to have them accept them later. So, we'd recommend trying again today.

If that doesn't help, we'd be happy to take a look at your epub files to see whether we can learn anything. The best way to send them to us is via our contact page. If you do that, please include the error message that you are receiving from B&N, as that might helps us too.
 
I'm putting a map in my next book and I'm looking for any advice regarding formatting. Is this a simple copy and paste thing or should I do anything special to ensure it satisfies Smashwords, Apple etc. I vaguely remember having difficulty with Apple publishing my ebook due to adding an image, so I got rid of it. This time I have to put the image in.

So, either from other Kboarders or Vellum, what do you guys advise? And what's the best way to keep it awesome but maintain a low memory load on the total file? This plus the cover adds up cost & data.
 
I'm putting a map in my next book and I'm looking for any advice regarding formatting. Is this a simple copy and paste thing or should I do anything special to ensure it satisfies Smashwords, Apple etc. I vaguely remember having difficulty with Apple publishing my ebook due to adding an image, so I got rid of it. This time I have to put the image in.

So, either from other Kboarders or Vellum, what do you guys advise? And what's the best way to keep it awesome but maintain a low memory load on the total file? This plus the cover adds up cost & data.
The sound of silence ... :(
(maybe not many of you do maps, though?)
The following is only half helpful because it hasn’t got much to do with vellum, but you might like to know that a) covers don’t factor into delivery cost AFAIK, and b) Apple mainly takes issue with images that contain over 4,000,000 pixels. Which sounds like a lot but it is quite easy to hit that for high-res lineart.
 
Apple mainly takes issue with images that contain over 4,000,000 pixels. Which sounds like a lot but it is quite easy to hit that for high-res lineart.
Thank you for that limit. That could be why the past image failed. That's helpful to watch out for.

For cover size, I was thinking total memory. There is a cap for total size of the efile (the cover within the book costs space). Again, I can fidget with the cover inside with the manuscript & inside imaging when I put all this together.

Really appreciate your help!
 
Thank you for that limit. That could be why the past image failed. That's helpful to watch out for.

For cover size, I was thinking total memory. There is a cap for total size of the efile (the cover within the book costs space). Again, I can fidget with the cover inside with the manuscript & inside imaging when I put all this together.

Really appreciate your help!
My pleasure! I still would not worry too much about the cover. Amazon strips that out and replaces it with one you upload separately (likely reprocessed), and the memory limits I’m familiar with are not per-ebook, but are rather per-html file within the ebook. So re: cover + map, you don’t really have to consider one when handling the other, because the reader will never be viewing both at the same time.
 
I'm putting a map in my next book and I'm looking for any advice regarding formatting. Is this a simple copy and paste thing or should I do anything special to ensure it satisfies Smashwords, Apple etc. I vaguely remember having difficulty with Apple publishing my ebook due to adding an image, so I got rid of it. This time I have to put the image in.

So, either from other Kboarders or Vellum, what do you guys advise? And what's the best way to keep it awesome but maintain a low memory load on the total file? This plus the cover adds up cost & data.
I definitely don't consider myself an expert, but I can tell you what I did.

As far as I can tell, it worked. It looks right when I view it (paperback, hardcover, Nook, and Kindle). I've heard no complaints about the map after several thousand purchases and free downloads.

I inserted the map near the beginning of the book as a Full Page Image. On the image page, I just selected the image, which has these specs:

  • JPG
  • 2713 x 3040 px
  • 1.15MB
  • title and map are centered in the image

On the Full Page Image in Vellum, "print span" is a single page, and "print extent" is the left-most option -- though I don't think those options were available back when I created the book.

And...unless I'm forgetting something, that's it. In case it's helpful, I've uploaded the image I used here:

Map of The World That Is
 
I inserted the map near the beginning of the book as a Full Page Image.
Full Page Image is indeed our recommended way to insert a map. Thanks for the tip, Humble Quill.

In print, you have the option to make a Full Page Image span both pages of a spread (useful for a map). You can also change the extent to go beyond margins: the Safe Zone option can be handy for a map. More info about using the Full Page Image element can be found here:

As you configure these options, Vellum will give you recommended dimensions for print. For ebooks, Vellum will automatically resize your image down to meet the guidelines for each platform (including ensuring the image is under the 4M pixel limit at Apple that Gessert Books mentions above).
 
So here's a question: I have an "uncategorized" page that refuses to carry the header. My header automatically switches to the chapter title once it reaches this page break. The rest of the book is the same. Everything before this page is formatted the same and correctly carries the header. HELP PLEASE!
 
Simple question (hopefully). I'm setting up a trilogy collection and the header for my first book is the series title. After, each book shows Book II, then Book III. What am I doing wrong here? Is there a way to program a collection for the header to show the first book following the cover of the initial book (like book II & III)? If not, not. The book looks amazing with your software either way. ;)
 
Discussion starter · #1,638 ·
So here's a question: I have an "uncategorized" page that refuses to carry the header. My header automatically switches to the chapter title once it reaches this page break. The rest of the book is the same. Everything before this page is formatted the same and correctly carries the header. HELP PLEASE!
Hi LDHogan,

An Uncategorized element at the end of your book will be treated as back matter. As a result, Vellum will follow common formatting guidelines and change the running head to display the title of the element on both the left and right hand pages. If your Uncategorized element isn't back matter, then we recommend converting it to a different element type. For instance, if you convert to a Chapter (or an Epilogue), then it will use the same headers as your other chapters. If you don't already know how, you can learn to convert element types on our Elements help page.

Simple question (hopefully). I'm setting up a trilogy collection and the header for my first book is the series title. After, each book shows Book II, then Book III. What am I doing wrong here? Is there a way to program a collection for the header to show the first book following the cover of the initial book (like book II & III)? If not, not. The book looks amazing with your software either way. ;)
Hi alhawke,

If you've specified a title for your Volumes (e.g. "Book II" or "Book III"), then Vellum will use that in your running heads as the "title." So, it sounds like you haven't created a Volume element for your "Book I", or the Volume you've created wasn't given an explicit title.

If you haven't already, we'd recommend creating a Volume to hold the chapters in your first book. Then, you should remove the explicit titles from each Volume (using the gear menu's Clear Title menu item). If you'd rather Vellum use "Book" than "Volume," you can change that in Vellum's Terminology dialog, accessible via Chapter > Terminology from the main menu.

Hope this helps each of you. If not, please feel free to contact us directly via our contact page
 
Feature Request. It would be great if we had the ability to specify two different simultaneous trim sizes for print books. I'm working on a hardcover edition which requires a larger trim size than my paperback, it would be nice if I could save the new trim size as a separate edition without overwriting the old trim size in the files folder when I generate.
 
Feature Request. It would be great if we had the ability to specify two different simultaneous trim sizes for print books. I'm working on a hardcover edition which requires a larger trim size than my paperback, it would be nice if I could save the new trim size as a separate edition without overwriting the old trim size in the files folder when I generate.
Hi SasgoraBooks. Thanks for the suggestion. We can see how this would be useful, and we do have a feature request logged for multiple print outputs. We don't have a timeframe for when this might be an option in Vellum, but we'll continue to keep it in mind. Thanks!
 
1,621 - 1,640 of 1,650 Posts