[Stan123]

This will be a long read. So I apologize if I did not write this in a more concise or efficient read.

I sometimes write books which have tons of pictures inside. I used to do the fixed layout (FL) approach for these books as it n can sometimes be easier to achieve. The downsides are that FL books do not normally get accepted in most channels who prefer or insist on reflowable (RF) .epubs (especially these days since .mobi is being phased out).

FL books look great on certain devices and appears closer to a actual print book or fixed .pdf. The fonts are however part of the image and one basically has one large rasterized page which may be off-putting to some readers, especially when it comes to un-scaleable fonts. The upside of FL is that one can have very nice looking layouts on a page (similar to print), with photos or graphs having their own captions and precise positioning on the page.

Some customers may prefer RF ebooks due to the fonts being scalable and images flowing as the device is turned landscape as well as some other benefits. Other customers will prefer FL books for various reasons. It is however hard to tell/predict which the overall client base would prefer.

A recipe book may arguably work better as FL. But now does that mean these books will be excluded from most channels who prefer reflowable .epubs?

The potential solution I have come up with was that I learnt to "code" my fixed layout books to work in reflowable channels. Basically the book consists out of imaged pages to work in a reflowable form. I have purchased one of my books at KOBO to test to see if it really got accepted as well as how it works. It opened as expected. Whether customers will complain about a fixed layout experience in a reflowable channel remains to be seen.
I have delisted the book and will be deciding whether I redo it as reflowable .epub or whether to keep the hybrid of reflowable and fixed layout. I am however still stuck between deciding which is the better option for me.

I have been spending months making a book reflowable that I would normally make fixed layout in less than a day. I have used Kindle Create (reflowable) with 90% satisfaction as to what I will find acceptable. If .kcb and .kpf was not Amazon exclusive, I would have preferred using this method to create fixed layout books. I am however thus forced to use their reflowable .epub option.

Here are two of the biggest problems I am having with reflowable .epubs:

1) When an image is higher in pixels (portrait). These portrait images sometimes jump to the next page due to the text that go before or after them. In landscape mode on a device, these images sometimes also appear too small due to its pixel height not being 100% suitable for landscape mode. I can live with this. What bugs me is that the text before or after these images, will sometimes leave a big white gap. I have sliced some portrait images to split into sections when possible. This works great for some images. But one cannot slice images that are supposed to be seen as one unit.

2) The other problem I am having is when text appear on pages when they perhaps shouldn't. In KC I design my books to have text above, and image below as much as I can. I am 95% happy with the layout in KC's previewer. The provide 3 options to preview the book in (mobile, ipad & kindle). As soon as I preview the book in Kindle Previewer 2 or 3, Calibre, Icecream reader etc. it always displays differently. Text would start on different parts of the page than expected. In the KC previewer, the text doesn't jump to a page when I do not want it to, except when I increase or decrease the previewer's font size setting. Is this normal and is the nature of reflowable .epubs? My guess is that one cannot please all devices. I would like to have my book appear good on the most common reading device outside of Amazon.

The ideal would have been to force text you want to always start on the top of a specific page.

Would be great to hear the take of people here having come across some of these same problems. Thanks guys

 

[Gessert Books]

The faux fixed-layout method you described is not allowed on Amazon. I know you aren't targeting Amazon, but their reason for it is worth thinking about: it creates a poor reader experience and is bad for accessibility. It would not surprise me if other platforms have similar policies or eventually adopt them. At Amazon, it usually takes a customer complaint to flag it. Meaning even there it will be initially accepted, but yanked for quality later.

There are no good solutions to the two issues you mentioned. They're a product of the reflowable environment. You can reduce instances by reducing the size of the images, since most reading devices and apps support zoom and pan on images.

 

[Stan123]

The faux fixed-layout method you described is not allowed on Amazon. I know you aren't targeting Amazon, but their reason for it is worth thinking about: it creates a poor reader experience and is bad for accessibility. It would not surprise me if other platforms have similar policies or eventually adopt them. At Amazon, it usually takes a customer complaint to flag it. Meaning even there it will be initially accepted, but yanked for quality later.

Thank you for clarifying this for me. This means I will prevent this method. I wonder what all book channels mean when they say that they accept fixed-layout in some instances. I assume it would be far more advanced scaling of images and whatnot than my method? (in the past I used Kindle Comic Creator to create .mobi for fixed layout. Thereafter I used Kindle Create .kpf which worked great. A real pity these are Amazon only.)

There are no good solutions to the two issues you mentioned. They're a product of the reflowable environment. You can reduce instances by reducing the size of the images, since most reading devices and apps support zoom and pan on images.

Thank you, I guess this news is some form of relief. Yes, I have noted that making certain images smaller does help. In addition to Kindle Previewer 2 and 3, Calibre and Icecream reader, I have recently tested my book in Kindle for PC. I must say that is by far the best previewing device for me so far. My book views great aside from the above mentioned problems. If these problems are understood by the average ebook reader, then I guess I will be willing to upload it as such.

I have purchased some ebooks that are similar to mine and noted that some of the authors use the fixed layout approach and others reflowable (on Amazon). Do you think one could one assume that the average ebook reader will know how to adjust their devices to suit their needs? When I adjusted my view settings for my book in Kindle for PC, it viewed great. It is impossible (for me) to create an ebook that will by default view great on all proportions of devices.

 

[Sleeping Cat Books]

Ebook platforms that accept fixed-format ebooks mean picture books, where nearly all of the content is images. If you have lots of text in your ebook, it really does need to be reflowable, as noted above, for a good user experience.

 

[Stan123]

Ebook platforms that accept fixed-format ebooks mean picture books, where nearly all of the content is images. If you have lots of text in your ebook, it really does need to be reflowable, as noted above, for a good user experience.

I actually never looked at it this way.

I know Amazon KDP accepts recipe, comic and manga books in fixed layout form. They all (can) contain a lot of text. I wonder what these creators are doing now, as I'm sure they also used .mobi? For Amazon they will not have a problem using Kindle Create who even accepts fixed layout .pdf files. But outside of Amazon it will be quite interesting to know.

 

[Gessert Books]

The basic rule of thumb is that it should not be fixed unless it cannot work any other way. Comics have a fixed relationship between images and text and intentional arrangement of panels on a page that is totally incompatible with a reflowable environment. Cookbooks are an anamoly because while the text content reflows just fine, many include arbitrary, magazine-style layouts that are a lot of the appeal. The vast majority of books should be reflowable.

Note that it’s not like a subjective thing, where you could figure that based on the above, if your book is kind of like a comic or cookbook, fixed is ok. Those are just fairly universally accepted book types for it. If the book isn’t actually a comic, cookbook, or children’s picture book, then it should only be fixed if it is indecipherable otherwise.

 

[Speaker-To-Animals]

I feel like so many of these questions would be solved if people bought a kindle and read exclusively on it for a few months.

 

[Stan123]

The basic rule of thumb is that it should not be fixed unless it cannot work any other way. Comics have a fixed relationship between images and text and intentional arrangement of panels on a page that is totally incompatible with a reflowable environment. Cookbooks are an anamoly because while the text content reflows just fine, many include arbitrary, magazine-style layouts that are a lot of the appeal. The vast majority of books should be reflowable.

Note that it’s not like a subjective thing, where you could figure that based on the above, if your book is kind of like a comic or cookbook, fixed is ok. Those are just fairly universally accepted book types for it. If the book isn’t actually a comic, cookbook, or children’s picture book, then it should only be fixed if it is indecipherable otherwise.

Well said.

 

[Stan123]

I feel like so many of these questions would be solved if people bought a kindle and read exclusively on it for a few months.

What would you say is the greatest alternative? iPad? Regular tablet?

Do you think there is a large reader base on Kindle for Pc? With my books, I think when reflowable, it will work great in 3 column mode, something that regular Kindle's will not be able to do very well.

 

[Sleeping Cat Books]

With my books, I think when reflowable, it will work great in 3 column mode, something that regular Kindle's will not be able to do very well.

You really need to spend some time with reflowable ebooks. There are no columns, because there are no pages.

 

[Stan123]

You really need to spend some time with reflowable ebooks. There are no columns, because there are no pages.

Lol. Which columns are you talking about? My reflowable ebook can be viewed in single column mode, as well as 2 column, or 3.
Kindle devices are limited to 2 column. Kindle for PC and Calibre can go for way more when viewing a book on larger monitors (when a screen has a great enough px resolution).

Here is an example of a 2 column reflowable ebook.

https://www.publisha.org/images/2017/02/id2rfl/image1.png

Here is an example of 3 column as viewed on my screen.

 

[Gessert Books]

Those views are the reading app's attempt at mimicking spreads. The 3-up version is probably just a "spread" without limits, a large enough viewport could likely show 4+. I wouldn't give those views very much weight, they're just showing what you'd see anyway by paging through, and you're not likely to find problems in those views that you wouldn't find in a 1-up view.

 

[Stan123]

Those views are the reading app's attempt at mimicking spreads. The 3-up version is probably just a "spread" without limits, a large enough viewport could likely show 4+. I wouldn't give those views very much weight, they're just showing what you'd see anyway by paging through, and you're not likely to find problems in those views that you wouldn't find in a 1-up view.

Yeah...that's what I meant by columns. I can see more than 4 when I press cntr + minus.

Viewing the ebook this way and in single "column" view gave me a fair indication what to expect when reading the book on different devices with various pixel dimensions. I tried to balance my layout to work on as many sizes I could handle. Viewing so many "pages" (virtually compared to my paperback) helped me with the layout. Was a lot of work. I have to do more books this way. I fist have to see what the reaction to the current ebook will be before I go into so much trouble again. My paperback version has already made some sales.