Hi Kathryn,

I do indeed want to optimise my images for digital display :) I'm attempting to find the optimum size and resolution to do that. My images, like yours, are the same ratio as 1024x768, but larger.

When you say

I resize them down before embedding

, I'm not sure what you mean. Are you physically changing the dimensions of the source image again, to 1024x768, or just scaling it using Pubcoder's settings for the image object? I mean, are your embedded images actually 1024x768, or some larger multiple of that like 2048x1536 or 3072x2304?

I get what you mean about ridiculous epub file sizes. I've spent this past week trying to reduce file size while retaining quality. This is not an easy balance. The image can look good at loading, but it's when you zoom in that the quality plummets.

It's hard to know what a reasonable file size is for an epub. How many megabytes do you think readers are prepared to download? Or do they just go on how long it takes to download?

Have you found a sweet spot for your embedded image sizes? One that retains image quality when you zoom in but with a reasonable epub file size?

Cheers,
John :)

Hi Angelo,

These are the main background images, one per page.

I have that option turned on in both files (Project Settings → EPUB → Reduce Pixels density to meet iBooks Store picture size limit).

And "Use original image" is turned off in both files. So the images are being rendered ... ?

Should the pixel density setting in the Project panel (1x, 2x, 3x) override the setting to "Reduce Pixels density to meet iBooks Store picture size limit"? Or does it work the other way round?

Is there any reason, given the same settings, as above, for each file, why Pubcoder would produce a warning for one file and not the other?

Thanks :)
John

Angelo,

have you finished the feature for grouping objects? I know you can link objects, but that doesn't allow them to launch actions as a group ...

Thanks,
John

Thank you Angelo and Gia for the "Always catch touch" info. I've wondered about that one so often :)
John :)

Gia,

Thank you for a great post!

I'm using Pubcoder to create interactive EPUBs as well, but there isn't a lot of support for these out there in the real world. Apple Books runs them perfectly, and I had some success with the Kobo app on Android devices. Most platforms appear to be EPUB3-averse, though, so for my current project I'm scaling right back on interactivity. I just have expanding text pop-ups, but even these might be too much for some.

Have you persisted with your interactive EPUBs? I'd be interested to hear how you're going with the technology, and with marketing something innovative in a world that doesn't seem ready for it.

Cheers,
John :)

I'm building a fixed layout childrens' book in Pubcoder for export to EPUB, using an iPad page format of 1024 x 768 pixels.

I have two Pubcoder files that are identical except for the images used.

File A has jpeg images sized to 3072 x 2360 pixels (7,249,920 pixels). These scale to fit the width (1024px) of the stage perfectly. Their height when scaled is slightly more than that of the stage (768px).

File B has the same jpeg images as File A, but each image is cropped to exactly 3072 x 2302 (7,077,119 pixels). These scale to fit both the width and the height of the stage perfectly.

Both files therefore share identical active image dimensions of 3072 x 2302 pixels (7,077,119 pixels).

But Pubcoder treats the two files differently when exporting to EPUB.

Pubcoder exports File B to EPUB, at 3x pixel density, without any warnings.

Pubcoder warns that File A, at 3x pixel density, has images that exceed the maximum 4 million pixels permitted on the Apple Store.

Pubcoder exports File A to EPUB, at 2x pixel density, without any warnings.

Given that the active image size in both files is identical (and in excess of 4 million pixels), why does one export successfully to epub at 3x pixel density, and the other not?

Is this a bug in Pubcoder, or something that I’m not understanding about images?

I think you might have to edit the SMIL file to fine tune the synchronisation. I haven't edited a SMIL file so I can't tell you how to do it, but you can save the SMIL file from Pubcoder to your computer and open it in a text editing application.

Hope this helps,
John

I have twice encountered this issue with an aggregator named PublishDrive. On the first occasion it was with an EPUB file that had nothing to do with Pubcoder - I'd put it together by myself and had gone through agonies getting it validated. When it was finally validated, PublishDrive still rejected it, the reason being that they could not find or identify the cover. I read all their documentation about this and tried every solution, none of which worked. I reached out to their support people and one of them went in and manually fixed the problem at their end. I don't know what they did, but it worked.

I've just encountered the same issue with PublishDrive, and this time it's with an EPUB created by Pubcoder. I know the cover's there and specified, so I've written to PublishDrive again for help in solving the issue. It does seem to be a peculiarity of that site. I'll update here when they reply.

John