ePub docs not displaying right

Question

Level 1

1 points

ePub docs not displaying right

I loaded a couple of ePub docs via iTunes, and neither displays correctly in iBooks. After the first page, there are a ton of blank pages. It seems to think that the books are 1000+ pages, which isn't right. They display fine on my nook. Has anyone tried importing some ePub books and had success?

Macbook Pro CD 2.16, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 3, 2010 2:50 PM

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Answer 1

David Bjorne Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 3, 2010 8:39 PM in response to jguil4d

I noticed someone has had a similar problem with a book purchased from the iBookstore. The first page of each chapter is visible, but the rest are blank. One of my imported books is like that. Hopefully they'll get a fix out soon.

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Answer 2

jguil4d

Level 1

0 points

Apr 3, 2010 8:30 PM in response to jguil4d

I should say, the .epub documents which I produced (using Calibre) do appear to have the correct data. The page count is correct, and when I tried to search one of the books, it did find what I was searching for. I just couldn't read it. It is almost as if iBooks is displaying the text of the book as the same color as the page.

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Answer 3

David Bjorne Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 4, 2010 5:30 AM in response to Eric Lindsay

On the couple I tried, there was an invalid timestamp and a malformed element. I can see that could cause a problem, but these aren't files I converted, they are ePub books straight from the publisher. They display fine on the nook, and in the Calibre reader (I imported the docs into that to check).

I saw your post in the thread about problem books from the iBookstore. Looks like some of the books they're selling have the same issue. It might be correct to stop rendering, but iBooks will get the reputation of not being able to handle books that other readers can. I have a feeling they'll fix it to make it more forgiving. Hopefully, anyway. Guess I'll have to just show folks how well it displays the Winnie the Pooh book for now.

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Answer 4

Apr 4, 2010 2:25 PM in response to David Bjorne

An ePub book is basically a set of XHTML 1.1 web files, with a bunch of XML files supporting them, wrapped in a zip package. XHTML 1.1 must be written correctly (if you ever write web pages that way, you may know what I mean). To be honest, I doubt that many of the ePub creators get it right (just like most web site creation tools do not produce valid web pages).

While Apple may change iBooks to be more forgiving of metadata like the invalid timestamp, they should not be more forgiving of XHTML errors. The idea is to let the ebook be parsed by an XML parser, not to include all the rest of the crap involved in handling malformed HTML. The book publishers need to get their books right in the first place. They have no excuse.

See http://bookworm.oreilly.com/publishers/ebook-testing/

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Answer 5

Roy B

Level 3

570 points

Apr 4, 2010 3:25 PM in response to Eric Lindsay

Hello all,

I would like to find out more about these ePubs. If your rights to the book allow, please email me an example file. Also, please tell me where you got it and what is wrong with how it show up in iBooks.

Thanks,
Roy
<royb@apple.com>

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Answer 6

David Bjorne Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 4, 2010 6:50 PM in response to David Bjorne

Hmm. I unzipped the ePub file, and using epubcheck as a guide, fixed the errors in the opf and xhtml files. Someone had a AppleScript on mobileread.com that zipped things back up nicely into an ePub. The resulting file passes epubcheck with no errors or warnings, but still doesn't display correctly on the iPad.

I converted the ePub to a MOBI in Calibre, and loaded it on my Kindle (early adopter syndrome here), and it displays fine there.

It sounds like the file had a problem in Stanza, but I never transfered books to that, so I didn't know. When I got the nook, I loaded it and had no problem. Now it seems to be fixed, but no joy. I did try a third ePub, and it loaded fine.

Oh well, I'm loving the rest of the iPad enough. Back to it!

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Answer 7

jguil4d

Level 1

0 points

Apr 3, 2010 8:26 PM in response to David Bjorne

i am having the same problem. i have a host of ebooks that i would like to read on my iPad, that being one of the primary reasons for getting one.

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Answer 8

jguil4d

Level 1

0 points

Apr 3, 2010 9:05 PM in response to David Bjorne

I am getting the same error, as it happens. The first page of each 'chapter' (as defined by the document, I suppose) is readable, but the rest of each chapter is just a series of blank pages.

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