Embed pdf into iBooks Author

Maybe try making separate pdfs of each page and load them into an image gallery widget? The user should be able to make the gallery full-screen and swipe from one page to the next.

If that fails, is there any reason these have to be pdfs? Obviously it would be more work, but can you take the content of the pdf articles and set it all directly in iBooks Author? Compare the case with reprinting an article in a print book (collected works of John Doe, or whatever). The collected works' publisher doesn't just stick in a copy of the original publication; the original is reset as part of the new book.

I have the same problem. The issue is two-fold for me:

1. I am already creating the file in InDesign. Shame for me to have to retypeset in iBA apart from which that it's very slow to work in iBA compared to ID.
2. The book is in Hebrew and support for Hebrew in iBA is pretty awful (can't even do a right to left paragraph).

so my solution was, I'll create the file in InDesign and simply place each page of the PDF, one by one, into iBA. Then I will have to ask people to enable scrolling view (otherwise you will have to go backwards (it's a Hebrew book).

raphaelfreeman wrote:

The book is in Hebrew and support for Hebrew in iBA is pretty awful (can't even do a right to left paragraph).

Not only that, the iBookstore may not yet support Hebrew books, last I heard it did not, so you have to ask them. If it does, they must be in epub3 format, which cannot be done via iBooks Author. Instead you would probably normally use InDesign:-)

I guess having the Hebrew sitting in a bunch of .pdfs would be no problem. Unless you run into a rejection because Apple does not publish pure pdf books in the iBookstore, only .epub or .ibooks format.

I guess having the Hebrew sitting in a bunch of .pdfs would be no problem. Unless you run into a rejection because Apple does not publish pure pdf books in the iBookstore, only .epub or .ibooks format.

Oh, so that was my question I guess.

So my only solution is to layout the text left ragged and ask the user to change to scrolling view. That way there won't be the problem of right to left etc.

But what do you mean by, "the iBookstore may not yet support Hebrew books"?

what do they need to "support"?

raphaelfreeman wrote:

But what do you mean by, "the iBookstore may not yet support Hebrew books"?

I don't know what their hangup is, presumably it could include having correct back-to-front paging in .epub format (but they seem to have solved that for Chinese). The main thing is that they have simply rejected RTL script books, saying they are not yet supported by the store. You probably won't know until you try it...

So basically if I upload an epub3 format file to the ibookstore (didn't actually know that that was an option), then it will be rejected. I wonder if a completely English book with a few words of Hebrew would also be rejected if I upload epub3.

However if I create an English book with Hebrew words in it on iBA, I should be okay, since there will be no RTL scripts actually in the book?

raphaelfreeman wrote:

So basically if I upload an epub3 format file to the ibookstore (didn't actually know that that was an option), then it will be rejected.

Such books purely in RTL scripts have been rejected in the past. Apple has indicated they will eventually be accepted, however. I just do not know if this has occurred yet or not, it is hard to find out until someone tries it and reports the results here.

Bilingual English books including Arabic/Hebrew/Farsi text that are intended to page in the normal fashion for English or other LTR scripts are normally accepted as far as I know.

Okay, so sticking with an English book which has Hebrew text in it. Assuming that the book has been first typeset in IDCS6, then would recommend simply sending the ePUB3 file to the iBooks store?

which tool do you recommend for testing the output?

raphaelfreeman wrote:

Okay, so sticking with an English book which has Hebrew text in it. Assuming that the book has been first typeset in IDCS6, then would recommend simply sending the ePUB3 file to the iBooks store?

Yes. For testing, just email or otherwise transfer it to your iPad and see what it looks like in iBooks.

I assume you've seen the stuff Adobe produces, like

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/indesign/pd fs/indesign-to-ipad.pdf

hmm. I wonder then what the point of iBA is, if I have Adobe InDesign?

Is there anything that iBA can do that ePUB3 can't?

although the question of course is the WYSIWIG editing of the ePUB3 file after creation.

raphaelfreeman wrote:

hmm. I wonder then what the point of iBA is, if I have Adobe InDesign?

If you know how to use InDesign well, then iBA may not be of much value. Whether its "multi-touch" features are easily duplicated in epub3 I don't know.

One disadvantage of the iBA's .ibooks format is that it can only be read on an iPad, not on any other device.

So I just took a random one-page document and exported as epub3. Opened it on the iPad and it took two pages, but interestingly it opened as a right to left document!

The only hurdle is that I need a way to edit the epub3 file because of course it doesn't look right.

Oh and I know InDesign very well.

Although I'm guessing that the feature of updating books is only available from iBA.

raphaelfreeman wrote:

Although I'm guessing that the feature of updating books is only available from iBA.

I think that can be done for epub via iTunes Connect.

How the reader interacts with your book (especially landscape, created in iBA) is what makes iBA stand out from all other options for me.