InDesign CC 2014 Reflowable ePUBs are even better
Although the large changes in ePUB export are seen in the fixed layout variety, what they now call reflowable ePUBs are also improved. They have their own dialog box and they are a separate choice when you export. You now add the metadata in the export reflowable ePUB dialog box. This saves time and hassle. Our control over placed graphics is much better, as long as you stay within the rules. Inline graphics are all rasterized or re-rasterized. The result is that all graphics need to be anchored graphics: Above Line, Below Line, or Custom.
Improved tables
Tables are improved quite a bit, though they still have a way to go.
- Borders & fills: these are now supported to a certain extent. I have been able to put borders and background around a paragraph by using single-cell tables! This is a BIG deal. prior to this there was no way to add rules to paragraphs. Now we can at least put the type in a box.
- Only solid, dotted, or dashed rules work
- Border must be the same on all four sides
- The Color: None does not exist in HTML, so it maps to Black [don’t ask me why] so use a 0 pt rule and if you’re paranoid use a 0% color
- Corner effects do not work at all
- No gradients at all
Graphics work better, but
- Strokes and fills work: but only the 3 types supported by HTML/CSS: solid, dashed, and dotted. No custom dots or dashes either. Multiple rules render as solid-line strokes.
- They cannot be resized: you must drop them in at 100%—OK you can resize them and mess them up. You really want to do everything you can to help the ereader render the graphics as good as possible.
- They cannot be cropped or masked: you must make them fit proportionally. Command+Option+C with do that for you.
- Graphic frames cannot use corner effects: any corner effect will cause to placed graphic to not display. Even rectangular corners must be set to 0 pixels
- No gradients: not for strokes, fills, or text. The only way you can use gradients is within placed, rasterized images.
- You must use Save For Web in Photoshop when producing them [anything else is on your head]: this will make them 72 dpi, and that is necessary. However, I have had some success placing 1200 pixel-wide images and have them be 600 pixels wide in the ePUB. I can’t tell if they are higher resolution in my ereaders.