Courses/Hybrid publishing resources

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Hybrid Publishing

Focus

Transforming a source (manuscript) into multiple publishable outputs

In a Hybrid Publishing Workflow

Hybrid Publishing Workflow

  1. various outcomes from one workflow
  2. constant connection between source-content and outcome
  3. avoiding repeating tasks

Hybrid Publishing Workflow

Hybrid-workflow.png

http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/from-print-to-ebooks-a-hybrid-publishing-toolkit-for-the-arts/

EPUB trailer


How?

How can we achieve a publishing workflow where we can go from the source (a word document, a wiki page, a webpage) to several outputs (an EPUB, a website, an animated gif, an inDesign project)?

Structure

By putting the content into an explicit structure, which can withstand those transformations.

How to achieve explicit structure?

An explicit structure is achieved by marking the text with structural information.

marking the text = markup

Markup languages

HTML: 

<h1>Revenge of the Text</h1>
 <p>There is a room in the <strong>Musée d’Orsay</strong> that I call the <em>room of possibilities</em>.</p>
 <p>That room contains:</p>
 <ul>
  <li>a snow flake</li>
  <li>the end of a cloud</li>
  <li>a bit of nothing</li>
 </ul>

Wiki markup: 


= Revenge of the Text =

There is a room in the '''Musée d’Orsay''' that I call the ''room of possibilities''.

That room contains:

* a snow flake
* the end of a cloud
* a bit of nothing

Markdown: 

# Revenge of the Text

There is a room in the **Musée d’Orsay** that I call the *room of possibilities*.

That room contains:

* a snow flake
* the end of a cloud
* a bit of nothing

pandoc

pandoc: software for converting between markups with

http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/diagram.png


markup a text in MS Word/Libre Office/Open Office

styles; Test on WDKA

create a .docx file and mark it up with a few of the following paragraph and characters styles:

  • headings
  • body text
  • block quotes: indented blocks of text
  • footnotes
  • hyperlinks
  • Preformatted text
  • Bold
  • Italics

Save in .docx

convert

Convert your docx file into a an HTML file using Pandoc.

shell
Pandoc command

convert once more, now to EPUB

Can you instead of converting the .docx into HTML convert into an EPUB?

clues

Markdown

Markdown as the source file.

link to Markdown syntax

Any plain text editor such as Sublime Text or Gedit can be used to edit Markdown files. There are also WYSIWYG Markdown editors such as MacDown.

Why Markdown ?

  • simple
  • only one way to create a structure
  • compatible with HTML, but easier to read and write
  • allows the inclusion of HTML tags. E.g. 
    <!-- an html comment -->  <span id="mrspan">a div</span>

convert once more, now to Markdown

pandoc argument


****

stream line: makefile

This same approach of converting between markups using Pandoc can be automated through scripts that execute the commands we have been writing in the terminal.

Ands since computers are good at doing repetitive and boring tasks, we can take advantage from it.

We can make them perform the same task on multiple source files, and make them produce multiple outputs (E.G. EPUB, ICML, HTML).

makefile

My proposal involves using a Makefile to automate conversions between markup-languages

Makefiles are usually used to in the free-software community to compile source code into running applications. However they are not more than a notebook of commands to process stuff and generate other stuff from it: e.g. create executables programs out of source code files. There is nothing stopping us from using makefiles to automate conversions between markup-languages.

Read more about Makefiles in the context of hybrid publishing:


overview

The conversion from a manuscript to EPUB it is a step by step process, that consists of:

  1. .docx - Manuscript - .docx - editing the manuscript according to the INC style guide
  2. Markdown - Source - converting the manuscript files to Markdown files.
  3. ICML files for inDesign - converting the individual Markdown source into ICML files that can be imported into inDesign
  4. EPUB Output -converting the compound Markdown source file to an EPUB

Note: The section "6.3. Do-it-yourself EPUB using Pandoc" form http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/from-print-to-ebooks-a-hybrid-publishing-toolkit-for-the-arts/ is an important complement to this tutorial and set of tools

File:Http://networkcultures.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/workflow.png


(install Make)

clone Hybrid Publishing Resources


download content =

content.zip contains a couple of .docx files, which you will use as your content. Any other structured (with Styles).docx files could be used.

There is also a .ttf font file and an image.


start cooking

0. Folder structure

To create folder structure, which will be understood by the scripts from this repository, you need to run:

./scripts/create_folders.sh

This script will generate the following folder structure, which you'll use to store the files essentially for the creation of the EPUB. ├── docx ├── epub ├── icml ├── md │ └── imgs └── scripts



1. Manuscript: .docx

This is a preparatory stage. Yet it is highly important for the series of conversions that will lead to the different publication's outputs.

You'll be editing the text document handed by the author - the manuscript -, according to INC styleguide: section "Document Formatting/Layout", subsection "General".

Do pay special attention to this part of the INC styleguide. Following it rigorously will ensure that your manuscripts will convert flawlessly to markdown (the next step).

2. Source: converting the manuscript files to Markdown files

Run: make markdowns to start this stage.

This command will convert all the .docx files inside the docx/folder into corresponding markdown files inside md/ folder.

The resulting markdown files are meant as source files, from which all of the publication's outputs will be generated.

The reason for using markdown as a the source format comes from easiness by which they can be read and written, they high compatibility with other markup languages (HTML, ICML) and the corresponding outputs (EPUB/Website, inDesign Project)

2.1 Images in Markdown

At this stage you should insert the images in to the essay, now in markdown format.

First of all, you need to save all the images included in the essays in the folder md/imgs/ Then place the images on the markdown files: ![My image caption](imgs/myImage.jpg)

Don't forget to include captions, if the image has them. Markdown captions will become visible, and associated to the image in the EPUB output

2.2 Metadata in Markdown

Each of the resulting markdown files contain a metadata header. You can fill those fields with the corresponding information.

Note on metadata: You can change the metadata fields and values that are added to each article, by editing the template file used to generate the markdown files: essay.md.template

Masterclass: In md/1_1-Hart_Keith.md complete the metadata, and insert images in their correct location.

3 ICML files for inDesign

Run: make icmls to start this stage.

The individual Markdown source files, stored in md/, can be converted into ICML files which can be imported into inDesign.

ICML files are useful, since they ensure that the structural information of the Markdown source files is also present in the inDesign projects, which use them.

Another point in favor of ICML is the possibility of updating the content and structure of the inDesign projects, by updating the Markdown source files, converting the once more to ICML. For this to happens is however necessary that inDesign remains linked to its source, and that the designers works with paragraph and chapter styles, instead of directly into the text.

Note: malformatted links in the markdown files will create problems when imported into inDesign.

4. Outputs

(Assembling the Markdown source files into book.md)

This step is essential to the creation of the EPUB. However, you don't have to perform this step, as the makefile does it for you.

It generates a single Markdown file book.md and save it it inside the md/ folder. book.md is comprised of the content from all the individual Markdown source files inside the md/ folder, in alphabetical order (00 to ZZ).

The book.md file will, in step 4.1 give origin to the

If you need for any reason to generate this single Markdown file book.md, run: make book.md .

4.1 EPUB Output

book.epub

Run: make book.epub to start this stage.

Essential files:

To produce an EPUB a few resources (files) are needed, namely the cover image, metadata, stylesheet, and fonts.

This files will strongly influence the EPUB's outcome, and consequently should be edited for each publication or series of publication

  • epub/metadata.xml - EPUB metadata
  • epub/styles.epub.css - EPUB css style-sheet MUST BE EDITED
  • epub/cover.jpg - EPUB cover MUST BE CHANGED

Optional fonts:

  • lib/ - folder for storing custom fonts, that will be used in the EPUB

Note on the use of custom fonts: If you choose to use fonts, make sure to change the makefile to include the use of fonts in the makefile epub rule, such as in the rule bellow, where --epub-embed-font=lib/UbuntuMono-B.ttf \ was added to allow for the use of the Ubuntu Mono font. Also include the font on th EPUB style-sheet with @font-face rule

4.2 EPUB check

The health of the created EPUB can be checked with http://validator.idpf.org/

4.3 EPUB edit

Once it has been created the EPUB can be change manually by using Calibre's recent tool Edit Book

the makefile

*****

IMCL

to be edited

Recipe Ingredients

  • empty folder - to create the recipe
  • content in a markup language: HTML (or wiki syntax)
  • terminal - a text-based interface to your file system
  • pandoc - markup converter software
  • plain-text editor: Sublime Text or Gedit
  • your favorite text layout software

Testing the Recipe

Testing the Recipe step#1

In on empty folder in your computer save 1 BS article in HTML.

Testing the Recipe step#2

Convert that HTML file into an ICML file. 

pandoc -f html -t icml -s input.html -o output.icml

pandoc - program dedicate to the conversion between different markups.

-f - option standing for “from”, is followed by the input format;

-t - option standing for “to”, is followed by the output format;

-s - option standing for “standalone”, produces output with an appropriate header and footer;

-o - option for file output;

input.html - html input filename - you need to replace it by its actual name

Testing the Recipe step#3

Open inDesign and ...

Place your output.icml in a inDesign project.

The Place function is in: File > Place (shortcut: Apple+D)

Testing the Recipe step#4

Style the content using paragraph and character styles.

Paragraph/Characters styles are in: Type > Paragraph/Character Styles


Testing the Recipe step#5

Content updates

Using Sublime Text, edit the source html file adding something or extracting something to it.

Repeat the whole recipe, so that you see the content being updated in inDesign.

Recipe Warning

Content should remain untouched until the last moment

If you change the content of the articles inDesign, the link between the inDesign content and its source ICML file will be lost, and it no longer be able to be updated.

This "disconnection" should only be the last step to be done on your design workflow.

Recipe Tips

Loading paragraph styles

Recipe Questions

Can CSS rules be imported and used as inDesign Paragraph/Character Styles ?

Can inDesign styles be exported as CSS style-sheets ?

+ ... ?





software used

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