Formatting a Beautiful eBook: Is it Even Possible? Yes!

If you’ve ever wondered if your eBook can be functional and beautiful, the answer is yes!—but only with the correct foresight. It’s common knowledge that eBooks often trade the visual beauty of a printed book for utilitarian functionality. Lose the artistic accents of design, but gain the ability to search for keywords or phrases in the document.

Why can’t we have both? With the proper planning (and a dash of technical talent), it is possible to create highly operable—yet pretty—digital versions of our books.

For proof, check out our beautiful eBook sample here.

From the Get-Go

When I am planning a new, from-scratch book project, I spend much time considering the technical limitations of the project in comparison to the client’s desires. Let’s say I have an author who desires to have QR codes inserted into their printed book. Those won’t function in the eBook edition if unless the reader has two devices available: one to view the eBook, the other to scan the code. So, I make the QR code image clickable with a link to the desired URL.

It is well-known that an eBook is essentially a simplified website, built from HTML and CSS code, then contained in a .epub file. This file is then downloaded to your eBook-reading device and is interpreted as best as the device is able. Depending on the device, the book’s visual appearance will vary. For example, a newer Kindle device might contain the font “Open Sans,” but an old device won’t have that font, so the ePub is programmed to swap in the next-closest thing, which will likely end up being “Helvetica.”

When building a book file from the ground-up, I think about both the print and ePub editions as I would a website. Everything should be properly labeled and organized, not just visually, but with clean background code.

Analogy: Reflowable content beads on a string

Imagine that each paragraph, image, table, chart, and item in your book is represented as a bead. The beads are scattered across your craft table. Assembling the beads into your desired pattern, you place them one after another into the lineup. Once you finish, however, you realize there is an mistake in the pattern! You simply cannot ignore the mistake, so you carefully attempt to insert one more bead into the line. Bam! The beads scatter across the table, unable to accommodate the addition.

beads on a craft table You groan. Ah! You begin to reassemble the whole thing from scratch, but this time, you thread the beads onto a string as you go. This ensures that they cannot roll away as you work. The beads are able to slide to the end and you play extra slack into the line when you need more space.

When you finish, you’ve got a completed necklace! Because the beads are threaded, you can safely pick up and move the beads without fear of them rolling away. In addition, you could feed the pattern onto a different string, a metal rod, or a jewelry chain. The beads are now reflowable.

In the same way, we want our book content to “reflow.” Everything should be connected to the main “string,” or primary text frames, of the document. Graphic elements like images or tables should be “anchored” into the main string, not left sitting on the table nearby. In doing so, when we add more beads to the beginning, everything following can push along the string.

Two birds with one stone

When setting up my book document, everything is attached to the main text flow. This is beneficial and time-saving down the road, because when it comes time to export an ePub, InDesign is able to extrapolate clean, chronological code from the original print file.

If you notice something out-of-place in your ePub file, it’s likely that it has not been anchored! Unanchored objects generally “fly away” to the end of a chapter or book.

Pros and cons: Reflowable worth it?

While it is generally considered a visual “downgrade” in comparison to the print edition, the ePub edition of a book can host specialty features impossible on paper. For example, you may print your book in grayscale to save money, but there’s no reason to avoid color in the eBook! There is no additional cost for this.

You might say, “But Kayla, it’s sooooo much easier for me to just export a fixed format version of my eBook! Why go through all the trouble of making a nice reflowable one?”

My answer is this: look at the following pros and cons. Fixed format is the “eBook easy button,” but has very little advantage except in the instance of children’s books.