Open the document and select File > Export.
- InDesign User Guide
- Get to know InDesign
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- Introduction to InDesign
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Learn to export an InDesign document into EPUB format-Fixed Layout or Reflowable.
Export an InDesign document efficiently to EPUB format to enable users to view it on an EPUB reader. Select between reflowable and fixed layout formats based on your requirements.
A reflowable EPUB document allows the EPUB reader to optimize the content depending on the display device, making it ideal for e-Ink devices. This format allows readers to customize text font and size.
Fixed Layout format supports audio, video, and Edge content. It's suitable for graphics, text, audio, and video documents, making it perfect for children's books, cookbooks, textbooks, and comics. You can also export interactive documents that include controls such as navigation buttons, page transitions, animations, and hyperlinks to the fixed layout format.
Use the Export command to export a document in EPUB format.
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Specify a location and File name.
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Select EPUB (Fixed Layout) or EPUB (Reflowable) in Save as type (Windows) or Format (macOS).
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Select Use InDesign Document Name as the Output Filename if you want the same file name, and select Save.
The Export dialog box appears.
Currently, InDesign uses the XHTML file name as the page title for an EPUB (Reflowable) document. With the latest update, InDesign will select page titles based on one of the following criteria:
- The first heading found in the content.
- The first 50 characters in the file content, followed by a space and an ellipsis.
- The title from InDesign file info metadata.
- The XHTML file name without the file extension.
InDesign will select the page title based on Page <page number> for the EPUB (Fixed Layout) document.
InDesign creates a single .epub file containing the XHTML-based content. To view the file, you need an EPUB reader. You can also use the Adobe Digital Editions reader, which you can download free from the Adobe website.
The .epub file is essentially a .zip file. Change the extension to .zip and extract to view and edit its contents. This is quite useful for editing a CSS file.
Export options for EPUB Fixed Layout and EPUB Reflowable format
EPUB Fixed Layout format offers precise design control, ideal for image-rich content, while EPUB Reflowable format provides adaptable text for various devices, prioritizing readability and flexibility.
You can customize the following options based on your requirements:
Version |
Version of the EPUB. EPUB 2.0.1 is a standard by IDPF (approved in 2007). This format is supported on a wide variety of devices. (Reflowable Layout format only) EPUB 3.0 Supports audio, video, JavaScript, and vertical Japanese text. This isn't supported on devices that don't support the EPUB 3.0 standard. EPUB 3.0 is an approved standard (by IDPF, 2011). This is available in both Fixed Layout and Reflowable Layout formats. |
Cover |
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Navigation TOC |
|
Options (Fixed Layout only) |
Select the order in which page elements are exported.
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Content (Reflowable Format only) |
Order: Select the order in which page elements are exported.
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Split Document: (Reflowable Layout only) |
Check to split the document while you export it to a reflowable EPUB.
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Text (Reflowable Layout Format only)
Options |
Remove Forced Line Breaks: Remove all soft returns in the exported eBook. |
Footnotes |
Footnotes Select from the following options to choose the placement of footnotes.
If you add a footnote using the document footnote option and specify a rule, for example, weight is 10 points; then this horizontal rule is supported in reflowable EPUB on export. |
Lists |
|
Object (Reflowable Layout format only)
Preserve Appearance from Layout (for Graphic/Media objects) |
Select to inherit the image object attributes from the layout. |
Use Existing Image for Graphic objects |
Select to inherit the existing attributes for graphic objects. |
CSS |
CSS Size: Select whether the CSS Size must be Fixed or Relative to Text Flow. Layout: Specify the image alignment - left, center, and right. You can also specify the top and bottom padding. Space Before: Enter the number of pixels for the space before an object. The range to enter the number of pixels is 0 to 10,000. Space After: Enter the number of pixels for the space after an object. The range to enter the number of pixels is 0 to 10,000. Insert Page Break: Insert page breaks with images. Page breaks can be inserted Before Image, After Image, or Before and After Image. |
SVG Options |
Select Use Existing Image for Graphic Objects to enable this option.
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Ignore Object Export Settings |
Ignore Object Export settings applied on individual images. Learn more how to apply object export options. |
Conversion Settings
Format |
Specify whether the optimized images in your document are converted to GIF, JPEG, or PNG. Select Automatic if you want InDesign to decide which format to use in each instance. |
Resolution (PPI) |
Specify the resolution of the images in pixels per inch (ppi). The higher the number, the better the resolution. While operating systems have standardized on either 72 ppi or 96 ppi, mobile devices range from 132 ppi (iPad) to 172 ppi (Sony Reader) to over 300 ppi (iPhone 4). |
JPEG Options |
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GIF Options |
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PNG Options |
Disable the image compression settings. Use PNG for lossless images or for images that include transparency. |
HTML & CSS (Reflowable Layout format only)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are a collection of formatting rules that control the appearance of content on a web page. You can separate content from presentation using CSS to format a page.
Don't include classes in HTML |
Select this option if you do not want to include classes in the HTML. It removes the class and id attributes present in the tag during HTML Export. Any redundant div tags present in the HTML are also removed. |
Include classes in HTML |
Select this option to include classes in HTML. |
Generate CSS |
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Preserve Local Overrides |
Include local formatting such as italic or bold. |
Include Embeddable Fonts |
Include all fonts that are embeddable, in the eBook. Fonts include embedding bits that determine if the font is embeddable. |
Add Style Sheet |
Specify the URL of an existing CSS style sheet that will be used in the EPUB export. |
Remove |
Remove the selected style sheet. |
CSS (Fixed Layout format only)
Add Style Sheet |
Specify the URL of an existing CSS style sheet that will be used in the EPUB export. |
Remove |
Remove the selected style sheet. |
JavaScript
Add JavaScript File |
Specify the URL of an existing JavaScript. InDesign doesn't verify JavaScript existence or validity, so ensure your JavaScript setup is correct. |
Remove |
Remove the selected JavaScript. |
Metadata
The metadata from the document (or the style source document if a book was selected) is included with the exported file.
General
Identifier |
(Read-only) Every EPUB document requires a unique identifier. A unique identifier is automatically created and displayed. |
Title |
Enter the title of the EPUB. |
Creator |
Enter the name of the creator of the EPUB. |
Date |
Specify the date when the EPUB has been created. |
Description |
Enter a description of the EPUB. |
Publisher |
Specify the publisher information that appears in the eBook metadata. For example, you can specify a URL for the publisher. |
Rights |
Enter copyright information here. |
Subject |
Enter the subject of the EPUB. |
Accessibility
Accessibility Metadata |
|
Accessibility Credentials |
It is recommended to use InDesign 19.3 and above for optimum use of accessibility features, as InDesign has fixed some critical issues.
Viewing App
System Default |
Select this option to open the EPUB with the system default application for EPUB files. |
Add Application |
Select the application installed in your system that can read EPUB format. |
Remove |
Remove an added application. |
EPUB Application |
Version |
Supported |
Not Supported |
Apple iBooks (macOS) |
1.0.1 |
Yes |
|
Oxygen (macOS and Windows) |
14.1 (macOS) 15 (Windows) |
Yes |
|
Kindle Previewer (macOS and Windows) |
2.92 |
Yes |
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Sigil (macOS and Windows) |
0.7.4 |
Yes |
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Kindle (macOS) |
1.10.6 |
No |
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VitalSource Bookshelf (macOS) |
6.2 |
No |
|
Apple Book Proofer (macOS) |
1.0.1 |
Does not accept EPUBs with embedded fonts |
|
Adobe Digital Editions (Windows) |
3.0.86137 |
Yes |
|
Calibre (Windows) |
1.26 |
Yes |
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Azardi (Windows) |
2.0 |
Yes |
|
Kobo (Windows) |
3.6.0 |
No |
The following text options are supported when creating documents for export to the fixed layout format:
- Text is not rasterized. This implies live text is searchable and selectable
- Live text can be scaled horizontally and vertically
- Tab leaders can be included
- Language attributes are marked up on tags
- Tags are marked up with CSS classes
- Hyperlinks and cross references on text are supported to URLs, text anchors, and pages
Limitations: Also note the following limitations when including text in your documents for export to EPUB:
- Kerning is not supported on an individual glyph and is distributed as letter spacing across all the letters of a word
- Alternate glyphs generated by OpenType features, including small caps, all caps, and fractions are not supported due to limited device support
- Middle Eastern right-to-left text frames remain not properly supported
Japanese text support
The following Japanese feature options are available for export to the fixed layout format:
- Ruby text is live and not rasterized in the output
- Warichu is supported in Live text
- Character rotation is supported in Live text
- Composite fonts are supported
- Vertical Text Frames are supported including rotated glyphs
Limitations: Also note the following limitations when including Japanese text in your documents for export to EPUB:
- Japanese Tate-Chu-Yoko is not supported in vertical text frames
- Japanese ideographic characters lose their positioning when True Type fonts are used
- Japanese Kenten font is rasterized in live text
The following hyperlink options are supported when creating documents for export to the fixed layout format:
- Text-based hyperlinks and cross references
- Object based hyperlinks
- Hyperlinks to Pages for both text- and object-based hyperlinks
The export process provides the following navigation capabilities in the EPUB output:
NAV landmarks |
NAV landmarks are generated for both fixed Layout and reflowable formats based on the values for epub:type specified in the Object Export Options dialog. Only the first occurrence of the value is added to the landmarks. |
EPUB 2 |
InDesign provides support for the EPUB 2 section in the OPF file. InDesign automatically detects the cover and the print Table Of Contents option. To determine the text type, InDesign uses the epub:type values specified in the Object Export Options dialog. |
NAV page-list |
(Fixed Layout format). InDesign generates a page-list by mapping the page number strings to the XHTML files that are generated from that page. |
CSS generation for a book
When you export a book to EPUB, the export process generates a CSS for each document in the book. Each document CSS defines the styles that are unique to the document. The process also creates a master CSS that includes the common styles used across the documents in the book.
Use the options in the Object Export Options dialog to specify how the objects in a document are handled during the EPUB export.
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Open the Object Export Options dialog (Object > Export Options) and go to the EPUB and HTML section.
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Choose from the following options in the Preserve Appearance From Layout list:
Default
Handling of the Object is determined by the settings in the Export Dialog.
For the reflowable format, this is controlled by the settings in the Conversion Tab.Use Existing Image for Graphic objects
If the Object contains an image, and the image is compatible with EPUB export (JPG, PNG, GIF), then the container is styled using CSS and the image is not processed.
Rasterize Container
This is equivalent to Preserve Appearance From Layout in the Reflowable Export/Conversion section. The whole object is rasterized, thus preserving its appearance. If the object is a text frame, the text will no longer be live.
Rasterize Content
The content of the object is rasterized thus the styling of the object or container is controlled by CSS and not may not entirely display like it did in InDesign.
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(Reflowable EPUB) Choose from the following options in the Size list to maintain the aspect ratio of an object, such as an image that has no internal fixed content:
None
No CSS width or height is generated for the tag mapped from the object. The size of the object is determined by the internal content, if any, according to the CSS rules, the aspect ratio is not maintained.
Default
The settings in the Export dialog/ Object tab determine the CSS Size.
Fixed
The CSS Size is determined by calculating the dimension of the object in points and defining the same dimensions in the CSS as pixels. The aspect ratio of the object is maintained.
Relative to Text Flow
The CSS width is determined by taking the width of the object and expressing it as a percentage relative to the width of the text frame containing the text flow. The aspect ratio of the object is maintained.
Relative to Text Size
The CSS height is determined by taking the height of the object in points and converting it to ems at 12pts per em. The aspect ratio of the object is maintained.
Custom Width/ Height
Valid CSS units are cm, mm, in, pt, %, px, vh, vw, vmin, and vmax. The aspect ratio of the object is maintained.
- These options don't apply to the main flow text frames.
- Objects containing Edge Animate don't support relative measures.
EPUB resources
Use the following links to learn about EPUB format.
- For more information on the EPUB specification, see www.idpf.org.
- Download a free copy of the Digital Editions reader at www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions.html.
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