Post #2238327
2026-05-08 15:43 UTC
I had a conversation with a writer the other day about how one of the main ways writers prep epubs is to write in HTML then convert using Pandoc or similar.
Well this spiraled out into an entire Thing about semantic HTML and webdev and how everything says all of your styling should be in CSS and... you know, that's for web, not for source files for epub conversion.
I had much the same problems when I started using HTML/CSS to do broadcast graphic design. The style is the data. So those outlooks don't really apply the same way.
Sometimes style conveys data. Emphasis is one such example. So doing emphasis with a styled <span> means conversions lose data.
Replies (2)
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@Maverynthia@dragon.style 2026-05-10 18:29
@trysdyn@electric.marf.space And the fact that most people want to undo whatever CSS you've done to read the book their way. Simple HTML is the way to go.
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@GandalfDG@indieweb.social 2026-05-09 14:09
@trysdyn@electric.marf.space I've been using my jailbroken Kindle to read epubs and I was surprised how few people bother with epubs. I've been thinking about a semi-automated process for converting web-based documentation to epub but it's not straightforward at all 😛 Automatic conversions of PDF almost never produces acceptable results