Working with eBooks / eBooks 101

Status: MAINTENANCE – This project is part of the Rural Design Collective Project Pool and slated for future development
06.14.11“Ebook Enlightenment” Revisions at FLOSS Manuals – This is the current version of the book.

Cover design and interior images by Oceana Rain Fields
eBook Project Team: Oceana Rain Fields, Christopher Garcia
Mentors: R. Scotty Auble, Rebecca Hargrave Malamud, Levi Thompson.

The Rural Design Collective worked with author James Simmons to create an eBook on how to make eBooks. James Simmons is a developer who has created notable Activities for the One Laptop Per Child XO that focus on using the little green machine as a learning tool. We collaborated on the book at FLOSS Manuals, a site that makes it very easy for anyone to author their own book (with a specific focus on software manuals) and convert it into an eBook. This effort brought a wealth of information together to help everyone – especially teachers in the classroom.

Our project team created two versions of “Ebook Enlightenment” using FLOSS Manuals and PrinceXML to create a highly navigable PDF version and a designer print edition for our generous backers on Kickstarter. Both are available for download here:

    → Easy Reader Print(8.5″ x 7″)
    → Easy Reader Online(8.5″ x 11″, with bookmarks)

We documented our research during the mentoring season, and have archived it here for posterity. Enjoy!

Workspace 2010
Page Elements – Christopher
  • Table of Contents
  • Section
  • Text
  • Image (one and two)
  • license and acknowlegements
HTML Elements – Christopher
  • h1, h2, h3
  • p, strong, code
  • ol, ul, li
  • blockquote
  • img
Publishing Templates – rdcHQ

Book Design Files – rdcHQ
  • Cover – FPO .png
  • Cover Alternate – FPO .png
  • Section Images (Coming Soon)
  • Section HTML (Coming Soon)
  • Section CSS (Coming Soon)
Latest Book Epub – 07.29.10
Current Color Palette – Oceana

Hex Colors -
#000000 (black), #B3FF80 (green), #FF6600 (orange), #FFCCAA (peach), #FF2A2A (red).
Project Resources – rdcHQ
(Working Title)

RALWS Utilities:
Booki/FLOSS Links:
  • FLOSS Manuals (manual wiki)
  • Booki (multi-purpose eBook wiki)
  • Booki Bug Tracker (deprecated)
  • OBJAVI (Legacy PDF/ePub generator)
Other Bookish Links:
Design Reference:
Typography:
Page Thumbnails – Christopher (currently working on ePub conversion from SIGIL or Booki to PDF)