PubML Help
PubML is a full-featured publishing system that exports to both traditional eBook format (ePub) and a unique <PubML>™ format that works in any web browser (PubML is short for "Publishing with HTML"). The <PubML>™ Publishing tools were designed to be flexible and easy to use, but creating a quality eBook—especially one that contains links to photos, videos, and other outside media—involves numerous aesthetic decisions and technical steps. This help file was created to assist you with how to design your own eBook, but it also offers design guidance. For example, most writers are unfamilar with the subtleties of book typography; the road to hell is often paved with bad font choices. Links are provided to relevant articles on TheWorldsGreatestBook.com and video tutorials are included as needed. Important publishing vocabulary words are highlighted in red.
Index of Help Topics
Overview of Top-Level Settings
Overview of Book-Level Settings
Overview of Top-Level Settings
The <PubML>™ Publishing Sytem always displays four top-level tabs on every screen. These settings are connected to the entire publishing system rather than to any particular book. The top tabs refer to the following functions:
Settings: Registration
The <PubML>™ Tools and Platform are not the work of a big software company. This suite of tools, eBooks in the web browser, and the included copy of The Blue Monk, a 420-page web book, were created by a writer like you. Your registration fee covers my costs for development and future improvements. To unlock your copy of <PubML>™, please enter the license key provided when you purchased the software.
New Book
Use the "New Book" tab to create a new book (pretty intuitive, eh?). The only fields strictly required are a title and an author. The rest of the optional form fields refer to publishing industry standard metadata. Use them to associate an ISBN Number, subject categories, descriptive information, and a cover with your book.
If you don't have all the information now, you can always go back and edit a book's metadata later.
My Books
The "My Books" tab contains a library of all the eBooks you've added to your personal eBook publishing system. Use this "library" to select a book to edit, export, or delete.
Fonts
Unlike many conventional eBooks, <PubML>™ web books allow you to use embedded web fonts for better typography. Several default fonts are already included due to their suitabilty for book typography but you can add your own if you wish.
Adding fonts is a top-level function (the "Fonts" tab is in the top row). Fonts you add to your copy of the <PubML>™ Publishing System are available for inclusion in every eBook but won't necessarily be exported with every eBook. In English, this means you can load (for example) six different web fonts and then use two of them in one book and four of them in another. Each individual book will be exported with only the fonts that it actually uses.
You'll include specific fonts from your font library later when you create styles for an individual book.
Web fonts come with two drawbacks:
- They add file size to your book and will slow down the initial loading, especially on a slow connection.
- They won't work if a reader is not online
Solutions:
- Don't include more fonts than you need. An excellent book design can be created with only one or two.
- Always choose a "Fallback" font to complement each web font. The provided list of "fallback fonts" refers to fonts that are installed and available on almost every computer operating system. If your reader is not online and the web font can't load, your chosen "fallback font" will load in its place.