How To Make an eBook:

Using Sigil to Design EPUBs

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Ebooks come in a variety of formats, and one of the most common formats is an EPUB file. Specifically, an EPUB is a “reflowable” industry-standard ebook format. When we say “reflowable,” we mean that it is malleable, and adjusts its presentation to fit the display size and parameters of its output device. HTML webpages (like this one) typically do the same thing to a certain degree.

In fact, there are a lot of similarities between building a website and building an EPUB. If you’re already used to HTML — say, from formatting a Neocities site — then you’re going to have an easier time jumping into Sigil.

In separate guides, we’re also going to review how to make PDFs using Scribus. We might also go over using websites to host stories, and possibly a simpler way to make a PDF using a word processor. This guide is still being drafted and refined, so don’t be alarmed at how long it is, or how it cuts off abruptly at the end. More is coming soon, and your patience with us (and this program) will be rewarded.

Firstly; Why Sigil?

ike with Scribus, we’ve chosen Sigil because it’s a scrappy, serviceable piece of open source freeware that will serve you well if you take the time to understand its ins and outs. There are plenty of services out there that automatically convert word processor files into EPUB format. We find that those can be a good starting point for a functional file, but a lot of them can be snarly behind the scenes; if you make a mistake with one of those converters, it can be frustrating to have to tweak your original document and put it through all over again. Screwing up your Table of Contents is really easy to do. Not to mention situations where the issue you’re having is a problem from how the converter itself works!

The great thing about Sigil is that you don’t really have to choose between those converters and this program. If you have an EPUB file (EPUB2 or EPUB3), then you can open it right up in Sigil and tinker with it without any problem.

Here are some frank facts from our experiences using Sigil;

• If you know how a website works, with CSS style pages, base HTML pages, and site-stored elements like images that work together to present content, then grasping the basic internal layout of an EPUB on Scribus should be easy.
• Since it runs on HTML, all the usual HTML annoyances apply. So for example, if you paste a chapter directly into the document, it’s up to you to add the HTML tags for every individual paragraph. However, you can install plugins and run scripts to do certain tasks for you, if that’s something that appeals to you. We personally don’t mind zoning out and plonking down tags manually.
• The interface has a dark mode, and all the default button icons are large and brightly-colored. Like Scribus, it is dropdown heavy, but there are also elements that you can move around to set up your own workflow. There is also a preview window right there in the editor, which is a little more convenient than the viewing situation is on Neocities!
• If Scribus runs quickly enough for you, then so will Sigil. However, we have found that Sigil is more crash-prone than Scribus is; save your work whenever you plan to step away from the program, and close the window, or you’ll risk it crashing and erasing all your progress when you next come back to it. EDIT 11/22/2023: We no longer experience crashes. Sigil team did good! Still, vigilant saving is always smart.
• It’s much more glitch-proof than Scribus is overall.

In general we recommend Sigil if you are a perfectionist who likes to make sure that all your code lines up correctly. We’ve expressed that Scribus is more for the artistic types; Sigil can be like that, but unless you’re doing something crazy interesting with your ebook, the only formatting you really need to worry about is text formatting, table of contents formatting, metadata, and maybe a few images. It’s even simpler than most Neocities sites that way.

See, EPUBs might use HTML, but they are books, not websites. This is an obvious but really important distinction, because it changes how devices try to read these files. Getting too fancy with your display isn’t necessarily going to be appreciated by your readers, as different ereader devices and programs are liable to strip away “unnecessary” elements that you might have put in on purpose.

Using our own experience as an example, here are some display discrepancies that can crop up in an overly-fancy ebook;

• Drop caps may be ignored.
• Specific text colors may be ignored.
• Background colors and/or images may be ignored.
• Font choices may not show on other systems unless you embed them correctly (we've had a pretty bad time with this in particular), and your font choice might be overridden anyway.

The reason why these elements might get stripped away isn’t arbitrary; it’s largely for accessibility reasons. People can customize their ereader displays in certain ways. Controlling font, text size, and colors can make a story easier for some people to read. But this also means that different display programs and devices might nix or override different elements, leaving your carefully-crafted document in different states of disarray depending on who is viewing it.

So with EPUBs, it’s a balance between specifying custom elements to give your book it’s own unique look, and between not overspecifying elements that won’t show up in the first place — or might ruin your document’s accessibility.

Though, if you’re overachievers like us, you can make a prettier, more elaborate file, AND a more basic accessible file. It’s more work, but it’s fun!

Here’s a quick example of what you can make if you get silly and unwise with it!

And here's an example of an EPUB that's more simplified and less likely to get fucked up on someone else's screen;

The easiest way to approach an EPUB is without any images at all, but we have lots of assets left over from our Scribus designs, so we spend a lot of time experimenting to see what looks good on the broadest range of screen sizes and orietations. Tip: flat chapter headers with a large size and HTML specifications that let it resize smaller but not larger than its actual width are the easiest element to make your chapters look pretty.

Like with our Scribus guide, we’re going to put up a button linking to a walkthrough and a few individual how-tos for specific elements below. We’re just not going to do that today. It’s happening on a different day. See you later, and feel free to grab Sigil from the sidebar and mess around with it in the meanwhile!

Temporary link going here in a moment.

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