Nate at MobileRead posted: "The next version of Mobi Creator and Mobigen will support EPUB creation."
(http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23992)

Great news. I'm wondering, however, if this means full ePub creation with complete image support and other features.

About Mobi Desktop Reader, not creation tools themselves--Alan Wallcraft writes in response to Nate's post:

"I tried one of Adobe's sample ebooks, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It displays well in Adobe Digital Editions, including the text wrapping around images. FBReader displays it ok too, but without CSS support it does not wrap the text or style the chapter heading. In MobiPocket Reader, a MOBI version was produced but without any images and with character encoding errors.

"MobiPocket Reader did better on Red Alert, another Adobe sample ebook. However, Digital Editions and MobiPocket Reader display the chapter title in different colors.

"Both MobiPocket Reader and FBReader fail to produce a TOC from the toc.ncx file for both ebooks. When I tried mobigen (rather than MobiPocket Reader) the console messages indicate that the toc.ncx file is read, but no TOC was produced.

"MobiPocket Reader failed to convert the only epub example I have with SVG graphics, but it is seriously non-conforming and so this might not have been due to the SVG content.

(http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=184931&postcount=15>

My question are:

1. Are the Wallcraft statements accurate, as they would appear to be?

2. If so, will Mobi address the problems he identified when it releases new versions of the Reader later this year?

3. Will Mobi Creator and Mobigen do complete creation of ePub files--without anything missing in all or some cases, such as images? If not, what will be missing? Will Creator and Mobigen convert from all the formats that Creator and Mobigen can?

4. I'm just baffled I haven't heard more about the forthcoming creation tools. Just to be extra, extra sure, the words "support creation" (not a direct quote from Mobi) do mean actual creation, no? Or is there a nuance I'm missing? We're talking about creation OF ePub, not just FROM ePub?

Many thanks. Despite the AW's understandable concerns, it's wonderful to hear that ePub creation tool will indeed exist.

An email reply would be great.

Thanks,
David Rothman / drNOSPAMteleread.org
(for TeleRead.org)

Hello

Here are some answers:

Quote:

"I tried one of Adobe's sample ebooks, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It displays well in Adobe Digital Editions, including the text wrapping around images. FBReader displays it ok too, but without CSS support it does not wrap the text or style the chapter heading. In MobiPocket Reader, a MOBI version was produced but without any images and with character encoding errors.

This is strange. The actual version of mobigen supports almost everything (Pictures, CSS,...) and should not give out character encoding errors. We had not been informed about the sample encoding errors. We would be happy to look into this if you could provide us with the ebook sample concerned.

Quote:

"Both MobiPocket Reader and FBReader fail to produce a TOC from the toc.ncx file for both ebooks. When I tried mobigen (rather than MobiPocket Reader) the console messages indicate that the toc.ncx file is read, but no TOC was produced.

The TOC is read and is created, it is simply not shown in the Reader but it will be very soon.

Quote:

"MobiPocket Reader failed to convert the only epub example I have with SVG graphics, but it is seriously non-conforming and so this might not have been due to the SVG content.

The SVG is indeed not supported.

Our philosophy is to create eBooks from epub files. We are not offering an epub creation tool, rather an ebook creation tool from all sorts of files (epub included).

Thank you, wallcraf.
We'll look into this.

Kind Regards