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diff --git a/gemini/posts/markdown/2020-03-30/creating-an-ebook-with-markdown/index.gmi b/gemini/posts/markdown/2020-03-30/creating-an-ebook-with-markdown/index.gmi new file mode 100644 index 0000000..25fc38a --- /dev/null +++ b/gemini/posts/markdown/2020-03-30/creating-an-ebook-with-markdown/index.gmi @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ +# Creating an Ebook With Markdown + +> Mon 30th March 2020 By David T. Sadler. + +Pandoc is a great tool for converting a file in one markup format into another. This means we can use it to convert a file written in Markdown into an EPUB file that is supported by many e-readers. + +Lets start by writting a very simple markdown file called example_ebook.md. + +```markdown +--- +title: +- type: main + text: Example Ebook +- type: subtitle + text: An Ebook created from a Markdown file +creator: +- role: author + text: David Sadler +publisher: Published by myself +--- + +This is an introduction. + +# Chapter 1 + +This is the first paragraph of chapter 1. + +This is the second paragraph of chapter 1. + +Below is a list. + +- Item One +- Item Two +- Item Three + +# Chapter 2 + +This is the first paragraph of chapter 2. + +This is the second paragraph of chapter 2. + +# Chapter 3 + +This is the first paragraph of chapter 3. + +This is the second paragraph of chapter 3. +``` + +Note that the file begins with a YAML metadata block that starts and ends with three hyphens (---). This allows you to specify EPUB metadata such as the title and author. + +Converting this to EPUB is done by running pandoc. + +```shell +$ pandoc example_ebook.md -t epub3 --toc -o example_ebook.epub +``` + +There are several options that need to be passed to pandoc. + +* example_ebook.md - This argument is the file that you are converting. +* -t epub3 - Set the output format to be EPUB v3 book. +* --toc - Include a table of contents in the output document. This will be derived from the H1 headers in the markdown. +* -o example_ebook.epub - Tell pandoc to output the conversion to the named file instead of stdout. + +You can now copy the file example_ebook.epub to any device that supports the format or use one of the many software readers such as Calibre. However, if you wish to read this on a Kindle device you will need to convert it to the Mobi format. + +Amazon provides a command line tool called KindleGen that can convert our EPUB file into the Mobi format. After downloading the tool just run it as shown below. + +```shell +$ kindlegen example_ebook.epub +``` + +This will create a file called example_ebook.mobi that you can copy to your Kindle to read. + +### Links + +=> https://pandoc.org/ Pandoc. +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown/ Markdown. +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB/ EPUB. +=> https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#extension-yaml_metadata_block YAML metadata block. +=> https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#epub-metadata EPUB metadata. +=> https://www.w3.org/community/epub3/ EPUB v3 book. +=> https://calibre-ebook.com/ Calibre Application. +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats#Mobipocket Mobi Format. +=> https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765211 KindleGen Application. + +=> /posts/markdown/ Markdown - Read More Posts. + +I don't have comments as I don't want to manage them. You can however contact me at the below address if you want to. + +=> mailto:david@davidtsadler.com Email david@davidtsadler.com + +=> https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ The contents of this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. + +Copyright © 2021 David T. Sadler. + +=> / Return to Homepage. |