How to Prepare a Digital Edition PDF Book With Adobe InDesign

This tutorial will offer you some advice on how to use Adobe What do I Need?
InDesign to prepare an optimized digital edition PDF book.
This tutorial will have you use Adobe InDesign to create your
There are two ways to produce a digital edition PDF presented in content and cover and prepare them as a print-ready PDF.
this tutorial. One way will use InDesign to directly export a PDF at a
resolution appropriate for viewing on computers and devices. The The screenshots shown in the tutorial use Adobe InDesign CS5.5
other will use Acrobat Pro to optimize an existing high-resolution PDF. for Mac. If you are using different versions of the software, some
If you do not have Acrobat Pro and wish to test this process, you can of the instructions and screenshots will be slightly different, but you
download a trial version from the Adobe website: www.adobe.com. should be able to find the right feature in your software version.

The Tutorial is Broken up into Sections: How do I Get This Software?

1. Setting up your InDesign Document Adobe InDesign is available from Adobe at www.adobe.com. Adobe
2. Adding Cover Images and Setting Up Pagination does have educational discounts on their software if you are able to
take advantage of them:
3. Adding Bookmarks
4. Adding Hyperlinks https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-
EDU&event=displayCatalog&catalogOID=2071995
5. Exporting your InDesign file as a PDF ebook
6. Optimizing a high-resolution PDF using Acrobat Pro Or get it as part of the Creative Cloud and pay a monthly fee.
7. Tips and Things to Remember http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/designstandard.html
8. What do I do Next?
9. I Need More Help!

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 1. Setting up your InDesign 2. Adding Cover Images and
Document Setting Up Pagination
For your convenience, we have created a few template files for Before you begin any method of PDF export described, make sure
different standard book sizes to make your layout work easier. your front and back cover files are the first and second pages of your
You can find these templates under the TITLE MANAGEMENT PDF digital edition. You can add two pages at the beginning of your
section of your publisher menu under DIGITAL TITLES. Choose interior text file document, and then place your cover images on those
the link called Preparing Your Book for Digital Download. pages. Save your document before you begin the next step.
Setting up your file is nearly identical to setting up a book for print Next, you will want to change the pagination of the cover pages to
but the specifications are much looser. If you plan to produce both Roman numerals (i, ii). This is a good idea to do because the cover
print and digital editions, you should set up your book files to print pages won’t goof up the interior book block pagination. Those page
specs and then produce a digital book from the same files. numbers will still reference the Table of Contents.
(For more information about the mechanics of setting up your First, using the Pages palette,
InDesign file for print, e.g., creating Master Pages, importing and expand the palette options
styling text using Style Sheets, and placing art, see the DriveThru from the icon in the upper right
tutorial for InDesign in the Preparing Your Book for Print menu in the corner of the palette. Navigate
link for PRINT TEMPLATES & TUTORIALS.) down to and select Numbering
& Section Options.
The Numbering & Section
options dialog box pops up.
Under Page Numbering, select
the Roman numerals from the
drop-down menu. Click OK.

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 2. Adding Cover Images and
3. Adding Bookmarks
Setting Up Pagination (continued)
The entire book now changes to To make navigating through a large
Roman numeral pagination. To fix PDF book easier, bookmarks can be
this, you will need to select page iii made in your InDesign document,
(page 3) in the Pages palette, force a which can be exported and used
Section start, and repaginate the rest in your final PDF digital edition.
of the book using Arabic numerals. A good use of bookmarking is to
pl
place one at the first page of every
With page iii selected in the Pages ch
chapter in your book, so readers
palette, expand the palette options, ca
can jump straight to the chapter of
and navigate down to Numbering & th
the book where they last left it.
Section Options again. This time,
check Section Start. Make sure the Start Page You will need to open your Bookmarks
Yo
Numbering at: field is set to 1. Then in the Style palette. To find and open it, pull down
pa
drop-down under Page Numbering, select the the Window menu from the top of your
th
Arabic numerals. sc
screen, navigate down to Interactive, then select Bookmarks from
th expanded contextual menu. A check box next to the list item
the
Now if you check your Pages palette, your in
indicates that palette as being open in your workspace.
pagination should be correct.

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 3. Adding Bookmarks (continued)
Next, navigate to the text in your document that you would like to
assign as a bookmark. Highlight that text with your cursor. Then,
to create a new bookmark, either click the page icon at the bottom
of the box next to the Trash Can icon in the Bookmarks palette,
or expand the menu options from the top right-hand corner of the
palette and select New Bookmark.
The text you have highlighted will now appear in the Bookmarks
palette list. An anchor icon will appear to the left.
You will need to proof this list and rearrange as necessary. To
manage the bookmarks in your document, use this palette.
Bookmarks will appear on this list in the order they are made,
not in the order they occur in the document. To reorder your
bookmarks, expand the menu from the top right-hand corner
and choose Sort Bookmarks. This automatically rearranges the
bookmark entries by page order as they occur in the document.
You can also create hierarchies in
the Bookmark palette. To make a
sub-level bookmark, you can drag
and drop a bookmark on the list and
nest it underneath another. See the
screenshot below for an example.

If you are also preparing your digital book for export in the epub format, you can make InDesign autogenerate
a Table of Contents for the front or back of your book, which automatically adds and inserts bookmarks in
your document based on your TOC information. Find out more about these mechanics under the DIGITAL
TITLES section of your publisher menu. Choose the Epub & Mobi Export link.

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 4. Adding Hyperlinks
In some digital books, you may want to add links between pages Adding links between pages
that occur in your document, such as links from the entries in your
Table of Contents to your chapter starts, or links to destinations Assigning hyperlinks
outside your document, such as a web URL. In Adobe InDesign, between pages in your
you can dictate link sources from text or a placed art file. Link document (or multiple
destinations can be to other locations inside the same document, to documents) is very easy
other documents, to an email address, or to a web URL. using InDesign. We’ll
begin here by making a
In this tutorial, we’ll cover linking within the same document, and hyperlink from the first link
linking from inside your document to an outside web URL. of the Table of Contents
If you choose to add interactivity to your digital edition, make sure to to the chapter in the book
test each created link in your final PDF after export. it should jump to.

You will need to open your Hyperlinks Using your text cursor,
palette. To find and open it, pull down highlight your source
the Window menu from the top of your text. Then expand the
screen, navigate down to Interactive, menu of your Hyperlinks
then select Hyperlinks from the palette from the icon in
expanded contextual menu. A check the top right-hand corner.
box next to the list item indicates Select New Hyperlink.
that palette as being open in your The New Hyperlink
workspace. dialog box will open.
Expand the Link To:
options by expanding
the drop-down menu.
Choose Page as your
link destination.

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 4. Adding Hyperlinks (continued)
Now set your Destination You can test your new
information. If you hyperlink by selecting
expand the Document it in your Hyperlink
drop-down, you will see palette, expanding the
a list of all the saved Hyperlink menu options,
InDesign documents and selecting Go to
you currently have open. Destination. Your page
You can choose from view should jump to the
this list if you are linking destination you have
to the document you just assigned.
are currently working
in, choose a different
document that is
already open, or choose
Browse... to find and
open a different InDesign
document to assign your
link destination to.
Make sure that you have
set your destination
page number to reflect
the page number of the
source on your TOC. You should also choose your Zoom settings
here. If you have already created a Style Sheet for formatting your
hyperlink text, you can expand the Character Style drop-down menu
and choose your style. When you have completed your Destination
and Appearance details, click OK. Your new hyperlink will appear in
the Hyperlink palette.

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 4. Adding Hyperlinks (continued)
Adding links to web URLs mailto://, etc.).

There are several ways to add hyperlinks to URLs in your document. When you have completed your Destination and Appearance details,
Once you become familiar, you will find the way that works best for click OK. Your new hyperlink will
you. appear in the Hyperlink palette.

Using your text cursor Another way to create a

to select your source hyperlink to a URL is to choose
text, expand the New Hyperlink from URL from
options menu of your the expanded menu options of
Hyperlinks palette by the Hyperlink palette. The link
clicking the top-right will automatically generate and
icon. From the list, will appear in the list on your
select New Hyperlink. Hyperlink palette. Should you
choose this method, make sure
The New Hyperlink to select that URL on your list and
dialog box will open. review the Hyperlink Options and
Expand the Link To: Hyperlink Destination Options
drop-down menu and associated with it. Check to
select URL. The URL in make sure your Destination and
the Destination field can Appearance details are correct
be any valid Internet before proceeding
address (http://, ftp://,

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 5. Exporting Your InDesign file as a PDF ebook
Now that you’ve completed setting up your book for print, exporting it as a digital PDF ebook is easy!
There are three ways to make an optimized digital edition from your InDesign file:
1. Export a PDF directly from InDesign, adjusting your PDF export settings to make them appropriate for viewing on a computer, a
tablet or other mobile device.
(This method will be covered in the following pages.)
2. Use your print-ready PDF and optimize it in Acrobat Pro using the Preflight Print Production Tool. When you open the Preflight tool,
make sure to choose the Online Publishing (optimize for quality) profile under the Digital Printing and Online Publishing profile options.
(This method will also be covered in the following pages.)
3. Export a postscript file from InDesign or Acrobat Pro for processing in Acrobat Distiller. This method uses a custom profile setting,
called a .joboption file, made in Distiller.
(Although this method tends to make more stable files that are less prone to errors than ones exported directly from InDesign, it will
not be covered here.)

Please do not use any Security settings in your digital edition export. The ability to copy/paste or print the digital edition can be
managed under the File Security settings in your Product File information when you upload the book. Any security settings imposed on
your uploaded digital edition will hinder our automatic watermarking process during customer check-out.

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 5. Exporting Your InDesign file as a PDF ebook (continued)
Export a PDF directly from InDesign The Export to Interactive PDF
dialog box will open. Adjust your
Although the Preflight tool in Acrobat Pro is settings to match the settings
more comprehensive in its profile settings, shown in the screenshot to the
and Distiller tends to make more stable PDFs right. Especially important is to
than direct InDesign exports do, the process choose JPEG Compression, not
we’ll be overviewing in this section is the JPEG 2000 compression under
direct export method. the Image Handling setting.
Many devices don’t render images
With your newly paginated file open, select using JPEG 2000 compression,
Export from the File drop-down menu. so it’s best not to set the file up for
An Export dialog box will open. Navigate to potential viewing errors.
the location you would like to save your new Once you have adjusted your
PDF, rename it so as to not overwrite any export settings, click OK. A
other files, and then make sure Adobe PDF Warning dialog box may pop up
(Interactive) is selected as the Format. at this point, to warn you that color
shifting may occur in the process
because your CMYK file will be
converted to RGB values. This
conversion process is necessary,
so just click OK.
Make sure to proof your new PDF when it’s complete.

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 6. Optimizing a high-resolution PDF using Acrobat Pro
Using the Preflight Print Production tool The Preflight dialog box will open.
Expand the profiles for Digital
You can take a high-resolution PDF and process it for web and device printing and online publishing, and
viewing by using this tool in the full version of Adobe Acrobat. Again, choose Online publishing (optimize
your file should include the front and back covers at the front of the for quality). Then click the Analyze
document and have pagination that sets those pages off from the rest and fix button at the bottom right-
of the book. hand corner of the box.
Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat. Depending on the version of
Acrobat that you are using, you can either expand the Tools pane
from the upper right-hand corner of your window, expand the Print
Production tools and navigate down to Preflight (Version X) or pull
down the Advanced menu from the application bar, and navigate down
to Preflight (Versions 9 and earlier).

A dialog box will open, prompting you to save the file. Make sure to
change your file name slightly so as not to overwrite your high-resolution
print PDF file. Click Save. Then the Preflight process will begin.
Once Preflighting is done, the
Preflight dialog box will list a report
of tasks completed. If your file was
successfully processed, a green
check mark will appear in the top
left-hand corner of the window. If
it failed, a red X will appear in the
same place. On failure, you can
poke through the process report in
the dialog box to see what elements
Acrobat X Acrobat 9 and earlier failed, and then go back and fix
those elements before trying to
Preflight again.
To learn more about using Adobe Acrobat for bookmarking and
hyperlinking, refer to DriveThru’s Quick Specs for Digital Books.

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7. Tips and Things to Remember 8. What do I do next?
Specifications Once you have finished producing and testing your digital PDF
edition, you’re ready to upload! Log into your account on site and
Although exporting your PDF using the methods provided will go to the TITLE MANAGEMENT section of your Publisher Menu
take care of most of the specifications required of a digital PDF and use the SET UP A NEW TITLE tool.
ebook, there are a few things that are important enough to bring to
your attention again. These points are listed in DriveThru’s Quick If you have any questions about how to proceed with filling out this
Specs document and Checklist for Digital Books, both of which form, see the WALK-THROUGH FOR ENTERING NEW BOOK
can be found on the PREPARING YOUR TITLE FOR DIGITAL TITLES link under the TITLE MANAGEMENT section of your
DOWNLOAD page under the DIGITAL TITLES section of your Publisher Menu. You will find more information there to assist you.
Publisher Menu. After a successful upload, you can choose to activate your title for
• DO NOT use JPEG2000 compression in any linked or live sale! How exciting!
embedded JPEG art files, even if it reduces your file size.
Apple’s iPad and iPhone cannot display images using
JPEG2000 compression.
• DO NOT use PDF/A profile compliance for your exported PDF. 9. I Need More Help!
• DO NOT use transparency in your document or images.
Apple’s iPad and iPhone also have problems displaying
PDFs with transparency attributes. Your publisher service rep is not really an expert on digital
layout, so chances are slim that he or she will be able to answer
• DO NOT lock or use security settings in your exported PDF. questions not answered in this tutorial. However, please do email
This means imposing password protection as well as turning us your questions anyway so we can help find an answer if we
off the ability to copy/paste or print from the PDF. can and also so that we can improve this tutorial so it answers
These options can be managed under the File Security more questions for everyone.
settings in your Product File information on the DriveThru
You can also find people with professional skills in digital layout
site when you upload your book. Any security settings
and contract them to create your files. The cost of this work
imposed on your uploaded digital edition will cause errors
depends on how much of the work you do yourself before handing
during the automatic watermarking process at the point of
it over for layout. We can recommend someone for layout if you
customer check-out.
would like. Please contact Publisher Service for details.
Or you can also find freelance layout professionals at sites like
www.elance.com.

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