Background
I was asked by long-time friend and fellow art director, David Davis opens in a new tab, to help design and build his client’s book on family’s ancestry. The book was printed by IngramSpark, as well as distributed as an eBook, and converted for Kindle.
Challenge
The book was academic in nature, with 376 page and almost 200 end- or footnotes. Currently bi-directional endnote links (an accessibility requirement) aren’t supported for EPUB by Adobe InDesign. Additionally, bi-directional footnotes are only supported for a single document, which meant just one chapter. Another wrinkle — full-bleed images aren’t supported in EPUB platforms.
Solution
I forked the design files at a certain point in the process, so the print version could move forward without any additional delays. Images were redesigned without a bleed.
I alerted Adobe to the EPUB endnote/footnote issue and worked with someone on their development team, sharing example files. (The issue is being worked on in hopes of making it into the 2023 release.) I fixed all the accessibility issues manually within the code itself.
