ePUB Formatting for Phones, Tablets, and eReaders

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Take a moment to look at your book manuscript. You’ve spent hours on it, getting the spacing just right on that Microsoft Word doc. Every image looks flawless on screen and you’re sure it will convert to an eBook just fine. Unfortunately, whether you’re a first-time author or a seasoned pro, ePUB formatting is not for the faint of heart. It’s incredibly particular and can display differently on an iPad versus a Kindle versus a Kobo or other device.

If you’re not careful with your ePUB formatting, that device will start making creative decisions on your behalf. The last thing you need at this stage of the process is to open your ePUB on a phone and panic. We hear it all the time:

“Why is my chapter title so small?”
“Why did my paragraph indents vanish?”
“Why has my image moved to the opposite page?”
“Why does my eBook look great on iPad but terrible on Kindle?”

It’s a well-known fact of designing for digital devices that they behave nothing like print. In working to accommodate what feels most comfortable for the user, they focus on responsive design. That means that headings and subheadings can look nothing like you intended, images can shift on their own, and font sizes can get skewed.

The good news is that with the right guidance and ePUB formatting partner, your book can look clean, readable and professional whether it’s on a phone, tablet, or eReader. Here’s what to know:

Choose the right kind of ePUB (reflowable vs. fixed layout)

Before we even dive into fonts or spacing, there’s one all-important question to ask yourself:

Does your book need to keep its exact layout no matter what, or does it just need to read beautifully everywhere?

Most books, including novels, memoirs, nonfiction books, and business books should be reflowable (dynamic). This means that the text “flows” to fit the screen. The eReader then changes font size and sometimes font style. You’ll often see it referred to as reflowable or dynamic, but both terms mean the same thing.

If, on the other hand, your book is highly visual — think children’s books, cookbooks, or graphics-heavy guides, and the placement of both the text and images is part of the experience, you’ll likely need fixed layout. With a fixed layout, the page design stays “locked” in place. This makes sure that placement of text, images, tables, and other details are consistent across devices (with some limitations).

The golden rule of creating a reflowable ePUBs is: it will not match print.

This can be tough for authors to understand, because you spend so much of your effort making sure the print formatting of your book looks clean and consistent. But ePUBs are a different beast. There’s no “real” page count, for example, because page size changes depending on the screen size and reader settings.

So the goal, then, is not to “make the ePUB look exactly like the paperback.” Instead, your ePUB-specific goals are:

• Consistent headings
• Clean paragraphs
• Readable spacing
• Stable images
• Predictable scene breaks
• A table of contents that works

It won’t be identical to print, but it will combine both form and function in a way that’s usable on eReaders.

Avoid messy source files

The biggest issue when it comes to ePUB formatting is messy source files. If your Word document is full of manual formatting, like tabs, spaces for indents, random line breaks, or inconsistent styling, eBook conversion will amplify the mess.

Most importantly, use one method for paragraph formatting and don’t use the space bar to force layout changes. Even if you’re not a fan of styles, use them, as they’ll help your ePUB file look much more polished and professional. That means using a
“heading 1” for chapter titles, normal text for body text, and a consistent style for scene breaks. Avoid tabs for intends, multiple spaces to align text, and extra line breaks to try and “push” content down the page. Although these formatting tricks work in Word, they break in ePUB.

The biggest giveaway of a sloppy ePUB

What’s the biggest telltale sign of a sloppily formatted ePUB? Headings. For reflowable ePUBs, you want to be sure that your chapter titles scale nicely. Use consistent spacing before and after, and no weird font changes. Structure your eBook file so that it follows a clean hierarchy that feeds the table of contents.

This way, the ePUB conversion tool can correctly map your headings to where they need to go, and readers using various devices can navigate your book like an actual book, rather than one endless scrolling document.

Formatting images for ePUB

We could fill up an entire article on ePUB formatting for images alone, because they’re one of the trickiest parts of ePUB formatting. If you want to be sure your images look good across phones, tablets, and eReaders, you need to follow a few important steps to make the conversion as easy as possible.

Fortunately, BookBaby’s EPUB conversion team has prepared a
helpful guide to make formatting your images easier than ever. We recommend images at a minimum of 150 dpi/ppi and in RGB format rather than CMYK. We recommend using fewer, larger, cleaner images versus a bunch of tiny ones. Don’t rely on images for critical text, as they can look unreadable on smaller phone screens, and remember that e-ink devices are less forgiving than tablets when it comes to image formatting.

ePUB formatting that makes it easy to read on screen

The biggest takeaway from converting your file to ePUB? Don’t force the layout. Phones are ruthless. Tablets are more forgiving. eReaders tend to be picky, and every eReader can increase the font size at any moment, so your file needs to be able to hold up structurally to those differences.

Whether you choose to do it yourself or hire BookBaby for eBook conversion, following these steps will help you deliver a more confident and consistent reading experience across devices. Download our free eBook preparation guide to learn more.

Conclusion

ePUBs do not behave like print books and will display differently on phones, tablets, and e-readers. Most books should use reflowable ePUB formatting so that text adjusts to different screen sizes. Clean source files, consistent styles, and properly formatted headings are essential to avoid layout issues. Professional book design services ensure that both your print and digital editions maintain a consistent, polished look that reflects your brand as an author. Images must be optimized for screens, and layouts should not be forced. When done correctly, ePUB formatting creates a readable, professional experience across all devices. When you’re ready to create your eBook, reach out to BookBaby.