Ibis Next is an open-source tool developed for ebook creators who want to focus on content creation. Ibis Next supports writing in Markdown format and can generate ebooks in PDF, EPUB or HTML format. The tool aims to simplify the ebook creation process, allowing the writers to concentrate on their content while providing functionality for converting it into polished ebooks efficiently.
Ibis Next is a PHP-based tool that simplifies the entire eBook creation process. Leveraging the power of Markdown, it empowers users to focus on content creation while automating the complexities of generating professional-quality eBooks. Whether you're a seasoned author, a technical writer, or someone venturing into the world of eBook creation for the first time, Ibis Next is here to make the process seamless and efficient.
- Markdown: Write your content using the simplicity and versatility of Markdown.
- Automatic Generation: Effortlessly create PDF, EPUB or HTML files with a single command using the
ibis-next pdf
command oribis-next epub
oribis-next html
. - Aesthetic Appeal: create your eBooks with a custom cover photo, a clickable auto-generated table of contents, and code syntax highlighting.
- Theme Options: Choose between two visually appealing themes - Light and Dark (theme support available for PDFs).
Ibis Next is a powerful tool for effortlessly creating digital books (e-books) in EPUB, PDF, and HTML formats. With Ibis Next, writers can concentrate on crafting content without worrying about formatting. The content is authored in Markdown format, allowing for simplicity and flexibility.
Ibis Next seamlessly handles the conversion process, ensuring a hassle-free transition from Markdown to the correct EPUB, PDF and HTML formats. Embracing markdown streamlines the writing process and enhances collaboration and ease of editing, making it an ideal choice for authors seeking efficiency and focusing on content creation.
Get ready to revolutionize your eBook creation process with Ibis Next!
Mohamed Said created the Ibis project. The sources of the Ibis project are https://github.com/themsaid/ibis. Thank you to Mohamed for creating this tool.
We forked the repository to speed up the process of supporting PHP 8.2, PHP 8.3, Laravel 10, Symfony 7, Commonmark 2, and other dependencies upgrades. With Ibis Next, we also added the support for generating the EPUB format and HTML format. So, with Ibis Next, you can create Markdown files and export them into PDF, EPUB, and HTML for better compatibility with your devices and software.
Before you begin, ensure that you have PHP 8.1 or above installed on your system, and ensure the gd extension is enabled in your php.ini
file.
To quickly get started with building your eBook locally, follow these steps:
If you want to start quickly to build your eBook, you can:
- Create a new empty directory via the
mkdir
command and navigate into it:
mkdir my-first-ebook
cd my-first-ebook
- Install Ibis Next using Composer:
composer require hi-folks/ibis-next
-
Once the tool is installed, you'll find the
vendor/
directory containing your new tool (vendor/bin/ibis-next
). -
When launching Ibis Next locally in a specific directory, use the following command:
./vendor/bin/ibis-next list
If you prefer to install the composer package globally, use the global
option with the composer require
command:
composer global require hi-folks/ibis-next
When Ibis Next is installed globally, you can launch and run it using the ibis-next
command:
ibis-next list
To get started, initialize your project directory using the init
command. This command automatically creates the necessary configuration file, the assets folder, and the content folder for your Markdown files.
If you installed Ibis Next locally, launch the init
command from your project directory:
./vendor/bin/ibis-next init
If you installed Ibis Next globally, run the init
command inside an empty directory where you want to create your eBook:
ibis-next init
This will generate the following files and directories:
/assets
/assets/fonts
/assets/cover.jpg
/assets/cover-ibis.webp
/assets/theme-light.html
/assets/theme-dark.html
/assets/style.css
/assets/theme-html.html
/content
/ibis.php
Configure your eBook by editing the ibis.php
configuration file.
If you prefer to initialize a different empty directory (not the current one), use the -d
option with the init
command. For example:
ibis-next init -d ../some-other-directory
This is especially useful if you want to install Ibis Next once and manage multiple books in separate directories.
The init
command will create sample .md files inside the content
folder. You can explore those files to see how you can write your book.
This sample content is taken from Ibis Next: create your eBooks with Markdown by Roberto Butti.
Inside the content
directory, you can write multiple .md
files. Ibis uses the headings to divide the book into parts and chapters:
# Part 1
`<h1>` tags define the start of a part. A separate PDF page will be generated to print the part title and any content below.
## Chapter 1
`<h2>` tags define the start of a chapter. A chapter starts on a new page always.
### Starting with Ibis
`<h3>` tags define different titles inside a chapter.
Inspired by the great Astro Starlight tool for creating technical documentation, we support aside block. Taking the definition from Astro Starlight documentation: Asides (also known as “admonitions” or “callouts”) help display secondary information alongside a page’s main content.
Ibis Next offers a tailored Markdown syntax designed for presenting asides. To demarcate aside blocks, use a set of triple colons :::
to enclose your content, specifying the type as note
, tip
, caution
, or danger
.
While you can nest various other Markdown content types within an aside, using asides for brief and succinct portions of the content is recommended.
:::note
**Ibis Next** is an open-source tool, and you can contribute to the project by joining the [Ibis Next GitHub repository](https://github.com/Hi-Folks/ibis-next).
:::
:::warning
**Ibis Next** is an open-source tool, and you can contribute to the project by joining the [Ibis Next GitHub repository](https://github.com/Hi-Folks/ibis-next).
:::
:::tip
**Ibis Next** is an open-source tool, and you can contribute to the project by joining the [Ibis Next GitHub repository](https://github.com/Hi-Folks/ibis-next).
:::
:::danger
**Ibis Next** is an open-source tool, and you can contribute to the project by joining the [Ibis Next GitHub repository](https://github.com/Hi-Folks/ibis-next).
:::
You can also customize the title of the aside block using the square brackets [your title]
in this way:
:::tip[My two cents]
I want to give you some advice: use **Ibis Next** to create your e-books.
:::
In the example above, the aside type "tip" was used (:::tip
), with a custom title "My two cents" ([My two cents]
), and the content of the block can contain text formatted with classic Markdown markers.
For historical reasons, Ibis Next also supports another syntax for the quotes. I suggest using the Aside block instead of these (deprecated) quotes.
Three quotes can be added: quote
, warning
, and notice
.
>{quote} This is a quote.
>{warning} This is a warning.
>{notice} This is a notice.
Images can be stored in the content folder and then brought in like this:
![Screenshot 1](content/screenshot-1.png)
To use a cover image, add a cover.jpg
in the assets/
directory (or a cover.html
file if you'd prefer an HTML-based cover page). If you don't want a cover image, delete these files.
If your cover is in a PNG format, you can store the file in the assets/
directory, and then in the ibis.php
file, you can adjust the cover
configuration where you can set the cover file name, for example:
'cover' => [
'position' => 'position: absolute; left:0; right: 0; top: -.2; bottom: 0;',
'dimensions' => 'width: 210mm; height: 297mm; margin: 0;',
'image' => 'cover.png',
],
You can use WebP, PNG, or JPG formats for the cover image.
In Ibis Next, you can set a customized header for your pages. To do this, navigate to the ibis.php
configuration file and locate the header
parameter.
Within the ibis.php
file, you can specify your desired header like this:
/**
* CSS inline style for the page header.
* If you want to skip header, comment the line
*/
'header' => 'font-style: italic; text-align: right; border-bottom: solid 1px #808080;',
This allows you to personalize the header content according to your preferences. Feel free to modify the value within the single quotes to suit your specific requirements. The value of the header
parameter is the CSS inline style you want to apply to your page header.
You can eliminate the header
parameter if you don't need or don't want the page header in your eBook.
If you want to customize the text of the page header for each section, in the markdown file, you can add in the frontmatter section the title
parameter:
---
title: My Title
---
## My Section Title
This is an example.
Edit your /ibis.php
configuration files to define the font files to be loaded from the /assets/fonts
directory. Afterward, you may use the defined fonts in your themes (/assets/theme-light.html
& /assets/theme-dark.html
).
To generate a PDF eBook using Ibis Next, run the following command:
ibis-next pdf
Ibis Next parses files alphabetically by default and stores the PDF file in the export
directory.
If you prefer using the dark theme for the PDF, use the following command:
ibis-next pdf dark
If your Markdown files (content) are stored in a directory other than the default ./content/
, specify the content directory using the --content
option:
ibis-next pdf --content=./your-content-directory
or, using the shorter form with the -c
option:
ibis-next pdf -c ./your-content-directory
To automatically generate an EPUB file from your Markdown content, use the epub
command:
ibis-next epub
Ibis Next will parse files alphabetically and store the EPUB file in the export
directory. You can easily upload or transfer the EPUB file to your mobile, tablet, or Kindle devices.
By default, the assets/style.css
file is used to generate the EPUB file.
If you manage multiple books, you can specify the working directory, the location of your assets folder, and the ibis.php
configuration file. Define the path of the working directory using the -d
option:
ibis-next epub -c ../your-dir-with-markdown-files -d ../myibisbook
You can combine the usage of the -c
option for defining the content directory and the -d
option for defining the working directory.
You can organize your Markdown files in your content directory in subfolders.
To automatically generate an HTML file from your Markdown content, use the html
command:
ibis-next html
Ibis Next will parse files alphabetically and store the HTML file in the export
directory. You can easily read the HTML file with any Browsers.
By default, the assets/theme-html.html
file is used to generate the HTML file.
The md_file_list
configuration (in the ibis.php
configuration file) allows you to specify which Markdown files should be included when generating PDF, EPUB, or HTML outputs. By default, if md_file_list
is not set, all Markdown files in the content directory will be used.
If you want to limit the files to a specific subset, you can define the md_file_list
array with the filenames (including extensions) as follows:
'md_file_list' => [
'routing.md',
'artisan.md',
'console-tests.md',
],
In this example, only routing.md
, artisan.md
, and console-tests.md
from the content directory will be processed for PDF, EPUB, or HTML generation.
- Default Behavior: If
md_file_list
is not specified, all Markdown files in the content directory will be included. - File Paths: Ensure that the filenames listed in
md_file_list
include the correct extensions and are located within the content directory.
This configuration provides flexibility in selecting specific files for your output needs, enabling you to tailor the content as required.
For example, you can use md_file_list
if you need to build a sample of your book.
For generating a sample, I suggest to evaluate using the md_file_list
configuration.
For historical reasons also the sample command is available but it works only for PDF files.
ibis-next sample
ibis-next sample dark
This command will use the generated files from the ibis-next build
command to generate samples from your PDF eBook. You can configure which pages to include in the sample by updating the /ibis.php
file.
If you are using or if you are evaluating using Ibis Next for creating your next eBook, let me know. I can support you by demoing the tool, helping with the configuration or evaluating feature requests.
If you want to contribute to developing this open-source project, you can read the CONTRIBUTING.md file at the project's root.
- Mohamed Said the author of the original Ibis project
- Roberto Butti the author of the updates and the fork for Ibis Next project
- All Contributors
The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.