DBKindle – a style package for Dblatex

DBKindle is designed to generate PDF documents optimized for e-readers:

• No margins, page numbers, or page headers
• Memoir document class for professional text layout
• Advanced microtypography provided by Microtype package
• Wrapping text around small figures
• Examples on configuring fonts and styles for section titles and bridgeheads
• Mappings for many Unicode symbols
• Cover page images for books
• Dropped capitals for sections’ beginnings

Installation

• Working Dblatex is required. See http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/doc/manual/sec-install.html
• Create “specs” file for Dblatex or use sample kindle.specs. The file must be in Dblatex’s share/latex/specs subdirectory

Configuration

The style has many configuration settings in both xsl and tex files. Please browse the files and read the comments. Some often used settings are in

• dbkindle_geometry.sty – page dimensions
• dbkindle_font.sty – base font selection
• param.xsl:18 – base font size, all other fonts will be adjusted as well
• dbkindle_font.sty:90 – size of base font only

Usage

dblatex -T kindle book.xml

Using Dblatex and DBKindle with non-docbook files

The style package was designed initially to use Dblatex as a drop-in replacement for PDF-generation step of FB2DocBook FB2 to PDF convertor. E-books in many formats can be converted to FB2 using Calibre.

• The FB2DocBook homepage http://www.kir666.ru/fb2docbook does not seem to be available, but the most recent version can be downloaded at http://goo.gl/zX9zf
• Use the files in DBKindle’s FB2DocBook subdirectory to replace correspondig files in FB2DocBook
• The configuration files expect to find Dblatex in FB2DocBook/dblatex, edit configs/dblatex.template and configs/dblatex.cmd.template to reflect your setup
• Run confsetup.exe to generate various scripts and a configuration file out of templates
• Usage:

  btransformer_py.cmd book.fb2