What's a good tool for creating .epub format e-books?

Question

I have seen a question here about reading .epub but I would like to create my own easily from a GUI, what is available for Ubuntu? Even if I have to download something outside the repository, as long as it installs easily and works well, I would also like the software to be able to support the use of .svg images and tables.

Solution 1

Try Sigil, from here; http://code.google.com/p/sigil/

This is an excellent program for creating .epub files, works almost like a word processor

After a lot of frustration with other applications I can say this one works, has good support for .svg images and tables just code your tables as xhtml, it can easily import an existing .epub too.

Solution 2

Have you tried Calibre?

I'm not sure about the images, but I know that it converts formats very well, and as a bonus, works with my Nook.

Solution 3

I'm listing a couple of options that I've installed and used. I'm not sure of the extent of svg support, but I believe there is svg import support. Sigil is the one I'd try first. ecub is free but not open source. Jutoh is commercial (though inexpensive if I recall, and it has a trial mode for the first 20 docs), but it might be worth looking at just because of its interesting implementation (not necessarily a knock against it). It is supposed to be feature-rich, though I found it too slow on my machine at the time.

Sigil -- A WYSIWYG ebook editor.
Jutoh -- "epublishing made easy"

As was mentioned before, Calibre can also work at bridging formats. It isn't designed as an editor, just a converter, but I've used it successfully for simple documents with straightforward graphical elements.

Solution 4

Atlantis Word Processor: http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/videos/creating_ebooks_introduction

It is a Windows software. But you can run it on Ubuntu: http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1753

Solution 5

Scrivener, in my humble opinion, is the quintessential drafting tool. It can compile to .epub, .mobi, and .ps for publication.

It does not support images.

It does support images (edited Thursday, July 17, 2014 04:25 PM).

Latest: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=28194&sid=6425911690d37150021ef7fc19d88a1c

Scrivener Interface on Ubuntu KDE

Scrivener Image in Document Support

Scrivener Document Format Support

Scrivener Book Syle Support

Scrivener is Trial Software

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Comments

[Jason Southwell]

I nearly thought you meant the KOffice suite - you should point out that Calibre here is not the new KOffice =). Looks useful though ^^.

[gamerchick02]

Sorry about that. It's quite useful; I've converted plenty of PDFs for my Nook with it.

[dblang]

Calibre is a nice tool, unfortunately when converting either .odt or .pdf with vector images I do not get what I want, no images just a blue question mark for images in .odt and nothing for images in .pdf, I would have to manually edit the .epub, somethingI do not want to do. Thanks anyway calibre does well converting text based books, a partial solution.

[gamerchick02]

Sorry it's not working for you. I don't think there's anything that really works well for images. Glad I can help you get to a partial solution though.

[Warren Hill]

While running Windows software is possible in Ubuntu (Wine, Virtual Box, VMware), Linux software is preferred. Is there a Linux equivalent?

[JJ Wille]

AFAIK, there is no Linux version.

[Anwar]

Is it electron based application?