FlightDeck Reports
FlightDeck provides reports for each EPUB file you test. These reports contain valuable information about validation issues, best practices, retailer support, and general file statistics. Each report can be viewed on the website, or can be downloaded as a PDF for offline viewing or sending to your eBook vendor.
In addition to these reports, be sure to check out the Tools that are available in FlightDeck.
Demo
Looking for a quick demo? You can watch our online demo below, or contact us to set up a personalized demo of your own!
File Stats
Have you ever wanted to know what was going on behind the scenes in your EPUB file? The Stats report in FlightDeck gives you just that ability. FlightDeck compiles a variety of interesting information about your file and displays it in a simple-to-understand way. Some of this information may help you locate issues in your book (like the list of hyperlinks you can click on to check or the list of the largest files in the EPUB you can use to determine why your EPUB is too large), while other information may just be interesting (like the number of words and characters, or the number of different kinds of headings).
Validation
EPUBCheck is the industry-standard validation tool created and maintained by the IDPF and used by publishers, eBook developers, and authors around the world to test their EPUB files. FlightDeck's validation process starts with EPUBCheck, but it does not stop there.
One of the major complaints eBook creators have about EPUBCheck is that the error messages can be hard to understand and that they are sometimes not very helpful when you are trying to track down a problem in a file. FlightDeck cleans up the EPUBCheck output and gives you understandable, actionable feedback about your file. For example, compare this output from EPUBCheck:
to this output from FlightDeck:
As you can see, there is only one error in the EPUB file, so FlightDeck tells you where that error is and suppresses the long list of errors that are only cascading from that one issue.
As EPUB creation gets more complex, the need for proper validation and easily understandable messages continues to grow. FlightDeck will always provide the clearest reporting and the most comprehensive testing in the market.
Best Practices
Validating with EPUBCheck is important, but creating high-quality eBooks requires more than just having valid files. There are always issues in eBook files that may not be technically incorrect but that will likely have a negative effect on the reader's experience or may cause problems in different devices. We have encountered many of these issues over the years, and FlightDeck's Best Practices report shows you if your file includes any of them.
Here is a sampling of some of the test results shown in the Best Practices report:
- Black Text: eBook text that is manually colored black can disappear completely in the night-reading mode available on some devices. FlightDeck shows you all of the elements in your CSS that have black assigned to the text color so that you can remove that styling. This is especially common in EPUBs created with InDesign.
- File Sizes: If the HTML files inside your EPUB are larger than 300KB, some reading systems, especially older ones, can crash or run very slowly when trying to open them. The same is true of images that are larger than 10MB.
- Guide/Landmarks: An often-neglected feature of the EPUB standard is the Guide (EPUB 2) or Landmarks (EPUB 3) section. This feature allows you to mark specific parts of your EPUB file as the Cover, Table of Contents, start reading location, and more. While similar to the Table of Contents, the Guide/Landmarks allows some devices to offer easier navigation to these important sections of the book.
- Invalid ISBNs: FlightDeck does not just check to see if you have an ISBN assigned to your EPUB, it also makes sure that the ISBN is valid according to the standard, which can save you frustration if you type it incorrectly.
- Unlinked URLs: EPUB files are essentially mini-websites, so it is helpful to readers when all of the hyperlinks in your EPUB are linked to the Web.
- All-caps TOC: Many EPUB creation programs use ALL CAPS when inserting the Table of Contents into the file. This makes the TOC difficult to read and can look unprofessional.
- Page List: This is another little-known feature of EPUB: the ability to include page numbers inside the code and show the reader the print page numbers on their device. PageList is not widely supported yet, but it is a key feature that is helpful for students, book clubs, and more.
When creating these Best Practices tests in FlightDeck, we knew that we were not likely to see many files pass all of them. However, these tests also serve to increase awareness of these potential issues among FlightDeck's publishers, resulting in better quality files and better reader experiences.
Retailer Acceptance Grid
As the number of eBook devices and retailers increases, publishers and authors are put in the difficult position of meeting a multitude of ever-changing and sometimes opposing requirements. Navigating these inconsistent waters can cause major headaches, and can result in many hours of lost time searching for answers.
FlightDeck's Retailer Acceptance Grid shows you in precise detail how your EPUB files match up to the retailer requirements, and gives you helpful information about how to fix the issues so that your EPUB file will be accepted everywhere.
The Retailer Grid gives you results for Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google, Kobo, and NetGalley. We have worked closely with all of these partners to ensure that the results you see in this report are accurate and up-to-date. While the Retailer Grid is not a replacement for testing EPUB files on the actual devices, it is a great way to ensure that your files will not be rejected during distribution.
