Category: Computers

Re building epubs

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A while back, in one of Apple’s many bizarre OS shifts, they screwed with the compress file function in finder. What this means is that epubs (which are essentially zip files) no longer package or unpackage correctly. Attempt it and you end up with a rather bizarre cpgz file.

I came across this lovely post on how to use terminal to attain correct results and thought I would repost it for posterity:

Open Terminal Services: Applications/Utilities/Terminal Services and go to your file – I usually put a folder on the desktop with the ePub file in it, so to get to it, I use the following:

cd desktop/epub_folder

If you are unzipping the folder, use this command:

unzip epubfilename.epub

(At this point, if you’re doing a fixed format file, you will put Apple’s display options file inside the META-INF folder. This is also the only way I know of to add audio and video files to an ePUB, and to make all the updates required to make these files work.)

When you zip the ePub file back up, it’s important to zip an ePub up in the correct order. mimetype goes in first, with no compression. We’re also going to rename the file so we know we’re creating a new version. Here’s how:

zip -X newepubname.epub mimetype

Next up is the META-INF folder. You also want to suppress adding any MAC O/S .DS_Store files.

zip -rg newepubname.epub META-INF -x \*.DS_Store

Next is the OEBPS folder:

zip -rg newepubname.epub OEBPS -x \*.DS_Store

That’s it!

http://ebookconverting.com/zip-up-an-epub-on-a-mac

Color Me Colourful

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Ok I have a a new colour scheme that is just a child theme of the original. This mean instead of rewriting the whole css file I can use the original file (in this case ../MAcBlazeIII.style.css) and the just change the bits I want like colour or header size.

Still trying to figure out !important and heirarchy but so far so good…

Here is the complete child style.css file that changed this:

screenshot
to this:

screenshot


/*
Theme Name: MacBlaze III Child
Theme URI: http://macblaze.ca/
Description: MacBlaze III Child Theme
Author: B Timothy Keith
Author URI: http://macblaze.ca
Template: MacBlazeIII
Version: 1.0.0
*/

@import url('../MacBlazeIII/style.css');

/* =Theme customization starts here
-------------------------------------------------------------- */

.widget-area {
background: #384f69 !important ;
}

.site-footer {
background: #232942;
}

.site-main {
background: #688b9e;
}

/* CSS Button */
.sidebar-button {
font-family: droid-sans-mono;
color: #FFFFFF !important;
font-size: 14px;
text-shadow: 1px 1px 2px #000000;
box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #4b6b3c;
padding: 10px 25px;
-moz-border-radius: 11px;
-webkit-border-radius: 11px;
border-radius: 11px;
border: 2px solid #688b9e;
background: #232942;
background: linear-gradient(top, #384f69, #232942);
background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #384f69, #232942);
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#384f69), to(#232942));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #384f69, #232942);
}

.sidebar-button a {
color: #FFFFFF !important;
}

.sidebar-button:hover {
color: #CCCCCC !important;
background: #688b9e;
}

/* =Global
----------------------------------------------- */

/* Links */

h1.entry-title a, {
color: #ffffff;
}
.site-content a {
color: #ccb599 !important;
}
.site-content a:hover,
.site-content a:focus,
.site-content a:active {
color: #e6c6c6 !important;
}
.textwidget a {
color: #ccb599 !important;
}

/* Main */

body,
button,
input,
select,
textarea {
color: #ffffff;
font-family: proxima-nova, sans-serif;
font-size: 14px;
font-size: 1.4rem;
line-height: 1.5;
text-align: left;
}

.entry-title,
.page-title,
.entry-content,
.entry-summary,
.widget-title,
.comments-title,
.comment .reply,
.comment-meta,
.comment-author,
#reply-title {
font-family: bree, sans-serif;
}

h1.widget-title {
color:#ccb599;
}

.widget-area p {
color: #fff;
text-align: left;
font-family: ;
font-size: 12px;
font-size: 1.2rem !important;
line-height: 1.5;
}

/* =Site Header
----------------------------------------------- */
.site-header hgroup {
background: #232942 url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top;
background: url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top, linear-gradient(top, #232942, #384f69);
background: url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top, -ms-linear-gradient(top, #232942, #384f69);
background: url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top, -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#232942), to(#384f69));
background: url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top, -moz-linear-gradient(top, #232942, #384f69) ;
height: 250px;
}
.site-title {
font-size: 45px;
font-size: 4.5rem;
font-style: normal;
font-family: "bree",sans-serif;

}
.site-description {
font-size: 12px;
font-size: 1.2rem;
}
.site-title a,
.site-title a:visited,
.site-description {
color: #ffffff;
}

/* =Menu
----------------------------------------------- */

.main-navigation {
clear: both;
display: block;
padding: .5em 1em .5em 2em;
background: #ccb599;

}
.main-navigation a {
color: #fff;
}
.main-navigation a:hover {
color: #668b9e !important;
}
.main-navigation ul ul {
background: #ccb599;

/* =Content
----------------------------------------------- */

.site-main {
background: #688b9e;
border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
border-width: 1px 1px;
}

/* =Widgets
----------------------------------------------- */

/* =Site Footer
----------------------------------------------- */

/* =Structure
----------------------------------------------- */

/* Graduated Screens

#div {
background: #232942 url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top;
background: url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top, linear-gradient(top, #232942, #384f69);
background: url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top, -ms-linear-gradient(top, #232942, #384f69);
background: url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top, -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#232942), to(#384f69));
background: url('img/bannertop.gif') no-repeat right top, -moz-linear-gradient(top, #232942, #384f69) ;
}

-------------------------------*/

Rough Draft

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Here is a rough draft of a new Theme I am working on. It was based on this excellent ThemeShaper tutorial.

I have grabbed the colour scheme off of Design Seeds posting of September 18, 2013. If you don’t subscribe to Design Seeds or visit their blog, you really should. It is full of awesome colour palettes that are just fun to look at.

colourswatch

The overall theme is pretty rudimentary right now but I will be screwing around with it a lot to try and a) figure out just what all the code actually does, and b) tweak it into submission.

A webbing we will go…

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While most people were in church or napping the day away, I was back at work trying to get ahead of the curve.

All my self-fiddling got me started on a truly css-based web design so I took a swing at Hole’s new site. I think I’ve pretty much got the code down and the visuals look good so…

Next I just have to decide on php vs asp vs ruby…