Friday Five: Low Cost or Free ePub Creation/Conversion Tools

Although you could spend almost $700 on Adobe’s InDesign or a few hundred on Microsoft Office, there are a number of free or low-cost tools that allow you to create or convert your own ePub-formatted eBooks. (If you own Microsoft Word and you want to use it to create a document and convert to ePub, the Aspose.Words plug-in may be an option. Since I don’t have Word, it’s impossible for me to test the converter. Let us know if you try Aspose.Words and your thoughts about it.)

Lastly, I didn’t include Calibre in the list since it’s an effective basic converter but not a word processor, and you’ve probably already installed it to manage your nook. (If not, you should definitely try it.)

1. OpenOffice: A great open-source, cross-platform productivity suite. You can export as PDF and then convert to ePub with Calibre or use eScape to convert an OTT to ePub.

Pros:

• Free, mature software
• Compatible on Linux, Mac and Windows systems
• Has a portable app
• Open-source

Cons:

• Hefty size for either the portable app or the full installer
• Might be too much software for users looking for just a word processor or ePub creator
• Doesn’t feature integrated ePub creation, although ePub support is on the Feature Request list

2. eScape: Suitable for non-commercial ePub creation, eScape converts ODF Text Document Template files (OTT) to ePub. You’ll need to download the eScape OTT in order to create Structure-Styled ODT documents that can then be converted to ePub via eScape.

Pros:

• Free software
• Works with OpenOffice, a great open-source (and free) productivity suite
• Has a tutorial

Cons:

• Must create non-commercial eBooks
• Can only use one image (cover) at this time, although the developers plan to include broader image support in the future
• Isn’t a direct OpenOffice integration, which makes it more complex and intimidating than a wizard-based tool or an integrated filter
• Not compatible with Mac

3. Atlantis Word Processor: If you’re looking for a non-bloatware word processor that features a built-in ePub template and save-as-ePub support, take a look at Atlantis Word Processor.

Pros:

• Offers a 30-day free trial so that you can play before you pay and uninstall if the software isn’t for you
• Integrated eBook creation
• Very small footprint, so no bloatware worries
• Supports embedded fonts, so you don’t have to worry about how the book will display on various readers
• Can produce commercial ePubs

Cons:

• Costs $35
• Uses an included template format
• Supports features that may not display correctly in all readers, so you’ll need to test prior to finalizing
• Compatible only with Windows

4. Sigil: Free and open-source, Sigil features WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) eBook creation, which makes it a big plus for less technical eBook creators.

Pros:

• Compatible with Linux, Mac and Windows systems
• Open-source
• Includes WYSIWYG format

Cons:

• Alpha software, so expect many bugs and broken features
• Only imports TXT, HMTL and ePUB file formats

5. BookGlutton Converter: Geared towards more technical users or folks who just like to fiddle with things, BookGlutton’s biggest plus is that the conversion process is server-based. No installation required.

Pros:

• Server-side conversion application
• Supports up to 4MB of images
• Can use any HTML editor or basic text editor to create files
• Provides an HTML template

Cons:

• Costs $5.00 per eBook
• Requires outside creation of HTML files
• User must set up a conversion folder according to precise BookGlutton requirements

What tools do you use to create or to convert ePubs? How often do you convert, or do you prefer to just download and read?

As always, if you’d like to suggest a topic for the Friday Five, leave a comment here or at the forum.