This project was developed within the Ebooks’ course of the Master in Editorial Design from Polytechnic Institute of Tomar. The main objective was to develop a proposal for adaptation of a short story to an ebook. Considering two different file formats – fixed layout EPUB and reflowable layout EPUB –, and taking into account their different limitations and characteristics, the same content was adapted to these two formats, maintaining the same conceptual choices in terms of editorial design. Like in a printed book, all situations of typographic hierarchy, text / image relationship and cover /pages articulation were considered, taking advantage of the possibility of integrating interactive elements that enrich the reading experience and add meaningful content to the main narrative.

The development of this project started from the design of the fixed layout EPUB, considering that in this format the basic principles of the interactivity and visual identity of the book would be established. Those should later be adapted to the reflowable layout EPUB, keeping in mind the differences between both formats.

The short story was «Edilson vai negro de tanto caminhar» («Edilson goes black from so much walking», authors translation), by João Costa Rosa. It tells the story of Edilson, who walks along Estrada Nacional 2, in São Tomé, while longing for a car to pass by and give him a ride. Throughout the text, this main narrative is constantly interrupted to start others that relate to previous moments in Edilson's life and his relationship with the author. This results in a sequence of relatively autonomous, although interconnected, «stories inside the story». Throughout the textual analysis process, three text segments with those strong characteristics were identified. Those could actually be understood as independent stories and it was considered that it would be interesting if the ebook could make that even more clear – providing the chance for one to read the full story or, on the other hand, only parts of it, to which the reader could have direct access. This principle, justified by the nature of the short story itself and its characteristics, came to guide the process of development of the ebook. The design of a storyboard to define this proposal structure proved to be fundamental for the visual realization of the result of the textual analysis. Thus, the traditional front page was transformed into a visual table of contents, from which the reader is invited, first of all, to «choose a path», that is, to choose to read the full story or one of the briefer ones instead. These were differentiated from the rest of the narrative through chromatic differences (different background color) and by the integration of different multimedia resources (background audio), marking the beginning of a content that is intended to be differentiated from the rest of the ebook. It should be noted that the digital illustrations were specially developed for this story, having in mind their potential to be animated or interactive in any way, adding value and knowledge to the editorial project. The illustrations were also adapted to its presentation in both fixed and reflowable layout formats.

Throughout the fixed layout EPUB file, several levels of interactivity were integrated, using tools as buttons, internal hyperlinks and animations (of color, dimension, movement, appearance / disappearance), which add interest to the illustrations and / or offer extra information about specific elements that are referred throughout the text. A chromatic logic was also developed to identify, on the screen, the interactivity areas: the color yellow was used to highlight words or other content where the reader is invited to click in order to trigger some kind of action.

In adapting this design concept to the reflowable layout EPUB, which due to its characteristics does not support the integration of some of the interactivity features used in the fixed layout (such as buttons and animations), these were adapted in a minimalistic, although effective way. To differentiate the three text segments in relation to the main narrative, forced page breaks were added. Also, those three brief stories were the subject of a different typographic settings (in terms of typeface and its color), which associates them with each other and differentiates them from the rest of the narrative. The reader can easily choose to read the full story or one of the briefer ones by choosing it in the table of contents. In this way, it is considered that in the reflowable layout EPUB, the same objective has been fulfilled, although through different techniques that took into account the characteristics of the format.

This project resulted in the design proposal for an ebook, in two different formats, where the same short story was adapted. During its practical development it was possible to explore the potential of adapting a text to digital format, considering the different possibilities and limitations of the two EPUB formats, and how in each of them different tools can be used to achieve the same conceptual objective.

Keywords: ebook, fixed layout EPUB, reflowable layout EPUB, short story