Ebooks
Ebook formatting software
Formatting an ebook is a different job from formatting a printed book, and the tools are judged on different things. There are no pages, so nothing you know about margins, page breaks or widows applies. What matters instead is structure, and how faithfully it survives into a file that every retailer will accept.
This covers what to look for, and how the main tools compare on it.
Why ebooks need different software criteria
An ebook is reflowable. The reader picks the type size, the margins and often the typeface, and your text rewraps around those choices. You do not control the appearance — you control the structure, and the reading app renders it.
That inverts most of what print formatting software is judged on. Page layout, margins, widow control and spine width are all irrelevant. What replaces them:
- Structural fidelity
- Do your headings arrive as real headings, in the right order, without skipped levels? Everything else depends on this.
- A generated navigation document
- The table of contents must be built from the headings, not typed — a typed one goes stale the moment a chapter is renamed.
- Relative type sizing
- Sizes in em or percent, never absolute points. Absolute sizes override the reader's own setting.
- Accessibility output
- Alt text, a declared language, semantic markup for epigraphs and scene breaks.
- Validation
- Does it produce a file that passes EPUBCheck? Every retailer runs it, and a failure is a rejection.
- Retailer variants
- Optional, but the difference between a file that renders well on Kindle and one that renders well everywhere.
The mistakes that produce a bad ebook
- Absolute font sizes. The single most common accessibility failure in self-published ebooks — it silently overrides what the reader chose.
- Blank lines used as scene breaks. They collapse. Use a styled element.
- A hand-typed table of contents. It goes stale and it is not the navigation document the reader's app uses.
- Print front matter carried across. A retailer's sample is the first 10% of the file; if that is a half title, three blanks and a dedication, you have sampled nothing.
- Images sized for print. A 300 DPI photograph is enormous and slow on a reading device, and does not look better.
- Embedded fonts nobody asked for. Most readers have chosen their font, many apps override yours, and the licensing is a separate permission from print.
- No declared language. Absent is not neutral — a screen reader guesses, and it guesses English.
How to check the result
- Run EPUBCheck. Free, official, and what the retailers run.
- Open it in Kindle Previewer — Amazon's conversion changes things, so a generic EPUB reader is not a fair test of what Kindle readers will see.
- Open it in Apple Books, the strictest and most faithful of the major renderers.
- Change the type size twice in each. Anything that will break, breaks here.
- Turn on a screen reader and listen to the first page.
Alhora runs an accessibility audit that must pass before it writes the accessible-EPUB metadata — so the file never claims a conformance it does not meet.
Ebook output, compared
| Feature | Alhora | Vellum | Atticus | Reedsy Book Editor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Export | ||||
| EPUB | EPUB 3.0, with Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo and generic variants | Yes, with retailer-specific builds | Yes | Yes |
| Print-ready PDF | Yes — bleed, crop marks and an embedded ICC profile | Yes, in the edition that includes print | Yes | Yes |
| Trim sizes | 23 presets across mass-market, novel, B-format, full-size and large print, plus fully custom | A fixed set of standard sizes | A fixed set of standard sizes | A small fixed set |
| Hardcover | Yes — case-wrap dimensions are calculated, and flagged as estimates to check against your printer's template | Yes, in the edition that includes print | Not documented | Not documented |
| Accessibility | ||||
| Accessibility checks on the EPUB | Yes — an audit that must pass before the accessible-EPUB metadata is written | Produces structurally sound EPUB; no published audit tool | Produces structurally sound EPUB; no published audit tool | Produces structurally sound EPUB; no published audit tool |
| Large-print and dyslexia-friendly interiors | Yes — two built-in styles, plus large-print trim sizes | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Platform & access | ||||
| Operating systems | macOS, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS | macOS only — a Mac is required | Any desktop OS, in a browser | Any desktop OS, in a browser |
| Installed app or browser | Installed desktop app | Installed Mac app | Browser app, with an offline mode | Browser app |
| Works with no internet connection | Yes — after activation, editing and export are local | Yes — a local Mac app | Offline mode available; syncs when reconnected | No — it is a web editor |
| Where your manuscript is stored | On your own machine | On your own Mac | In the cloud, cached locally for offline use | In the cloud |
Vellum, Atticus, Reedsy Book Editor capabilities and prices as publicly documented by each vendor, checked 2026-08-08. Products change — check the vendor's own site before you buy. Corrections: [email protected].
What authors say
I thoroughly appreciate the thought and care that has been put into Alhora. It's becoming a one-stop shop for everything, from the writing process, to the styling, to the formatting and export. The more you dig, the more you discover how much control of the writing and formatting process the author has. I've yet to find a platform designed specifically for indie authors that can do everything that Alhora can do. This is worth its weight in gold!
Alhora is a great new formatting software that answers a lot of problems that other softwares currently are failing in. It's very nice to use with nice graphics and the developer is amazingly considerate and responsive in fixing things that make it easier to use. A great new tool and I can't wait to keep discovering more about everything it can do!
I have always struggled with formatting my books. It’s been a constant battle with things moving around whenever I uploaded them to KDP. I would literally spend weeks trying to get everything lined up properly, and I was never in a position to buy other formatting software. So, when I was offered the opportunity to use Alhora, I knew I couldn’t miss it. Honestly, it has reduced my formatting time to hours, and my book looks so much more professional. I love all the little details I can add to my books and if there is something I want and it's not an option James will try to add it.
Questions, answered
What is the best format to publish an ebook in?
EPUB. Every major retailer accepts it, Amazon included — Amazon converts it to its own format on upload. Producing one file covers every store, which is why MOBI is no longer relevant: Amazon retired it for new uploads in 2021.
Do I need different files for Kindle, Apple Books and Kobo?
One EPUB works everywhere and is what most authors ship. Per-retailer variants exist because the platforms differ in how faithfully they render CSS and what metadata they surface — Apple's validator is the strictest, Amazon's conversion changes things. Variants get you a slightly better result at each; a single well-built file is not a mistake.
Can I make an ebook from my print PDF?
You can convert one, and the result is reliably poor: page numbers, running heads and page breaks end up embedded in the middle of the prose. Build the ebook from the manuscript, not from the print file.
What is EPUB accessibility, and is it required?
It means the file works with a screen reader and can be navigated without sight — alt text, a real heading hierarchy, a declared language, a navigation document. Since June 2025 it is a legal requirement for ebooks sold in the EU under the European Accessibility Act, and retailers are starting to show accessibility metadata to buyers.
Should I use fixed-layout EPUB?
Only for books where the layout carries meaning: children's picture books, comics, cookbooks with strong page design. For anything text-led it is the wrong choice — it prevents readers resizing the type, which is the main reason people read ebooks.
Is free ebook formatting software good enough?
It depends entirely on what your book asks for. Reedsy Book Editor is free and produces a clean EPUB from a small set of templates; Calibre converts between formats rather than typesetting; Sigil edits EPUB directly if you are comfortable in XHTML. What paying buys is design control, retailer variants and accessibility auditing — and with Alhora you can format and preview the entire book before deciding whether those matter to yours.
Export an EPUB per retailer, not one for all of them
Alhora exports EPUB 3.0 with separate builds for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo and a generic profile, and audits accessibility before it writes the file.
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macOS, Windows, Linux and ChromeOS. No card needed to format and preview.