Daedalus Touch for EPUB creation on iPad

on

It imports


  1. Text files
  2. Markdown files

It exports to


  1. TXT
  2. Markdown
  3. RTF
  4. PDF
  5. EPUB
  6. Print


Who's it for?

Daedalus Touch is for people who want to produce text and markdown documents. Writers will appreciate the simplicity and focus, and the ability to generate drafts in EPUB at high-speed without any hassles, as well as extras, such as the ability to search across what the app refers to as "stacks" and "sheets".

What it doesn't do and how to get around this

There's no way to add images to an EPUB using Daedalus Touch (only a cover image), so if you are adding rich elements, like photographs, or wishing to edit the CSS or do any RegEx on the files, I'd recommend you open the EPUB in Textastic and unzip then rezip there after editing (see note below).

Other limitations you should be aware

While the app accepts markdown syntax it doesn't currently have in-app preview for markdown. This means you need to have confidence in your markdown. I also got a bit stuck on how to create EPUB books with multiple chapters until I realized you had to exit the current stack (away from the "sheet view") and select the stack from the "stack view" then press the arrow button on the far left of the top menu and choose which stacks you want in your EPUB before pressing export.

How good is it at creating EPUBs

One question, of course, is "will it validate?". The files I created did indeed validate against EPUB check (EPUB 2.0), and I will also say that Daedalus Touch creates clean XHTML and CSS, better than the kind I've seen produced by Apple's Pages on OS X. And given the great readability of the generated code it should, if necessary, be straightforward to fix any issues should they later arise

What's special about it?

Aside from EPUB export, there's the stacking sheet layout for files, which enables you to create chapters without multiple files, and avoids a traditional file organiser. It is quick and writer friendly, like the rest of the app.

Would I recommend and will I be using the app now the review is over?

This is an app for creation of text files. It also generates EPUBs and for people wishing to work mainly with text who want the ability to create EPUBs as quickly as they can create blog posts, then yes I would recommend, especially given the clean code that this approach provides. I can certainly imagine myself using it for writing.

What else?

The fact that you can create PDFs using this app means you can share files with people yet to enter the EPUB world, and there is news on The Soulmen's blog that Amazon's KF8 format is soon to be supported too. If you are hooked on markdown and want use it on the desktop, The Soulmen also have an app in the Mac App Store called Ulysses, which has among its extras the ability to insert images into your files.

Note

To edit an EPUB in Textastic follow these instructions.


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