Answers.Body: <p>The answer is yes. You can use John MacFarlane's <a href="http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/index.html">Pandoc</a> to directly generate EPUB 2 or EPUB 3 from markdown.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-12-19T08:21:13.693Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-12-19T09:58:17.730Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2013-12-19T09:58:17.730Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Anthon
Answers.Body: <p><a href="https://leanpub.com">Leanpub.com</a> accepts Markdown only from authors. They use <a href="https://leanpub.com/help/manual#leanpub-auto-markdown-the-easiest-way-to-format-your-text-for-e-publishing">some extensions</a> like tables or source code embedding to take most of the pain away.</p>
  
  <p>Markdown doesn’t offer such a fine control like TeX/LaTeX, but most ebook readers wouldn’t honor that anyway. You can take a look at the free samples (<a href="https://leanpub.com/software-architecture-for-developers">example</a>) to judge the result.</p>
  
  <p>I think, yes, Markdown is an excellent format to write ebooks.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-12-19T00:58:45.213Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-02-24T23:05:47.513Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2014-02-24T23:05:47.513Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: fuxia
Answers.Body: <p>Yes, I think it may be used and, in my opinion, it makes it easier to layout and format the whole text. There are tools that allow you to type using Markdown and do export to <code>epub</code> and <code>mobi</code> formats among others.</p>
  
  <p>One example of such tools is <a href="https://draftin.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Draft</a></p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>UPDATE:</p>
  
  <p>I have recently edited and published a book using Markdown and the <a href="https://www.gitbook.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">gitbook</a> project. It worked perfectly. I will do it again!</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-02-14T02:47:01.333Z
Answers.Text: [pandoc](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/) is also great for converting markdown to HTML/ePub and many more formats
Answers.UserDisplayName: Sourabh
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-12-19T00:45:00.160Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2018-06-09T16:13:06.063Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2018-06-09T16:13:06.063Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Alexandre Marcondes
Answers.Body: <p>Markdown does not seem to have many formatting options, but it looks like it is being used for creating ebooks, since there seem to be many books about creating ebooks from markdown from a google search. An example blog:
  <s><a href="http://ianhocking.com/2013/06/22/writing-a-novel-using-markdown/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://ianhocking.com/2013/06/22/writing-a-novel-using-markdown/</a></s></p>
  <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210506225431/https://ianhocking.com/2013/06/22/writing-a-novel-using-markdown/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://web.archive.org/web/20210506225431/https://ianhocking.com/2013/06/22/writing-a-novel-using-markdown/</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-09-28T15:58:06.953Z
Answers.Text: Unfortunately the link is dead now.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Oliver Mason
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-09-29T00:00:30.940Z
Answers.Text: @OliverMason fixed.thanks.
Answers.UserDisplayName: user17915
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-09-29T08:48:29.733Z
Answers.Text: Thank you! I didn't expect any reaction after 10 years :)
Answers.UserDisplayName: Oliver Mason
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-12-19T00:43:44.707Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-09-28T23:59:56.790Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2023-09-28T23:59:56.790Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: user17915
Answers.Body: <p>Markdown is an excellent shortcut to HTML, especially for non-technical writers and editors. Some publishing services (Leanpub, Gitbook, PenFlip and others) make the most of this. </p>
  
  <p>The drawback with most markdown-based publishing services currently is that they use flavours of markdown that don't support classes (technically, 'attribute definitions' for elements). That is, you can't use classes to distinguish, say, an epigraph from a dedication, or a normal blockquote from a 'box' blockquote. Without classes, you cannot reproduce the typography required for high-quality books more complex than a novel. </p>
  
  <p>For attribute support, the best flavour of markdown to use is probably kramdown. Jekyll, and therefore GitHub Pages, support kramdown by default.</p>
  
  <p>I use Jekyll to create book-ready HTML from markdown for clients, using <a href="http://electricbookworks.github.io/electric-book/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this workflow</a> we developed for our own book-production work. Used with Sigil for ebook assembly and PrinceXML for PDF output, we're producing book interiors as good as anything we get from InDesign.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-09-29T07:58:11.387Z
Answers.Text: Markdown Extra supports that, and Pandoc supports Markdown Extra. Issue solved.
Answers.UserDisplayName: jeffmcneill
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-01T05:18:32.840Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-01-01T13:09:25.973Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2019-01-01T13:09:25.973Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Arthur
Answers.Body: <p>Markdown is fine for most common textual purposes, but if you are creating complex material, or material which you want to re-use for other purposes, you might want to look at one of the many XML formats. Both DocBook and TEI are in extensive use in publishing for complex work, but at the moment you still need to learn how XML works in order to use an XML editor properly. There are many toolchains for turning XML into EPUB and other formats.</p>
  
  <p>In general, it's better to have the master file in a powerful and comprehensive format, so that leaner or simpler formats can be generated from it. If you use something too lean for the master format (and Markdown tends towards the lean end of the spectrum), you risk running out of steam when you need to do something difficult or complex.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-02T22:03:04.397Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-01-02T22:03:04.397Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Peter Flynn
Answers.Body: <p>I have used Markdown to create content, then used Pandoc to convert that content into ePub format for reading on iBooks. </p>
  
  <p>Markdown does not have a lot of layout features compared to LaTeX. </p>
  
  <p>If you want something fast and quick for images, simple tables and text, Markdown will work great. </p>
  
  <p>If your intent is to have finer layout control, with drop caps and the like, you might want to look at something else, like Adobe InDesign. </p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-09-29T07:59:21.930Z
Answers.Text: Drop-caps and such can be managed with CSS, so one can still do everything programmatically. InDesign is not needed. If one still wants something like that, Scribus is an open source/free product that is akin to InDesign.
Answers.UserDisplayName: jeffmcneill
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-02-26T02:00:55.093Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-02-26T02:00:55.093Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: StandardEyre
Answers.Body: <p>(While the original question is older, my answer is relevant to show that Markdown continues to have value in more cases than you think, even as Markdown evolves.)</p>
  
  <p>Yes. I've converted several PDFs into text, then Markdown, and then into an EPUB. Markdown is not as "cluttery" as say, raw HTML, so it's easier to read. And it's easier for beginners to learn for a markup language. Plus, any Markdown can be converted to many different formats given the right convertor program, like <a href="http://www.pandoc.org" rel="nofollow">Pandoc</a>.</p>
  
  <p>So, Markdown is valuable because it's a starting point to make other formats. Part of my job is finding a "base format" for organized data, and text, so I can convert that to other formats for a wide variety of customers. So the concept of a "base format" is very important to me.</p>
  
  <p>Markdown is valuable for ebooks because most ebook readers only support a very small subset of the EPUB spec anyway. So while Markdown is limited, that's exactly what you want so your book reads on the greatest number of reader software and hardware. </p>
  
  <p>Weak points of any markdown includes ambiguous interpretation of the formatting, something <a href="http://commonmark.org" rel="nofollow">Commonmark</a> is trying to address.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-07-07T16:10:37.133Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-07-07T16:10:37.133Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Bulrush
Body: <p>I've for some time enjoyed using Markdown to handle straightforward text formatting, image presentation and the like, which I use for keeping notes, or drafting blog content. I'm aware that different file formats can be used as sources for ebooks, but given that Markdown doesn't have as many formatting capabilities as, say, Word, can it be used for laying out and formatting ebook content?</p>
  
Tags: <writing><markdown><source>
Title: Is Markdown a viable source format for writing ebooks?
UserDisplayName: Grant Palin
ThreadText: # Is Markdown a viable source format for writing ebooks?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2013-12-19)
  
  I've for some time enjoyed using Markdown to handle straightforward text formatting, image presentation and the like, which I use for keeping notes, or drafting blog content. I'm aware that different file formats can be used as sources for ebooks, but given that Markdown doesn't have as many formatting capabilities as, say, Word, can it be used for laying out and formatting ebook content?
  
  **Tags:** writing, markdown, source
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 8 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2013-12-19. Score: 22
  
  The answer is yes. You can use John MacFarlane's [Pandoc](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/index.html) to directly generate EPUB 2 or EPUB 3 from markdown.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2013-12-19. Score: 22
  
  [Leanpub.com](https://leanpub.com) accepts Markdown only from authors. They use [some extensions](https://leanpub.com/help/manual#leanpub-auto-markdown-the-easiest-way-to-format-your-text-for-e-publishing) like tables or source code embedding to take most of the pain away.
  
  Markdown doesn’t offer such a fine control like TeX/LaTeX, but most ebook readers wouldn’t honor that anyway. You can take a look at the free samples ([example](https://leanpub.com/software-architecture-for-developers)) to judge the result.
  
  I think, yes, Markdown is an excellent format to write ebooks.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2013-12-19. Score: 13
  
  Yes, I think it may be used and, in my opinion, it makes it easier to layout and format the whole text. There are tools that allow you to type using Markdown and do export to `epub` and `mobi` formats among others.
  
  One example of such tools is [Draft](https://draftin.com)
  
  ---
  
  UPDATE:
  
  I have recently edited and published a book using Markdown and the [gitbook](https://www.gitbook.com/) project. It worked perfectly. I will do it again!
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_4**: [pandoc](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/) is also great for converting markdown to HTML/ePub and many more formats  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2013-12-19. Score: 6
  
  Markdown does not seem to have many formatting options, but it looks like it is being used for creating ebooks, since there seem to be many books about creating ebooks from markdown from a google search. An example blog:
  ~~<http://ianhocking.com/2013/06/22/writing-a-novel-using-markdown/>~~
  
  <https://web.archive.org/web/20210506225431/https://ianhocking.com/2013/06/22/writing-a-novel-using-markdown/>
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_6**: Unfortunately the link is dead now.  
  > **username_5**: @username_6 fixed.thanks.  
  > **username_6**: Thank you! I didn't expect any reaction after 10 years :)  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2016-03-01. Score: 5
  
  Markdown is an excellent shortcut to HTML, especially for non-technical writers and editors. Some publishing services (Leanpub, Gitbook, PenFlip and others) make the most of this.
  
  The drawback with most markdown-based publishing services currently is that they use flavours of markdown that don't support classes (technically, 'attribute definitions' for elements). That is, you can't use classes to distinguish, say, an epigraph from a dedication, or a normal blockquote from a 'box' blockquote. Without classes, you cannot reproduce the typography required for high-quality books more complex than a novel.
  
  For attribute support, the best flavour of markdown to use is probably kramdown. Jekyll, and therefore GitHub Pages, support kramdown by default.
  
  I use Jekyll to create book-ready HTML from markdown for clients, using [this workflow](http://electricbookworks.github.io/electric-book/) we developed for our own book-production work. Used with Sigil for ebook assembly and PrinceXML for PDF output, we're producing book interiors as good as anything we get from InDesign.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_8**: Markdown Extra supports that, and Pandoc supports Markdown Extra. Issue solved.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_9 on 2014-01-02. Score: 4
  
  Markdown is fine for most common textual purposes, but if you are creating complex material, or material which you want to re-use for other purposes, you might want to look at one of the many XML formats. Both DocBook and TEI are in extensive use in publishing for complex work, but at the moment you still need to learn how XML works in order to use an XML editor properly. There are many toolchains for turning XML into EPUB and other formats.
  
  In general, it's better to have the master file in a powerful and comprehensive format, so that leaner or simpler formats can be generated from it. If you use something too lean for the master format (and Markdown tends towards the lean end of the spectrum), you risk running out of steam when you need to do something difficult or complex.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_10 on 2016-02-26. Score: 3
  
  I have used Markdown to create content, then used Pandoc to convert that content into ePub format for reading on iBooks.
  
  Markdown does not have a lot of layout features compared to LaTeX.
  
  If you want something fast and quick for images, simple tables and text, Markdown will work great.
  
  If your intent is to have finer layout control, with drop caps and the like, you might want to look at something else, like Adobe InDesign.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_8**: Drop-caps and such can be managed with CSS, so one can still do everything programmatically. InDesign is not needed. If one still wants something like that, Scribus is an open source/free product that is akin to InDesign.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_11 on 2016-07-07. Score: 1
  
  (While the original question is older, my answer is relevant to show that Markdown continues to have value in more cases than you think, even as Markdown evolves.)
  
  Yes. I've converted several PDFs into text, then Markdown, and then into an EPUB. Markdown is not as "cluttery" as say, raw HTML, so it's easier to read. And it's easier for beginners to learn for a markup language. Plus, any Markdown can be converted to many different formats given the right convertor program, like [Pandoc](http://www.pandoc.org).
  
  So, Markdown is valuable because it's a starting point to make other formats. Part of my job is finding a "base format" for organized data, and text, so I can convert that to other formats for a wide variety of customers. So the concept of a "base format" is very important to me.
  
  Markdown is valuable for ebooks because most ebook readers only support a very small subset of the EPUB spec anyway. So while Markdown is limited, that's exactly what you want so your book reads on the greatest number of reader software and hardware.
  
  Weak points of any markdown includes ambiguous interpretation of the formatting, something [Commonmark](http://commonmark.org) is trying to address.
  
  
  ---
  
  