Dareechah-e-Nigaarish

First page of A. Hameed's Urdu novel ڈربے displayed on Kindle Fire HD6

These instructions for making an Urdu eBook use the costly InPage software.

I have now posted newer, better instructions which use Open Office free software.

The InPage software instructions presented here are still valid but are a more expensive solution than the one offered by Open Office free software.

Ten Steps to Making an Urdu eBook



Step1: Purchase InPage Urdu Software

InPage is an Urdu typing, composing, wordprocessing software that is widely used by Pakistani Urdu publishers. This software can be purchased from a dealer in Pakistan or India or UK  or by clicking the official InPage link embedded here.

InPage Professional version 3.6 package now costs US$200 or Pak Rs. 21,900. 



InPage Distributor in Pakistan: 
Mr. Farrukh Iqbal, Ahmed Graphics & Computer Services
Office # 18-19, 3rd Floor, Sohni Centre, Karimabad
F. B. Area, Block 4, Karachi-75950, Pakistan
Tel: (92-21) 36801721, 32025110
Mobile: +(92321) 234 8257
E-Mail: pk@inpage.com

Step 2:  Learn Urdu keyboarding

(i.e. learn to type Urdu text)

You may install an Urdu phonetic keyboard layout on your computer by following the instructions given on the link embedded here.

Learn keyboarding (i.e. learn to type Urdu text) by using an Urdu language phonetic keyboard layout on your computer's keyboard and by following instructions for learning Urdu keyboarding on this link.

Step 3:  InPage Urdu Wordprocessing Commands

Read the instructions (by clicking the link highlighted later in this sentence) to become familiar with some commonly used InPage wordprocessing commands in the Urdu wordprocessing software InPage.

You are now ready to type out your Urdu poems, Urdu stories, Urdu novel, Urdu play or Urdu blog post by using InPage software.

Step 4: Exporting Urdu Text as a Jpeg Image for Facebook

Sometimes you may want to upload and display a page or pages of your Urdu document on a web site or on Facebook. To do this, click File menu and choose Export Page option: an Export as Picture menu will appear: give the exported image files a File Name, enter the From Page number and the To Page number (if it is only one page, the From and To cells will be given the same page number) and then click OK. You can enhance the brightness, contrast and also crop out unnecessary spaces from these page images by using the free Image software NIH Image J which is downloadable from this link.

Step 5: Making an Urdu eBook as a Portable Document File (.pdf) 

Once you have completed typing out your Urdu document, you may click the File menu button and choose the Save As pdf option.

A “Save As pdf” menu appears, you can name your pdf file and then click the OK button.

The pdf file created in this way can be uploaded to your Amazon Account online in your Documents folder. After this initial download is done, you should transfer this pdf file to your Kindle Fire eReader. After this point, there is no need for maintaining an inernet connection and you may proceed to read your Urdu eBook on your Kindle Fire. 

Some Copyright considerations:

By paying a monthly subscription of US$15.00 for  Adobe Acrobat software,  you may use powerful  Digital Rights Management tools to enter a password for opening  the Urdu .pdf file.

An Urdu eBook with a password cannot be opened by anyone else than the customer who purchased your eBook. Of course the customer who purchased your eBook may share the password with others at his or her own discretion.

You may also use Adobe Acrobat's Digital Rights Management tools to block access to printing of your eBook by others without your permission.



Step 6: Registering a Copyright License for your Urdu eBook

Follow the instructions outlined in the link here to register a copyright for your Urdu eBook. You can do so at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office online, even though you maybe a citizen of Pakistan and not of Canada.

Step 7: International Standard Book Number or ISBN for your Urdu eBook

Follow the instructions outlined in the link here to generate an ISBN for your Urdu eBook

Step 8: Selling your Urdu eBook Online

There are many web site developer companies on the internet. Some offer to give you your own web site for free while others charge a small fee ($20 per month) to provide an internet domain name plus a web site which you can design/format by using the simple tools from that company. This package includes the ability to insert a “Pay Button” in a web page and offer to sell your eBook. This is how it works:

Customers can pay you via credit card through that Pay Button in a secure way
and you will then email a pdf file of your Urdu eBook to the customer's email address.

Other companies offer a slightly more expensive ($30 to $45 per month) eCommerce package with an electronic Store where you can display your Urdu eBooks for sale and where the customer pays and gets your Urdu eBook via automatic download.

I have been very satisfied with the Basic Yahoo/Aabaco Small Business web site package I have been using since 2010 for Dareechah which does allow me to have a PayPal button and to sell my Urdu eBooks online.

In this way, you can sell your eBook online. Customers would be sent your Urdu eBook pdf file via email by you. If your Urdu eBook pdf file is bigger than 25 megabytes, you may divide your eBook into parts and email individual parts in separate emails to the customer.

PayPal is a very secure and problem-free way of paying for purchases made over the internet and all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, AmericanExpress etc.) support the PayPal format. Pakistani banks may have credit card plans which are compatible with PayPal format. Please enquire from your Pakistani bank branch staff.

Step 9: Pricing Your Urdu eBook

You may charge the customer an appropriate price for your Urdu eBook... Amazon charges anywhere from US$15 to US$25 for its English language eBooks it sells via Amazon.com and many titles are priced at US$10 while many old classics written before the international copyright law of the 1920's are given away by Amazon free of charge.

Of course the average young Pakistani book reader cannot afford to pay Pak Rs.1,500 to Pak Rs.2,500 for one Urdu eBook. For young Pakistani Urdu eBook customers you may have to consider a price ranging
from  US$3.00   or  Pak Rs.305/-
to      US$5.00   or  Pak Rs.510/-

Once the customer has paid the price of your eBook, you would email your Urdu eBook to the customer in one or more emails (depends on the total file size of your Urdu eBook).

The customer would then upload the Urdu eBook pdf file to his/her Kindle eReader or onto his laptop, type in the password and start reading your Urdu eBook!!

Step 10: Solving Problems of Selling .pdf Urdu eBooks Online:

The chief drawback of the above method of selling your Urdu eBooks is that Urdu eBooks made in the .pdf file format are of large size (typically 20 megabytes to 40 megabytes per book) and cannot be offered for automatic download.

Ecommerce companies do not offer automatic internet download for such large files. The eBooks sold by Amazon.com (the pioneer in eBook technology) are in the proprietary Kindle format and are usually 0.5 megabytes to 2 megabytes in size and these are easily downloaded automatically over the internet anywhere in the world. 

The current Yahoo/Aabaco eCommerce web site package with an electronic store can offer eBooks upto 6 megabytes in size for automatic download once the customer has paid for it via a credit card or via PayPal.

For Pakistani Urdu language authors/poets who may have bulky .pdf file format Urdu eBook files that are of 20 to 40 megabyte size, the cheapest (but labor intensive) method is to email your eBook in 2 or more parts. You may have to send your customer 2 to 4 separate emails and include a part of your Urdu eBook  in each email.

A more expensive solution, entailing mail charges, would be to airmail a USB flash drive (USB stick) inside a small padded envelope. This USB stick would contain a copy of the eBook in pdf format. The need to buy USB sticks in bulk from a local supplier and the mailing cost of shipping your Urdu eBook would make your eBook very expensive and painfully slow to access (2 weeks for delivery from Canada to Pakistan via regular airmail).

If Pakistani software developers can help out the young, upcoming Pakistani writers, poets and journalists by developing an "app" (software application) or (dare I hope) a full fledged software package whereby one can convert an InPage urdu file or a pdf file into an ePub format file, our main problem would be solved.

When I approached CRULP (an Urdu software company in Pakistan) with this idea of a software package that can convert an InPage urdu file to an EPUB file, they asked to be paid US$50,000 to develop such a software package !!

When I asked InPage's IT team to develop an app for InPage file to EPUB file conversion, they asked for US$3,000 to develop such an app for me.

I hope this can be achieved by Pakistani Urdu software developers at some point in time without charging the end user like me thousands of US dollars... "Hope springs eternal in the human breast!!"

An .epub format Urdu eBook would be 0.5 to 2 megabytes in size and could be offered for automatic download over the internet by young Pakistani authors/poets via their own small business web sites supporting eCommerce solutions and Urdu book lovers could purchase these Urdu eBooks anywhere in the world quickly and easily.

The .epub format Urdu eBooks would be readable on Icarus eReaders or on laptops, tablets, iPad, iPhone or Smart Phone devices. 

Finally, if Pakistani software developers can work with Amazon Kindle's IT professionals and InPage's IT team to develop a software for converting an InPage urdu file to a Kindle format eBook then we would be able to read both English language as well as Urdu language eBooks on our beloved Kindle eReader.







Essential InPage Urdu Wordprocessing Commands:

When you open InPage 3.51 Professional running in Windows 8.1 operating system, there are many Menu Buttons on the top, namely :

File  Edit  View  Format  Insert  Utilities  Window  Help

Click “File” button and from the drop down Menu select “New”

A New Document Menu appears and has the following sections:

Page :

Click on the down arrow and scroll to Custom Size and select this option for type of Page.

Click inside the Width cell and type in 90mm (3 1/2 inches)  for Page Width

Click inside the Height cell and type in 120mm (4 1/2 inches) for Page Height

Note: Most eBook Readers (including Kindle and Icarus) have a screen size of 9cm wide x 12cm high

Under Orientation, select the circle besides Portrait for Page Orientation.

For Number of Pages, look at the bottom left of the menu for “Pages” and press the upward arrow or simply type in the number of pages you need in your Urdu document. I would start with 50 or 100 pages.

Margins

The Margins section in the middle of the New Document menu has default values of 12.7mm (0.5 inch). You should change this to 5mm for Left, Right, Top and Bottom Margins. You can change the size of the Margins later by clicking Format > Document at any time later on.

Columns

The default value is set to 1 column and you can change it later if you need 2 or more columns in the main body of the Urdu text you are going to type out. This section is more appropriate for newspaper and news letter format documents.

The default choice for Text flow is set to Right to Left which is exactly right for typing Urdu; so do not change that.

Similarly, the Automatic Text box option is selected as the default choice and that should not be changed.

Leave the “Double Sided” pages in a document option unselected (this is the default position). You need double sided pages (text is printed on BOTH sides of the printing paper used) in a document when you are actually going to print out your Urdu book on a home or commercial laser printer and produce a traditional “hard copy” book instead of an electronic book: by definition, an eBook is never printed out and is only read on an eBook reader.

Begin Typing out your Urdu Poem, Story, Novel or Play:

The cursor is flashing on the first line of the Text Box in your newly created InPage Urdu document.

Click the Enter key on your keyboard 5 to 10 times. This creates 5 to 10 paragraphs in your new Urdu document which you can later fill in with Urdu text.

There are two rows in the Tool Bar below the Menu Buttons.

On the extreme right is the Language cell.

Select all the 5 to 10 paragraphs you just created by holding down the left click mouse button and dragging the mouse over them.

Then make sure the language cell in the extreme top right area of the tool bar reads “Urdu”. If it does not, use the down arrow and select Urdu. You may insert English words within your Urdu text by selecting English from the extreme right Tool Bar button at any point in your Urdu document.

Generally, a 12 point (12 pt) font size with a 24 pt line height is suitable for small sized text like foot notes.

An 18 pt font size and a 24 pt line height is suitable for headings, titles.

A 14pt font size and a 24pt line height are suitable for normal text i.e. the main narrative (story, plot).

The third cell counting from the right is the Font Size cell and the default value reads “12pt” or 12 point size font. Select all the 5 to 10 paragraphs you just created and click on the Font Size cell down arrow and select 18pt (for 18 point font size).

Select all the 5 to 10 paragraphs you just created, click on the Formatmenu button at the top and select Paragraph. A Paragraph Preferences menu appears: type 24pt in the Line Height cell.

For Titles in your document, you can also experiment with 24pt Font Size and 36pt or 48pt Line Height.

The seventh cell, counting from the right, in the second row of the Tool Bar is the Urdu Font cell and you may choose whatever Urdu font. The Urdu text you type out can be in one of many different possible fonts or styles of writing Urdu text.

The most popular Urdu font developed by InPage's IT team is Noori Nastaleeq followed by Faiz Nastaleeq .  InPage's IT team has informed me that in the latest InPage version (InPage 3.51)  Faiz Nastaaleeq is a unicode font which can be readily exported in a .rtf or .html format file which would help in creating an .epub file from it in future with the use of appropriate software.

Besides the Urdu font, the Urdu text you type out can have other attributes such as bold (B button; middle of first row in Tool Bar), italic (I button, middle of first rown in Tool Bar) and Font Color. The Font Color cell is in the middle of the second row in the Tool Bar and the default color is Black. You may choose other colors by clicking on the down arrow of the Font Color cell. You can create new shades of color by clicking Format menu button at the top and choosing “Define Colors” … a Define Colors menu appears. Click on New button at bottom left, type a Name for the customized Color Shade you are about to create and a Color Spectrum will appear. Move the cursor to your choice of color shade in this spectrum and use the arrow on the right to define how light or dark this shade of color should be. Then click OK and also close the Define Colors menu. Next time you need that particular color shaded text in the document, select the Urdu word you want colored, click the down arrow on the Font Color cell to scroll to the color shade you named and created and select it.

Underline Urdu text by selecting some Urdu text, clicking the Format menu button and choosing Character: a Character menu appears. Click on the down arrow besides the Style cell and choose Single. A single line will appear beneath the selected Urdu text.

Inserting Pictures within the Urdu text is done by clicking on the 8^th, 9^th or 10^th buttons counting from the top in the Left hand Tool Bar to choose a Rectangular, Elliptical or Round Cornered Rectangular picture box tool. After clicking on the picture box tool, position the cursor in the document where you want the picture to be and drag the mouse left click button to draw a picture box. Then click the Insert menu button from the top, select Picture from the drop down menu and an “Open” menu will appear showing various folders in your computer. Browse in your computers folders for the image (jpeg, tif and many other formats are supported) you want inserted. Click on the image and then click on the Open button at the bottom right hand corner of the Open menu. The image should not be too large in size (minimum image size: 300 x 300 pixels; 20 kilobytes) in relation to the picture box drawn. Once the image is inserted, you can position it within the picture box by using the cursor. You can also make the picture box bigger or smaller by clicking on the Arrow button (first button on Left Tool Bar). Once the picture box size is adjusted, click on the Cursor tool (2^nd button on Left Tool Bar) to get back to using the Cursor in the document. The Urdu text will flow besides or around the inserted picture, giving a more pictorial or graphic experience to the reader.

Text Alignment can be made by using the extreme right tool buttons in the second row of the Tool Bar. Urdu text may be aligned to the Right margin (which is the normal appearance of Urdu text in books) or to the Left margin, or Centered or Justified.

At the end of a typing session, click File menu button and choose Save As option. A Save As menu appears and you can give your document a File Name and then click the Save button at the bottom right.

Exporting Urdu Text as a Jpeg Image: Sometimes you may want to upload and display a page or pages of your Urdu document on a web site or on Facebook. To do this, click File menu and choose Export Page option: an Export as Picture menu will appear: give the exported image files a File Name, enter the From Page number and the To Page number (if it is only one page, the From and To cells will be given the same page number) and then click OK. You can enhance the brightness, contrast and also crop out unnecessary spaces from these page images by using the free Image software NIH Image J  which is downloadable from this link.

Making a Portable Document File (.pdf) eBook

Once you have completed typing out your Urdu document, you may click the File menu button and choose the Save As pdf option. A “Save As pdf” menu appears, you can name your pdf file and then click the OK button. The pdf file created in this way can be uploaded to your Kindle or Icarus eBook Reader and read on the screen of the eBook Reader (eReader). Using Adobe Acrobat software, you can use the Digital Rights Management tools to enter a password for opening the pdf file and also stop printing of the pdf file by others.