EPublish: Create EBook-ready EPUB from HTML

If you are comfortable with basic HTML and want an easy way to publish your ebook, then EPublish may be what you are looking for. It is a command-line tool to convert HTML, CSS, and images into an ebook ready for uploading to self-publishing sites like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. Once you have an EPUB file, you can convert it to a print-ready PDF using Calibre or other tools.

How Does It Work?

It's easy, create an HTML document using any HTML editor. Keep the formatting simple, like follows:

<img class="cover" src="cover.jpg"/>

<img id="title" src="title.png">

<img id="asterism" src="asterism.png">

<h1>Title<br><br>Author</h1>

<h2 class="Content">Chapter 1</h2>

<p>

Chapter 1 Text here (before section break)

<hr/>

Chapter 1 Text continues after section break

<h2 class="Content">Chapter 2</h2>

<p>

Chapter 2

<h2 class="Post">Acknowledgments</h2>

<p>

Acknowledgments here

There are more options to customize your book that we'll cover later.

How Do I Run It?

java -cp epublish.jar com.frequal.epublish.App novel.html --style Prod

This will convert novel.html to novel.epub using the "production" style, which is what you want if you are uploading the EPUB file to an online ebook publisher.

What Does It Do?

It makes an attractive, well-typeset EPUB file from your HTML manuscript.

Some of the things it handles automatically:

Widely-compatible EPUB file that works with Kindle, Apple Books, Calibre, and more
Automatic insertion of cover and title pages before Content
- Title image used, if present
- Title from h1 tag if no title image
Automatic copyright page generation
Automatic table of contents
Font embedding, if provided
Drop Caps
Asterisms in place of hr tags
- Standard asterisk asterisms if no asterism image provided
- Custom asterism image if provided
Three types of pages for different needs
- Pre and Post content for final EPUB
- Content for all versions
- Promo content for promotional chapters
Automatically cleans up characters and typography
- Automatic smart quotes
- Automatic em dashes from --

Modes

EPublish supports 3 output modes:

Prod: Generates a ready-to-publish ebook in EPUB format
Draft: Generates a draft copy, without Pre or Post matter, just the contents, for reviewers
Promo: Generates a promotional copy, without Pre or Post matter, but with any Promo chapters

Options

--style [Prod|Draft|Promo]: The output mode
[chapterCount]: The number of chapters to export

Last modified on 4 May 2026 by AO