name: persian-book-typesetting-epub description: "Use when compiling, typesetting, styling, and generating standard EPUB, PDF, and print-ready Persian books from Markdown. Embeds Vazirmatn font, RTL stylesheet, interactive pop-up footnotes, multi-level NCX TOC, and cover metadata." version: 1.0.0 author: Hermes Agent license: MIT metadata: hermes: tags: [epub, typesetting, book-design, persian-epub, vazirmatn, pdf, publication, markdown-to-epub] related_skills: [persian-orthography-and-style, book-authoring-mastery]

Persian Book Typesetting & Standard EPUB Generation

Overview

Automates the production of publication-grade Persian e-books (EPUB 3.0), interactive digital documents, and print-ready layouts. Incorporates embedded Persian typography (Vazirmatn), strict Right-to-Left (RTL) CSS rules, interactive pop-up footnotes, clean chapter hierarchies, and customizable book jackets.

Standards & Typography Rules

1. Typography & Font Embedding

• Primary Typeface: Vazirmatn (وزیرمتن) with comprehensive weights (Regular, Medium, Bold, ExtraBold).
• Line Height: 1.8 to 2.1 for Persian readability (tighter line heights cause vowel/diacritic collisions).
• Text Justification: text-align: justify; with text-justify: inter-word; to avoid irregular spacing.

2. RTL Styling Boilerplate (style.css for EPUB)

@charset "utf-8";
 
@font-face {
    font-family: 'Vazirmatn';
    src: url('../fonts/Vazirmatn-Regular.woff2') format('woff2');
    font-weight: normal;
    font-style: normal;
}
 
@font-face {
    font-family: 'Vazirmatn';
    src: url('../fonts/Vazirmatn-Bold.woff2') format('woff2');
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
}
 
body {
    direction: rtl;
    text-align: justify;
    font-family: 'Vazirmatn', Tahoma, sans-serif;
    font-size: 1.1em;
    line-height: 1.95;
    margin: 1.5em;
    color: #222222;
    background-color: #faf9f6;
}
 
h1, h2, h3 {
    font-family: 'Vazirmatn', Tahoma, sans-serif;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #111111;
    text-align: center;
    margin-top: 1.8em;
    margin-bottom: 0.8em;
}
 
p {
    margin-bottom: 1em;
    text-indent: 1.5em;
}
 
/* Persian Quotes */
blockquote {
    margin: 1.5em 2em;
    padding: 0.8em 1.2em;
    border-right: 4px solid #b8860b;
    background: #f4f0ea;
    font-style: normal;
}
 
/* Interactive Pop-up Footnotes */
a.footnote-ref {
    text-decoration: none;
    font-size: 0.8em;
    vertical-align: super;
    color: #8b0000;
    font-weight: bold;
    padding: 0 2px;
}

EPUB 3.0 Package Structure

output.epub/
├── META-INF/
│   └── container.xml
└── OEBPS/
    ├── content.opf        # Metadata, manifest, spine (RTL declared)
    ├── toc.ncx            # Legacy NCX navigation
    ├── nav.xhtml          # Modern EPUB 3 Navigation Document
    ├── styles/
    │   └── style.css
    ├── fonts/
    │   └── Vazirmatn-Regular.woff2
    ├── images/
    │   └── cover.jpg
    └── text/
        ├── title_page.xhtml
        ├── chapter_001.xhtml
        └── ...

Step-by-Step Compilation Workflow

1. Pre-processing Markdown Files:

• Run the persian-orthography-and-style cleaning script over all chapters.
• Convert standard Markdown footnotes [^term] into HTML anchor links compatible with EPUB3 readers (Apple Books, Calibre, Kobo).

1. Metadata & Manifest Generation:

• Set page-progression-direction="rtl" in content.opf.
• Set language code <dc:language>fa</dc:language>.

1. Packaging with Python / Zip:

• Write uncompressed mimetype file first (application/epub+zip).
• Pack files with standard compression.

1. Validation:

• Check against EPUBCheck standards (valid XHTML, uncorrupted font streams).

Verification Checklist

• [ ] page-progression-direction="rtl" declared on the spine in content.opf.
• [ ] Vazirmatn embedded properly in WOFF2 format.
• [ ] Footnotes link bi-directionally between body text and footer notes.
• [ ] Table of Contents renders correctly in RTL e-readers.
• [ ] No raw Markdown artifacts or broken HTML tags in .xhtml chapters.