I’ve recently introduced a 6kb picture as a fleuron for scene break symbols. I’d say there are about 40-45 of them. For some reason I can’t import images into my main manuscript folder, so I’m having to insert them directly into the text instead of using references.
Unfortunately, for some reason Scrivener fails every single time it tries to compile the MOBI and I have no idea why. It compiled a MOBI just fine of another project that had substantially larger images (though I’d say there were 1/4 or 1/3 fewer of them than the other project).
Back to the failing project: I’ve been copy-pasting the original image insertion throughout the remainder of the project–is this what’s causing the compile failure, do you think? Or is it the # of images?
It fails compiling to EPUB as well.
On another note, does anyone have any idea why I can’t import an image into my main manuscript folder? Does anyone know if it’s possible to make references to an image in the Research folder the way it incorporates cover images?
What happens if you use just one single copy of the image and run a test compile? Maybe it’s a problem with the file format. I don’t think quantity will be too big of a problem since identical images are not duplicated in the e-book. All references point back to one image file.
Because even images need formatting (spacing, justification, etc.). A graphic file all by itself is not a component of a document. For example, I would imagine you want your scene separator symbol to be centre-aligned, but where is that going to come from unless it is in a text document?
If what you’re trying to accomplish is an easy to identify scene break from the Binder level, then consider just making a text file that only holds the graphic. Now you can duplicate that file whenever you need a copy. In the 1.7 beta you could even set that up as a document template and create dividers at will from the add-item menus.
Not like that yet, but you can link to image files on the disk with the Edit/Insert/Image Linked to File… command. I wouldn’t bother with something as small and prolific as a scene divider though—that’s more useful if the images are high-res and slowing things down, or if you need to be able to easily edit and swap out live images using other tools like Photoshop and Illustrator.
It’s a PNG. Does that make a difference? Should it be GIF?
I asked about importing an image into the manuscript folder because it’s literally the very first step in this image tutorial (gwenhernandez.com/2013/05/28/tec … scrivener/), but when I try to do it, it only lets me import text files. Reading on, I get the feeling that this is for the Mac edition of Scrivener, maybe?
I’m going to redo the fleuron as a GIF and try that, though I don’t feel like that’s the problem.
PNG is probably the better option these days. Did it break your test compile? I’m thinking just an extremely basic test project with a couple of lines of text and your PNG in between in a single document. Just compile to ePub and see if it works.
It would also help to know precisely what error message you are getting for ePub and Mobi.
I don’t see where Gwen’s tutorial says you can import graphic files into the Draft folder, that isn’t possible on the Mac either—like I say it’s not really a technical problem or anything, just a logical one—what paragraph formatting will a graphic have if it is stuck in between two text files? That will be the same quandary no matter what platform you are on. All document formats require images to be embedded within the document (or referred to with a code, such as in HTML/ePub etc—but still that code is in the document and taking formatting it, to be applied to the image when it is converted from a reference to an image.
I haven’t done the test compile yet. I’ve been removing all the graphics except for the first one because I had a idea for something different. (but I still want to know how to do this or how to fix it)
I don’t want to put the image in the Draft folder, I want to put it in the main manuscript folder. Gwen’s tutorial specifically states that you can’t put it in the Draft folder and I already knew that anyway, from Scrivener’s tutorial (I think that’s where I saw it).
The error message simply says, “failed to compile MOBI” or “failed to compile EPUB”. Nothing more. No error number, no explanation, no nothing.
I’m not trying to place the graphic between two text files. I’m inserting the graphic directly into the Editor pane (which is what I’m doing that results in the compile failure) between two paragraphs and centering the graphic itself in the Editor pane, in the body of the text.
I wanted to use Gwen’s method of importing the image into the Manuscript (NOT /DRAFTS) folder and using a reference to call to it, but Scrivener won’t allow the importation of image files. The PNGs aren’t even selectable in the file select popup.
The thing is, this method worked just fine the first time I tried it, in another MOBI compile that derived its context from the same project (different manuscript folder, same project–I’m doing all the books of this particular series in one Scrivener project). In the original test compile, the images showed up just fine when I opened it on an actual Kindle.
Okay, perhaps that is the point of confusion, the “manuscript” folder is the Draft folder. One might rename the Draft folder to whatever they please—and if you’re calling it the manuscript folder, you might have started with a template that renamed it to that, but they are the same thing.
Good(?) news: I stripped out all of the PNGs but one (the image I’m using as the title on the title page) and replaced all the scene breaks with simple underscore lines, and this time it compiled.
So thus far we know:
it’s not the filetype, or the title page would have caused the compile to fail
it might (but shouldn’t) be the # of image uses
The PNG format itself should be just fine, that’s supported by just about everything these days. What I was more concerned about are oddities with the file itself—perhaps it uses some image settings that Scrivener wasn’t programmed to handle. Testing against another PNG entirely probably wouldn’t reveal that.
I made another test compile with the title page PNG and one of the original scenebreak fleurons. It compiled just fine, and it actually looks pretty good (I re-did it so that the flat-topped fleuron is a sort of “platform” that each chapter title sits on).
I’ll compile again once I’ve done all the chapter headings. I have the feeling it might have to do with my copy-pasting the first fleuron throughout all the scenebreaks instead of manually importing to each individual chapter.