What is vertical writing in EPUB?
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Vertical writing sets text in columns from top to bottom, read right to left, as in traditional Japanese, Chinese and Korean books. EPUB 3 supports it through the CSS writing-mode property (vertical-rl).
Why it matters when you convert a PDF to EPUB
A vertically set PDF must be read column by column from the right, which defeats converters that read line by line from the left. The EPUB then needs writing-mode in the CSS and rtl page progression.
How EpubCC handles it: vertically set PDFs are not supported yet. The engine reads lines horizontally, writes no writing-mode in the stylesheet and only sets right-to-left page progression for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu. Japanese text set horizontally converts, as the Japanese case shows; vertical (tategaki) books have not been tested, and the free sample is the way to see what happens to one before paying.
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