Convert EPUB to TEXTILE

Why Convert EPUB to TEXTILE?

Converting EPUB e-books to Textile markup format is useful for content creators, bloggers, and web developers who need to publish book content on content management systems, blogs, or wikis that support Textile. While EPUB is designed for digital reading, Textile provides an intuitive markup language that's easy to edit and integrates seamlessly with many web publishing platforms.

Textile uses punctuation marks like asterisks, underscores, and special characters to indicate formatting, making it more natural to read and write than HTML. By converting EPUB to Textile, you can easily edit and publish your book content on platforms like Textpattern CMS, Redmine project management, or Trac wikis. The markup is concise, expressive, and converts cleanly to HTML for web display.

The conversion process extracts text content, headings, paragraphs, lists, and basic formatting from your EPUB file and transforms it into Textile markup syntax. This gives you editable source content that can be posted directly to Textile-enabled websites and platforms. The human-readable format makes it easy to review and modify content before publishing.

Textile is particularly popular in issue tracking systems like Redmine and Trac, where developers need to document features, write release notes, or create project documentation from book content. Its support for tables, code blocks, and flexible formatting makes it suitable for technical content while remaining simpler than full HTML editing.

Key Benefits of Converting EPUB to Textile:

• CMS Integration: Works with Textpattern, Redmine, and Trac
• Intuitive Syntax: Punctuation-based formatting is easy to learn
• Web Publishing: Converts cleanly to HTML for web display
• Human Readable: Plain text format is easy to edit
• Version Control: Text files work well with Git
• Rich Formatting: Supports tables, links, images, code blocks
• Quick Editing: Faster than writing HTML manually

Practical Examples

Example 1: Basic Text Conversion

Input EPUB content (chapter.xhtml):

<h1>Getting Started</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph with <strong>bold</strong>
and <em>italic</em> text.</p>
<h2>Next Section</h2>
<p>More content here.</p>

Output Textile file:

h1. Getting Started

This is a paragraph with *bold*
and _italic_ text.

h2. Next Section

More content here.

Example 2: Lists and Links

Input EPUB with lists and links:

<h2>Features</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Easy to use</li>
  <li>Fast conversion</li>
  <li>Free service</li>
</ul>
<p>Visit <a href="http://example.com">our website</a>.</p>

Output Textile markup:

h2. Features

* Easy to use
* Fast conversion
* Free service

Visit "our website":http://example.com.

Example 3: Code Blocks and Tables

Input EPUB with code:

<pre><code>
def hello():
    print("Hello World")
</code></pre>

Output Textile code block:

bc. def hello():
    print("Hello World")

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What is Textile?

A: Textile is a lightweight markup language created by Dean Allen in 2002 for the Textpattern CMS. It uses punctuation marks (asterisks for bold, underscores for italic, etc.) to format text. Textile converts to HTML while remaining human-readable as plain text. It's popular in blogging platforms, wikis, and issue trackers.

Q: How does Textile compare to Markdown?

A: Textile and Markdown are similar lightweight markup languages. Textile offers more features out-of-the-box (like table support with spans, footnotes, and more formatting options), while Markdown is simpler and more widely adopted. Textile uses different syntax (e.g., *bold* vs **bold** in Markdown). Both are human-readable and convert to HTML.

Q: What platforms support Textile?

A: Textile is natively supported by Textpattern CMS, Redmine project management, Trac wiki system, and some other CMSs and wikis. GitHub Gist also supports Textile. Many platforms can use Textile through plugins or extensions. The Ruby implementation (RedCloth) and Python implementation (python-textile) are the most common processors.

Q: Will formatting be preserved in the conversion?

A: Basic formatting (bold, italic, headings, lists, links) is converted to Textile syntax. Complex EPUB formatting, CSS styles, and layout may not transfer perfectly. The conversion focuses on preserving content structure and basic text formatting. Images will be referenced but need to be uploaded separately to your web platform.

Q: Can I edit Textile files with a regular text editor?

A: Yes! Textile files are plain text, so any text editor works (Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code, Sublime Text, etc.). Some editors have Textile syntax highlighting plugins available. Many CMSs that support Textile also provide web-based editors with preview functionality, making it easy to see how your markup will render as HTML.

Q: How do I convert Textile to HTML?

A: Most platforms that accept Textile (Textpattern, Redmine, Trac) automatically convert it to HTML when displaying content. For standalone conversion, use processors like RedCloth (Ruby gem), python-textile (Python library), or Pandoc (universal converter). Online Textile-to-HTML converters are also available for testing syntax.

Q: Does Textile support tables?

A: Yes! Textile has excellent table support with column/row spanning, cell alignment, and headers. Syntax uses pipes (|) to separate cells and special modifiers for spans and alignment. This is one area where Textile is more powerful than basic Markdown, making it good for technical documentation with tabular data.

Q: Can I mix Textile with HTML?

A: Yes! Textile allows HTML pass-through, meaning you can include raw HTML tags within your Textile markup for features not covered by Textile syntax. This flexibility is useful when you need precise control over formatting while still benefiting from Textile's simpler syntax for most content.