I have a Python project where I create epub files dynamically. For this I use the ebooklib library. I am trying to add a background image to each page as a form of watermark. Following the instructions on http://docs.sourcefabric.org/projects/ebooklib/en/latest/tutorial.html#creating-epub for adding a stylesheet I write the code
style = 'body { background-image: url(../watermark.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }'
nav_css = epub.EpubItem(uid="style_nav",
file_name="style/nav.css",
media_type="text/css",
content=style)
book.add_item(nav_css)
The image doesn't get added. I thought maybe the path wasn't correct, so I changed it to
style = 'body { color: red; }'
nav_css = epub.EpubItem(uid="style_nav",
file_name="style/nav.css",
media_type="text/css",
content=style)
book.add_item(nav_css)
adding red color to the text, so I could see if adding the stylesheet worked. It didn't. When I opened the book in calibri the text was still black throughout. I tried adding nav_css to each chapter, still the same. What am I doing wrong?
Edit: I just want to add that I clicked "Edit" the book in calibri, and the nav.css file does get included. But I'm not seeing any change in style.
After opening the epub in Edit mode in calibri and taking a look at the epub's parts, I finally figured out what was wrong. Turns out I needed to add the nav_css stylesheet to both the book as a whole and each individual chapter where I wanted the style to be applied. I also needed to add the image used as a background-watermark to the book:
image_content = open('../watermark.png', 'rb').read()
epub_img = epub.EpubImage(uid='watermark', file_name='watermark.png', content=image_content)
book.add_item(epub_img)
Finally, I'm adding this last as it may help someone else, it seems calibri has a universal setting somewhere to display text as black by default. Even when I applied the style correctly, I didn't get to see the entire text as red (I did, however, see the background image). It was only when I opened the epub in Edit mode that I could see the red text in the preview.