Case Study: Candlewick Press achieves print-quality, device-ready illustrated children's eBooks with Aptara

Setting the Quality Standard for Children’s eBooks

Candlewick Press, a leading U.S. children’s book publisher known for award-winning titles and best-sellers, needed a fast, affordable way to convert heavily illustrated, design-driven print books into eBooks without sacrificing their signature look and readability across varied devices. The main challenge was preserving complex artwork, styled fonts and page flow for children’s narratives while keeping production costs and timelines manageable.

Aptara used Candlewick’s QuarkXPress/InDesign source files and fonts, built an automated QC program to compare conversions against the originals, and produced high-quality ePUB and .prc (Mobipocket) editions. The initial batch met or exceeded quality expectations, leading to an ongoing partnership, distribution via Candlewick’s site, Amazon and iTunes, and the development of Candlewick’s eBook guidelines and digital quality thresholds.

Candlewick Press