The Project Gutenberg RST Manual

A practical manual for anyone who wants to turn Project Gutenberg’s plain‑text releases into polished e‑books. It walks you through setting up the conversion pipeline, from installing Python and required libraries to getting the EpubMaker tool running on Windows or Debian. The step‑by‑step instructions keep technical jargon to a minimum, helping readers get the software up and running without getting lost in endless dependencies.

Beyond installation, the guide explains the core markup language used by Gutenberg, showing how to apply inline and block classes for italics, bold, small caps, and other typographic effects. It covers tables, footnotes, pagination, drop caps, and metadata, with clear examples that demonstrate how each element appears in the final HTML, EPUB, or PDF output. The book also shares best‑practice tips for organizing front‑matter, handling different output formats, and troubleshooting common issues.

Designed as a hands‑on reference, this manual lets both newcomers and seasoned volunteers streamline the e‑book creation process, ensuring that each Project Gutenberg title can be offered in a clean, reader‑friendly format.