A quick overview of the ePUB 3 format and various implementations of it in e-book publishing. This is the talk given at HTML5 meetup in Vancouver on April 12, 2012.
1. ePUB 3 and
Publishing e-books
Kerem Karatal
CTO, Colligo Networks
http://www.colligo.com/company/careers/
Friday, April 13, 12
2. e-book Market
$1,000
$800
$600
$400
$200
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Source: International Digital Publishing Forum
http://idpf.org/about-us/industry-statistics
Friday, April 13, 12
3. e-book vs. Physical
Books
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/e-book-sales-will-outpace-app-revenue-by-2013-says-yankee-group/44325
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/technology/20amazon.html
Friday, April 13, 12
4. e-book Formats
Publisher Format
Apple iBooks ePUB3 + ADO
Amazon Mobi and new KF8
Barnes & Noble ePUB2
http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=support
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000729511
http://kindlegen.s3.amazonaws.com/AmazonKindlePublishingGuidelines.pdf
Friday, April 13, 12
5. What is ePUB?
• Current version is 3.0
• HTML5, CSS3, XHTML and XML
• Bundle of documents, media and
scripts
• Zipped with .epub extension
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6. ePUB File Format
OEBPS META-INF
Media Files ePUB Metadata ePUB Metadata
XHTML CSS OPF XML
NCX ADO
Friday, April 13, 12
7. .opf File
Open Packaging Format
• Metadata
• Title, language, identifier ...
• Manifest
• List all files in the package
• Spine
• List all pages in linear reading order
• Guide (Deprecated was Optional before)
• Identifies key files in the book (cover, text)
• Use landmarks nav element
Friday, April 13, 12
9. .ncx File
Table of Contents
• Superseded by ePUB Navigation Docs
• A new valid XHTML format
• Most existing samples still use .ncx
• .ncx can live side by side
Friday, April 13, 12
19. Embedding Javascript
• For animations use CSS3 if possible -
hardware accelerated
• epubReadingSystem object
• Content document needs to have
scripted property set in manifest
<package>
…
<manifest>
…
alert("Reading
System
name:
"
+
<item
id="chap01"
navigator.epubReadingSystem.name);
href="scripted01.xhtml"
media-‐type="application/xhtml+xml"
properties="scripted"/>
scripted01.xhtml
</manifest>
</package>
book.opf
Friday, April 13, 12
21. A word about Mobi &
KF8
• KF8 is the new fixed
layout optimized format
• Kindle Fire uses it
• Almost ePUB3 with
restrictions
• KindlePreviewer Tool
• KindleGen command
line tool
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?
ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621
• Convert from ePUB to http://kindlegen.s3.amazonaws.com/AmazonKindlePublishingGuidelines.pdf
Amazon formats
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22. A word about iBooks
Author
• Can insert Dashcode
widgets into HTML
widget (.wdgt)
• Proprietary layout in
HTML - under object
tags
• Almost impossible to
convert to non-iBooks
stores
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23. An iPad ePUB app
• Book Creator for iPad
• http://
www.redjumper.net/
bookcreator/
• Generates more
standards compliant
ePUB
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24. eBook Publishing
Services
http://www.booktango.com/
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25. Other ePUB tools
• Adobe Digital Publishing - ePUB 2
• New 1.8 version in labs - some
support for ePUB 3
• Nook uses ePUB 2
• Free Mac ePUB viewer - Ehon
• Readium.org -> Chrome Extension
• See Quora question for more:
http://www.quora.com/What-is-best-ePub-reader-for-Mac-OS
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26. Feature by Feature
Comparison of Readers
http://ibooksauthorguide.wordpress.com/
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27. Questions?
This talk is partially based on WWDC 2011
session:
iBooks: Create Beautiful Books with HTML5, CSS3 and EPUB
Friday, April 13, 12