Content Publishing with EPUB

Content
Publishing
with
EPUB
David Skarjune

Content Publishing with EPUB
EPUB is a pivotal standard for publishing
digital content and aligned with the future of
web, mobile, and printed content.

► What is Content Publishing?
► What is the state of Publishing?
► What are the challenges of Publishing?
► How is EPUB a solution?
► How does EPUB work?

CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune

What is the Future of Publishing ?


What is Content Publishing ?
Development

Strategy Management

Marketing


What is Content ?
Content is anything you produce that your audience
can consume with its senses.
— Evyenia Wilkins

Compelling information that informs, engages or amuses.
— Joe Pulizzi

Content is Information put to use.
— Bob Boiko

Content is information or experience
captured in a format
for transmission to an audience.

The State of Content Publishing
Books are selling!
23% of publishing revenue in 2012
was ebooks up from 17% in 2011
6.2% overall gain in 2012
compared to 2011
—Association of American Publishers (AAP)

How many books are published?
More than 1 million annually…


The State of Content Publishing
Reader Experience is changing!
44% of ebook readers prefer a tablet
42% prefer a dedicated e-reader
—Book Industry Study Group (BISG)

Book buyers overall are beginning
to prefer ebooks over print.


The Future of Content is Mobile
Ubiquitous Computing
2.4 billion mobile devices will be sold in 2012
— Gartner

The majority of Internet access
is on mobile devices, with users
enabled to access all kinds of
digital content almost
anywhere, almost anytime


Enhanced Ebooks
A book is no longer just a book.
Alice was beginning to get very tired
of sitting by her sister on the bank,
and of having nothing to do: once
or twice she had peeped into the
book her sister was reading, but it
had no pictures or conversations in it,
‘and what is the use of a book,’
thought Alice ‘without pictures or
conversation?’
Lewis Carrol, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Down
the Rabbit-Hole, 1865.


Challenges of Content Publishing

MultiChannel Conversion
 Websites  Print to Digital
 Social Media  Digital to Print
 Web Apps  Ebook Formats
 Native Device Apps  Flow Versus Fixed
 Ebooks  Quality Control
 Enhanced Ebooks  Workflow
 Print
 Print on Demand


Ebook Format Flavors
Amazon Kindle
 AZW based on older MOBI
 Kindle Format 8 (KF8) with HTML5 & CSS3
 KindleGen
 Kindle Comic Creator
Apple iBook
 Extension of EPUB for multi-touch books
 iBooks Author uses the iBA
Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
 Native apps for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch


Too Many Digital Content Flavors?
Can a publisher cover every channel?
 Online Zines use Adobe Flash
 Dedicated Ebook App Ecosystems
 Adobe DPS forks layout:
• Portrait
• Landscape
Can a publisher track every market?
 Digital Rights Management (DRM)


Is there an Open Web path
to the future of publishing?


What is EPUB?
Website in a Box
1999 — Open eBook (OEB)
 XHTML Subset
 CSS
 Dublin Core
 ZIP file
2007 — EPUB 2
 Open Publication Structure — XHTML & CSS
 Open Packaging Format — XML schema
 Open Container Format — ZIP & MIME type


International Digital Publishing Forum
EPUB is maintained by IDPF
 376 organizational members
 Adobe
 Apple
 Microsoft
 Publishers
 Tech
 Vendors
 Universities
 Nonprofits


EPUB 2
EPUB 2 is the de facto standard for ebooks.
 Most ereaders can view EPUB & PDF
• Barnes & Noble Nook
• Sony Reader
• Kobo eReader
• Apple iBooks app
 Publisher Workflow
PDF
EPUB
Kindle


EPUB 2 Pros & Cons

PROS CONS
 Works on all kinds of devices and  Does not handle complex layouts
screen sizes from smart phones to with images nor fixed layouts
tablets to PC software  Does not support multiple columns
 Easy to produce using standard of text
XHTML and CSS or converting from  Limited choices for native editing
Word documents  Ereaders do not support all features
 Can include DRM encryption
or be DRM-free
 Supports flexible reader settings and
accessibility software


EPUB 2 Package
ZIP file
 MIME type
XML Container
 Metadata
 Navigation
Content
 Text
 Images
 Styles
 Fonts


mimetype
/ META-INF / container.xml
content.opf
toc.ncx
EPUB 2 LiberationMono.otf
/ Fonts /
LiberationSerif.otf
cover.jpg
/ Images / author.jpg
/ OEBPS / Publisher-logo.jpg
/ Styles / template.css
cover.xhtml
title.xhtml
copyright.xhtml
preface.xhtml
/ Text /
toc.xhtml
chapter-1.xhtml
chapter-2.xhtml
Index.xhtml

EPUB 2 Package Files

mimetype
application/epub+zip

container.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<container version="1.0"
xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container">
<rootfiles>
<rootfile full-path="OEBPS/content.opf"
media-type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>
</rootfiles>
</container>


EPUB 2 Package Files
content.opf
Required XML file for Open Packaging Format (OPF)
Referenced by container.xml
Sections
<metadata> Content information — Dublin Core
<manifest> File list — toc.ncx, text, css, images, fonts, etc.
<spine toc=“ncx”> toc attribute identifies TOC id.
File sequence — default reading order
<guide> Text file references — semantic role of content:
cover, title‐page, copyright, toc, text, index


EPUB 2 package files
toc.ncx
Optional XML file for Table of Contents
Specified by DAISY Consortium
 Navigation Control Center for DTBOOK talking book
 Implemented by ereaders for navigation
Sections
<head> Metadata for book contents
<docTitle> Document Title
<navMap> navPoint playOrder, navLabel text, content src


EPUB 3
EPUB version 3 released late 2011

Laden with features the printed page could never offer—
such as embedded multimedia and scripted interactivity—
EPUB 3 will forever change what a book can be….
EPUB 3 is set to become the new global standard for
ebooks as it also becomes the new accessible standard
for ebooks.

—Matt Garish, EPUB 3 Standard editor


EPUB 3 Navigation Change
Navigation
 NCX XML table of contents document deprecated
• Backwards compatible for EPUB 2 devices
 XHTML Navigation document added
• HTML 5 Nav element for semantic markup
 Navigation now semantic & visual
• EPUB 2 books often had XHTML TOC chapter
• Device can still offer a semantic TOC overlay
• CSS can render visual TOC in various ways
• Fits with HTML5 structural elements


EPUB 3 Content
XHTML5
 Strict version of HTML5 validated by an XML schema
 CSS3 new layout features like multiple columns, color and
shadow effects, media queries, better fonts, canvas
 Will accommodate new HTML5 features as adopted by W3C
and supported by device vendors
SVG
 Scalable Vector Graphics
 XML-based
 Illustrations for comics & diagrams


EPUB 3 HTML5 Caveats
 HTML5 will not be finalized until 2014
 Stricter XHTML5 standard will exclude some features
 No document object model (DOM ) support
 Some subsetting for features not accommodated in book form
 All content resources have to be packaged in the EPUB, but…

Exception for remote
audio and video resources


EPUB3 Technology
XHTML5
 Structural elements: header, footer, section, article, aside, etc.
 Canvas element as supported by device
 MathML for presentation of equations
 Ruby Annotation support for phonetic pronunciation
 JavaScript and Forms are optional and device-dependent
 Addition of epub:type attribute for ebook semantic granularity
e.g.: footnotes, annotations, glossary, etc.


EPUB3 Technology
SVG 1.1
 Supports Scalable Vector Graphics for content such as
comics, manga, and technical diagrams.
 Images can used at the Spine level as with XHTML
 Does not support animation and events
CSS 2.1 and 3
 Media queries with @media and @import
 @font-face for TrueType and WOFF fonts
 Multicolumn layout styling, may require prefixing
 Writing modes for synthetic speech rendering


EPUB3 Technology
JavaScript
 General ECMAScript-based automation and interaction
 Device supports epubReadingSystem object property
• Queries specific scripting support
• Detects features: keyboard, mouse, touch, layout, etc.
• Used by Apple iBooks
 For simple interaction, not complex data applications
 Progressive enhancement with fallback content advised


EPUB3 Technology
SSML/PLS/CSS 3 Speech
 Improved text-to-speech rendering
SMIL 3
 Synchronized text and audio playback
RDF vocabularies
 Embedded semantic information about publication
XML
 Namespace declarations for specialized grammars
ZIP
 EPUB is web content Zipped into a box!


EPUB3 & Accessibility
EPUB 3 succeeds DAISY standard for accessible books.
An ebook format that embraces that there is no single
universal way to access information. Any reader may switch
between reading modalities at any time. Sighted readers, for
example, will switch and listen to books to read in many
situations not amenable to visual reading…
Nonvisual readers may switch between tactile and audio for
many of the same reasons.…
It’s time to toss aside the ability/disability labels and embrace
choice and difference. Accessibility is critical for some and
universally beneficial to all.
—Matt Garrish and Markus Gylling , EPUB 3 Best Practices


EPUB3 Audio & Video
H.264 H.265?
Any VP8 content such as WebM
Backwards compatible to MP3 & MP4


Content Publishing Workflow
COPE — Create Once, Publish Everywhere
CAPE — Create Anywhere, Publish Everywhere

Digital First !

ToolChain
 Customize your process
 Combine a set of tools
 Get the job done


Resources

Wordimage.com/Resources/EPUB/
Wordimage.com/blog/
@skarjune
What is EPUB 3?
By Matt Garrish
O'Reilly Media, 2011,
Free Ebook pamphlet.

oreilly.com


Content Publishing with EPUB

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