EPUB is a pivotal standard for publishing digital content and aligned with the future of web, mobile, and printed content. This presentation on "Content Publishing with EPUB" was given by David Skarjune on April 15, 2013 at MinneWebcon—Two days of grassroots knowledge-sharing for people who create, work with, and love the web. Skarjune addressed the following questions:
• 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?
For EPUB resources visit http://wordimage.com/resources/EPUB
2. 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
3. What is the Future of Publishing ?
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
4. What is Content Publishing ?
Development
Strategy Management
Marketing
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
5. 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.
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
6. 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…
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
7. 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.
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
8. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
9. 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.
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
10. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
11. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
12. 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)
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
13. Is there an Open Web path
to the future of publishing?
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
14. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
15. International Digital Publishing Forum
EPUB is maintained by IDPF
376 organizational members
Adobe
Apple
Microsoft
Publishers
Tech
Vendors
Universities
Nonprofits
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
16. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
17. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
18. EPUB 2 Package
ZIP file
MIME type
XML Container
Metadata
Navigation
Content
Text
Images
Styles
Fonts
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
21. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
23. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
25. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
26. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
27. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
28. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
29. 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.
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
30. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
31. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
32. 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!
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
33. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
34. EPUB3 Audio & Video
H.264 H.265?
Any VP8 content such as WebM
Backwards compatible to MP3 & MP4
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune
35. 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
CONTENT PUBLISHING WITH EPUB David Skarjune