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ePUB 3
1
How did we get here and why is it taking
so long to get anywhere else?
Nic Gibson, 26/02/2016
[email protected] / @CorbasLtd
JIBS
Background
• Multimedia
• New media technology
• Publishing
• XML…
• eBooks
• Consultancy
• Training
2
Overview
• A brief history of ePUB
• The state of the game
• Why isn’t everyone happy?
• Where is EPUB heading?
• What can we do?
3
A brief history
How did this start?
• eBooks are old
• Enciclopedia Mecánica, 1949 Spain
• Doña Angela Ruiz Robles
• Mass take up of eBooks took until
2006/7
• Amazon’s Kindle kickstarted the
market
5
ePUB History
1999 — Open eBook Publication Standard
2007 — EPUB 2.0
2010 — EPUB 2.01
2011 — EPUB 3.0
2014 — EPUB 3.01
2016 — EPUB 3.1
6
ePUB 2.0
• First truly successful format
• Along with Kindle, launched the eBook revolution
• Suffered from
• poor reading devices
• poor implementations
7
ePUB 3.0• Update of ePUB 2.0
• Added
• good metadata
• scripting
• fixed layouts
• rigour in definition
• maths
8
Where are we now?
9
State of the game
• Most eBooks sold in academic and trade are ePUB
2/3 hybrids
• Little advantage take of the ePUB 3 features
• Things remain hard
• try reliably doing Maths
• Walled gardens still dominate
• Open access exists but it’s not EPUB based
• Knowledge Unlatched
10
As a reader
• Can you annotate easily?
• Do your equations work?
• There are 63 devices listed on epubtest.org
• None of them are 100% compliant with EPUB 3.0
• You will never have heard of most of the devices
11
As a library
• PDF is a preferred distribution format in many cases
• Publishers have difficulty with lending concepts with
eBooks
• ePUB requires a new set of tools for the reader
12
Why isn’t everyone
happy?
13
The industry
• Publishers wouldn’t commit without devices
• Device manufacturers would commit without content
• Walled gardens make publishers happy
• Proprietary formats
• Web based readers
• The tablet is killing the dedicated reader
• Amazon
14
Readers and Features
• Device support is still erratic
• MathML support is not reliable
• Indexes are supported poorly
15
The quality
• eBook production is a commodity for many
publishers
• Outsourcing has caused a skills crisis in many
publishers
• Few major publishers create their own eBooks
• Quality control is … lacking
16
The missed opportunities
• eBooks gave publishing the opportunity to do
something new
“Publishing is a very conservative industry. eBooks are
the first new thing we have done since the introduction
of the paperback”
Publisher, Penguin Books, 2007
• Publishers primarily decided that moving into
eBooks was exciting enough, anything more was …
too outré
17
What holds us back?
18
“The demands for the features offered by
ePub3.0 exist in the education, STM and
training markets, where HTML5 is taking over
and is being customised to serve proprietary
reading systems and platforms”Walter Walker, President CodeMantra, January 2016
Where is ePUB going?
19
ePUB 3.1
• A major update
• Designed to drive adoption by simplifying
requirements
• Support HTML
• Simplified metadata requirements
• Legacy EPUB 2.0 support removed
• Due by end of 2016
20
ePUB and the Open Web
• Co-ordination between the W3C and the IDPF
• A packaging model for the web
• allow all of the power of the Open Web Platform to
support the activities of readers
• Rich media support in books!
• Support the blurring of the distinction between books
and applications
21
What can we do?
• Define the need
• It is not clear from the publishing side what the
customer wants
• Join in
• The IDPF is cheap to join
• The membership list is dominated by suppliers not
consumers