Creating EPUB EbooksTyler Johnson

What Is An Ebook ?

An electronic representation of a printed book.

Delivered through a specialized e-reader system.

Typically focused on immersive reading

experience.

Presentation elements are reflowable.

Presentation is controlled by the user.

Popular E-Readers

Hardware

Kindle

Nook

Kobo

iPAD

Software

software versions of hardware e-readers

Calibre

Adobe Digital Editions

What Is EPUB ?

“The EPUB® specification is a distribution and interchange format standard for digital publications and documents. EPUB defines a means of representing, packaging and encoding structured and semantically enhanced Web content — including HTML5, CSS, SVG, images, and other resources — for distribution in a single-file format.” -IDPF EPUB 3 Overview, Conboy, Garth, et al. 2014

EPUB 3.0.1 released June 2014

Industry is at EPUB 2. Moving to EPUB 3.

IDPF

International Digital Publishing Forum

http://idpf.org

Technical industry group focused on electronic

publishing and standards

Membership-based

Members include trade & academic publishers,

technology companies.

Produces “Recommended Specifications”

EPUB 3 FeaturesFrom EPUB 3 Overview

http://www.idpf.org/epub/301/spec/epub-overview-20140626.html

Package Document

A single package document defines ALL of the

resources (files) necessary to render a book.

Metadata can apply across all resources

Defines a reading order

(compare these features with a website)

Layout

Reflowable content

eReaders use different resolutions.

Users control font, size, justification, more.

Fixed layout support

(print designers hate reflowable content)

Separation of content and presentation

Semantic markup

Uses HTML5 and CSS (yay!)

Multimedia

Images

Audio

Video

Media overlay documents

synchronized audio and text

Fonts

Fonts can be embedded in eBooks or included in

eReader systems

Two font technologies supported

OpenType

WOFF

Also ChemML & MathML

Scripting

Scripting is supported optionally but discouraged

(except for SVG)

Documents are meant to be rendered. They are

not programs to be executed.

eREADER security and update mechanisms are

limited and primitive.

Will limit portability across eREADERs.

It’s abook, not acomputer !

Text-to-Speech

Uses W3C standards

Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML)

Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS)

CSS Speech Module (CSS3Speech)

Digital Rights Management

Not defined in EPUB 3

rights.xml sometimes spotted.

Readium Foundation developing lightweight DRM.

Commercial solutions available.

DRM Features

breaks platform portability

not user friendly (can't backup, iPad->Kindle)

Apple gave up on this. You should too.

Canonical Fragment

IdentifiersStandardizes a way to link within EPUB documents

Hyperlinking within text

Share bookmarks across platforms

Citations

Inter-publication

epubcfi(/6/4[chap01ref]!/4[body01]/10[para05]/3:10)

Intra-publication

<a href="../pub.opf#epubcfi(/6/4[chap01ref]!/4[body01]/10[para05]/2/1:3[;s=b])">location</a>

Container

ZIP!

Multiple files and directories

Compressed

Easy to share and distribute

Not tied to a URL, but must specify the artifact

itself (usually via citation, ISBN, etc.)

No network required

E-Book DissectionA look at the guts…

EPUB Guts

XHTML Content Files

Stylesheets

Media/Images

Navigation toc.ncx

Package – content.opf

Metadata: publication data

Manifest: lists all resources in the rendition

Spine: default reading order

Guide (Navigation Document in EPUB3): toc & landmarks

Practical Advice

EPUB Application Fit

EPUB 2 is widely supported across multiple platforms and tools

Re-flowable text with images and good CSS formatting.

EPUB 3 feature support is spotty and varies by platform and feature.

Can work if you target a specific platform.

Easy

Novels

Manuals

Journals

Textbooks

More Difficult

Computer Programming

Math

Poetry

Picture Books

Select EPUB Editors

Windows Mac LinuxSigil x x xCalibre x x xApple Pages xAdobe InDesign / DreamWeaver

x x

Jutoh x x xtext editor x x x

Workflow

write

edit

approval

strip text

enter allcontent intoEPUB editor

createmedia

markup

exportEPUB

handtweak

test

uploadto

distributor

Kindlegen

validate&

munge

published!

PRODUCTIONPREP DISTRIBUTION

Validation

Adobe EpubCheck

http://validator.idpf.org

EpubCheck on github (FOSS)

Kindle Workflow

Generate EPUB using your favorite workflow.

Edit the source using SIGIL or other low level

editor to tweak start page and other elements.

Use Kindlegen or Kindle Previewer to generate

.mobi file.

Preview with Kindle Previewer

Rinse. Repeat.

Kindle

Kindlegen

Converts files from EPUB, HTML, XHMTL to

mobipocket and KF8 formats

Command line tool

Kindle Previewer

GUI tool that emulates Kindle hardware and

software readers. (requires X11 on Mac)

Will generate .mobi files.

Kindle Start Page

Kindles open .mobi files to the first page instead

of front matter. This is usually undesirable. To

correct you must modify the source.

Open content.opf

Add an element to <guide>

<reference href="Text/Section0001" title="Title

Page” type="text">

Cover Specifications

Size

1600 x 2400

Have smaller cover resolutions available

Produce thumbnails

JPEG

Compress to keep file sizes low!

ISBNs

Use one for every format, edition, and channel

Fundamental product identifier, like SKU

Bowker is the US ISBN authority

https://www.myidentifiers.com/

Resources

Liz Castro, technical writer and EPUB guru

http://www.elizabethcastro.com/

Joel Friedlander, book designer

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

International Digital Publishing Forum

http://idpf.org/

Sigil

https://github.com/user-none/Sigil

Jutoh

http://www.jutoh.com/

UNC Libraries have many EPUB and other e-Books!