Open ebook standard

EPUB can be used by anyone who is creating digital content, be they from a large international publishing house or a self publisher working on their own. There is an enormous amount of resource available to help those who may not have the internal infrastructure to cope with an EPUB workflow.

EPUB 3. W3C has published a list of changes relevant to this version. Subsequent revisions 1. Work on a 2. EPUB 2. EPUB 3. You may open reflowable or fixed-layout EPUB files: what does this mean? In a reflowable EPUB, the content is fluid and fits the size of the screen. Novels are usually published as reflowable ebooks because their layout is simple.

But the reflowable format is not always ideal, especially when it comes to designs where the layout is critical, i. A fixed-layout ebook defines a viewport, i. Some good examples of fixed-layout publications are photo books, magazines and comics. It is now quite common for reading applications on mobiles, tablets or PCs to support EPUB 3 with fixed-layout: this is especially the case for those based on the Readium toolkit.

Legacy e-readers specialized devices with a black and white, touch-less screen, low memory, low computing power are also only capable of processing EPUB 2. But several modern e-readers process EPUB 3 and correctly support sophisticated text-oriented layout, combined with images. Should you create ebooks using KF8 format? Fortunately, Amazon makes this simple for publishers: with the KF8 format, Amazon automatically generates a mobi format too.

So a single KF8 file actually contains both mobi and KF8 formats to ensure universal Kindle compatibility. For narrative ebooks with a few images and simple formatting, the older EPUB and Amazon mobi formats are still the best choices.

EPUB3 and KF8 provide a better choice than the older formats for ebooks that need more advanced formatting and features. But they still have limited distribution. And some of these alternative formats have better production tools and can currently reach a bigger potential market. Find out more about this topic on our Digital Publishing useful resources site. EPUB and Kindle formats explained. Click to learn about EPUB3's advanced features.

Among the new features in EPUB3 are: More sophisticated formatting including multi-column support, more font options, and support for math formulas Fixed width layouts. With over 4 million downloads, Wattpad is also the most widely used mobile ebook application in the world. About the International Digital Publishing Forum The International Digital Publishing Forum is a non-profit trade and standards organization for the digital publishing industry representing over companies and organizations.

Further information about the organization and industry, including membership information, can be obtained by visiting www.