The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) has announced the completion of a major revision to EPUB, the global standard interchange and delivery format for eBooks and other digital publications. The IDPF membership unanimously voted to elevate EPUB 3.0 to a final IDPF Recommended Specification, publicly available at http://idpf.org/epub/30.
EPUB 3 was chartered in May 2010 and developed by a global working group of over 100 contributors, reaching 'Proposed Recommendation' status in May 2011. Based on HTML5, EPUB 3 adds support for rich media (audio, video), interactivity (JavaScript), global language support (including vertical writing), styling and layout enhancements, SVG, embedded fonts, expanded metadata facilities, MathML, and synchronisation of audio with text and other enhancements for accessibility.
EPUB 3 features have already been delivered by a number of Reading Systems and content authoring tools. Now that EPUB 3.0 is a final specification, superseding EPUB 2.0.1 as the current version of EPUB, the IDPF anticipates that comprehensive EPUB 3 support will be forthcoming from a number of solution providers during the coming year.
Industry stakeholders who publicly expressed support for EPUB 3 when it achieved 'Proposed Recommendation' status in May 2011 included Adobe, Apex, Association of American Publishers (AAP), CourseSmart, EAST, EDItEUR, Google, HOV Services, IDEAlliance, Ingram, Italian Publishers Association (AIE), Japan Electronic Publishers Association (JEPA), Kobo, Monotype, MPS, OverDrive, Publishers Association (UK), Random House, Sony, Voyager Japan, and the World Blind Union.
Search for more Industry codes and standards
To access our daily STM news feed through your iPhone, iPad, or other smartphones, please visit www.myscoope.com for a mobile friendly reading experience.
More News in this Theme
