{"id":35553,"date":"2019-10-31T22:04:59","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/blog\/elektronnye-knigi-i-ih-formaty-govorim-pro-epub-ego-istoriyu-plyusy-i-minusy\/"},"modified":"2019-10-31T22:04:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:04:59","slug":"elektronnye-knigi-i-ih-formaty-govorim-pro-epub-ego-istoriyu-plyusy-i-minusy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/en\/blog\/news\/elektronnye-knigi-i-ih-formaty-govorim-pro-epub-ego-istoriyu-plyusy-i-minusy","title":{"rendered":"E-books and their formats: discussing EPUB \u2014 its history, advantages, and disadvantages","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier in the blog, we wrote about how electronic book formats emerged. DjVu<\/a><\/noindex> and FB2<\/a><\/noindex>.<\/p>\n

Today's article topic is EPUB.<\/p>\n

\"E-books<\/a><\/noindex>
\nImage: Nathan Oakley<\/a><\/noindex> \/ CC BY<\/i><\/p>\n

History of the Format<\/h2>\n

\nIn the 1990s, proprietary solutions dominated the e-book market. Many e-reader manufacturers had their own formats. For instance, NuvoMedia used files with the .rb extension. These were containers with an HTML file and a .info file containing metadata. This situation complicated publishers' work, forcing them to typeset books separately for each format. A group of engineers from Microsoft, along with NuvoMedia and SoftBook Press, took on the challenge of changing this.
\n<\/a><\/noindex><\/p>\n

At that time, Microsoft was aiming to conquer the e-book market and was developing a reading application for Windows 95. It can be said that the creation of a new format was part of the IT giant's business strategy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nWhen it comes to NuvoMedia, this company is considered to be the manufacturer of the first mass-market e-reader, Rocket eBook.<\/a><\/noindex>Its internal memory was only eight megabytes, and the battery life did not exceed 40 hours. SoftBook Press was also engaged in developing e-readers. However, their devices had a distinctive feature \u2014 an integrated modem, which allowed downloading digital literature directly from the SoftBookstore.<\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, both companies \u2014 NuvoMedia and SoftBook \u2014 were acquired by the media company Gemstar and merged into Gemstar eBook Group. This organization continued to sell readers (for example, RCA REB 1100<\/a><\/noindex>) and digital books for several more years, but by 2003, they exited the business.<\/a><\/noindex>.<\/p>\n

But let's return to the development of a unified standard. In 1999, Microsoft, NuvoMedia, and SoftBook Press founded the Open eBook Forum, where they began working on the draft document that laid the foundation for EPUB. Initially, the standard was called called<\/a><\/noindex> OEBPS (which stands for Open EBook Publication Structure). It allowed for the distribution of digital publications in a single file (ZIP archive) and simplified the transfer of books between various hardware platforms.<\/p>\n

Later, IT companies Adobe, IBM, HP, Nokia, Xerox, and publishers McGraw Hill and Time Warner joined the Open eBook Forum. Together, they continued the development of OEBPS and worked on the overall growth of the digital literature ecosystem. In 2005, the organization was renamed the International Digital Publishing Forum, or IDPF.<\/a><\/noindex>.<\/p>\n

In 2007, IDPF changed the name of the OEBPS format to EPUB and began developing its second version. It was presented to the public in 2010. The update was almost identical to its predecessor, however, it received support<\/a><\/noindex> for vector graphics and embedded fonts.<\/p>\n

By this time, EPUB was gaining market share and had become the default standard for many publishers and electronic device manufacturers. The format was already used by O'Reilly and Cisco Press, and it was supported by devices from Apple, Sony, Barnes & Noble, and ONYX BOOX.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nIn 2009, the Google Books project announced<\/a><\/noindex> announced support for EPUB \u2014 it was used to distribute over a million free books. The format began to gain popularity among writers as well. In 2011, J.K. Rowling announced plans<\/a><\/noindex> to launch the Pottermore site and make it the sole sales point for the digital editions of the Potter books.<\/p>\n

The standard for distributing literature was chosen to be EPUB, primarily because of its ability to implement copy protection (DRM<\/a><\/noindex>). All books in the writer's online store are still available only in this format<\/a><\/noindex>.<\/p>\n

The third version of the EPUB format was released in 2011. Developers added functionality for audio and video files as well as footnotes. Today, the standard continues to evolve \u2014 in 2017, IDPF even became<\/a><\/noindex> part of the W3C consortium, which implements technology standards for the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n

How EPUB Works<\/h2>\n

\nA book in EPUB format is essentially a ZIP archive. It contains the text of the publication in the form of XHTML or HTML pages or PDF files. Also stored in the archive is the media content (audio, video, or images), fonts, and metadata. Additionally, it can include extra files with CSS styles or PLS<\/a><\/noindex>-documents with information for speech generation services.<\/p>\n

Content is displayed using XML markup. A fragment of a book with an embedded audio recording and an image might look like this<\/a><\/noindex>:<\/p>\n

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html  \n    \n    epub_prefix="media: http:\/\/idpf.org\/epub\/vocab\/media\/#">\n    <head>\n        <meta charset="utf-8" \/>\n        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text\/css" href="..\/css\/shared-culture.css" \/>\n    <\/head>\n    <body>\n        <section class="base">\n            <h1>the entire transcript<\/h1>\n            <audio id="bgsound" epub_type="media:soundtrack media:background"\n                src="..\/audio\/asharedculture_soundtrack.mp3" autoplay="" loop="">\n                <div class="errmsg">\n                    <p>Your Reading System does not support (this) audio<\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/audio>\n\n            <p>What does it mean to be human if we don't have a shared culture? What does a shared culture mean if we can't share it? It's only in the last 100 or 150 years or so that we started tightly restricting how that culture gets used.<\/p>\n\n            <img class="left" src="..\/images\/326261902_3fa36f548d.jpg"\n                alt="child against a wall" \/>\n        <\/section>\n    <\/body>\n<\/html>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
\nIn addition to the content files, the archive contains a special navigation document (Navigation Document). It describes the layout of text and images in the book. Reader applications refer to it when the reader wants to 'skip' several pages.<\/p>\n
Another mandatory file in the archive is the package. It includes metadata\u2014information about the author, publisher, language, title, and so on. It also contains a list (spine) of the book's subdivisions. An example of a package document can be viewed in the IDPF repository on GitHub<\/a><\/noindex>.<\/p>\n
Advantages<\/h2>\n
\nThe advantage of the format is its flexibility. EPUB allows for the creation of a dynamic layout that adapts to the screen size of the device. This is one of the main reasons why the format supports a large number of e-readers (and other electronic devices). For instance, all ONYX BOOX readers work with EPUB 'out of the box', from the basic 6-inch Caesar 3<\/a><\/noindex> to the premium 9.7-inch Euclid<\/a><\/noindex>.<\/p>\n
\"E-books
\n\/ ONYX BOOX Caesar 3<\/a><\/noindex><\/i><\/p>\n
Since the format is based on popular standards (XML), it is easy to convert for online reading. EPUB also supports interactive elements. Yes, such elements exist in PDF as well, but adding them to a PDF document can only be done using proprietary software. In the case of EPUB, they are added to the book via markup and XML tags in any text editor.<\/p>\n
Another advantage of EPUB is its features for people experiencing vision problems or suffering from dyslexia. The standard allows for the modification of text display on the screen\u2014for example, highlighting certain letter combinations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nMoreover, as we mentioned earlier, EPUB allows the publisher to implement copy protection. If desired, e-book sellers can use<\/a><\/noindex> their own mechanisms to limit access to the document. For this, it is necessary to modify the rights.xml file in the archive.<\/p>\n
Disadvantages<\/h2>\n
\nTo create an EPUB publication, one must understand the syntax of XML, XHTML, and CSS. At the same time, it requires working with a large number of identifier tags. In comparison, the FB2 standard<\/a><\/noindex> contains only the minimally necessary set of tags\u2014sufficient for formatting literary works. And to create PDF documents<\/a><\/noindex> no special knowledge is needed\u2014specialized software takes care of everything.<\/p>\n
EPUB is also criticized for the complexity of formatting comics and other books with many illustrations. In this case, the publisher has to create a static layout with fixed coordinates for each image\u2014this can take a lot of effort and time.<\/p>\n
What's Next<\/h2>\n
\nCurrently, IDPF is working on new specifications for the format. One of them, for example, will help create interactive learning materials. with hidden sections<\/a><\/noindex>. The same book will look different for teachers and students \u2014 in the latter case, answers to tests or control questions, for instance, will be hidden.<\/p>\n
\"E-books
\nImage: Guian Bolisay<\/a><\/noindex> \/ CC BY-SA<\/i><\/p>\n
The new feature is expected to help reorganize the educational process. Today, EPUB is actively used by major universities, such as the University of Oxford. Several years ago, they added<\/a><\/noindex> added support for EPUB 3.0 to their digital library app.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIDPF is also developing a specification for implementing Open Annotation footnotes in EPUB. This standard was developed by W3C in 2013 \u2014 it simplifies working with complex types of annotations. For example, it allows a note to be attached to a specific area of a JPEG image. Additionally, the standard implements a mechanism<\/a><\/noindex> for synchronizing changes in annotations between copies of the same EPUB document. Open Annotation format notes can be added<\/a><\/noindex> to EPUB files now, but a formal specification for them has yet to be adopted.<\/p>\n
Work is also underway on a new version of the standard \u2014 EPUB 3.2. It will feature formats WOFF 2.0<\/a><\/noindex> and SFNT<\/a><\/noindex>, which are used for font compression (in some cases, they can reduce file sizes by 30%). Additionally, developers will replace some outdated HTML attributes. For instance, instead of a separate trigger element to activate audio and video files, the new standard will have native HTML elements audio and video.<\/p>\n
A draft the specification<\/a><\/noindex> and changelog<\/a><\/noindex> is already available in the W3C GitHub repository.<\/p>\n
\nReviews of ONYX-BOOX readers:<\/p>\n