Opinions Needed on EPUB Question

The Publishing Maintenance Working Group at W3C is looking for your input on an important question about EPUB, asking readers to fill out a W3C survey on the potential inclusion of HTML syntax.

EPUB3 is built on the XML serialization of HTML, aka “XHTML”. There are plans to remove the requirement to use the XML serialization exclusively, meaning that in EPUB3, content files can use either HTML or XHTML. In terms of the specification, it is a relatively simple change, but it will have an impact on tools and software that create, process, or display EPUB files. Feedback from the community will help the team to understand what the concerns are, what they may need to do to help make the change easier to make for EPUB users, and how they can support them from the specification side.

Important to note:
1. Nothing changes for existing EPUB files, the XHTML you were using will continue to be valid and functional for a long time to come.
2. Adding HTML as an option for EPUB production will require technological updates to tools, processing systems, and reading experiences.
3. Making this change now is important to the longevity and usability of EPUB as a format, as development of HTML continues and technology evolves.
4. The alternative, limiting EPUB to only the XML serialization of HTML, will eventually require developers to maintain their own XHTML rendering engines and libraries, which will greatly constrain who can make EPUB tools and reading systems.

Please get involved and provide your feedback. It’s only 4 questions!