Tag Archive for: EPUB 3

Publishing, Accessibility, W3C Standards—Where Are We and How Did We Get Here? (W)

cover slide for Publishing, accessibility, W3C standards

In our series of free weekly webinars May 6th saw a session focused on publishing technology at the W3C, the EPUB eco-system, and baking in accessibility within digital content. Behind the scenes of any technology you will find that a significant amount of effort invested over many years has shaped where we are today. This webinar reflected on the EPUB 3 journey to become the most popular and most accessible digital publishing standard in the world.

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • Bill Kasdorf, Publishing Technology Partners
  • Luc Audrain, Inclusive Publishing Consultant (just retired from Hachette)
  • George Kerscher, The DAISY Consortium

Session Overview

Bill Kasdorf opened this webinar with an overview of book production workflows—the evolution of publishing technology has  enabled “accessibility to be more accessible than ever”. Today, every step of the workflow is digital and assistive technology benefits from the interoperability and open standards that are in play for digital files, systems and devices. Web technology is the fundamental basis for EPUB 3, giving publishers the opportunity to produce born accessible EPUB 3 as a standard output from their workflows. But Bill stressed that whilst this is possible:

You have to use the tech properly!

EPUB 3 doesn’t guarantee accessibility, rather it offers “accessibilityability”.

Luc Audrain walked us through a history of EPUB 3 which is now hosted within the Publishing@W3C organization who’s focus is on creating a global EPUB 3 ecosystem. The revision of the EPUB 3 spec and upgrade of EPUBCheck were the initial focus and now it is time to create the best EPUB 3 ecosystem for born accessible content, with tools such as EPUBCheck, Ace by DAISY and the EPUB 1.0 Accessibility specification.

George Kerscher spoke about integrating accessibility into all aspects of publishing and reading:

Accessibility is not a frosting spread on a cake; it must be baked in.

Authoring and publishing production software can integrate Ace by DAISY, the SMART tool and the DAISY Knowledge Base into their working practices and these have been built from DAISY’s years of experience and participation in digital publishing initiatives.

Alongside these tools and best practices, publishers need to take advantage of conformance and discovery metadata if they are to communicate the good work they are doing. The forthcoming User Experience Guide for accessibility metadata will help libraries and print disabled readers to buy born accessible EPUB 3 content and to have access at the same time, in the same format and at the same price as all other readers.

If you are interested in the future of EPUB and publishing standards then the second part of this webinar is worth registering for. The future of accessible publishing and standards – where are we going? will take place on June 3rd, 2020

Related Resources

Links mentioned in the webinar:

EPUB 3.2—Back to the Future of the Web.

Head shot of Matt Garrish, author of this articleIn case you missed the news, EPUB 3.2 is now officially a thing. Does that leave you thinking, “Oh joy, yet another format I have to produce!” If so, don’t worry, you’ll be happy to hear that you’re most likely already producing fully conformant EPUB 3.2 content. The “.2” doesn’t designate a brand new flavour of EPUB, only that we’ve made updates to the EPUB 3 specifications to improve and enhance what you’re already producing.

EPUB 3.2 really isn’t even all that radical a makeover of EPUB 3, despite its designation as a major revision. There are some major changes, of course, but these changes reflect a more subtle rethink of the relationship between EPUB and the Web. You’ve probably heard EPUB billed as “a web site in a box”, but due to a few technical divergences, the practicality of that statement has always had a few asterisks appended to it. (If you’ve tried to create rich, cutting-edge content, you’re probably all too familiar with those asterisks.) What I hope to do in this article is recap how 3.2 brings EPUB back closer to the living Web, and in the process opens up a more complete world of support for rich media, accessibility and all the other great features of the Open Web Platform.

To (dot) Infinity and Beyond

A common complaint about EPUB 3 is that it took a point-in-time approach to integrating HTML support. The HTML language keeps moving forward with new features and improvements, meanwhile poor old EPUB 3 was locked into the first version of HTML 5.0. You could probably secretly test new functionality in reading systems by side-loading your books, but try and get your content through vendors’ front doors and that pesky EPUBCheck validator would catch you out.

There are very good reasons why EPUB took the approach to HTML5 that it did – think stability in a time of Web standards upheaval around 2010 – but those concerns have faded. EPUB 3.2 moves the standard back in line with the Web’s evolving nature. From now on, as soon as new versions of HTML get standardized, their features become legitimate to use in EPUB 3. You’ll still have to wait on vendors updating their versions of EPUBCheck, of course, but the specification will no longer be the barrier to progression.

Why that’s so important is that it means less frustration in terms of deploying new developments in accessibility, rich media, etc.: updates and improvements to ARIA will be available as soon as they are incorporated in HTML; no more waiting on the details element for including descriptions in an unobtrusive way; the picture element is now available to provide responsive images.

Perhaps the more succinctly stated point here is that EPUB 3.2 retrenches the standard to focus on what makes EPUB “EPUB”, and steps back from regulating dot versions of its content formats.

The threat to existing EPUB 3 content with this change is low, too, as any features removed from Open Web technologies since HTML 5.0 weren’t supported well, anyway. And that’s also a nice segue into another major change in 3.2 to better align EPUB with the Web.

Thinning the Herd

When faced with missing features or functionality, the temptation is often to forge ahead and create what you need yourself. Sometimes this approach is the right one, and other times it ends up making things worse. EPUB’s history of adding new features has been chequered, especially when it comes to features the Web doesn’t support.

Did you know that you could dynamically switch content based on what the reading system supports, or create audio and video players without JavaScript? Probably not, as despite the existence of these features there’s not been a lot in the way of support in reading systems over the years.

The ideas behind the features were sound enough, but by diverging from the Web, it made it so that the very Web content that EPUB prides itself on won’t always work as expected on the Web. Unless you’re only making EPUBs out of your books, what good are features that only work in EPUB?

The answer to that rhetorical question, of course, is none, which is why a number of these features have been dropped in EPUB 3.2. With the folding of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) into the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the goal moving forward is to work with the relevant Web standard groups to develop any needed missing functionality so that EPUB doesn’t branch away from the Web again. No more going it alone.

 

And that’s the high-level tour through the most important changes made in EPUB 3.2.

There was a lot more to the revision, naturally, including a major shake-up in the organization of the specifications to try and make information easier to find. If you want the nitty gritty details (corrections, clarifications, etc.), the EPUB 3.2 Changes document is where you’ll want to go next. But hopefully this has helped provide some perspective on the objectives of the latest revision.

This update was kindly submitted by Matt Garrish, Digital Publishing Technologist and Standards Editor. Matt is  General Editor of the EPUB 3 standard and related specifications as well as the author of a number of books on EPUB and Accessibility, published by O’Reilly and developer for the DAISY Consortium.

Digital Publishing Summit Europe 2019

June 25th to 26th, 2019

The DPUB Summit Europe 2019 encourages participants to exchange thoughts and views on technical and business innovations in the publishing industry. Talks, panels, and lots of demos. At this 2 day event, EDRLab aims to strengthen a true spirit of cooperation between professionals via talks, panels and lots of demos. It aims to encourage massive adoption of open standards and software by the European publishing industry.  Avneesh Singh, DAISY CTO, and Romain Deltour, Ace by DAISY developer, will both be speaking at DPUB alongside an exciting line up of international speakers.

Date

June 25-26, 2019

Venue

Paris, France

Learn More

Full details on how to register are available at the EDRLab website. Early bird pricing is available until April 30, 2019

Sunset of EPUB 2 Approaches in Italy

Glorious sunset in Rome with the silhouette of St Peter's Basilica dominating the skylineThe specifications of the EPUB 2, as defined by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) date back to 2007. For several years, however, EPUB 3 has been available and in the next months we will be presented with the new updated version—EPUB 3.2., defined by the W3C, after the integration with the IDPF.

Version 2 of EPUB has more or less become obsolete and ha snot been updated or supported since 2014: the W3C therefore invites content producers to move on to new versions, as all their efforts will now focus on EPUB 3 and the development of new specifications like Web Publications. This means that new versions of software for creating EPUBs, control software (EPUBCheck) and reading software (ereader and app) will no longer support EPUB 2.

The Italian market, like many other international markets, still produces most of their new ebook titles in the EPUB 2 format; content producers do not feel the need to switch to the new format. As Dave Cramer, co-chair of the EPUB 3 Community Group, says: EPUB 2 is “Good Enough” (http://epubsecrets.com/good-enough-a-meditation-on-the-past-present-and-future-of-epub.php). Why change to EPUB 3 just for the sake of it?

Furthermore, publishers have been distracted by the  ‘exotic’ functions (multimedia, interactivity, animations, fixed layout, etc.) that are badly supported by digital reading solutions and haven’t focused on EPUB 3 core features.

On February 28th Fondazione LIA and the Italian Publishers Association organized a training course on EPUB 3, with the pressing title “The sunset of the EPUB 2 is approaching” for Italian publishers. Participants came from various sized publishers representing different market segments—trade, academic, education.

According to Gregorio Pellegrino, Chief Accessibility Officer of Fondazione LIA, and lecturer of the course “This course launched the transition of Italian publishers to EPUB 3. A further step forward for born accessible publishing in Italy”.

The course explained how good  a format EPUB 3 is for text-based content (e.g. fiction and non-fiction for the trade market) currently published in EPUB 2: better typography, better content semantics, alignment to the modern standards of the Open Web Platform, and, of course, better accessibility.

To better understand the transition from EPUB 2 to EPUB 3, Luc Audrain Head of Digitalization at Hachette Livre France, made a testimony presenting his experience on the topic, offering interesting advice to delegates on how to deal with suppliers, how to consider the new format not just as an extra job, but as a new opportunity to reach for more users.

This article was kindly submitted by Gregorio Pellegrino, Chief Accessibility Officer of Fondazione LIA.

Accessibility in EPUBs—Kobo Writing Life Podcast

Kobo Writing Life, Kobo’s self-publishing platform, produces a regular podcast for authors to learn more about the industry. In January’s episode they covered accessibility in an interview with QA Analyst Wendy Reid, discussing what accessibility means for ebooks and easy ways to implement it. Authors interested in making accessible EPUB files were advised to focus on creating EPUB 3 files with good semantic tagging and alt text. The episode includes recommendations for resources, including the popular #eprdctn group on Twitter. The discussion also covered the launch of audiobooks at Kobo, and Wendy’s work on an upcoming specification for audiobooks.

To access this excellent podcast visit the Kobo Writing Life website

Ignore Those Bells and Whistles

This article was kindly submitted by Kevin Callahan, ebooks developer and proprietor of bngobooks.com

ereader placed on top of a pile of printed booksThere’s too much discussion in the ebook-making world about bells and whistles and EPUB3. Folks don’t want to make EPUB3 files because, who needs Javascript anyway? Kindles certainly don’t. How many books in their right minds need video? Very few. But many of these so-called bells and whistles aren’t that at all – they are simply regular features that you might find in some books but not necessarily all.

Features which, by their very nature, ensure that your ebooks reach a wider audience…

Ding Ding Ding

Understandably, no one wants particular features if they aren’t going to work everywhere. Scripting, MathML, audio and video: there’s no denying that support is spotty.

Talking about bells and whistles and how they’re not supported is a great way to keep the conversation limited to ebook developers and out of reach — or interest — of people in publishing. You know, our clients. Authors, editors, designers.

That’s why I’d like to banish that phrase and instead talk about real-life book features that our colleagues can get excited about. Features that are already in books and that can be boosted in the ebook edition and that will enrich the reading experience for all readers. Features that improve the accessibility of ebooks.

It’s All About Books

Let’s talk about the ordinary, everyday book: a novel, a memoir, a bit of history or politics. In other words, a book that’s mostly text, with a few images, a bibliography and maybe a glossary, perhaps a few tables.

Those elements aren’t bells and whistles.

They are parts of a book.

The same with tables of contents. Not every print book has one, but many do. So when included in an ebook, they don’t ring any kind of bell. They just live there, naturally.

When we organize a book, we use simple, straightforward hierarchies: what’s the book title (h1 in ebook-speak)? Chapter number and title (h2)? No bells and whistles here, just book stuff.

If we include a glossary, we prepare the manuscript so that glossary terms and their definitions each have the correct tags. No pealing bells here.

When we add a table of illustrations to go along with the table of contents, we’re not proposing anything unusual.

We’re just making the book more accessible. And when a book is accessible, it’s easier to use for everyone. It’s the same whether that book is a print edition or a digital one.

Why Resist?

I’ve wondered about the cause of the resistance, and I have an idea. Quite a while ago a client wished for a one-click solution to ebook making. Well, it’s available if InDesign is your source document. It is possible to export a valid EPUB from InDesign and just put it up for sale.

I sympathize with this stance. If sales aren’t there to support an hour or two of an ebook developer’s time, then I see why a publisher would shy away from doing further development. But: chicken, egg? Spend the time, plan to add simple book features — features you wish you had room to fit into print — and your readers will notice and buy your next book because its a better read for them, because its more accessible.

It’s Not Technical

One stumbling block for a lot of editors, designers, and even ebook developers is that it all seems so technical. Non-book-world verbiage, indecipherable version numbers, unfamiliar interface, no feel of paper or smell of ink. But think back to when we just had print – the lexicon was exclusive to many non-production people – CRC, formes, galleys, the list is endless.

ABut all you need to keep in mind is that EPUB3 lets a book be more like the books you cherish on your bookshelves. More text, more features that don’t fit into the page count, better structure that will survive future reading systems and thrive there. EPUB 3 helps us make sense of this new digital world – it allows us and our readers greater access.

It’s Also About the Future

Future reading systems? Yes, new and different reading systems will come along. Work is ongoing to improve e-reading software. So for an editor who needs her ebook edition of Moby Dick to be as readable in that future state as her paperback, the best idea is to make EPUB3 files now.

We Are All Book People Here

A book is a book, in whatever format. As a print designer, I take care with the print edition, nudging design elements, making sure styles are consistent, establishing clear hierarchy through typography. I’m going to want to do the same thing to the ebook edition. I’ll add tables of contents that are as complete as possible, make hierarchy clear through proper tagging, and ensure elements are marked up consistently. Like I said, an EPUB3 is just like a print book, only moreso.

More Thoughts

On epubsecrets.com, Laura Brady mused about the slow adoption of EPUB3, and countered several common arguments. Click here to read her take On the Slow Adoption of EPUB3.

Also on epubsecrets.com, Dave Cramer, cochair of the W3C’s EPUB3 Community Group, wrote about versioning, the differences between EPUB and the Web, and how we can create ebooks that utilize existing technology, old technology, and technology yet to come. Read “Good Enough: A Meditation on the Past, Present and Future of EPUB” here.

In the December 2017 edition of InDesign Magazine, I wrote the cover article on creating accessible EPUB3 files right out of InDesign. It can be done with minimal change in the workflow. Click here to access the article

 

Kevin Callahan is an ebook developer who writes and speaks about ebook design and production. He trains other developers — and everyone else in the publishing community — on best ebook–making practices. He specializes in adapting simple and complicated print designs to their best digital use. Kevin will be hosting webinars for the Editorial Freelancers Association and Editors Canada throughout 2018.

www.bngobooks.com  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bngobooks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BNGObooks/

Digital Publishing Summit Program Announced!

Logo for EDRLab the organizers of this conferenceEDRLab has announced the program for their annual Digital Publishing Summit (DPUB) which will take place in Berlin May 16-17, 2018. As ever the program is an exciting mix of tech presentations and high level sessions from the production of natively accessible ebooks to the spread of highly interoperable EPUB 3 reading applications on all platforms, with Readium LCP.  Delegates can expect plenty of practical demo sessions as EDRLab encourages adoption of open standards and software by the European publishing industry.

The program is of huge interest to accessible publishing, in particular the session on EPUB 3 as an accessible and mainstream format. Early bird pricing is available until February 28 and full information is online at the EDRLab website.

Benetech Establishes Global Certified Accessible Program

Benetech, the leading software for social good nonprofit, in conjunction with Dedicon, Royal National Institute of Blind People, and Vision Australia, announced Global Certified Accessible.

This program is the first third-party ebook verification program for accessible content. Global Certified Accessible supports publisher efforts to meet or exceed accessibility requirements set by K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions. This announcement comes on the heels of a six-month beta program with participation from industry leaders spanning educational, academic, professional, and trade publications.

Global Certified Accessible ensures students unable to read standard print due to blindness, low vision, dyslexia, or a physical disability have equal access to the same content as their peers.

The program has a global footprint in order to serve students around the world. Benetech developed the certification standards and serves as the lead certification provider for North America.

More information is provided on the Benetech website.

EPUB 3.1 Now an IDPF Recommended Specification

The IDPF Membership has unanimously approved EPUB 3.1 as a Recommended Specification.

The EPUB 3.1 revision includes a new accessibility specification and an accessibility techniques document.

Developed as part of EPUB 3.1 to provide guidance on making EPUB publications accessible, these new documents are designed to be equally applicable to older versions of EPUB 3. More information is provided on the IDPF website.