10-21-2011, 10:08 AM | #61 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 27,546
Karma: 193191846
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
|
Quote:
|
|
10-21-2011, 10:15 AM | #62 | |
Wizard
Posts: 4,332
Karma: 4000000
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Paris
Device: Cybooks; Sony PRS-T1
|
Quote:
|
|
Advert | |
|
10-21-2011, 10:17 AM | #63 |
Publishers are evil!
Posts: 2,418
Karma: 36205264
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Rhode Island
Device: Various Kindles
|
I'm really quite happy with this announcement. It may not be ePub 3.0, but if it truly does support HTML 5 then it's pretty darn close.
I don't know if any of you have seen the material available at the Khan Academy, but it teaches everything from basic arithmetic to calculus and differential equations (as well as various sciences, history, finance, and other subjects). It does this through short videos (well over 2,000 videos) and automated drills. I'm currently writing a book on algebra and I'd love to include something similar to what Khan does inside my book, because some people learn better through auditory lectures, and everybody learns better through practice. HTML 5 will allow me to do this, so I'm quite pleased with the announcement. |
10-21-2011, 10:59 AM | #64 |
Omnivorous
Posts: 3,281
Karma: 27978909
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Rural NW Oregon
Device: Kindle Voyage, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle 3, KPW1
|
Oh my ghod..!! The Sky Is Falling™
Whatever. If you think that Amazon is going to alienate thousands of customers by cutting them off from their books, you really don't understand the company. |
10-21-2011, 11:01 AM | #65 | ||
Wizard
Posts: 4,896
Karma: 33602910
Join Date: Oct 2010
Device: PocketBook 903 & 360+
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
Advert | |
|
10-21-2011, 11:07 AM | #66 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
Posts: 71,495
Karma: 306214458
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Voyage
|
Quote:
After all, Amazon make very little mention of the Mobipocket/Topaz distinction. Indeed, I don't think there is a public name for the Topaz format. |
|
10-21-2011, 11:13 AM | #67 | |
Wizard
Posts: 4,896
Karma: 33602910
Join Date: Oct 2010
Device: PocketBook 903 & 360+
|
Quote:
|
|
10-21-2011, 12:01 PM | #68 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 6,464
Karma: 25996225
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: USA
Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3
|
The way this works is that kindlegen2 will build a 'full' k8 file, including archived source, multimedia content etc. That's what you submit to Amazon. When you download an .azw from Amazon, you only get the parts that that particular Kindle understands, i.e. no source archive, if your Kindle doesn't have audio/video capabilities you won't get those parts, etc. So to some extent there is 'graceful degradation' built in.
So even now 'enhanced' ebooks (the ones with audio and video that's playable with Kindle4iOS) can be downloaded to a Kindle 1—but you don't get the audio/video as part of the file. The file you get depends on the capabilities of the device. This contrasts with ePub in that the file is the same regardless of the device, and it is up to the device to decide to do with what is in there. So there's 'full' backward compatibility. The other point is that the output of Kindlegen is 'binary', whereas epub it is just compressed source files. The analogy is that Kindle format is 'byte code' that can be loaded directly into memory, whereas with epub, you must do this each time a book is opened (usually a 'chapter' at a time). Amazon has always claimed this 'precompiling' reduces the work required by the reading system, and makes it more responsive. Indeed, with virtually every epub reading system I've used, there's a slight delay as each new chapter is loaded in, and often when the book is loaded. The advantage of ePub is that (in the absence of DRM encryption) you can simply un-zip the content and the source can be examined and modified in its original form. With azw, the 'compiling' process is 'lossy' and while you can 'disassemble' it, you lose things like comments and markup that kindlegen decided to ignore (which is why it archives the source in the file submitted to Amazon). Topaz is entirely outside this system, and with K8 it will be deprecated since things like font embedding and better CSS support are now directly supported by kindlegen. Topaz is dead! Long live Topaz! This will be a boon to ebook designers as they no longer need to concern themselves nearly as much with designing for 2 formats. Remaining questions: what about JavaScript support in K8? (note: the original mobipocket format specification included JS support). What about other epub3 features such as media overlays, accessibility, epub navigation documents? Also what about <mbp:..> tags? deprecated? Last edited by tomsem; 10-21-2011 at 12:25 PM. |
10-21-2011, 12:06 PM | #69 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
Posts: 71,495
Karma: 306214458
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Voyage
|
Quote:
They have completely different rendering software. |
|
10-21-2011, 12:08 PM | #70 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
Posts: 71,495
Karma: 306214458
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Voyage
|
Topaz was really used to get printed books into ebook format quickly and automatically. Although it also preserved fonts, that was a side effect, not a design goal, IMO.
|
10-21-2011, 12:23 PM | #71 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 6,464
Karma: 25996225
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: USA
Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3
|
|
10-21-2011, 12:26 PM | #72 |
Publishers are evil!
Posts: 2,418
Karma: 36205264
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Rhode Island
Device: Various Kindles
|
I don't see how they can claim HTML 5 support without supporting javascript.
|
10-21-2011, 12:33 PM | #73 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 6,464
Karma: 25996225
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: USA
Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3
|
I like to think that SVG would be supported on current and forthcoming eink devices (at least K4 and KTouch, as they have faster CPU). Kindlegen could create image placeholders that would be used on devices that don't support it.
Seems like embedded audio should also be supported on KTouch at least. |
10-21-2011, 12:44 PM | #74 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 6,464
Karma: 25996225
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: USA
Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3
|
Quote:
The list of 'HTML 5' tags does not include <script>...but it also says list is 'not exhaustive'. My guess: no JS support, yet. But it will come later. |
|
10-21-2011, 12:51 PM | #75 |
Groupie
Posts: 169
Karma: 21142
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Bristol, UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 3 (LTE)
|
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
iPhone Convert epub format to kindle for iPhone format. Is it possible? | thecyberphotog | Apple Devices | 16 | 03-14-2013 01:04 AM |
What format is Kindle? | Flypoppa | Amazon Kindle | 8 | 09-16-2010 04:15 PM |
Kindle format | hike_gc | Calibre | 5 | 03-15-2010 08:58 AM |
Kindle format to Sony PRS700 format | TinkerbellT | Kindle Formats | 9 | 06-23-2009 02:43 PM |
Kindle - html to Kindle format - do links to anchors work? | Rasczak | Kindle Formats | 20 | 12-08-2008 03:20 PM |