Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Which, I think, makes my point even further--the files are effectively identical, an "ePUB" and a "kepub;" the latter has gone through Kobo's (utterly unnecessary) process and then the popup footnotes work, but AFAIK, the coding therefor is identical.
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The code may be identical but the
renderer is different. Kobo uses two renderers, Adobe's RMSDK which allow for reading Adobe ADEPT DRMed epubs but which is pretty limited when it comes to epub3 and one based on the ACCESS Netfront Bookreader which does a pretty decent job of handling epub3 and uses Kobo's proprietary DRM. Back when Kobo was purchased by Rakuten and Kobo was moving into the Japanese market, a renderer that would handle Japanese typography with all it's quirks was a necessity.
As for whether the mass of spans tossed into a kepub are necessary? They do help with text selection/highlighting so an arguable point. The other changes such as identifying the cover image and adding the SVG property are pretty much just complying with the epub3 specification.