The new IDPF EPUB e-book format standard is taking the world by storm. Think of it as the analogy to the Adobe .pdf format, but for flowable text, so it can display well on any size screen from a PC to a phone. Plus, a standard for the container format, so multiple document files can be distributed together in a zip archive.
Okay, so maybe "taking the world by storm" is a bit of an exaggeration at this early stage, but it's certainly gaining as much momentum as could possibly be hoped for, much of which is a result of the enthusiastic and substantive support from Adobe. But, it's clear that one critical success factor for EPUB is the ability of e-book creators to create a well-formatted EPUB e-book, which is compatible with a wide range of software and devices. Coincidently, that's a great interest of many MobileRead members as well.
So I'm very happy to report that Adobe is furthering that goal, by providing the following:
(1) An EPUB Best Practices Guide white paper, created by the Digital Publishing Team at Adobe (attached in EPUB format). There is also some background information about the format that may make it of interest to non-technical readers as well.
"By following the best practices in this Guide, you will be able to produce EPUB files, compatible with the IDPF EPUB specifications, that will look great for consumers, regardless of whether they are reading your content on desktop PCs, mobile phones, or other reading devices."
If you haven't already, you will probably want to download
Adobe's Digital Editions software to read the document.
(2) A web site (
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/digitalpublishing) with "the latest information from Adobe on Digital Publishing".
Nick Bogaty of Adobe, who kindly tipped us on this information, says that the site will launch Wed, March 26, 2008 (looks like it's already live to me), and that it will include "access to information on Adobe Digital Editions, Adobe Digital Experience Protection Technology, Adobe InDesign CS3 and other tools and scripts that Adobe provides to help create, distribute and consume both PDF and EPUB digital publications."
It will be interesting to hear feedback from some of the practitioners here after they dissect the information with the benefit of their experience and expertise.