Forma Best format from Standardebooks.org for Forma: their kepub or their epub3?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

It would be nice if they inspected an ebook with a simple .epub extension and used the version information to select the correct renderer but I suspect no one really expected how long it would take for epub3 ebooks to become a noticeable fraction of the epubs being sold.

I disagree. A lot of ePub these days are ePub 3 even though they could be ePub 2 and have no differences at all. If Kobo chose which render based on the ePub version, then all ePub 3 would have to be converted to ePub 2 just to use RMSDK. That would mean you don't have a choice of which renderer to use.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That isn't completely correct. Kobo does support epub 3 features. Just not all. But, as far as I can tell, nothing supports them all. There is/was a site that did testing of epub3 on devices and apps. When they listed Kobo devices, they showed reasonably good support for reading only features. And even the RMSDK used for epubs has more than basic support for epub3. having said that, I have no idea what features are supported or not.

Well, Ok, I didn't test a comprehensive list of features.. but when not even the epub3 Table of contents works, I didn't bother investigating further.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rashkae

Well, Ok, I didn't test a comprehensive list of features.. but when not even the epub3 Table of contents works, I didn't bother investigating further.

The ePub3 is missing the NCX ToC. That's why the ToC isn't working. Have you tried converting the ePub3 to KePub and seeing if the ToC works?

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The ePub3 is missing the NCX ToC. That's why the ToC isn't working. Have you tried converting the ePub3 to KePub and seeing if the ToC works?

No, epub3 is not missing ncx... Epub3 doesn't use NCX. (though it can be included to create a file that's backwards compatible,, but that's why I say Kobo does not support epub3,, you need a file deliberately made backwards compatible with epub2 for basic function to work.

And yes, loading an epub3 file as Kepub works just fine,, the Kepub reader has much greater support for epub3.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The ePub3 is missing the NCX ToC. That's why the ToC isn't working. Have you tried converting the ePub3 to KePub and seeing if the ToC works?

You are missing the point. An ePub3 is supposed to have the ToC as a navigation document. For ePub3, the NCX version is optional and only supposed to be used for backwards compatibility with reading systems that do not support ePub3. Anything that claims to be an ePub3 reader, should use the navigation document and should not throw any errors if an NCX version is not included.

And for the record, I just created an ePub3 with only the navigation document. I put it on my Aura H2O (only because it was in reach) running firmware 4.20.14622 as both an epub and an kepub. With both, the ToC worked with no issues. All entries were shown and the navigation worked.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rashkae

And yes, loading an epub3 file as Kepub works just fine,, the Kepub reader has much greater support for epub3.

Which is pretty much what everyone has been telling you. In a quick test with a filename.epub epub3 file on a Clara HD with the latest firmware, RMSDK did use the nav.xhtml file for the table of contents.

A filename.epub is opened with Adobe's RMSDK, an filename.kepub.epub is opened with Kobo's version of the ACCESS renderer (which seems to be based on the ACCESS PubPlus Reader based on the Readium SDK) which handles epub3. As a point of interest, ACCESS donated their NetFrontTM BookReader EPUB Edition engine to Readium.

And for real fun and mostly of interest to those who have young kids, a filename.fxl.kepub.epub will allowing opening a fixed layout epub3. I own two fixed layout epubs but one of my co-workers has about 40 or so that are kids books where the fixed layout does work nicely. Last time we chatted, he was using the EDRLab's iOS app since most of those books are heavily into colour.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by davidfor

And for the record, I just created an ePub3 with only the navigation document. I put it on my Aura H2O (only because it was in reach) running firmware 4.20.14622 as both an epub and an kepub. With both, the ToC worked with no issues. All entries were shown and the navigation worked.

Thank you David, I was not aware they fixed this recently. Getting off my high horse now.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by rashkae

Thank you David, I was not aware they fixed this recently. Getting off my high horse now.

I don't think I've seen any changes go through that would have suggested that this had changed recently. Out of curiosity, I put my Glo back to 3.19.5761. The ToC worked properly with for both the epub and kepub versions of the book. That firmware is four years old, so it has been working for a while.