EPUB 3.0 week

Image from here.

I believe that 23rd May (next Monday!) is the due date for the publication of the new EPUB 3.0 standard for electronic publications (books read on mobile devices). I don’t speak to many people ‘in the know’ about it, but two that I do are both associated with Firsty Group who seem to do epubs under the current format really well. I say really well, because they produced a sample of a Chapter of Phonology for Listening which looks really smart, with nicely stable soundfiles.

They are a little bit sceptical about whether or not the target date will be met – it’s just that there are so many people and organisations (members of the International Digital Publishing Forum) that have to agree on things. Particularly the manufacturers of Electronic readers (Kindles, iPads, the sony e-reader, etc.) who are all keen to ensure that the standard will not put their readers at a market disadvantage. So lots of people have to agree … but this statement here (dated early May) seems to imply it is just a matter of dotting ‘i’s and crossing ‘t’s.

Naive me also believed that once the standard is published, everything is fine and dandy: all people have to do is obey it to the letter, and everything will work on everything else. But apparently not. There will be an evolutionary process of working out the really fine detail which will take some while to work through …