Amanda Gomm (Digital Bindery), Tom McCluskey (Digital Bindery)
Using reading systems by Adobe, Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and the IDPF we will show how an EPUB file is interpreted differently between the systems. We will break down each of the differences to explain what the software is doing and how to display the information in a reliable and predictable manner.
ePub 3 seems to still be a young standard when it comes to interpretation by the device. We are back in the old days of “develop somewhere, debug everywhere”. Publishing books is more and more like publishing software…
Amanda Gomm and Tom McCluskey
Although, for eBooks, page number is meaningless, you can still define one. It’s actually very useful for reference: see table p. 65, read lesson from p. 56, etc.
Semantics are also part of it, however, don’t understand semantics as in RDF or semantic analysis, understand the HTML5 terms (XML elements).
Media Queries are pretty well supported, however CSS is really badly supported. Hey… That’s like with lots of browsers. Orientation, aspect ratio, color, height and width are usually pretty reliable.
There are so many issues with ePub and its support of CSS right now that I really think you should have a set of files for each device. I wonder if Inkling or CoreSupport help there.
