This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(December 2013) |
The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) was a trade and standards association for the digital publishing industry, set up to establish a standard for electronic book publishing. It was responsible for the EPUB standard currently used by most e-readers.
Starting from the Open eBook (OEB) Publication Structure (1999), created loosely around HTML, it then defined the OPS (Open Publication Structure), the OPF (Open Packaging Format) and the OCF (Open Container Format). These formats are the basis for EPUB.
While the basic standards are established (pages, hyperlinks, definition of table of contents, authors, etc.), the hardware field intersects with some other standards, such as those for power of the hardware reader devices, and as of 2017 are still developing. Standards for ecommerce (including Digital Rights Management) are tied to the way the ebook is sold or delivered and are therefore controlled by vendors.
On January 30, 2017, IDPF was combined with and absorbed into the World Wide Web Consortium. [1]
Electronic publishing includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes an editorial aspect, that consists of editing books, journals or magazines that are mostly destined to be read on a screen.
An e-reader, also known as an e-book reader, is a portable electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading e-books and periodicals. E-readers have a similar form factor to a tablet and usually refers to devices that use electronic paper resulting in better screen readability, especially in bright sunlight, and longer battery life when compared to a tablet. An e-reader's battery will typically last for multiple weeks. In contrast to an e-reader, a tablet has a screen capable of higher refresh rates which make them more suitable for interaction such as playing a video game or watching a video clip.
Open eBook, or formally, the Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS), is a legacy e-book format which has been superseded by the EPUB format. It was "based primarily on technology developed by SoftBook Press". and on XML. OEB was released with a free version belonging to public domain and a full version to be used with or without DRM by the publishing industry.
BookExpo America was an annual book trade fair in the United States. BEA is almost always held in a major city over four days in late May and/or early June. Nearly all significant book publishers in the United States, and many from abroad, have booths and exhibits at BEA, and use the fair as an opportunity to showcase upcoming titles, sell current books, socialize with colleagues from other publishing houses, and sell and buy subsidiary rights and international rights. Authors, librarians, and buyers for book retailers also attend the event.
The OpenReader Consortium is a nonprofit organization developing open digital publication standards. The project is in "cold storage" now, having been unable to successfully amass enough users for the formats it developed; they will continue their battle for open standards within the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).
Adobe Digital Editions is an e-book reader software program from Adobe Systems, built initially using Adobe Flash. It is used for acquiring, managing, and reading e-books, digital newspapers, and other digital publications. The software supports EPUB and PDF. It implements a proprietary scheme of digital rights management (DRM) which, since the version 1.5 release in May 2008, allows document sharing among multiple devices and user authentication via an Adobe ID. Digital Editions is a successor to the Acrobat eBook Reader application.
The following is a comparison of e-book formats used to create and publish e-books.
Accessible publishing is an approach to publishing and book design whereby books and other texts are made available in alternative formats designed to aid or replace the reading process. Alternative formats that have been developed to aid different people to read include varieties of larger fonts, specialised fonts for certain kinds of reading disabilities, Braille, e-books, and automated Audiobooks and DAISY digital talking books.
EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for electronic publication and is sometimes styled ePub. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartphones, tablets, and computers. EPUB is a technical standard published by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). It became an official standard of the IDPF in September 2007, superseding the older Open eBook standard.
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author without the involvement of an established publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD technology. It may also apply to albums, pamphlets, brochures, video content, and zines.
An ebook, also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as "an electronic version of a printed book", some e-books exist without a printed equivalent. E-books can be read on dedicated e-reader devices, but also on any computer device that features a controllable viewing screen, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Lektz is an eBook business platform developed by AEL Data, operating from UK and India. The solutions available in the Lektz platform include DRM, ebook reader applications, virtual book store, ebook conversion, elending, consumer analytics, and digital marketing solutions for small, medium-sized publishers and independent authors. Dr. M.S. Mohammed Sadiq, Sr. Vice President of AEL Data, is the chief architect of the Lektz platform and it draws support from AEL Data's ePublishing, digitization, accessibility solutions and application development services.
Lucifox is a discontinued free and open source add-on for the browser Mozilla Firefox that manages, downloads and displays e-books. It supports EPUB 3 and EPUB 2 formatted books without digital rights management (DRM) and retrieval of books from online book catalogues using the Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS). It is part of the Lucidor suite of free and open source e-book software made by the Swedish developer Ordbrand.
FBReader is an e-book reader for Linux, Microsoft Windows, Android, and other platforms.
ANU Press is an open-access scholarly publisher of books, textbooks and journals. It was established in 2004 to explore and enable new modes of scholarly publishing. In 2014, ANU E Press changed its name to ANU Press to reflect the changes the publication industry had seen since its foundation.
Kindle File Format is a proprietary e-book file format created by Amazon.com with the extension .azw
that can be downloaded and read on devices like smartphones, tablets, computers, or e-readers that have Amazon's Kindle app.
Standard Ebooks is an open source, volunteer-driven project to create and publish high-quality, fully featured and accessible e-books of works in the public domain. Standard Ebooks sources titles from places like Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and Wikisource, among others, but differs from those projects in that the goal is to maximize readability for a modern audience and take advantage of accessibility features available in modern e-book file formats, and to streamline updates to the e-books by making use of GitHub as a collaboration tool.
Foliate is a free e-book reading application for desktop Linux systems. The name refers to leaves, meaning "(getting) leafy" or "…-leaved".