This post deals with epub – what are they and how do we create them. I have found that people tend to get confused when talking about epub – electronic publications – as, technically, any document on a computer could be considered an epub document. So, what is epub?
Basically they are a specific type of electronic document, and we are talking about three main types here…
epub, pdfs, and rich/dynamic publications
The epub format is a fairly simple format, in xhtml, that is used to display documents (books, for example) on kindles, iPads, smartphones, etc. It is a linear format – the flow of the text goes in one long story – and you can format the text (colour, font, etc), but a lot of the control is taken away from the designer and is given over to the epub reader.
For example you cannot specify page breaks, these are controlled by the epub reader, and these will depend upon the device that is currently displaying the epub file, the screen orientation, etc.
You can have images within this flow, and some epub readers (cf Apple’s iBooks) allow video as well. You can also have links and table of contents, but the actual design of the epub is very basic. This format is very useful though, particularly if all you want is a simple layout that will help you create documents that are accessible to people who are blind, colour blind, etc. The Kindle and like devices will allow the reading of the text on-screen.
Pdfs have been around for a long time, and there are many applications/utilities that can read pdfs. You can also add movies and audio to pdfs, links, etc. You can also create presentations and animations that will run when you open them up. Again though, it is a fairly linear layout.
The last type is what you would see on an iPad or other tablet device - fancy swipes and scrolls, effects etc for magazines and books. These also tend to be made up of a series of html pages or documents(e.g. InDesign documents), but are then tied together with animation, effects done in JavaScript (for example), but they are all bundled as one document or app that will run on iOS or Android device.
It is the latter that people are tending think of when they think of epub documents. These are not epub documents but rich media applications. They are created using something like InDesign, and they are not necessarily a linear flowing publication. Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite allows the creation of such applications, and with them you can also create animations, swipes, panoramic views, and so on to view within the publication.
Apart from the flow of the document being much more flexible, and apart from allowing more animation and videos, etc to play within the final result, the main issue at the moment is not creating the publication but publishing it.
Basically, to publish something onto an iOS device (an iPad say) you have to go through iTunes – and if you are publishing worldwide you will need Apple to set it up for you. So there are cost implications here that you do not get with publishing to Kindles and the like.
One thing to remember though, is that this is a very new area, and things are changing weekly, if not daily.
So, to summarise – epubs are bascially book-like documents for reading on kindles etc (although they can be read on pretty much any other device out there). They have simple layout structures.
The rich media/dynamic publications are what people are often talking about when see those fancy magazine publications on a tablet (iPad, etc). These allow you to create lovely effects and play and animate videos, images, etc. It is these that people tend to remember and it is these that have a further cost implication for distribution (and creation).
Which you choose is, of course, up to you. But I am of the opinion that at the moment you will probably need the epub and the rich media format. Pdfs, not so much. But again it is early days and it will depend heavily on what applications are out there that read these rich media publications and what they allow us to create.
