Electronic Publishing, also known as EPUB, is a thriving XML format that is commonly used to create books for digital publication. Certainly not the only format of its kind, EPUB is fairly new to the digital publishing scene, but has attracted a significant amount of attention from major digital publishers. Although the format has been designed to work with e-books, it has a wide variety of other applications and can be easily used to develop other types of documentation. If you’re new to EPUB, here’s a look at the pros and cons of the format to help you make an informed decision.
The professionals
Unified Standard: The widespread acceptance of e-books prompted many companies to jump on the digital bandwagon with the introduction of their own e-book readers. However, this has caused chaos as most of these establishments’ offerings lack a unified standard. On the other hand, the advent of EPUB has been an effort in the right direction as its goal is to set a standard for digital publishing; the format can be used on a variety of devices.
Open Format – Unlike other popular e-book formats; EPUB is an open standard tool, which means that it can be used by almost everyone; from individual authors to major publishers without the risk of being sued or paying high fees. EPUB’s open format is one of the main reasons for its popularity, in addition to the superlative functionality it offers.
Independent governance: One of the biggest benefits of using EPUB is that the format is governed independently; this means that there are no corporate houses waiting to benefit from the success of the format. In addition, the format is not adapted to specific products of certain companies. Therefore, a file created with EPUB can be used on a large number of devices, which makes things simpler for publishers.
Text reflow possible: EPUB also has a unique reflow feature that allows books to fit the size of the screen they are viewed on. So whether you’re using a 10.1-inch iPad or a 3.5-inch cell phone screen, you’ll be able to read an ebook that has been published using EPUB. When using eBooks published in EPUB format, small screen users don’t have to constantly zoom in and out or constantly scroll, while large screen users will be able to read faster as more words will be on the screen at once .
Compatibility: EPUB exhibits superior compatibility not seen in any other eBook format today, including the ever-popular PDF. EPUB uses two languages, XHTML and XML; this means that it can be used with a variety of software. Also, platforms that already use XML can be easily ported to EPUB. Another advantage is that EPUB is delivered in a single zip folder in which an archive is created to store the organization and content files of an e-book.
The Cons The requirements for creating an EPUB zip file are extremely strict. Also, unlike other formats, using EPUB requires a certain amount of prior publishing knowledge; the user will also need to be familiar with XML and XHTML syntax and will also need to know how to create a style sheet to create valid files.
Despite the technical knowledge required to use EPUB to its fullest effectiveness, a surprising number of people use EPUB as their primary eBook authoring format. EPUB’s impressive functionality, compatibility, and wealth of features have made it a favorite of publishers around the world.