The Convergence of EPUB and the Web

These Slides are Available on the Web

See:
http://w3c.github.io/dpub/idpf-digital-book-2015/

(Slides are in HTML)

Reminder: W3C’s Digital Publishing Interest Group Mission

The mission of the Digital Publishing Interest Group (DPUB IG) […] a forum for experts in the digital publishing ecosystem […] for technical discussions, gathering use cases and requirements to align the existing formats and technologies (e.g., for electronic books) with those used by the Open Web Platform […] 

DPUB IG Mission Explained

• experts familiar with the ins and outs of digital publishing and its associated industry groups identify issues that are not addressed by the Open Web Platform
• our goal is to raise issues to W3C working groups who can update or develop specs based on the needs of the publishing community.
• DPUB IG has task forces with leads to focus attention on specific issues and collaborate with other WGs. We often delegate members to other WGs as well

See our website for more detail.

Division of roles

The key is collaboration.

Current DPUB IG Task Forces

• Layout and Styling (a.k.a Pagination): led by Dave Cramer
• Identification: led by Bill Kasdorf
• Content and Markup (a.k.a. Structural Semantics): led by Tzviya Siegman
• Accessibility: led by Deborah Kaplan and Charles LaPierre
• STEM: led by Peter Krautzberger

Past (Closed) DPUB IG Task Forces

• Annotations: led by Rob Sanderson
• Metadata: led by Bill Kasdorf and Madi Solomon

Example: Layout and Styling

• An evolving document: “Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination”
• Describes issues like hyphenation, spreads and bleeds, drop caps, pagination, etc.
• Has greatly influenced some current CSS Work, e.g. “CSS Inline Layout Module Level 3” (handling initial letters, dropcaps), or “CSS Generated Content for Paged Media Module” (handling running heads and footers)

Example: Layout and Styling: Houdini Project

• The results may be essential for a proper (and standard) access to page-related information
• Pagination is a use case that goes beyond books. Slides, cards, and other "boxes" use the same functionality.
• Representatives of the Digital Publishing Community have been involved from the start.

What’s Next?

• Continue our task forces with targeted deadlines and deliverables
• Involve DPUB IG members in the planning and development of EPUB-WEB
  • this may lead to the creation of new task forces

What’s Next? EPUB-WEB

• IDPF and W3C published joint vision of future of digital publishing in a white paper entitled “Advancing Portable Documents for the Open Web Platform: EPUB-WEB”
  • White Paper is available at http://w3c.github.io/epubweb/
  • provide feedback at https://github.com/w3c/epubweb/issues

EPUB-WEB is a Vision for the Future

The Vision

• Portable documents are fully native citizen of the Web
• Separation between online (i.e., the “Web”) and portable (i.e., “EPUB”) is diminished to zero
• This means:
  • content authored for primarily offline use can be used online by loading it into a browser
  • content authored for primarily online use can be easily saved as a portable document for offline use
  • these should be doable smoothly, solely based on the user’s interaction

The Vision

• Publishers can choose to utilize either or both of these publishing modes
• Users can choose either or both of these consumption modes
• Essential features flow seamlessly between on-line and off-line modes, like
  • cross-references, user annotations, access to on-line databases
  • licensing and rights management
  • etc.

For Example: Book in a Browser

• On a desktop I may want to read a book just like a Web page:
  • easily follow a link “out” of the book
  • create bookmarks “into” a page in a book
  • use useful plugins and tools that my browser may have
  • create annotations

For Example: Book in a Browser (cont.)

• But:
• sometimes I may need the computing power of my desk-top for, e.g., interactive 3D content
• at other times I may also want to use a small dedicated reader device to read the book on the beach…
• All these on the same book (not conversions from one format to the other)!

For Example: I May Not Be Online…

• I may find an article on the Web that I want to review, annotate, etc., while commuting home on a train
• I want the results of the annotations to be back online, when I am back on the Internet
• Note: some browsers have an “archiving” possibility, but they are not interoperable
  • the content can definitely not be read on a dedicated reader

For Example: Scholarly Publishing

• My paper is published, primarily, on-line, but people may want to download it for offline use
• The format of the paper should be adaptable to my reading environment
  • do not want a two column, fixed layout file that I cannot handle on my iPad…
• My “paper” may also contain video, audio, data, programs…
  • scholarly publishing is not text only any more!

For Example: In-house Publishing

• Major companies (IBM, Intel, Boeing, FAO, Renault,…) are specialized publishers through the publication of huge amount of documentation
• Delivering it on paper is not an option any more
• Fast refresh time is needed
• The same document should be available offline (e.g., in the cockpit) or online (e.g., on the work floor): there should be no difference between the two

For Example: Educational Materials

• What is an educational publication?
• a book of possibly long texts that requires offline access on dedicated devices?
• a packaged application with built-in interactive tests, animated examples?
• a Web client reaching out to Web services for assessing test results, to encyclopedia, …?
• an interactive data container storing various data for, e.g., demonstrations?
• The borderline between a “book” and a “(Web) Application” are becoming blurred!

Advantage for Publishers‘ Community

• Publishers want to concentrate on what they know better: how to produce, edit, curate, etc, great content
• Publishers are not technology companies, nor do they intend to be; they want instead to rely on the vibrant Web community!

Advantage for Publishers‘ Community (cont.)

• OWP is more than “just” HTML, CSS, MathML, etc.
• It defines, e.g., a large number of facilities that provide access to, e.g., system resources or utilities
  • index database, Web storage, battery status API, real-time communication, geolocation,…
• Aligning on OWP means that publishing oriented devices, software, services, etc, can rely on those
  • instead of possibly re-inventing the wheel…

Advantage for the Web Community

• Publishers have a long experience in ergonomics, typography, paging, complex layout, etc.
• Publishing long texts, with the right aesthetics, readability, structure, etc., is an expertise the Web community can profit from
• Experience of publishers in the complete workflow for producing content may become important for Web design

How Do We Get to EPUB-WEB?

• A strong cooperation between the different communities should be ensured
• Technical challenges must be identified
  • note that some of the challenges are not EPUB-WEB specific, but EPUB in general (e.g., pagination control)
• Some examples follow…

Rough structure of an EPUB3 file

Archival Format

• There is a growing interest at W3C for a Web friendly packaging format:
  • should be streamable
  • should rely, as much as possible, on existing Web technologies (e.g., HTTP)
• Use cases include:
  • retrieve an HTML file with related CSS files, images
  • access Web Applications (“Widgets”) with all libraries involved
  • EPUB-WEB is a clear use case
• But: current Web Packaging proposal is not OPF based
• This may lead to a different packaging to EPUB-WEB

EPUB-WEB packaging structure

Actually…

• Moving to the Web would probably require to rethink the format of the administrative files
  • E.g., change formats from XML to JSON

EPUB-WEB packaging structure

Window of opportunity is open now!

• The Web community does not concentrate strongly on the Web Packaging format yet
  • some other technologies, like Service Workers, must be clarified first
• But it may become a hot topic when some other technical challanges are solved
• The publishing community should get on board now to ensure that a format agreeable for all will be defined

Identification: EPUB3 case

Two parts of identification

1. Primary resource:
   • This is a major discussion among publishers, libraries, archival organizations
   • i.e., what is the URI for…
     • Shakespeare's Hamlet?
     • its digital edition published by Publisher XYZ?
     • the copy I own and annotate?
   • It is not the role of IDPF or W3C to define those URL-s
     • though EPUB-WEB would push for much more “webby” URL schemes, i.e., HTTP(S) URLs
2. Secondary resource: IDPF has adopted the CFI standard for EPUB3

Potential issues with CFI

• CFI is deeply rooted in XML; however, EPUB-WEB should probably go for HTML5 and for JSON for, e.g., package manifests
• CFI is bound to the current EPUB3 structures using manifest files
• CFI can be used with SVG content, with video or audio, but is not prepared for other types of data that may come to the fore

An EPUB-WEB version for fragments should be prepared to those issues.

Identification: the EPUB-WEB case

Presentation Control

• What is the level of user control of the presentation?
• The Web and eBook traditions are vastly different:
  • in a browser, the Web designer is in full control
    • CSS alternate style sheets are hardly in use
    • some user interface aspects can be controlled but only for the browser as a whole
  • in an eBook reader, there is more user control
    • foreground/background color
    • choice of fonts
• There is a need to reconcile these traditions

DPUB IG and EPUB-WEB

• DPUB IG already has task forces dedicated to working on many of the EPUB-WEB issues
• The group will contribute to the formulation of the EPUB-WEB technical challenges, to a better understanding of the requirements
• this may mean new task forces, e.g., for identification or packaging
• EPUB-WEB will become a guiding principle for the group’s further work

IDPF, W3C, and others

• On long term, some EPUB-WEB specification work has to be done
  • this requires a consensus and agreement of different communities
• IDPF and W3C (and maybe others?) may create the necessary groups, eventually

However…

• EPUB-WEB does not replace EPUB3 (and upcoming EPUB3.1) at this moment
• Many of the new features will also be part of EPUB3.1 (e.g., structural semantics)
• The vision is a convergence of the EPUB3.* specifications and EPUB-WEB, eventually

Conclusion

• There is a great potential in a convergence between the Open Web Platform and Portable Documents
• It will require a common effort and cooperation of both communities
• But it is an exciting prospect!

Some references

DPUB IG Wiki

https://www.w3.org/dpub/IG/wiki/Main_Page

EPUB-WEB White paper:

http://w3c.github.io/epubweb/

EPUB-WEB Issue list:

https://github.com/w3c/epubweb/issues

This presentation:

http://w3c.github.io/dpub/idpf-digital-book-2015/index.html (PDF is also available for download)

Direct Contact

Tzviya Siegman, Wiley

tsiegman@wiley.com

Markus Gylling, IDPF

mgylling@idpf.org

Ivan Herman, W3C

ivan@w3.org