W3C

Publishing Maintenance Working Group

12 June 2025

Attendees

Present
CharlesL, Dale, duga, George, gpellegrino, Hadrien, LaurentLM, Leonard, mgarrish, shiestyle, SueNeu, toshiakikoike, wendyreid
Regrets
ivan
Chair
wendyreid
Scribe
duga, wendyreid

Meeting minutes

Scrolled Comics

wendyreid: first topic is scrolled comics - over to shiestyle

shiestyle: Our TF discussed specs for scrolled comics
… we already have webtoons formats in Japan, but the current style isn't good for the specs
… so we need to determine how to define webtoons in the specs
… so today we will present two proposals
… first, we have rendition-scrolled [is that the right one?]
… we will add a new value
… we did not have a strong opposition to rendition-layout: scrolled
… we want both new and existing features to be valid
… so we want to update the note like this

Hadrien: Voyager Japan sent an email that was very supportive regarding that approach
… I think this concept that we add a new thing while acknowledging the old this is consistent with the way we have done this before (e.g. fixed layout)
… So mention the old way, but encourage the new way for implementation consistency

wendyreid: What is the fallback scheme?
… if we get a book with rendition-layout: scrolled? Most RS would fall back to reflow
… should we have some sort of fallback?
… Maybe a fallback rendition-layout value?

Hadrien: I have done some testing, first the way the current style works, and they generally just show as fxl
… which is really bad
… I then tried the new way and it falls back to flowing, which is also bad
… we are asking for a new mode
… if a RS doesn't have it there isn't much to do

SueNeu: If we decide on a fallback mode maybe ask for pagination from the contet creators
… not great but better than reflow

duga: I'm not sure how feasible that would be, there is actually a company that does this, they make money off paginating webtoons, it's not trivial
… it would be nice if every webtoon had an alternative that did this.
… question I had is what is the mandated behaviour of rendition-layout if it's unknown?
… are we supposed to assume its reflow?

Hadrien: In my testing its treated as reflow

wendyreid: I am checking now
… "must use one of the following"
… reflowable is the default

shiestyle: Japanese publishers just won't sell them on platforms where it doesn't work

SueNeu: How does this relate to panel by panel navigation?
… will webtoons do that?

Hadrien: I would argue it isn't really necessary since the content was designed for phones
… panel to panel is helpful for reading things on smaller devices
… Also maybe for a11y
… And as far as I am aware panel to panel in Amazon is proprietary
… And as shiestyle said, just not providing content is probably fine
… and at some point we should talk to Editour and get the property added
… so the content can be filtered out

wendyreid: We should get a PR so we can see it in place
… shiestyle, Hadrien, can you work with Matt to get this done?

Hadrien: Sure we will have a PR ready before the next TF report to this group

EPUB to ISO

wendyreid: Our other topic was ISO
… we want to take EPUB 3.3 to ISO. There are other groups that want it ASAP. ISO is still on 3.0.1

gpellegrino: As you may recall we asked for the group to wait on this until the EU a11y legislation was done
… If we go to ISO then it will be adopted by the EU, so it will be a different spec than the one publishers are using
… so we made an arrangement for them to reference the W3C version
… so the European commission did not require the ICT version
… the EAA will go into effect in two weeks, but as of now there is no committee request to reference EPUB standards as ICT Technical Specification
… so I would request that we wait

wendyreid: Can't they do whatever they want?

gpellegrino: The ICT is just a reference and the EC will endorse it

wendyreid: How long are they going to make us wait?

mgarrish: Can we split it up?
… then we can push at least EPUB 3.3, but delay a11y spec?

wendyreid: Is this ICT thing for a11y 1.1 and epub 3.3?

gpellegrino: We presented a11y 1.1, epub 3.3., and RS 3.3, so they may point at those as well

wendyreid: This is very awkward
… If we go to ISO, one option is they could just keep going with the current path
… will they decide to change what they are pointint at?

Leonard: They can do whatever, but that doesn't mean they will

wendyreid: So are we really worried about going to ISO, and they will change what they are using?

Leonard: They do have to make changes by agreement with the committees involved

wendyreid: I want to understand what is technically possible vs what will actually happen

gpellegrino: They decided to exclude e-book from the mandate to update EN 301 549

AvneeshSingh: ISO is a kind of trigger, and historically we have had trouble keeping European standards in line with us
… so we really don't want to have to open a new can of worms
… gpellegrino what are your thoughts on the previous efforts here?

gpellegrino: Even with that huge effort (EU version of WCAG), it isn't in a great
… place

AvneeshSingh: And we are smaller than the web

George: After [date I missed], there is an existing default standard that will be in place
… If we wait a little while before going to ISO, the more it establishes the existing defacto standard
… Once we have that we should be able to go to ISO
… I can't imagine at that point going to ISO would cause a harmonized spec to trigger

SueNeu: Is this a place where backwards compat will help us?
… Since their older books will still be usable
… I am not sure of the utility of waiting if everything is backwards compatible. What would happen if we went to ISO with 3.3?
… Will this require new things of publishers?

wendyreid: The prime example is WCAG and EN3459
… For instance the EN spec covers a lot more than the web, web is just one chapter

<gpellegrino> 1+

wendyreid: But I got on the queue to say we are using the PATH approach to going to ISO
… so there isn't much room to change things (just minor termiology)
… This is per agreement between ISO ad W3C
… so I don't think we need to worry that it will cause a change anything substantively
… But all we have been hearing "just wait" with no timeline
… And the rest of the world is on hold without even having a deadline

gpellegrino: two things on what may happen
… First, they may require new metadata, and all content made now without it will cause all current epubs to fail

wendyreid: I guess we are stuck waiting again

duga: Do we just set a reminder to ourselves to have this conversation again in 6 months, a year?

gpellegrino:

gpellegrino: I think TPAC is the right time to discuss again

shiestyle: Let's continue at TPAC

AOB

AvneeshSingh: TPAC - when do we want to have the meeting? APA is already looking at their cross group meetings
… DAISY will be having meetings on the 12th and 13th, so it would help to have dates ASAP

wendyreid: I have already requested the 10th and 11th, our typical Monday/Tuesday

duga: What about the survey? Did we agree on the wording?

SueNeu: yes, we have agreed and we have the Japanese translation
… And Ivan is working on it, though he is off

SueNeu: Which brings us to who we are sending this to

CharlesL: and in addition, do we have the verbage for the email that links to the survey

wendyreid: We should have a wiki or doc to coordinate and propose text

<SueNeu> +1

AvneeshSingh: We will be sending out the inclusive publishing newsletter, so if it is ready then we can add it there

wendyreid: May SueNeu and I can work on setting up coordination for comms

Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 244 (Thu Feb 27 01:23:09 2025 UTC).