There’s been a lot of recent buzz about EPUB 3 and what it will mean for digital publishing and file formatting, despite the webinars and speaker panels that have been bringing the expected changes to light since early 2011. Aptara, a twenty-two year veteran of working with print publishers and one of the companies that was originally at the forefront of e-book formatting, hopes to clear up some of the discussions at next week’s International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) Digital Book Conference running concurrently with BookExpo America.
A key speaker, Bill McCoy of the IDPF, will lead a crash course in EPUB 3 that promises to delve into the next major revision of the IDPF standard, which intersects video, audio, scripting, MathML, enhanced layout, global language support, accessibility and metadata enhancements, and more. This session will offer demos of working examples of the revised industry standard. And besides their exhibitor booth in the Digital Zone, Aptara will also be presenting a breakout session by Senior VP, Digital Solutions, by Sriram Panchanathan on XML and PDF to EPUB conversion.
Aptara’s business model has always targeted medium to large publishers by giving them the option to leverage their existing titles to e-book formats, but with this year’s Expo they are reaching out to the smaller publishers and even indie authors who need help formatting as well. EPUB 3 will help publishers for any market size have the option to make more of the e-books open to the option to be enhanced. The intent of this new version is to be able to keep the fidelity of the layout, especially for magazines and books that have a lot of design work.
“We have a clear goal for our clients,” notes Megan Prosser, Aptara Marketing Director. “To do digital right the first time so you’re ready for the current device and for what’s next.” And with the information coming out on EPUB 3, hopefully everyone will be ready for the e-books that are coming next.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
