The post includes links to Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble NOOK, Kobo, Apple iBooks, and Calibre in one place. If you are self-publishing or creating eBooks for someone who is, this is a nice resource.

Are these guidelines helpful to you? Is there any information that is missing? What other guidelines to you need or use?

Ben Milander has released a new Javascript called Create Index for ePub that will help you create a clickable index for EPUB files. Given the difficulty of creating a linked index when exporting from InDesign, this script may be valuable to many.

Here are the details from the purchase/download page:

This is a sophisticated script which creates a clickable index when exported to ePub.  The trial version is free to download and is fully function for a single document with index.

Features:

1. Works equally well with either an index generated by the InDesign index tool or a third party tool.
2. Works with a single document containing multiple stories and an index or with an InDesign Book file containing multiple documents. Book Function not available in trial version.
3. Transparent for export to PDF.  Export to PDF or to Epub or to both.

Requirements:

1. The index must contain a title with a unique paragraph style assigned to it. The index must be a single story. The document containing the index must be open and active when starting the script.
2. Page numbers in the index must have a unique character style assigned to them.
3. Must start the script with the document containing the index open and the current document.

The script costs $50, which seems a bit steep (unless you have had to add all the links to an index manually), but if the script saves you an hour preparing an EPUB index, it probably pays for itself. You can download a free trial version if you want to try it, though the trial will only work with a single document, not with an InDesign Book file containing multiple documents.

I have not tested the script yet, but plan to in the near future and will report results.

What do you think of this script? Have you downloaded it and tried it? Will you use it again?

To support this workshop, Colleen Cunningham has updated her “Resources: Going from InDesign to Ebook” on the DBW Website. If you use InDesign as part of your EPUB workflow, this may be the most complete list of resources you will find in one place. The list is broken up into the Basics, Resources (Around the Web, Books, Community, Conferences, Ebook Retailer Specs, Podcasts, Special Topic: Regular Expressions), Tools (Creating EPUB, Creating Additional Formats, Unzipping and Zipping, Editing, Validation, Conversion: Kindle Format), and Quality Assurance. It is worth the time to review these resources whether you are just beginning to work with eBooks or are a veteran of digital publishing.

If you are not going to be in New York for Digital Book World 2013, you can still follow the event of the conference proper starting tomorrow. Digital Book Word will be Live Streaming the conference on February 16 and 17. The cost to stream the conference is $295.

If you are at the conference, rumor has it there may be an #ePrdctn meet-up around 6:00 p.m. on January 15 (today). Follow #ePrdctn on Twitter for details.

Are you going to Digital Book World 2013? To which workshops or presentations are you most looking forward?

UPDATE: Here is more information on the #ePrdctn meet-up at Digital Book World tonight:

@matthewdiener @ficklepixel #eprdctn Meetup in conference hotel bar at 6:00-ish tonight. All are welcome! (I’ll be wearing a red scarf.)

— Colleen Cunningham (@BookDesignGirl) January 15, 2013

UPDATE #2: I just heard from David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion, the organizers of PEPcon, the annual conference on for Adobe InDesign and Creative Suite users. If you are attending Digital Book World (or perhaps reading this blog from home), you can receive $50 off the registration price of PEPcon 2013 in Austin, Texas, on April 28–May 1, by entering the discount code DBW when registering.

UPDATE #3: Colleen Cunningham has added a nice supporting post to the resources page that is worth reading, “Bridging the Divide between Print and Digital: Ebook Production Resources.”

Do you use MobiUnpack? What are you using it for? Do you have any tips or tricks to make it more effective?

iBooks

At The Digital Reader, Nate Hoffelder (@thDigitalReader) posted “iBooks 3.0 Wasn’t Nearly the Update I Expected.” In some ways it is a post-event response to his optimistic pre-event post “iBooks 3.0 Coming Next Week – Adds More Support for Epub3.” The bottom line is that Hoffelder is disappointed in the update. The positives include:

But at least this app does have access to new dictionaries for German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese (iOS6 required). And the app can now receive free updates to purchased ebooks – including new chapters, corrections, and other improvements. There are also new sharing options (the usual Facebook, Twitter, email, Messages).

Baldur Bjarnason has also added this bit of information in the comments (which are worth reading):

They seem to have focused more on adding features for iBooks Author/multi-touch ebooks than for EPUB3.

For example, as far as I can tell, MathML does actually work, as long as the book is an iBooks Author book.

This is the first version that actually supports FXL rendition metadata as specified by the IDPF.

Baldur Bjarnason (@fakebaldur) has been tweeting the results of his tests on iBooks 3.0. It particular, he is listing what markup and CSS works and does not work in iBooks 3.0. Here is some of what he posted:

Damn. iBooks Author 2.0 looks awesome. Font embedding is automagical.

iBooks Author has become so good that it makes you really want to ignore the downsides (proprietary, limited market, only one store, etc.)

[iBooks format] It’s forked epub that is incompatible with every epub reader out there except ibooks. It *isn’t* epub.

I don’t think that’s the major issue for me. iBA books only work in ibooks. No other reader will support them, no matter what.

I *love* the continuous scrolling setting in iBooks.

“Being burned is a mere physical change, like the burning of a stick of wood, if it is not perceived as a consequence of some other action.”

That tweet just now is from John Dewey’s “Democracy and Education”. iBooks notes sharing seems to work nicely.

iBooks doesn’t make it easy to add author or title to the tweeted note, though.

Emailing notes from iBooks en masse is easy and works nicely. Preserves context but not formatting (italics and bold lost).

Two things missing from ereaders: 1. OPML export of notes. 2. The ability to embed highlights+notes into the epub file itself, PDF-style.

I *hate* the garish faux-book cartoon parody that iBooks uses. I can live with almost any weirdness to be rid of it.

Because OPML is the de facto interchange format for Outliner apps. Every major outliner supports it.

I’m not talking about using OPML as an archival format but as an interchange format for bringing material into a writing env.

Exporting the hightlights and the notes as OPML would be an *incredibly* useful feature for writers.

It doesn’t look like iBooks supports mixing FXL and reflowable pages like the EPUB3 FXL spec allows.

It doesn’t support bitmaps or SVG in spine either. Most of the rest seems to work.

IMO iBooks 3.0 doesn’t come close to supporting the full EPUB3+FXL specs. Big parts of the spec still missing.

Also, the differences in CSS rendering between iBook 3.0’s book/full-screen views and the scrolling view are a bit worrying.

As in, CSS rendering in iBook’s scrolling view behaves a lot more like it would in a web browser.

The only question in my mind that remains is what features Apple has implemented behind proprietary display-options.xml toggles.

The good news is that regular reflowable EPUB3 files in iBooks now seem to support absolute positioning.

Adding a rendition:spread = none meta property turns off the annoying fake book skeuomorphism in FXL EPUBs in iBooks.

overflow: scroll in FXL epubs in iBooks doesn’t work if you set it on body or html. Have to wrap the content in a div and set it on that.

The good new is that -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch; works in FXL epubs

This was a highlight tweeted straight from iBookshttps://twitter.com/fakebaldur/status/261043659754065920 … It doesn’t seem to add author or title automatically.

Long highlights are truncated to fit 140 chars.

Email sharing works well. Haven’t tried facebook sharing as I don’t use facebook.

You highlight and sharing pops up as an option. Sharing old highlights works as well.

Yeah. I would have thought that attribution would be an important part of sharing a quote.

The rendition:orientation property seems to work in FXL books as it should.

iBooks doesn’t seem to support varying page sizes (differing viewport sizes) in FXL documents as the spec seems to allow.

EPUB3 Bindings don’t seem to work in iBooks either.

oeb-page-head and oeb-page-foot don’t work.

page-progression direction rtl seems to work. And vertical writing.

iBooks using an EPUB3 FXL file. Apple FXL files have no spec as afar as I know, just documentation.

Definitely looks like iBooks doesn’t support epub:switch.

MathML works in my tests but it isn’t working for some. iBooks is clearly intent on maintaining its reputation as a buggy mess.

Update: As we had all hoped, Baldur Bjarnason has written up his response to the iBooks 3.0 update in his post “iBooks 3.0.”

Walrus Books has a review with videos on their post “IBooks 3.0: THE TEST OF MORSE.” It is written in French, but Google Translate through Chrome will give you the just of the post. There are also a couple of Vimeo videos embedded to show you how iBooks works. The upshot:

To summarize: new design, new ergonomics, including through the use of this mode Scroll abolishing border roll (volumen) and codex, both of which now live. A good thing in a world where on the screen, everyone reads by scrolling. Walrus in, we believe it is a necessary and a real gain for reading on screen. Hoping that readers adopt. Do not forget to activate it via the menu iBooks. [Blame in on the Google Translation.]

Read Write has posted “Apple’s Slow But Radical Overhaul of Education,” which focuses more on how Apple is positioning itself to capture the secondary education market, though it does have this to say about the updates:

The next wave of that impact won’t come from iBooks 3 or the new version of iBooks Author, which are both nice, but relatively minor updates. If anything from Tuesday’s event will help push digital textbook adoption forward, it’s the hardware.

You can see a whole list of other sites that mention the iBooks announcement here, but most just talk just reiterate what Tim Cook said during the event.

iBooks Author

On YouTube, the Bookkry (thebookry) has posted the video “A look at the new iBooks Author 2 layouts and widgets” that goes through these new features. The video covers new layout templates that are portrait only, LaTex and MathML support, scrolling sidebar and pop-up widgets.

Mashable has a post by Samantha Murphy “Apple Reinforces Education Push with iBooks Author Update.” The highlight is

Now, publishers can add mathematical expressions into digital textbooks and access multi-task widgets. This will help keep students up to date with the latest educational content when updates become available. Apple also detailed new areas of customization such as personalizing fonts.

Here are some additional articles that mention the iBooks Author update, again, many just repeating what Tim Cook said in the announcement.

What is your reaction to the updated iBooks and iBooks Author? Are they big improvements? Are there other reviews worth sharing?

The updated KindleGen 2.7 software includes:
*) Enabled support for JP vertical rendering and multiple page writing modes (L to R, R to L)
*) Enabled support for facing pages (left or right)
*) Enabled support for double page spreads
*) Enabled properties to support spine for fixed format content
*) Added KF8 and M7 file size stats that will be displayed after conversion
*) Added Mobi7 support for HTML tags with multiple classes (e.g.,)
*) Data URI support for images and embedded fonts so that they can be referred directly in HTML and CSS files
*) Multiple bug fixes and enhancements.

The updated Kindle Previewer 2.7 software includes:
*) Kindle Fire HD viewing mode
*) Kindle Paperwhite viewing mode
*) Japanese vertical writing mode support in Kindle Paperwhite skin
*) Preview support for fixed layout books with virtual panels & double page spreads (Kindle Paperwhite)
*) Preview support for fixed layout books in both portrait and landscape orientations (when orientation lock is not specified in book) in Kindle Paperwhite viewing mode
*) Support for changing background color in Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD skins.
*) Provides device groups namely Kindle for eInk, Kindle for Tablets and Kindle for iOS. Enables Single click to switch between devices within a group.
*) Multiple bug fixes and enhancements

Both updates can be downloaded from the Kindle Format 8 page.

Update: The Amazon Kindle Publishing Guide has been updated to version 2012.5. It includes more information on Fixed Layout (FXL), dictionaries, and CSS for the Kindle Fire 8 (KF8) format.

Amazon has also updated their Kindle app for iOS to version 3.4. The new app now has:

• New Font Choice: Caecilia
• Publisher Font: Read the book in the publisher suggested font
• Support for Japanese, including Vertical Text & Manga

Are there any features in the Kindle software updates that you are excited to see? Is there anything else that should have been on this list?

iPhone 5

Tim Cook said that iPhone 5 is off to a phenomenal start, selling more than 5 million units over the opening weekend. He then said there is no better place to buy an iPhone than one of Apple’s own stores and showed a video of the phone launch in Apple retail locations.

iPods and iOS

The new iPods are off to a phenomenal launch (Cook needs to retire “phenomenal” NOW) and have sold over 3 million units. There are currently over 200 million devices running iOS 6. It is the fastest operating system upgrade in history.

Customers have place 125 million documents in iCloud. Cook says that iMessage is the best way to send messages to other iOS and Mac users. Over 300 billion iMessages have been sent in last year; 28,000 a second.

There are over 700,000 apps in app store; 275,000 iPad apps are now available. 35 billion apps have been downloaded from the app store. Apple has paid out $6.5 billion to app developers.

iBooks

iBooks is one of the most popular apps on the app store. There are now over 1.5 million books available in iBookstore; over 400 million have been downloaded by customers. “And today we are announcing a new version of iBooks.” It contains a new option with continuous scrolling. This means you can read a book like a Webpage if you prefer. New iBooks is better integrated with iCloud. You can tap on your favorite quote in a book and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. iBooks now supports over 40 languages. Highlighting Korean, Chinese, and Japanese books that read vertically and right to left. The new iBooks app is now available in the app store. CNET now has a video for the portion of the presentation here.

Mac

Mac is now the number one desktop and notebook computer in the United States. Apple is pleased with progress of Mac, but are not standing still.

Phil Schiller now presenting new innovations. “Today is a very big day for the Mac.”

Everyone has fallen in love with the new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. The number-one selling notebook is bestselling notebook and computer in the Mac lineup. There is now a new 13-inch MacBook Pro.

It is 0.75 inches thick (20% thinner). It ways 3.57 pounds; almost a pound lighter. It is lightest MacBook Pro ever. It has a Retina display. 2560 x 1600 pixels; 4X pixels of previous MacBook Pro, over 4 million pixels. This is almost twice as many pixels as and HD TV. Reading email, you can’t see the pixels. There is new software now available that supports the Retina display.

FaceTime camera is a 720 p; dual mics.

MacBook Air starts at $999; MacBooks start at $1199; MacBook Pros Retina start at $1699.

Mac Minis have been upgradedl; $699 and $999 for server version.

iMac is the number one desktop model in United States. We have had seven generations of iMac. Today we have the next generation of iMac. It looks mighty thin on screen. “It is the most beautiful Mac we have ever made.” The edge is 5mm thick; 80% thinner than previous version. Friction stir welding is used to merge the molecules of the aluminum. The display is now laminated to the glass. 21.5-inch and 27-inch panels are available. Full lamination design and plasma deposition process make the screen 75 % less reflective. Has 720 p FaceTime camera, dual microphones, and speakers. iMac can have up to 12 GB of RAM. Customers can choose a HDD hard drive or Flash. Now customers can also choose Apple Fusion Drive: 128 GB flash storage, 1TB or 3TB HDD, it is built into Mountain Lion. The Fusion Drive figures out what should be used on Flash and what should be used on HDD.

iMac comes with wireless keyboard, mouse, or trackpad. 21.5-inch iMac starts at $1299; starts shipping in November. 27-inch iMac starts at $1799; starts shipping in December.

iPad

Two weeks ago 100 millionth iPad was sold. 100 million in just two and a half years. Apple sold more iPads than any PC maker has sold in their entire lineup. Tablet Web traffic share: iPad 91%; all other tablets 9%. Why are iPads so successful? Cook: “People love their iPads.” Apps help people learn. Apple has been surprised by how quickly the iPad has been embraced in education. iBooks textbooks are rich, engaging multi-touch textbooks. (And just when we get to the good part I am losing the feed.) iBooks textbooks are now available for 80% of the U.S. high school core curriculum. Mathematics, history, environmental science. iBooks textbooks are now in over 2500 classrooms in the U.S. New iBooks Author with new views available.

Phil is back to talk about new iPads; the fourth generation. Faster performance: the new A6X chip. We can’t even see the competition in the rearview mirror. Next-generation ISP. 10-hour battery life. FaceTime HD camera update. Cellular has expanded LTE coverage. 2x faster Wi-Fi. Lightning connector. New USB and SD cables; HDMI and VGA cables. Comes in black and white. 16 GB Wi-Fi for $499. Cellular starts at $629.

iPad mini

Now showing the new smaller iPad so it can be used in ways and place customers couldn’t use it before: iPad mini. You can hold it in one hand. It is an entirely new design, not a shrunk-down version of full size iPad. It is very thin. 7.2 mm thin; 23% thinner than iPad. .68 pounds. White/silver or black. The screen is 7.9 inches on the diagonal. Pixels are exactly the same: 1024 x 768. All software for iPad works on iPad mini. Great for reading a magazine or book. Comparing iPad mini to “that other product” without mentioning it by name.

Dual-core A5 chip. FaceTime HD front-side camera. 5MP iSight camera on back. Untrafast wireless. Faster Wi-Fi. Lightning connector. 10-hour battery life. Tagline for iPad mini: “Every inch an iPad.” Also designed entirely new smart cover for the iPad mini; removed aluminum hinge.

iPad mini starts at $329. iPad 2 at $399. iPad $499.

iPad mini and new-generation iPad can be pre-ordered starting Friday, October 26. Wi-Fi will ship a week later; cellular a week (two?) after that.

Individual EPUBs can still be validated online through the IDPF Website. The New Zealand eBook retailer MeBooks also has the updated online EPUBCheck on their Website.

Make sure you keep your EPUB tools current, especially as it looks like there may finally be some movement toward retailer support of EPUB 3.

John-Michel Dentand (@jmdentand) posted two error message he received when loading the book Koko the Great to iTunes. The first reads:

Update Required: This book contains enhanced content or formatting that requires the latest version of iBooks.

The second reads:

 Requirements: This book requires iBooks 3.0 or later and iOS 5.0 or later. Books can only be viewed using iBooks on an iPad, iPhone (3G or later) or iPod touch (2nd generation or later).

As Hoffelder notes in his post, the jump to iBooks 3.0 likely means this is a major update to the reader. Could Apple be the first retailer to support the full EPUB 3 spec? Will EPUB 3 support plus the lower price iPad Mini give Apple a clear advantage in capturing the eTextbook market? We will have an answer on Tuesday.

The EPUB 3 specification includes support for MathML. This will allow any reading system the supports the full EPUB 3 spec to display MathML and equations as a basic function. Unfortunately, systems the currently support MathML are few and far between at the moment.

The BISG EPUB 3 Support Grid includes MathML support as one of the rows. It shows whether MathML is supported on each reading system. As you will see from the current version of the grid, only Apple, Readium, Azardi, Ingram’s VitalSource, and Safari Books Online through some browsers currently support MathML.

MathJax is an open source JavaScript display engine for mathematics that works in all modern browsers. It is also the display engine being used by IDPF for Readium, Infogrid Pacific for the Azardi reader, and Ingram for VitalSource. MathJax’s Table of EPUB Reading Systems that support MathML is also available which shows which version of EPUB a reading system supports, whether the reading system supports MathML and what it uses to render MathML, the platforms on which it is available, and additional information on MathML on that reading system. It is a helpful guide if you are looking specifically for how reading systems are supporting MathML.

Do you have scientific and mathematical formulas in your EPUBs? Are you using MathML as part of your EPUB production work? What is your hope for MathML with EPUB3?