Links for the weekend

  • Sumo

#eprdctn hour: XML Workflow

Fact-filled hour with discussions of the hows and whys of the XML workflow, including how to get authors and editors on-board, how to edit XML-based InDesign files, MSWord considerations, and more.

https://storify.com/KevinBNGO/xml-workflow


 EPUBCHECK 4

EpubCheck 4 was recently released. You can download it here:

https://github.com/IDPF/epubcheck/releases


 

SIGIL: Is it ready for EPUB3?

The Digital Reader brings us news that Sigil is closer to EPUB3 support. Sigil is a tool for creating and editing EPUBs, but it lacks built-in support for EPUB3. According to this post, an updated beta is available that is moving towards the current standard (and it is still in beta, so be on your toes when using).

http://bit.ly/1FAijEj

Here’s the announcement direct from the Sigil developers:

https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil/releases/tag/0.8.900


Responsive ebook design, media queries, and the future

Sanders Kleinfeld, Director of Publishing Technology at O’Reilly Media, wrote this back in January, but I think it’s worth a revisit.

https://medium.com/@sandersk/responsive-ebook-design-a-primer-8bba01328219


Have ebooks stopped evolving?

Craig Mod has written an impassioned essay on why he feels let down by the current ebook ecosystem. Walled gardens, limited design, loss of a personal connection to a particular volume: all valid points.

But I wonder if there’s an apples-to-oranges thing going on here. On the business side, he has good points. Amazon owns your books; you don’t. If Amazon disappears, or changes their model, chances are your books will become inaccessible, all your notes lost.

But on the design and functionality side, I think he falls short. He compares beautiful, complicated, expensive-to-produce print books with what sounds like the Kindle equivalent of commercial paperback genre fiction. I wish he had found some digital books that have had the same lavish attention paid in their design and production. Read for yourself:

http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/why-have-digital-books-stopped-evolving/

 

One Response to “Links for the weekend”

  1. Rob Siders says:

    Is it necessarily true that Kindle books become inacessible upon Amazon’s demise (a plausible event but one that’s rather remote in the foreseeable future)? DRM issues aside, can’t people make a local backup of them?