The stakes of seizing this opportunity or at least playing a significant role in the textbook business are high. Major industry players are becoming avid and hungry. Microsoft is creeping its way into the market by teaming up with Barnes & Nobles to create a subsidiary focusing on the eBooks and college textbooks businesses. One of the first results of this venture will be to position the Windows 8 tablet as a new contender in the educational market by benefiting from a strong and large content source (remember, content is king). Concretely, it means that you will find a Nook application for the Windows 8 environment.

With this move, it seems obvious that Microsoft (through its joint-venture with B&N) is looking to compete heads-on with Apple on the eTextbook market. It is the old story of PC vs Mac, yet transposed to a very targeted audience. The complexity of this market means that further investment will still be required to build a complete eco-system which will involve authors, publishers and the like.

The consequence of these major players taking on the eBook market could be positive for the EPUB format (www.idpf.org). Given that Amazon and Apple are forcing the use of their proprietary format, B&N could well throw its weight behind EPUB. The risk indeed of introducing yet another format (by Microsoft for instance) would be too high in the publishing industry, an industry that needs time to strengthen its production workflows in order to comply with already too many distribution outputs.

Let’s not be fooled by the shiny and glossy results you can achieve with Apple’s latest authoring product. The recipe for a successful digital product strategy entails a much more in-depth approach, starting with a specific affectation of core content. A sustainable rich, enhanced ebook workflow is not just about the format you end up creating. I’m saying that because if you do set the right fundamentals in your workflow, you will be able to easily output your work in the appropriate format for your distribution channel.

Creating an eTextbook  is really reconstructing the data model for a new digital user experience. An experience which is likely to take advantage of multimedia, animations and any type of interactive elements. Therefore if you don’t think like an architect, you will build a house on quick sand.

With our development teams, we have kept in mind the necessity to deliver content all across the digital spectrum by working with open standards. More specifically, we aimed at assembling tool sets that provide a frame for the production of enhanced eContent. There isn’t any easy, one click button to transform rich graphics, complex layout textbooks into a re-flowable document for tablets and laptops. Yet you want to rely on a set of tools that will optimize your team’s productivity on the long run:

• Easily transform the source content into XML.
• Solve the transformation problems of complex characters, mathematics language with reliable method.
• Repurpose the same content to various output formats (iBooks, Kindle Fire 8, …) according to your distribution strategy.
• Influence the look & feel laid in the CSS and html templates.

If all this is taken care of, publishers are in position to publish stunning educational textbooks (because they also own a wide volume of multimedia materials). It will be quite straight forward to work with designers to add interactivity, multimedia and animations to engage students. And possibly making it available on a high number of devices. Not only to the Apple ecosystem.

La meilleure nouvelle de ce lancement est l’attente que cela va engendrer chez les utilisateurs (étudiants, apprenants, …). Ces derniers vont s’attendre à des ebooks dynamiques et enrichis sur tous leurs écrans de lecture. Dans le monde académique aujourd’hui, le livre électronique se compose de PDF statiques. L’offre devrait donc rapidement s’étoffer. Mais avec une utilisation restreinte de l’écosystème Apple car les cibles de lectures vont bien au-delà de l’iPad.

Une conséquence presque inévitable va être la fragmentation des formats. EPUB 3 est une fondation sérieuse à tout eBook enrichi. Si vous rajoutez à cela “l’Apple epub” et le KF8, les choses deviennent coûteuses si l’éditeur veut assurer une diffusion efficace et agnostique.

J’imagine bien les éditeurs scolaires organiser leur édition numérique autour de 2 piliers:

• Produits spécifiques pour iPad, soit en créant des applications, soit en utilisant iBooks author.
• Production EPUB 3 pour le reste du marché (la majorité) impliquant und distribution directe vers les utilisateurs.

N’oublions pas que la plupart des éditeurs scolaires supportent leur propre force de vente et ont tout intérêt à éviter les intermédiaires. Ils utiliseront leurs propres canaux (sites internet, applications) pour garantir des marges plus élevées.

The EPUB Authoring tool offers complete control of the revamping process: a very simple interface allows even the novice user to access complex functionalities with ease. The tool allows the user to fully control the contents of the original document and fine-tune their style, appearance and position.
And there’s more! The EPUB Authoring tool has unique, state-of-the-art features, such as supervised recognition of tables and automatic creation of tables of contents.
Discover the opportunities offered by the EPUB Authoring Tool now:

• Import CSS styles and HTML templates
• Generate tables of contents automatically
• Possibility of selecting an independent reading order for each page: left-right, top-down, right-left or customized
• Automatic detection of tables
• Export graphics as images (PNG or JPEG) or keep them in vector form (SVG)
• Remapping of fonts
• Export fonts in SVG format
• EPUB pages represented in HTML or XHTM format

]]> http://www.publiwide.com/Blog/?feed=rss2&p=293 0 http://www.publiwide.com/Blog/?p=259 http://www.publiwide.com/Blog/?p=259#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:14:31 +0000 Sebastien Dubuis http://www.publiwide.com/Blog/?p=259 When we started looking into publishing rich enhanced eBooks, we quickly noticed that there weren’t that many tools available to address the production process. This isn’t surprising given the fact that the greatest part of the eBook market is made up of very simple layout titles which can easily be converted for generic eReaders.
It turns out that editors and publishers, wishing to take advantage of the rise of multimedia machines, are now eager to offer eBooks with richer design to their readers. And this premise is particularly true for textbooks and learning materials.

Today we clearly see the trend for enhanced eBooks going into 2 directions:

• eBooks as applications for the iPhone-iPad market;
• eBooks as EPUB content for a much larger pool of devices;

Some technology companies have addressed the former by developing software that enables editors to input their rich content and output highly interactive applications. It is a CMS (content management system) type of model which is a bit similar to the management of websites. I’m sure that most of them are good at their job, no doubt about that. Yet their product limits itself to the iOS system.

A much larger potential opens up with EPUB, even more so with the recent release of EPUB 3 specifications. Choosing to produce enhanced eBooks as EPUB 3 may potentially enable a delivery of the content to any multimedia machines regardless of their prerequisite operating system. As far as we know, there hasn’t been much happening to master the transformation of rich graphic books into a dynamic  reflowable content. Some companies praise the development of plug-ins for content design programs (such as InDesign), yet the result is not satisfying if you aim at going beyond a fixed layout presentation.

Teaming up with a company specialized in content analysis and data reconstruction, we have jotted down the fundamentals of a unique rich publishing framework. The ultimate goal is to empower content editors to manage this framework by themselves in order to publish their backlist and their new titles for multimedia environments smoothly. The set of tools that we are developing will eventually cover the holy concept of XML conversion that experts are highly recommending all around.

Having started to produce some rich textbooks with that workflow, we are more than pleased to share some inside knowledge with interested publishers. We will say… and show more in phase 2!

Automatic analysis of source document and XML conversion

Supervised tagging of XML file

Looking at the best way to navigate digital textbooks we have opted to provide readers with a swipe-down scrolling technique.

There are many reasons favoring this method as it allows us to:

• Optimize the screen size.
• Guarantee the reading flow.
• Guarantee the predominant display of graphics and multimedia.
• Get away from pages as readers set their own text size and focus on table of content rather than linear A to Z consultation of the content.

There are already some brilliant examples featuring this scroll-down technique. One of them is Inkling, whose application has gathered a lot of praise for its quality and page navigation. Have a read at this article (ref.: Ljubomir Milkovic, adaptivepath.com) highlighting the main differences between the 2 possible approaches.

The subject has been discussed quite widely already and we are not pretending to tackle it in more details. We rather refer to some quality articles, to which we can add this link (cf.: Oliver Reichenstein, Informationarchitects.jp)

Furthermore see below a short video portraying the navigation across a few textbooks in Publiwide’s iPad Reader. Click on the screenshot below to play the video.

There are two main reasons to embrace electronic books:

• For convenience, comfort and space/ books management: this aspect is strongly associated with the device and the eReader hardware.
• For a more lively reading experience when interactivity and multimedia are added.

The existence of a large proportion of eBooks is closely linked to the surge of devices such as Sony or Kindle. Many times however, we don’t see significant differences between the print book and the eBook. The advantages lie in the convenience of the device. As a Kindle user I’m very satisfied with the comfort of ”eating up” linear books (fiction, novels) in a clean, sober environment with a few useful functionalities. The e-ink screen resolution also gets you closer to the pBook.

For some of us yet, eBooks should take advantage of the 2 dimensions above. With the emergence of the multimedia internet-enabled tablets, we think it’s time to transform traditional texts into something lively, rich in information, which can stir readers’ imagination and reflection.

As a software company, we constantly reinvent ourselves to address the many challenges raised when enhancing books and distributing  them to audiences. It requires a lot of versatility and competences:

• Coding the substance of the book in a form which engage the readers
• Developing software that can facilitate the reading experience in a multi-channels environment (Web, desktop, iPad, android tablets)
• Enable readers to rely on the technology for all their reading archives or notes regardless of the device they are working on.

We firmly believe that this is the added value that readers can expect when they shift to digital. And it is the journey we decided to take. I hope we’ll get many followers!

So far we have focused on adding value to traditional textbooks by integrating multimedia, references and interconnections. The emergence of mobile devices for reading and studying opens new perspectives for the publishing industry. It will eventually lead to the so-called monetization of electronic content. Until now, most of us have cultivated the bad habit of considering that bits of content available on the internet should be free. It is a hard to convince people that they should be paying for electronic content. The tablets will contribute to a shift in mentality.

Thanks to this emerging market (even Blackberry announced today the launch of its own slate) software companies like us are becoming  partners of choice for books publishers. We have a unique value and distinctive propositions for textbook authors and publishers. They can keep focusing on their core business while we take care of the logistics side of things. 

The proposition we are working on is dual:

• To develop expertise in creating rich interactive content that will flow across the different eReading platforms
• To build software applications which deliver functional and intuitive reading experiences

We are delighted to unveil the first version of one of our new software: the publiwide iPad app. As it is now being finalized for the Frankfurt book fair exhibition, you can see a demo video below. The application has been developed with interactive and multimedia content in mind. We aim at making it a unique channel for textbooks’ authors and publishers wishing to distribute enhanced lively eTexts.

If you are visiting or exhibiting at the Show, you are welcome to visit us at stand C1434 in Hall 4.2. We will present our new line of eReader applications, developped specifically for educators and students. The Publiwide eReader family will enhance the reading experience of interactive eText on iPads, web browsers and as desktop applications.  

Have a first look at the new web Reader user interface that we will unveil at the Book Fair. If you are interested to meet us feel free to get in touch with us through the contact section.  

Publiwide WEBreader

The core of our evolving technology lies in the development of new Reader application software, which will be translated across various channels: laptops, tablets, etc…

In this first issue, we wish to showcase a sample of the Take 10 en Espanol eTextbook. The objective of this demo is to illustrate the capacities of our current web Reader device and some of the enhanced content that can be embedded in eText:

- Zoom focus on any paragraph: isolate a section of condensed text to facilitate reading. The text popup can easily be disabled by clicking again anywhere in the text.

- Video and audio panel displayed when launching the eText: as the user opens the first page, an overview of the multimedia resources available throughout the eText is automatically displayed.

- Interactive activity (page 9): text can be entered and further actions can be performed accordingly. Answers are not monitored in this example.

We invite you to experience this online eTextbook demo by clicking here.