Some folks I know are waiting for E-Pub to magically arrive and provide a comfy transition from print to screen. But anybody who’s looked into that closely knows it’s a fairy tale.
Ain’t gonna happen, and here’s the latest nail in the E-pub coffin:
The List of Features Includes @Font-Face
Here’s a list of supported features on the way:
List of supported HTML tags and CSS elements
(Note to Amazon: It’s HTML Elements (but I’ll accept “tags”) but definitely not “CSS elements” CSS Properties, it is.)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
But doesn’t ePUB already incorporate xhtml and css? There’s nothing about the ePUB format that should prevent it from also growing to include latest HTML and CSS goodies.
@John B.
>There’s nothing about the ePUB format that should prevent it from also growing to include latest HTML and CSS goodies.
Yes, there IS something preventing that. There’s is no need nor is there any demand for stand-alone “e-readers”. Period.
As your comment suggests, there are web browsers that already have advanced features. And they are already built-in to every personal computing device being sold today, including mobile phones.
And web pages written to the HTML/CSS standard are interoperable with all of them.
So tell me, what in the flukin’ universe does ePub bring to the party? Nothing.
The only thing that has kept ePub alive in the minds of those in the print publishing industry is DRM.
But – as if to drive another nail in ePub’s coffin – there are apps for that. For those who think publishing with DRM is a good idea, apps handle that quite nicely.
The rate at which content is moving from print to the networked screen has now quickened to the point where it’s imperative to use what exists. There’s no more time to go poking around. Your comment has a “well, sooner or later ePub will have those things, too” tone to it which suggests that waiting around for ePub to catch up is some kind of alternative.
I just had an image flash into my mind – a scene out of an old Western movie:
The fort is surrounded by “hostiles”. A full scale attack is only a matter of time and there’s no way the people holed up in the fort can prevail. Now, the audience knows that the messenger sent to get help has been killed. But those in the fort have no idea about that. A wizened old army sergeant turns to one of the young women from the local population who’ve taken refuge in the fort and says, “Don’t worry, darlin’. The cavalry’ll be arrivin’ before you know it. With ePub and all the DRM you can eat!”)
With web browsers – the installed base of software is already in place. Ubiquity on this scale is an amazing thing, it really is. Including mobile phones, probably a couple of billion installations.
The very idea of content published separate and apart from this ubiquitous network is a non-starter. For all the impact it will have, instead of formatting for ePub “readers”, an author might as well package his or her new book in a sealed plastic container and let it float out to sea.
You see, even if ePub had a larger installed base, it would still die off. And for the same reason apps that do nothing more than present print-like content will die off eventually, too.
You can’t link to them. And if you can’t link to it, it might as well not exist.
ePub has become an exercise in futility. It’s significance is as a symbol of a certain mind-set more than anything else. A mind-set that just can’t let go.
It’s very human and I don’t look down on it – I have self-deceptions that I cling to, too.
(But self-deceptions being what they are, they don’t let you know what it is you’re deceiving yourself about. And that’s very frustrating!)
But it is what it is. When I grow up, I wanna be an ePub developer!