Re: Thoughts on rechartering and the future of publications on the web

Bobby,


> It might be easy to test EPUB 3.2 standard on reading system developed by
> global vendor. But  it's not easy for local vendor those who developed
> their own reading system to support EPUB 3.2 without a reasonable road map.
> In Japan, EBPAJ's template and authoring guide do not cover "HTML based
> Fixed Layout" and media overlay function. In Taiwan, I'm working on a
> project followed EBPAJ's template to let publisher raise the bar of quality
> of digital publications.
> I'll try to get publishers' feedback with TDPF in Taiwan on a
> conference next month.
>
> It may not easy to get consensus within Japanese publishers and ebook
> vendors, I'd like to know Murata-san's comment on this.
>

It is true that the EBPAJ profile does not allow CSS-based
HTML fixed layout.  Interoperability of such CSS-based
HTML fixed layout is not at all great.  It is probably
worse than in North America or Europe, because
some EPUB RSs in Japan are not based on webkit
or other browser engines, and also because we
might have both vertical writing and horizontal writing
within a single book.

Then, what do publishers do when a book requires complicated
layout?  In my understanding, they use images or PDF files.
PDF files may be wrapped by EPUB.  For accessiblity reasons,
I am not happy.

Regards,
Makoto