RE: HTML in EPUB 3.4 (was: Publishing Maintenance WG Teleconference - April 24 2025)

We’ve used surveys in the past to collect feedback beyond this group on major changes (metadata and custom elements in 3.1, for example). It also helps draw attention to what we’re doing even if people don’t submit a response. Maybe we should try the same to gauge how it will impact processes and what the community tolerance to adapt is, and get it out to as many groups and lists as we can.

 

Matt

 

From: Laurent Le Meur <laurent.lemeur@edrlab.org> 
Sent: April 24, 2025 3:31 AM
To: Gregorio Pellegrino - Fondazione Lia <gregorio.pellegrino@fondazionelia.org>; public-pm-wg@w3.org
Subject: Re: HTML in EPUB 3.4 (was: Publishing Maintenance WG Teleconference - April 24 2025)

 

Just a warning: I asked the developer of FBReader - one of our members - for his opinion on this evolution. His answer is in brief: 

 

"That's a major change that will require significant additional effort on our end. So we will not be happy. However, I think it's not an absolute nightmare for us." 

 

Note: FBReader does not use a Web view for rendering EPUB. It uses an XML format internally, not HTML. It also provides basic support for plain HTML files through a separate mechanism. Therefore, it must port some modern features from the XML parser to the HTML parser.

 

Conclusion: It is a logical move, but we must communicate extensively and in advance (at least 1 year) so that reading system developers can prepare for that evolution. 

 

Best regards

Laurent LE MEUR / EDRLab

 

<< Attend the Digital Publishing Summit, 16-17 June 2025, Dublin - https://www.edrlab.org/events/digital-publishing-summit-2025/ >>







Le 24 avr. 2025 à 09:15, Gregorio Pellegrino - Fondazione LIA <gregorio.pellegrino@fondazionelia.org <mailto:gregorio.pellegrino@fondazionelia.org> > a écrit :

 

Very interesting. I did some quick tests with the HTML-EPUB. It seems that the reading solutions read it without problems, while the supply chain tools (EPUBCheck, Ace, etc.) generate blocking errors.

 

This confirms what was discussed earlier: this change to the specification mainly impacts the supply chain (where many tools based on XML technologies are present), than the reading solutions, which in many cases are able to read HTML without problems.

 

In the meantime, I send the regrets for today: I am at the IAAP Europe conference in Brno and during the meeting time I have to moderate a panel discussion 😊

 

Gregorio

 

Da: Toshiaki Koike <koike@voyager.co.jp <mailto:koike@voyager.co.jp> >
Data: giovedì, 24 aprile 2025 alle ore 05:34
A: public-pm-wg@w3.org <mailto:public-pm-wg@w3.org>  <public-pm-wg@w3.org <mailto:public-pm-wg@w3.org> >
Oggetto: Re: [AGENDA] Publishing Maintenance WG Teleconference - April 24 2025

Hi all,

 

I have created a script to experimentally convert existing XHTML-based EPUB 3 files to HTML-based EPUB 3. Using this script, I converted a Japanese EPUB 3 sample into an HTML-based sample.

As expected, EPUBCheck v5.2.1 reports errors for this file.

 

 <https://github.com/toshiakikoike/html-based-epub-experimental> https://github.com/toshiakikoike/html-based-epub-experimental