Slide for the epub presentation as part of the Coding Day celebration at Emerson College, September 15, 2012.

1. Making an EPUB file

2. Professional Workflow

3. Personal Workflow

4. Opening the EPUB
• mimetype
• META-INF
• OEBPS/ Content

5. EPUB is a package
masquerading as
a file format.
-Bill Kasdorf, APEX content solutions

6. mimetype
• Text file
• Contents of file:
application/ePub+zip
• Defines the media type as
Open Container Format (OCF)

7. META-INF
• Contains the container.xml file
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<container version="1.0"
xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:contain
er">
<rootfiles>
<rootfile full-path=”OEBPS/content.opf" media-
type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>
</rootfiles>
</container>

8. META-INF
• Optional files:
– encryption.xml
– signature.xml
– rights.xml
– manifest.xml
– metadata.xml

9. OEBPS/ Content
• Contains all viewable documents
(XHTML & .jpg) and stylesheets (CSS)
• Contains the .opf file
• Contains the . ncx file (replaced in
EPUB3 with a simplified toc.html file,
but only for EPUB3 devices)

11. .ncx file

14. Finishing the File
• Once all files are created they and added to
the appropriate files, you will need to rezip
the files.
• Every file but the mimetype gets zipped
(mimetype must be read first).
• You can do this through the command line/
terminal, script, or through an Epub
program like Calibre.
• Once zipped, you need to validate.

15. Validation
• Like all mark-up languages, EPUB needs to
be validated.
• It will pick up errors in ncx opf and html
files.
• It will alert missing or miscapitalized files.
• Use EPUB Check available from Google
code or Safari.

16. Free Tools
• Coding
– Notepad++ (PC)
– TextWrangler (MAC)
– iBooks author (MAC)
• Creating/ Zipping
– Sigil
– Calibre
– ePub Zip from MobileRead
• Quality Checking
– Adobe Digital Editions
– EpubCheck
– Kindle Direct: Gen & Previewer

17. Resources
• Twitter: #eprdctn
• Liz Castro
– EPUB Straight to the Point
– Pigs, Gourds, & Wikis
• Mobile Reads Forum
• IDPF
• DefectivebyDesign.org