Setting E-book Standards

Over my lifetime, technology has been one of the biggest changes through the two decades. So many different forms of cameras, televisions, computers, phones, etc. have came about and newer, updated versions are constantly put out. The newest version of the iPhone, iPhone 5, came out back in September. One device that has been new in the past few years are e-book readers, such as a Kindle. And along with that invention came electronic books called e-books which are publications that can be viewed on these e-book readers as well as on computers, tablets, and phones.

In the article “Web Standards for E-books”, Joe Clark talks about this new trend of e-books. An e-book is not a website but is distributed electronically. HTML is the format that is used for these e-books – ePub is the international E-book standard that is HTML.  Clark says that there are two problems that need to be solved if we want publishers’ code in E-books to be as good as standardistas’ code on actual websites. These two problems are semantics, which is the underlying code, and production methods, which are the stages of coding. It would work well if authors wrote books in HTML which could be easily imported in Microsoft Word and then into InDesign. But Clark says this is so optimistic that it’s ridiculous as authors won’t likely write in nor know how to write in HTML. It’s also important that content and structure be separated. CSS is the best way to style the E-book how you like. There are some tasks that CSS handles and then other tasks that the Reader software handles. Overall, structure for E-books are very important so never make it up as you go along!

I’m not sure I like how fast technology changes as it can be hard to keep up with the newest gadget or trend. I prefer to save my money; I’m the type of person that once I buy something, I use it for a very long time. While this idea of reading books on a e-book reader is convenient, I guess you could call me old-fashioned because I love having my own tangible books. I love that I can easily carry it with me, not worry about dropping and breaking it, and just enjoy the feeling of flipping the pages all the way through to the end of the story.

-k

Clark, Joe. (2010). Web Standards for E-books. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 302.  
          http://www.alistapart.com/articles/ebookstandards/