EPUB Specifications and Projects

12 February 2019

EPUB® is the distribution and interchange format standard for digital publications and documents based on Web Standards. EPUB defines a means of representing, packaging and encoding structured and semantically enhanced Web content – including XHTML, CSS, SVG, images, and other resources – for distribution in a single-file format.

The current version of EPUB is EPUB 3.0.1

For more information about this version, see the description below.

Current Activity

Under Development

Name Status Next Milestone Contact
EPUB 3.2 W3C Community Group Report W3C EPUB 3 Community Group
EPUB for Education Draft Specification TBD W3C EPUB 3 Community Group
Distributable Objects Draft Specification TBD W3C EPUB 3 Community Group
Scriptable Components Draft Specification TBD W3C EPUB 3 Community Group
Open Annotation in EPUB Draft Specification TBD W3C EPUB 3 Community Group

All Specifications

EPUB 3.2


EPUB 3.2 is the second major revision of EPUB 3.

Core Specifications

Core Modules

Vocabularies

Prefixes

Registries

Projects

EPUB 3.1

Due to the change in the package document version number introduced in this revision, production of EPUB Publications that conform to this specification is strongly discouraged.

Until the release of EPUB 3.2, implementers are advised to consider EPUB 3.0.1 as the current version of the specification.


Core Specifications

EPUB 3.0.1


EPUB 3.0.1 is a minor maintenance update to EPUB 3.0. On June 26, 2014 the IDPF announced that the IDPF membership had overwhelmingly approved elevation of EPUB 3.0.1 to final Recommended Specification status.

Core Specifications

EPUB 3.0


EPUB 3 was developed pursuant to a charter approved by the IDPF Membership in May, 2010. EPUB 3.0 was approved by the IDPF membership as a final Recommended Specification effective October 11, 2011, and superseded the previous release, EPUB 2.0.1.

As of as of June, 2014, EPUB 3.0 has been superseded by EPUB 3.0.1, which is now the current version of the EPUB standard.

Core Specifications

Core Modules

Books

In collaboration with O'Reilly, guides to best practices for creating EPUB content.

EPUB 2.0.1

  • Specification:
    See below
  • Status:
    Recommended Specification
  • Date Published:
    2010-09-04
  • Charter:
    -
  • Superseded by:
    EPUB 3.0

EPUB 2.0.1 is a maintenance release of EPUB 2. Its development was chartered in 2009, and the final standard was approved by the IDPF Membership as a Recommended Specification in May, 2010.

EPUB 2.0.1 was superseded by EPUB 3.0 in October, 2011. As of June 2014, the latest released version of EPUB is EPUB 3.0.1. EPUB 2.x is now considered obsolete and is no longer under active maintenance.

Core Specifications

EPUB Accessibility


Addresses discovery and production requirements for accessible EPUB Publications.

Adaptive Layout


CSS Page Templates - allowing content to be formatted into a sequence of richly-designed reflowable pages.

Alternate Style Tags


Defines a pattern for tagging alternate style sheets using a microformat.

EPUB Canonical Fragment Identifiers


Defines a standardized method for referencing arbitrary content within an EPUB Publication through the use of fragment identifiers.

Dictionaries and Glossaries


Defines a content model for the representation of dictionaries and glossaries in EPUB documents.

Distributable Objects


Defines a method for the encapsulation, transportation, and integration of Distributable Objects in EPUB Publications.

Fixed Layouts


Interoperable metadata expressions for fixed-layout EPUB documents.

EPUB for Education


Profile of EPUB 3 to standardize educational publishing.

Indexes


Defines a content model for the representation of indexes in EPUB documents.

Multiple Renditions


Defines attributes and metadata for the inclusion of more than one Rendition of an EPUB Publication in the ZIP container, as well as a mechanism for mapping locations between Renditions.

Open Annotation


Defines how to apply Open Annotations in the context of EPUB, thereby enabling users and service providers to utilize a non-proprietary representation of annotation data.

Previews


Defines two models for preview content: as a standalone preview EPUB Publication and as a collection embedded within the parent EPUB Publication.

Region-Based Navigation


Defines a method for defining visual regions of interest on fixed-layout pages and a new default navigation model for Reading Systems to navigate between them.

Scriptable Components


Packaging and integration of widgets in EPUB, and an API for communication between dynamic scripted components.

Guides