e-Book File Formats for Enterprise Content


e-Book File Formats for Enterprise Content










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e-Book File Formats
for Enterprise Content

by Nancy Nicolaisen

Copyright 2012, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00021198

Publication Date: 1202

Report Type: TUTORIAL

Preview

Distinguishing characteristics of an enterprise quality e-book format include availability of professional tools for design and formatting of content and significant adoption of the format by content publishers and hardware vendors. Of the literally dozens of extant e-book file formats, only a handful stand out as serviceable choices for enterprise content publishers.

Report Contents:

Executive Summary

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It is a tumultuous time for e-book content producers, both because technology is rapidly evolving and because
e-book consumer culture is still in its infancy.

This notwithstanding, E-readers are positioned to take off as enterprise content publishing platforms. E-readers are comparatively low cost and easy to manage. They provide a good user experience in any ambient light condition and have very long battery life between charges. Given these advantages, they are likely to become the platform of choice for publishing enterprise content targeted to both employees and customers..

E-reader content must be formatted as reflowable, which allows it to be dynamically adjusted to display well on a variety of device form factors and screen types.

In choosing a format for enterprise e-book content, there are two strategic questions that must be considered:

  • Which formats will promote the greatest audience confederation?
  • Which formats are supported by the most innovative and robust authoring and lifecycle tools?

In every case, the answers are influenced by an enterprise’s circumstances and objectives, and well informed IT and content managers may end up making very different choices.  Even so, the short list of e-reader content format contenders for enterprise
e-book publishing would have to include these:

  • Amazon Kindle AZW is a proprietary format specific to Amazon’s line of Kindle devices, which at this point decisively dominate the consumer space.

  • Adobe PDF/A (for Portable Document Format / Archival) is Adobe’s ISO Standard document format for indefinitely accessible content. PDF/A applies fairly severe restrictions to what may and may not be embedded in content. For example, PDF/A format
    e-book content may not include audio or video.

  • EPUB3 is the most recent version of the International Digital Publishing Forum’s EPUB Standard. Now in its third generation, this standard has been developed collaboratively by players in global publishing, technology and academia and uses open standards based technologies.

  • Apple’s iBooks Format and iBooks Author: Used together, Apple’s iBooks Authoring tool and iPad’s iBook e reader app provide content designers (even those with a minimum of technical expertise) the ability to rapidly create dazzling products. However, certain provisions of the iBooks Authoring end user license introduce concerns about control over content publishing rights.

Description

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E-readers are positioned to take off as enterprise content publishing platforms in the short term because they offer unique value propositions to enterprise content producers. In many respects, they are uncomplicated targets: Essentially single purpose devices, solution designers see their long battery life as an opportunity to dramatically expand mobile use case scenarios; From a publisher’s point of view, they are a low risk platform, much more forgiving than physical print media, and much more accessible than the web. From an enterprise IT perspective, e-readers are comparatively easy to manage, present negligible security vulnerability and have an over all low TCO. From a user’s perspective they are convenient and ( at least in e-paper versions) provide a good user experience in any ambient light condition. For all of these reasons, e-readers may well become the platform of choice for publishing internal documentation and field maintenance information, but also customer engagement material like catalogues, coupons and the like.

In contrast to other forms of content, e-book files are formatted to be reflowable, which means that they can be dynamically adjusted to display well on a variety of device form factors and screen types. This is a key consideration, because while Amazon’s Kindle currently holds something on the order of 40% of the dedicated e-reader market, a broad variety of devices are capable of hosting e-books: Smartphone screens are getting bigger and tablet adoption is ramping up. Both will offer important e-book content consumer populations. At the same time, among dedicated e-readers, there are a variety of display technologies from black and white e-paper to full color LCD screens.

Given the dizzying array of potential platforms for e-book publishing, it is not surprising that the e-book file format space is similarly noisy and tumultuous. Almost anything that can encode display on a screen has, at some time and place, been offered up as an e-book content container. However, for purposes of e-book formats promising for enterprise application, it is useful to limit consideration to formats which, at a minimum, offer these features:

  • Reflowable content
  • Support for both bitmap and vector graphics
  • Embedded metadata
  • Support for Digital Rights Management
  • Support for XML, CSS, or other customization tools
  • Support for alternative renderings in a single file

These restrictions don’t rule out much, but they do serve to draw a definite line between e-book formatted files and ordinary word processing or HTML files. This is key, because a number of inexpensive third party transliteration vendors offer tools and/or services which purport to make e-books out of other content types with ‘the press of a mouse button’. This approach is very unlikely to produce a credible result except in the simplest case.

Current View

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Distinguishing characteristics of an enterprise ready format include availability of professional quality tools for design and formatting of content, significant adoption by content publishers and hardware vendors and stable, robust vendors ( or for open source formatting tools, communities of support,). Of the literally dozens of extant e-book file formats, a handful stand out as serviceable choices for enterprise content publishers.

Enterprise Ready e-Book Formats

Amazon Kindle AZW is a proprietary format specific to Amazon’s line of Kindle devices, which at this point decisively dominate the consumer space.
e-books destined for AZW don’t have to be authored in this format. Rather, they are typically generated from Microsoft word documents saved as filtered HTML. In fact, any HTML composition system may be used for AZW content creation if certain restrictions are observed. One example: The AZW format doesn’t support HTML documents that include frames. ( Frames can interfere with page layout and display for some readers.) AZW content may also be generated from Adobe PDF sources, but in this case, it is more likely that file format conversion will degrade the appearance of the content. AZW provides for Digital Rights Management (DRM) locks, offering authors a (weak) defense against intellectual property theft.

Adobe PDF/A is Adobe’s ISO Standard document format for content that must remain accessible indefinitely. For this reason, PDF/A ( for Portable Document Format / Archivable ) is a subset of the larger PDF format, and omits several capabilities that might tend to render content inaccessible over time. For example, it may not include audio or video content, does not support Javascript or encryption, and can contain only fonts which are legal for unrestricted embedding and distribution. Colors used must be device independent and external content reference is not allowed. PDF/A is a good choice for recording information that must or can remain absolutely static.

EPUB3 is the most recent version of the International Digital Publishing Forum’s EPUB Standard. Now in its third generation, this standard has been developed collaboratively by players in global publishing, technology and academia. EPUB is based on W3C standard technologies including CSS, XHTML and others. Broad support for the standard has developed for a pair of good reasons: First, a global lingua franca for publishing could do much to promote civil liberties, education and other elements of the common good; Second, in the battle to curtail wholesale intellectual property theft, it would be advantageous to forestall the development walled gardens of content.

Apple’s iBooks Format and iBooks Author: This is one instance where the choice of e-book file format and its associate authoring tools must be considered together, because they could have profound implications for enterprise content. On the one hand, using Apple’s iBooks Authoring tool to target iPad as a reader provides content designers (even those with a minimum of technical expertise) the ability to rapidly create dazzling products. However, this content format should be considered entirely proprietary and not easily transferable to any other device. In addition, provisions of the iBooks Authoring end user license introduce some issues about control over the publishing of content with which many enterprise content managers may not be comfortable.

Enterprise Capable e-Book Publishing Tools

e-Book file formats don’t exist in a vacuum; They are an element of the larger ePublishing ecology, in which many layers of technology interpose themselves between content publishers and consumers. Much of that is beyond the scope of this treatment. However, there is one feature of the landscape that is key to any estimation of which
e-book formats will emerge as significant enterprise tools and technologies, how soon, and why:
e-book authoring tools.

The ability to predict and control exactly how content is transliterated from authoring software to device ready formats is critical to successful enterprise
e-book exploitation. Here are three e-book authoring and distribution toolsets that will be key for enterprise applications:

Adobe InDesign and Digital Editions: This is a professional quality suite of tools which support the generation of PDF, EPUB3, AZW and iBook formats. It also provides an end-to-end facility for distributing device independent content to consumers.

Amazon’s KindleGen and Kindle Plug In for Adobe In Design: These tools are free and relatively straight forward. They accept Word, EPUB or HTML input and render AZW transliterations. Coupled with Amazon’s distribution system, the offer a turn-key approach to publishing Kindle targeting content. Amazon, like Apple, exercises some control over content it hosts and distributes, which could be a deal breaker for some applications.

Apple’s iBooks Author: As of February 2012, difficult questions remained unanswered about control of content distribution for material authored using iBooks Author. The initial version of the End User License Agreement provoked howls of outrage from e-book open standards proponents and many content publishers, seeming to imply Apple could retain an ownership interest in content created using iBooks Author. The company later took a small step back from the original broad language, but valid questions definitely remain in the case of content distributed in Apple’s iBook file formats. What all this might mean for an enterprise that chooses to use the .ibook format is unclear at this time.

Outlook

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It is a tumultuous time for e-book media, both because technology is rapidly evolving and because
e-book consumer culture is still in its infancy. Several trends seem poised to influence the shape of
e-book media and its opportunities in the near term:

  • Shifting Approaches to Digital Rights Management: While it sounds good- using encrypting and lock schemes to safeguard authors and intellectual property against theft—DRM has in fact proved itself to be little more than a headache for legitimate consumers and a way for vendors to impound customers. Dissatisfaction with the current state of DRM is so widespread, and it is so easy to defeat, that there will certainly be a massive reworking of current implementations.

  • Emergence Of Third Party Transliteration Services: Expect to see massive transliteration of informational, training and maintenance content from the web to e reader formats. eReader staging can dramatically lower TCO for inventories of mostly static content, provide better user experiences and improve support for mobile workers of all types. There is a strong business case for outsourcing the job of one time conversion and republication of existing reference content.

  • Market Consolidation Around a Handful of Strong Reader Platforms: Expect to see the market winnow out all but a couple of dedicated e readers; iPad will continue to be dominant in the tablet niche.

  • New Forms Of Customer Engagement: eReaders are a logical target for customer engagement experiences like catalogs, detailed sale flyers, and the like. They can support engagement experiences that combine all of the best features of print and web based marketing and live on devices that spend large amounts of time at the fingertips of the user. Expect to see growth of e reader hosted, individualized marketing content.

Recommendations

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Two Strategies: Choose a Single Device or Keep Your Options Open: In the real world, e-reader file formats aren’t very portable and aren’t interoperable. This doesn’t mean that there is no means of translating them between devices, but on the other hand, that process is not always fast, straightforward or completely predictable. Given this state of the technology, there are two basic approaches: Stick with one device type, understand the limitations and risks it imposes, and standardize on it to contain development, maintenance and management costs. Alternatively, choose a highly portable
e-book format ( like PDF/A) accept some content limitations, but retain a lot of flexibility in where and how content can be distributed.

Assume Rapid Device Evolution: Mobile personal devices are undergoing extremely rapid evolution and convergence. Expect to see this exert dramatic impacts on e reader market dynamics in two ways: First, the low end will commoditize. Expect to see free e readers, given as consumer incentives, much in the way mobile phones are "free" with wireless carrier plan contracts; Second, many more devices will become creditable e readers—think mobile gaming devices, smartphones and Android tablets. These platforms will be able to host much richer, more interactive content than low end e readers do today. Powerful e reader platforms will drive the evolution of ‘e-books’ as a medium, ultimately resulting in highly immersive user experiences.

Prepare to Support Field and Maintenance Workers With eReader Based Documentation: E Reader technology is truly disruptive in this application, and will rapidly drive migration from traditional print. At scale, it is far cheaper than paper. Because E paper displays are readable in daylight and glare, they are a vastly better "use anywhere " solution than tablets with LCD screens. They are also much less expensive, offer longer battery life and lower TCO. Expect to
e-books supplant paper technical documentation and educational content within a couple of years.

References

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About the Author

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Nancy Nicolaisen is the author of several books on software engineering and specializes in the design and creation of small device based mobile solutions.

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