HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 4
Embedding HTML5 in EPUB
Thus far, we've built several HTML5 applications well suited to be embeded in ebooks.
Now we'll take a look at how to structure and embed this HTML5 content in an EPUB.
An EPUB document (both EPUB 2.01 and EPUB 3.0) is a
ZIP archive
comprising five
main components:
• A
mimetype
document containing the text
application/epub+zip
, which identifies
the document as an EPUB
• A set of HTML content documents and referenced media files that contain all the
book content
• A
Package Document
(often referred to as the OPF file), which contains a
<mani
fest
> that lists all the resources in the document and a
<spine>
that specifies the
proper sequencing of the HTML content
• A
META-INF
directory
containing a
container.xml
file
that identifies the location
of the Package Document and, optionally, an
encryption.xml
file
that holds en-
cryption info if your EPUB will contain DRM
• A Table of Contents document (in EPUB 2.01, a
NCX file
;
in EPUB 3, a
Navigation
A detailed discussion/tutorial on constructing EPUB documents is be-
yond the scope of this topic, but see
“Additional EPUB Resour-
ces” on page 43
at the end of the chapter for some great articles that
provide more guidance.
Embedding HTML5 content within an EPUB is done in the same fashion as any other
HTML content; just add the file to your EPUB zip, and reference it in the OPF file.
However, one important caveat is that many ereaders (most notably, iBooks) will not
successfully parse HTML5 content unless the standard XHTML namespace is included
on the
<html>
tag as follows:
