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No Party Line Department: For me, it’s ePub, darn it, and it’s the IDPF that needs to change
May 13, 2009 | 10:07 am
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By David Rothman
Big thanks to TeleRead Co-Editor Paul Biba for his coverage from the IDPF Digital Book 2009 gathering.
On one tiny little detail, however, I’ll respectfully disagree with him.
Paul, the International Digital Publishing Forum may tell you that EPUB is correct—all caps. And yes, I can see all caps for the name of the IDPF itself and for EPUB when used on the actual logo.
But if the IDPF wants to compete against the Kindle, it needs to woo consumers with something better-looking like ePub for use in print and on the screen. And how about ePUB for the logo?
Ugly, ugly, ugly
Frankly, EPUB looks ugly in print. Please—aesthetics and revenue ahead of a geekish or bureaucratic love of all caps. Not to badmouth geeks! Hey, lower-case works fine in UNIX.
That said, if Paul wants to use EPUB in his posts, sure—I understand. No party lines at TeleRead, copy editors be damned in this case.
A positive: ePub logo on the way
Meanwhile, kudos to the IDPF for saying that the creation of a logo for EPUB, er, ePub, will begin in a few weeks! Can’t wait to hear more details.
This is actually far, far more important than ePub vs EPUB. With the logo in place, for example, you’ll be able to confidently buy at least a nonencrypted ePub book and know it’ll display fine on a machine bearing a similar image. No, I’m not up to date on the DRM situation here. My own preference is for a trademarked logo to be usable only on nonencrypted books, though a compromise would be tolerable to make a logo possible.
Shown above is an unofficial ePub logo designed by Travis Alber of BookGlutton. Also see other possibilities from Actua Litte for both DRMed and nonDRMed books (good idea—making the distinction). I myself would prefer that the logo appear only on nonDRMed books, since, with proprietary DRM, ePub isn’t so pure a standard.
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Comments:
Heck, if you want aesthetics, you want better PR, you should be pressuring IDPF to give the standard a NAME! Other e-book formats, and for that matter, most other electronic document formats, are known by a name rather than an extension… Word… Acrobat… Mobipocket… Kindle… Sony… Palm… Photoshop… Excel…
Why, oh, why, are we sticking with “ePub”? Even “Open Book” is a better label than that! So is:
Open Doc
Open Text
Universal Doc
Free Doc
Tom
Dick
Harry
Kestral
Fozzy
Gonzo
Horseradish
Cow Seeds…
I’m a little concerned about a logo with the word Free as a key part of it. Sure, if you look closely you’ll see the DRM-Free, but at a glance, I think many will focus on the ‘free’ part and be disappointed when they’re asked to pay. Just because we don’t think DRM is an attractive solution to the problem of piracy doesn’t mean we think authors and publishers don’t deserve a chance to make a living.
Rob Preece
Publisher
Rob Preece is right, I put my hand to trying to design a DRM-free logo without the word “free”, I didn’t succeed in a pleasing result.
The other thing is it needs to be international, I tried a variety of simple open-lock logo and a crossed out DMR (which does not work – but perhaps DMR and an open-lock logo would work, I should try again).
I should mention that Travis Alber’s Epub logo is wonderful. The best I have seen, and so good that when I tried my hand at designing another, it kept moving towards what he had already done — a sure sign that it is a great design.
Alber’s Epub logo should become official (if he will allow it — it is great both in colour and b&w).
@Steve,
Errr. Let me see now;
Tom … ePub
Dick … EPUB
Fozzy … epub
Cow Seeds … ePUB
Now let’s see;
Email
Okay, so both email and epub are made up words nobody worries about using email to describe…well, emails.
PDF
Hmmm, isn’t PDF one of the most found document types on the web? And where’s the “name” for that – Portable Document Format..!?!
@David
I am tending toward using EPUB when using it in a technical sense, ePub when perhaps writing an more generic article about this particular eBook format, and epub (sometimes “.epub”) when talking about the files themselves.
I was hoping for a simple approach like:
open ePUB: http://quizzzz.com.sapo.pt/epub_open.png
closed ePUB: http://quizzzz.com.sapo.pt/epub_closed.png
Would loose strength if used in Black and white, but the color difference should make them obvious to purchasers after a while.
Greg and Mike…
G: Just to note that Travis is very much a she–and a valued TeleBlog contributor, not just a cofounder of BookGlutton.
M: In strictly technical writing, I can understand.
Thanks,
David
I agree with Rob and Greg: Let’s get an ePub logo first, then worry about how to designate it as DRM-free (a potential logo you can use with anything).
@Mike: So, okay, I wasn’t being totally serious with my prospective names. But the point still stands: Most electronic documents are known by a proper name, or the name of the primary app that creates them. Proper names can also have the benefit of achieving universal use status (An Ethiopian, say, may or may not know what an acrobat is, but he knows what an Acrobat file does).
E-mail is a name for a generic electronic mail document that is handled by many different applications. It is closer to “e-book” than to “ePub,” which is a specific format of the generic “e-book.”
Harry … EpuB
That leaves Kestral…
My apologies to Travis, to Australian ears it sounds like a classic male name, but now I see my error.
In the future I will try and stick to the cambridge rule and use a plural pronoun, unless I definately know someone’s sex.
Problem is, of course, based on nothing but a name, I thought I did, so my vow will probably be inneffective.
Mark Twain (paraphrased)
“It ain’t what we don’t know that is a problem, but what we do know, but ain’t so.”