EPUB 3.3

W3C Editor's Draft

More details about this document
This version:
https://w3c.github.io/epub-specs/epub33/core/
Latest published version:
https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-33/
Latest editor's draft:
https://w3c.github.io/epub-specs/epub33/core/
History:
https://www.w3.org/standards/history/epub-33
Commit history
Test suite:
https://w3c.github.io/epub-tests/index.html
Editors:
Matt Garrish ( DAISY Consortium )
Ivan Herman ( W3C )
Dave Cramer ( Invited Expert )
Former editors:
Garth Conboy ( Google )
Marisa DeMeglio ( DAISY Consortium )
Daniel Weck ( DAISY Consortium )
Feedback:
GitHub w3c/epub-specs ( pull requests , new issue , open issues )
public-epub-wg@w3.org with subject line [epub-33] … message topic … ( archives )

Copyright © 1999-2022 W3C ® ( MIT , ERCIM , Keio , Beihang ). W3C liability , trademark and permissive document license rules apply.

Abstract

EPUB® 3 defines a distribution and interchange format for digital publications and documents. The EPUB format provides a means of representing, packaging, and encoding structured and semantically enhanced web content — including HTML, CSS, SVG, and other resources — for distribution in a single-file container.

This specification defines the authoring requirements for EPUB Publications and represents the third major revision of the standard.

Status of This Document

This is a preview

Do not attempt to implement this version of the specification. Do not reference this version as authoritative in any way. Instead, see https://w3c.github.io/epub-specs/epub33/core/ for the Editor's draft.

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.

This document was published by the EPUB 3 Working Group as an Editor's Draft.

Publication as an Editor's Draft does not imply endorsement by W3C and its Members.

This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the W3C Patent Policy . W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy .

This document is governed by the 2 November 2021 W3C Process Document .

1. Introduction

1.1 Overview

This section is non-normative.

EPUB 3 has been widely adopted as the format for digital books (ebooks), and this revision continues to increase the format's capabilities to better support a wider range of publication requirements, including complex layouts, rich media and interactivity, and global typography features. The expectation is that publishers will utilize the EPUB 3 format for a broad range of content, including books, magazines, and educational, professional, and scientific publications.

This specification represents the core of EPUB 3 and includes the conformance requirements for EPUB Publications — the product of the standard. The other specifications that comprise EPUB 3 are as follows:

These specifications represent the formal list recognized as belonging to EPUB 3 and that contain functionality normatively referenced as part of the standard. The development of extension specifications periodically adds new functionality to EPUB Publications. Features and functionality defined outside of core revisions to the standard, while not formally recognized in this specification, are nonetheless available for EPUB Creators and Reading System developers to use.

The informative EPUB 3 Overview [ EPUB-OVERVIEW-33 ] provides a general introduction to EPUB 3. A list of technical changes from the previous version is also available in the change log .

1.2 Organization

This section is non-normative.

This section reviews the organization of the EPUB specifications through the central product they define: the EPUB Publication .

An EPUB Publication is typically represented by a single Package Document . This document includes metadata used by Reading Systems to present the content to the user, such as the title and author for display in a bookshelf as well as rendering metadata (e.g., whether the content is reflowable or has a fixed layout). It also provides a manifest of resources and includes a spine that lists the default sequence in which to render documents as a user progresses through the content. Refer to 2.3 Package Document for the requirements for the Package Document.

An EPUB Publication also includes another key file called the EPUB Navigation Document . This document provides critical navigation capabilities, such as the table of contents, that allow users to navigate the content quickly and easily. Refer to 4. EPUB Navigation Document for more information about this document.

The actual content of an EPUB Publication  what users are presented with when they begin reading  is built on the Open Web Platform and comes in two flavors: XHTML and SVG . Called EPUB Content Documents , these documents typically reference many additional resources required for their proper rendering, such as images, audio and video clips, scripts, and style sheets.

Refer to 3. EPUB Content Documents for detailed information about the rules and requirements to produce EPUB Content Documents, and [ EPUB-A11Y-11 ] for accessibility requirements.

Media Overlay Documents complement EPUB Content Documents. They provide declarative markup for synchronizing the text in EPUB Content Documents with prerecorded audio. The result is the ability to create a read-aloud experience where Reading Systems highlight the text as it is narrated. Refer to 7. Media Overlays for the definition of Media Overlay Documents.

A ZIP-based archive with the file extension .epub bundles the EPUB Publication's resources for distribution. As conformant ZIP archives, EPUB Publications can be unzipped by many software programs, simplifying both their production and consumption.

The container format not only provides a means of determining that the zipped content represents an EPUB Publication (the mimetype file), but also provides a universally named directory of informative resources ( /META-INF ). Key among these resources is the container.xml file, which directs Reading Systems to the available Package Documents. Refer to 6. Open Container Format for more information about the Container format.

While conceptually simple, an EPUB Publication is more than just a collection of HTML pages and dependent assets in a ZIP package as presented here. Additional information about the primary features and functionality that EPUB Publications provide to enhance the reading experience is available from the referenced specifications, and a more general introduction to the features of EPUB 3 is provided in the informative [ EPUB-OVERVIEW-33 ].

Refer to [ EPUB-RS-33 ] for the processing requirements for Reading Systems. Although it is not necessary that EPUB Creators read that document to create EPUB Publications, an understanding of how Reading Systems present the content can help craft publications for optimal presentation to users.

1.3 Relationship to Other Specifications

This section is non-normative.

1.3.1 Relationship to HTML

The [ HTML ] standard is continuously evolving  there are no longer versioned releases of it. That standard, in turn, references various technologies that continue to evolve, such as MathML, SVG, CSS, and JavaScript.

The benefit of this approach for EPUB is that EPUB Publications always keep pace with changes to the web without the need for new revisions. EPUB Creators , however, must keep track of the various changes to HTML and the technologies it references to ensure they keep their processes up to date.

Caution

As HTML evolves, it is possible that previously valid features may become obsolete or be removed. In general, however, the removal of features typically only occurs when serious issues arise with them (e.g., lack of support in browsers, security issues).

The XHTML profile defined by this specification inherits all definitions of semantics, structure and processing behaviors from HTML unless otherwise specified.

In addition, this specification defines a set of extensions to the [ HTML ] document model that EPUB Creators may include in XHTML Content Documents .

1.3.2 Relationship to SVG

This specification does not reference a specific version of [ SVG ], but instead uses an undated reference. Whenever there is any ambiguity in this reference, the latest recommended specification is the authoritative reference.

This approach ensures that EPUB will always keep pace with changes to the SVG standard. EPUB Creators , however, must keep track of changes to the SVG standard to ensure they keep their processes up to date.

Caution

As SVG evolves, previously valid features may become obsolete or be removed. The Working Group anticipates the W3C will make any such changes carefully to ensure minimal disruption, but in the case of a backwards-incompatible revision the Working Group could revisit the use of an undated reference.

1.3.3 Relationship to CSS

EPUB 3 supports CSS as defined by the CSS Working Group Snapshot [ CSSSnapshot ]. EPUB 3 also maintains some prefixed CSS properties, to ensure consistent support for global languages.

1.3.4 Relationship to SMIL

This specification relies on a subset of [ SMIL3 ], from which the Media Overlays elements and attributes defined in 7.2.2 Media Overlay Document Definition are derived.

1.3.5 Relationship to URL

This specification refers to the [ URL ] standard for terminology and processing related to URLs expressed in EPUB Publications. It is anticipated that new and revised web formats will adopt this standard, but until then this may put this specification in conflict with the internal requirements for some formats (e.g., valid relative paths), specifically with respect to the use of internationalized URLs. If a format does not allow internationalized URLs (i.e., URLs must conform to [ RFC3986 ] or earlier), that requirement takes precedence within those resources.

1.4 Terminology

This specification defines the following terms specific to EPUB 3. They appear capitalized wherever used.

Only the first instance of a term in a section links to its definition.

Codec

Codec refers to content that has intrinsic binary format qualities, such as video and audio media types designed for optimum compression or that provide optimized streaming capabilities.

Container Root URL

The URL � [ URL ] of the Root Directory representing the OCF Abstract Container . It is implementation specific, but EPUB Creators must assume it has properties defined in 6.1.5 URLs in the OCF Abstract Container .

Content URL

The URL of a file or directory in the OCF Abstract Container , defined in 6.1.5 URLs in the OCF Abstract Container .

Core Media Type Resource

A Publication Resource that conforms to one of the MIME media types [ RFC2046 ] listed in 2.2.2 Core Media Types and, therefore, does not require the provision of a fallback (cf. Foreign Resource ).

The designation "Core Media Type Resource" only applies when a resource is used in the rendering of EPUB Content Documents and Foreign Content Documents . A Core Media Type Resource cannot be used in the spine , for example, without a fallback unless it also has the media type of an EPUB Content Document.

EPUB Container
OCF ZIP Container

The ZIP-based packaging and distribution format for EPUB Publications defined in 6.2 OCF ZIP Container .

EPUB Container and OCF ZIP Container are synonymous.

EPUB Content Document

A Publication Resource with an referenced from the spine or a manifest fallback chain that conforms to either the XHTML or SVG media type that contains Content Document definitions.

EPUB Content Documents contain all or part of the content of an EPUB Publication (i.e., the textual, visual and/or audio content). These resources must conform to their respective XHTML or SVG definitions to be used in the spine or be referenced from another EPUB Content Document.

An EPUB Content Document is a Core Media Type Resource , so EPUB Creators can include it EPUB Content Documents in the spine without the provision of fallbacks .

EPUB Creator

The person(s) or organization responsible for the creation of an EPUB Publication .

Depending on the process used to produce EPUB Publications, EPUB Creator may sometimes refer to responsibilities of the organization (e.g., the publisher) or the individuals preparing the publication (e.g., technical editors).

Note

Previous versions of this specification referred to the EPUB Creator as the Author .

EPUB Navigation Document

A specialization of the XHTML Content Document that contains human- and machine-readable global navigation information. The EPUB Navigation Document conforms to the constraints expressed in 4. EPUB Navigation Document .

EPUB Publication

A logical document entity consisting of a set of interrelated resources packaged in an EPUB Container .

An EPUB Publication typically represents a single intellectual or artistic work, but this specification does not restrict the nature of the content.

EPUB Reading System (or Reading System)

A system that processes EPUB Publications for presentation to a user in a manner conformant with this specification.

EPUB Conformance Checker

An application that verifies the requirements of this specification against EPUB Publications and reports on their conformance.

Exempt Resource

Exempt Resources are a special class of Publication Resources that Reading Systems are not required to support the rendering of, but EPUB Creators do not have to provide fallbacks for.

Refer to 2.2.4 Exempt Resources for more information.

File Name

The name of any type of file within an OCF Abstract Container , whether a directory or a file within a directory.

File Path

The File Path of a file or directory is its full path relative to the root directory, as defined by the algorithm specified in 6.1.4 Deriving File Paths .

Fixed-Layout Document

An EPUB Content Document with fixed dimensions directly referenced from the spine . Fixed-Layout Documents are designated pre-paginated in the Package Document , as defined in 5.2 Fixed Layouts .

Foreign Resource Content Document

A Any Publication Resource referenced from a spine itemref element , or a manifest fallback chain , that is not an EPUB Content Document .

When a Foreign Content Document is referenced from a spine itemref element, it requires a manifest fallback chain with at least one EPUB Content Document.

Note

With the exception of XHTML and SVG, all Core Media Type Resources are Foreign Content Documents when referenced directly from the spine.

Foreign Resource

A Publication Resource with a MIME media type [ RFC2046 ] that does not match any of those listed in 2.2.2 Core Media Types . Foreign Resources are subject to the fallback requirements defined in 2.2.1.3 2.2.3 Foreign Resources .

The designation "Foreign Resource" only applies to resources used in the rendering of EPUB Content Documents and Foreign Content Documents .

Note

Foreign Resource and Foreign Content Document are not interchangeable terms. The types of resources considered foreign when used in the spine is greater than the types of resources considered foreign when used in Content Documents .

Linked Resource

A resource that is only referenced from a Package Document link element (i.e., not also used in the rendering of an EPUB Publication .

Linked Resources are not Publication Resources but may be stored in the EPUB Container . They do not require fallbacks.

Local Resource

A resource that is located inside the EPUB Container .

Refer to 2.2.2 2.2.6 Resource Locations for media type specific rules for resource locations.

Manifest

The section of the Package Document that lists the Publication Resources .

Refer to 2.3.6.1 The manifest Element for more information.

Media Overlay Document

An XML document that associates the XHTML Content Document with pre-recorded audio narration to provide a synchronized playback experience, as defined in 7. Media Overlays .

Non-Codec

Non-Codec refers to content types that benefit from compression due to the nature of their internal data structure, such as file formats based on character strings (for example, HTML, CSS, etc.).

OCF Abstract Container

The OCF Abstract Container defines a file system model for the contents of the OCF ZIP Container , as defined in 6.1 OCF Abstract Container .

Package Document

A Publication Resource that describes the rendering of an EPUB Publication , as defined in 2.3 Package Document . The Package Document carries meta information about the EPUB Publication, provides a manifest of resources and defines a default reading order.

Publication Resource

A resource that contains content or instructions that contribute to the logic and rendering of an EPUB Publication . In the absence of this resource, Reading Systems may not render the EPUB Publication as the EPUB Creator intends. Examples of Publication Resources include the Package Document , EPUB Content Document , CSS Style Sheets, audio, video, images, embedded fonts, and scripts.

EPUB Creators typically list Publication Resources in the Package Document manifest and bundle them in the EPUB Container , with the following exceptions:

Examples of resources that are not Publication Resources include those identified in Package Document link elements and those identified in outbound hyperlinks that resolve to Remote Resources (e.g., referenced from the href attribute of an [ HTML ] a element ).

Remote Resource

A resource that is located outside of the EPUB Container , typically, but not necessarily, online.

Refer to 2.2.2 2.2.6 Resource Locations for media type specific rules for resource locations.

Root Directory

The root directory represents the base of the OCF Abstract Container file system. This directory is virtual in nature .

Scripted Content Document

An EPUB Content Document that includes scripting or an XHTML Content Document that contains [ HTML ] forms .

Refer to 3.3.2 Scripting for more information.

Spine

An ordered list The section of Publication Resources in the Package Document , typically that defines an ordered list of EPUB Content Documents , that represent and Foreign Content Documents . This list represents the default reading order. order of the EPUB Publication .

Refer to 2.3.7.1 The spine Element for more information.

SVG Content Document

An EPUB Content Document that conforms to the constraints expressed in 3.2 SVG Content Documents .

Synthetic Spread

The rendering of two adjacent pages simultaneously on a device screen.

Top-level Content Document

An EPUB Content Document or Foreign Content Document referenced from the spine , whether directly or via a fallback chain .

Unique Identifier

The primary identifier for an EPUB Publication . The Unique Identifier is the value of the dc:identifier element specified by the unique-identifier attribute in the Package Document .

Significant revision, abridgement, etc. of the content requires a new Unique Identifier.

Viewport

The region of an EPUB Reading System in which an EPUB Publication is rendered visually to a user.

XHTML Content Document

An EPUB Content Document that conforms to the profile of [ HTML ] defined in 3.1 XHTML Content Documents .

XHTML Content Documents use the XHTML XML syntax defined in [ HTML ].

1.5 Conformance

As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.

The key words MAY , MUST , MUST NOT , OPTIONAL , RECOMMENDED , REQUIRED , SHOULD , and SHOULD NOT in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [ RFC2119 ] [ RFC8174 ] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

All algorithm explanations are informative .

1.6 Authoring Shorthands

This section is non-normative.

In Package Document metadata examples, reserved prefixes are used without declaration.

References to Dublin Core elements [ DCTERMS ] use the dc: prefix. This prefix must be declared in the Package Document for their use to be valid ( xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" )

The epub namespace prefix [ XML-NAMES ] is also used on elements and attributes without always having an explicit declaration ( xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" ).

2. EPUB Publications

2.1 Conformance Criteria

An EPUB Publication:

In addition, all Publication Resources MUST adhere to the requirements in 2.2 Publication Resources .

The rest of this specification covers specific conformance details.

2.1.1 Conformance Checking

This section is non-normative.

Due to the complexity of this specification and number of technologies used in EPUB Publications , EPUB Creators are advised to use an EPUB Conformance Checker to verify the conformance of their content prior to distributing it. content.

EPUBCheck is the de facto EPUB Conformance Checker used by the publishing industry and has been updated with each new version of EPUB. It is integrated into a number of authoring tools and also available in alternative interfaces and other languages (for more information, refer to its Apps and Tools page ).

When verifying their EPUB Publications, EPUB Creators should ensure they do not violate the requirements of this specification (practices identified by the keywords " MUST ", " MUST NOT ", and " REQUIRED "). These types of issues will often result in EPUB Publications not rendering or rendering in inconsistent ways. These issues are typically reported as errors or critical errors.

They EPUB Creators should also ensure that their EPUB Publications do not violate the recommendations of this specification (practices identified by the keywords " SHOULD ", " SHOULD NOT ", and " RECOMMENDED "). Not following Failure to follow these practices does not result in an invalid EPUB Publication but may lead to interoperability problems and other issues that impact the user reading experience. These issues are typically reported as warnings.

Note

Vendors, distributors, and other retailers of EPUB Publications should consider the importance of recommended practices before basing their acceptance or rejection on a zero-issue outcome from an EPUB Conformance Checker. There will be legitimate reasons why EPUB Creators cannot follow recommended practices in all cases.

2.2 Publication Resources

2.2.1 Core Media Types 2.2.1.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

An EPUB Publication typically consists is made up of many different categories of resources, not all of which are mutually exclusive. Some resources are Publication Resources . These resources , some are divided into two categories: those that do not not. Some Publication Resources are allowed in the spine by default, while all others require fallbacks ( fallbacks. Some resources can be used in rendering EPUB Content Documents , while others can only be used with fallbacks.

Trying to understand these differences by reading the technical definitions of each category of resource can be complex. To make the categorizations easier to understand, this introduction uses the concept of different planes to explain how resources are grouped and referred to.

The three primary planes are:

The Working Group typically only includes formats as same resource may exist on more than one plane and will be referred to differently in this specification depending on which plane is being discussed. For example, a Core Media Type Resource used in the rendering of an EPUB Content Document (on the content plane) may also be a Foreign Content Document if it is also listed in the spine (the spine plane).

The following sections describe these planes in more detail.

Note

Refer to G.1 Publication Resources when for a detailed example showing how resources fit into the different planes.

2.2.1.1 The Manifest Plane

To manifest plane defines all the resources of an EPUB Publication . It is analogous to the Package Document manifest , but includes resources not present in that list.

The primary resources in this group are designated Publication Resources , which are all the resources used in rendering an EPUB Publication to the user. EPUB Creators always have to list these resources in the manifest element but they do not have broad support to locate them all in web browser cores  the rendering engines that EPUB Container . EPUB 3 Reading Systems build upon. allows audio, video, font and script data resources to be hosted outside the Container.

Publication Resources are further classified by their use(s) in the spine plane and content plane .

The manifest plane also contains a set of Linked Resources . These resources are tangential to the direct rendering. They include, for example, metadata records and links to external content (e.g., where to purchase an EPUB Publication).

Unlike Publication Resources, they are not listed in the Package Document manifest (i.e., because they are not essential to rendering the EPUB Publication). They are instead defined in link elements in the Package Document metadata. These elements define their nature and purpose similar to how manifest item elements define Publication Reousrce. (In this way, they are like an agreement between extension of the manifest.)

Refer to 2.3.5.7 The link Element for more information about Linked Resources.

2.2.1.2 The Spine Plane

The spine plane defines resources used in the default reading order established by the spine , which includes both linear and non-linear content . The spine instructs Reading System developers Systems on how to load these resources as the user progresses through the EPUB Publication . Although many resources may be bundled in an EPUB Container , they are not all allowed by default in the spine.

EPUB 3 defines a special class of resources called EPUB Content Documents that EPUB Creators can use in the spine without any restrictions. EPUB Content Documents encompass both XHTML Content Documents and SVG Content Documents .

To use any other type of resource in the spine, called a Foreign Content Document , requires including a fallback to an EPUB Content Document. This extensibility model allows EPUB Creators to ensure experiment with formats while ensuring that Reading Systems are always able to render something for the predictability of rendering user to read, as there is no guarantee of support for Foreign Content Documents.

A mechanism called manifest fallbacks allows EPUB Publications. Creators to provide fallbacks for Foreign Content Documents. In this model, the manifest entry for the Foreign Content Document must include a fallback attribute that points to the next possible resource for Reading Systems to try when they do not support its format. Although not common, a fallback resource can specify another fallback, thereby making chains many resources deep. The one requirement is that there must be at least one EPUB Content Document in a fallback chain.

Inclusion Although they are not directly listed in the spine, all of the resources in the fallback chain are considered part of the spine, and by extension part of the spine plane, since any may be used by a Reading System.

Refer to 2.2.5 Manifest Fallbacks for more information.

Caution

Although manifest fallbacks fulfill the technical requirements of EPUB, there is little practical support for them in Reading Systems. Their use is strongly discouraged as it can lead to unreadable publications.

Note

It is possible to provide manifest fallbacks for EPUB Content Documents, but this is not required or common. For example, a Scripted Content Document could have a fallback to an unscripted alternative for Reading Systems that do not support scripting.

2.2.1.3 The Content Plane

The content plane classifies resources based on their use in rendering EPUB Content Documents and Foreign Content Documents . These resources fall into three categories: Core Media Type Resources , Foreign Resources , and Exempt Resources .

A Core Media Type Resource is one that Reading Systems have to support, so it can be used without restriction in EPUB or Foreign Content Documents. For more information about Core Media Type Resources, refer to 2.2.2 Core Media Types .

Note

Being a Core Media Type Resource does not mean that all Reading Systems will support always render the rendering of a resource, however. as not all Reading Systems support also depends on the capabilities all features of the application (e.g., a EPUB 3. A Reading System with without a Viewport must support image , for example, will not render visual content such as images.

The opposite of Core Media Type Resources, but a Resources are Foreign Resources. These are resources that Reading System without Systems are not guaranteed to support the rendering of. As a Viewport does not). Refer result, similar to Core Media Types how using Foreign Content Documents in the spine requires fallbacks to ensure their rendering, using Foreign Resources in content documents also requires fallbacks. These fallbacks are provided in one of two ways: using the capabilities of the host format or via manifest fallbacks.

The preferred method is to use the fallback capabilities of the host format. Many HTML elements, for example, have intrinsic fallback capabilities. One example is the picture element [ EPUB-RS-33 HTML ] for ], which allows EPUB Creators to specify multiple alternative image formats.

If an intrinsic fallback method is not available, it is also possible to use manifest fallbacks, but this method, as cautioned against in the previous section, is discouraged. For more information about which Reading Systems rendering capabilities require support for which Foreign Resources, refer to 2.2.3 Foreign Resources .

Falling between Core Media Type Resources. Resources and Foreign Resources come are Exempt Resources. These are most closely associated with Foreign Resources, as there is no guarantee of rendering support, which is why that Reading Systems will render them. But like Core Media Types, they do not require a fallback fallbacks.

Exempt Resources tend to a address specific cases for which there are no Core Media Type Resource. EPUB Publications should be fully consumable on any conforming Reading System, so Types defined, but for which providing a fallback is necessary to ensure that the use of Foreign Resources does not impact on the ability of the user would prove cumbersome or unnecessary. These include embedding video, adding accessibility tracks, and linking to consume resources from the content. [ HTML ] link element .

This section lists the set of Core Media Type Refer to 2.2.4 Exempt Resources and identifies fallback mechanisms used to satisfy the consumability requirement. for more information about these exceptions.

Note

A common point of confusion arising from Core Media Type Resources is the listing of XHTML and SVG as Core Media Type Resources with the requirement the markup conform to their respective EPUB also exempts some [ HTML Content Document ] elements from support definitions. This allows EPUB Creators to embed both XHTML and SVG documents in EPUB Content Documents while keeping consistent requirements (see 3.1.4.4 Foreign Resource Restrictions ). for authoring and Reading System support.

In practice, it means that EPUB Creators can put XHTML and SVG Core Media Type Resources referenced from these elements in the spine without any modification or fallback (they are neither also conforming XHTML and SVG Content Documents), but this is a unique case. All other Core Media Type Resources nor become Foreign Content Documents when used in the spine (i.e., Foreign Content Documents include all Foreign Resources  they do not require fallbacks, but they also have no support requirements. and all Core Media Type Resources except for XHTML and SVG).

2.2.1.2 2.2.2 Supported Core Media Types

EPUB Creators MAY include Publication Resources that conform to the following MIME media type [ RFC2046 ] specifications defined in the following table without fallbacks when they are used in EPUB Publications Content Documents without fallbacks. and Foreign Content Documents . These resources are classified as Core Media Type Resources .

With the exception of XHTML Content Documents and SVG Content Documents, EPUB Creators MUST provide manifest fallbacks for Core Media Type Resources referenced directly from the spine . In this case, they are Foreign Content Documents .

The columns in the following table represent the following information:

  • Media Type —The MIME media type [ RFC2046 ] used to represent the given Publication Resource in the manifest .

    If the table lists more than one media type, the first one is the preferred media type. EPUB Creators should use the preferred media type for all new EPUB Publications.

  • Content Type Definition —The specification to which the given Core Media Type Resource must conform.
  • Applies to —The Publication Resource type(s) that the Media Type and Content Type Definition applies to.
Video EPUB 3 allows EPUB Creators to include any video codecs without fallbacks, although none are technically Core Media Type Resources. Although the Working Group recommends that Reading Systems support at least one of the H.264 [ H264 ] and VP8 [ RFC6386 ] video codecs, support is not a conformance requirement  a Reading System might support any video codec, or none at all. EPUB Creators must consider factors such as breadth of adoption, playback quality, and technology royalties when deciding which video formats to include. Tracks EPUB Creators can include any kind of audio or video track (for example, [ WebVTT ] captions, subtitles, and descriptions) without a fallback. Refer to 3.1.4.4 Foreign Resource Restrictions for more information. EPUB 3 allows EPUB Creators to include any font resource without a fallback, as CSS already defines fallback rules for fonts. Refer to the Reading System support requirements for fonts [ EPUB-RS-33 ] for more information.
Media Type Content Type Definition Applies to
Images
image/gif [ GIF ] GIF Images
image/jpeg [ JPEG ] JPEG Images
image/png [ PNG ] PNG Images
image/svg+xml SVG Content Documents SVG documents
image/webp [ WebP-Container ], [ WebP-LB ] WebP Images
Audio
audio/mpeg [ MP3 ] MP3 audio
audio/mp4 [ MPEG4-Audio ], [ MP4 ] AAC LC audio using MP4 container
audio/opus [ RFC7845 ] OPUS audio using OGG container
Style
text/css CSS Style Sheets CSS Style Sheets.
Fonts
  1. font/ttf
  2. application/font-sfnt
[ TrueType ] TrueType fonts
  1. font/otf
  2. application/font-sfnt
  3. application/vnd.ms-opentype
[ OpenType ] OpenType fonts
  1. font/woff
  2. application/font-woff
[ WOFF ] WOFF fonts
font/woff2 [ WOFF2 ] WOFF2 fonts
Other
application/xhtml+xml XHTML Content Documents XHTML Content Documents HTML documents that use the XHTML XML syntax [ HTML ].
  1. application/javascript
  2. application/ecmascript
  3. text/javascript
[ RFC4329 ] Scripts.
application/x-dtbncx+xml [ OPF-201 ] The legacy NCX.
application/smil+xml Media Overlays EPUB Media Overlay documents
Note

Inclusion as a Core Media Type Resource does not mean that all Reading Systems will support the rendering of a resource. Reading System support also depends on the capabilities of the application (e.g., a Reading System with a Viewport must support image Core Media Type Resources, but a Reading System without a Viewport does not). Refer to Core Media Types [ EPUB-RS-33 ] for more information about which Reading Systems rendering capabilities require support for which Core Media Type Resources.

The Working Group typically only includes formats as Core Media Type Resources when they have broad support in web browser cores  the rendering engines that EPUB 3 Reading Systems build upon. They are an agreement between Reading System developers and EPUB Creators to ensure the predictability of rendering of EPUB Publications.

2.2.1.3 2.2.3 Foreign Resources

A Foreign Resource , unlike a Core Media Type Resource is one which is not guaranteed Reading System support when used in an EPUB Content Document or Foreign Content Document .

EPUB Creators MAY MUST include provide fallbacks for Foreign Resources without Resources, where fallbacks provided they: take one of the following forms:

  • intrinsic fallback mechanisms provided by the host format (e.g., [ HTML ] elements often provide the ability to reference more than one media type or to display an alternate embedded message when a media type cannot be rendered); or

  • manifest fallback chains defined on item elements in the Package Document .

Note

Refer to the [ HTML ] and [ SVG ] specifications for the intrinsic fallback capabilities their elements provide.

The following sections provide additional clarifications about the intrinsic fallback requirements of specific elements.

2.2.3.1 HTML audio Fallbacks

EPUB Creators MUST NOT use embedded [ HTML ] flow content within the audio element as an intrinsic fallback for Foreign Resources. Only child source elements [ HTML ] provide intrinsic fallback capabilities.

Only older Reading Systems that do not recognize the audio element (e.g., EPUB 2 Reading Systems) will render the embedded content. When Reading Systems support the audio element but not the available audio formats, they do not render the embedded content for the user.

Note

As video resources are Exempt Resources , this requirement does not apply to the video element. EPUB Creators may also include flow content in the video element for Reading Systems that do not support the element, however.

2.2.3.2 HTML img Fallbacks

Due to the variety of sources that EPUB Creators can specify in the [ HTML ] img element , the following fallback conditions apply to its use:

  • If it is the child of a picture element :

    • it MUST reference Core Media Type Resources from its src and srcset attributes, when EPUB Creators specify those attributes; and
    • each sibling source element MUST reference a Core Media Type Resource from its src and srcset attributes unless it specifies the MIME media type [ RFC2046 ] of a Foreign Resource in its type attribute.
  • Otherwise, it MAY reference Foreign Resources in its src and srcset attributes provided EPUB Creators define a manifest fallback .

2.2.4 Exempt Resources

An Exempt Resource shares properties with both Foreign Resources and Core Media Type Resources . It is most similar to a Foreign Resource in that it is not guaranteed Reading System support, but, like a Core Media Type Resource, does not require a fallback.

There are only a small set of special cases for Exempt Resources. Video, for example, are exempt from fallbacks because there is no consensus on a Core Media Type video format at this time (i.e., there is no format to fallback to). Similarly, audio and video tracks are exempt to allow EPUB Creators to meet accessibility requirements using whatever format Reading Systems support best.

The following list details cases of content-specific Exempt Resources, including any restrictions on where EPUB Creators can use them.

Fonts

All font resources not already covered as font Core Media Types are Exempt Resources.

This exemption allows EPUB Creators to use any font format without a fallback, regardless of Reading System support expectations, as CSS rules will ensure a fallback font in case of no support.

Refer to the Reading System support requirements for fonts [ EPUB-RS-33 ] for more information.

Tracks

All audio and video tracks (e.g., [ WebVTT ] captions, subtitles and descriptions) referenced from the [ HTML ] track element are Exempt Resources.

Video

All video codecs referenced from the [ HTML ] video — including any child source elements — are Exempt Resources.

Note

Although Reading Systems are encouraged to support at least one of the H.264 [ H264 ] and VP8 [ RFC6386 ] video codecs, support for video codecs is not a conformance requirement. EPUB Creators must consider factors such as breadth of adoption, playback quality, and technology royalties when deciding which video formats to include.

Note

The exemptions made above do not apply to the spine. If an Exempt Resource is used in the spine, and it is not also an EPUB Content Document, it will require a fallback in that context.

In addition to the content-specific exemptions, a resource is classified as an Exempt Resource if:

Note

This exception exemption allows EPUB Creators to include resources in the EPUB Container that are not for use by EPUB Reading Systems. The primary case for this exception exemption is to allow data files to travel with an EPUB Publication, whether for scripts to use in their constituent EPUB Content Documents or for external applications to use (e.g., a scientific journal might include a data set with instructions on how to extract it from the EPUB Container).

This specification It also exempts some elements from Core Media Type requirements. In these cases, allows EPUB Creators to use Foreign Resources MAY be referenced in Foreign Content Documents without a fallback. For more information, refer Reading Systems or EPUB Conformance Checkers having to understand the fallback capabilities of those resources (i.e., the requirement for a fallback for the Foreign Content Document covers any rendering issues within it). As the resource is not referenced from an EPUB Content Document, it automatically becomes exempt from fallbacks.

3.1.4.4 2.2.5 Foreign Resource Restrictions . Manifest Fallbacks

Caution

Reading System support for manifest fallbacks is poor and should not be relied upon to create interoperable content. In most cases, if a Reading System does not support a format, it will not use its fallback. This can lead to unexpected failures.

EPUB Creators MUST should use the intrinsic fallback capabilities of HTML and SVG to provide fallbacks for fallback content whenever possible, and avoid using Foreign Resources Content Documents in all other cases. Fallbacks take one the spine.

Manifest fallbacks are a feature of the following forms: Package Document that create fallback chains, allowing Reading Systems to select an alternative format they can render.

There are two primary use cases for manifest fallbacks:

  1. To specify fallbacks when Foreign Content Documents are referenced from the spine .
  2. To provide fallbacks when intrinsic fallback mechanisms provided by the host format are not available for elements in EPUB Content Documents (e.g., for the [ HTML ] elements often provide the ability to reference more than one media type or img element) in order to display an alternate embedded message when a media type cannot be rendered); or satisfy the requirements in 2.2.3 Foreign Resources .

The manifest fallback attribute chains defined on the manifest item elements element specifies the fallback for the referenced Publication Resource. The fallback attribute's IDREF [ XML ] value MUST resolve to another item in the Package manifest . This fallback item MAY itself specify another fallback item , and so on.

The ordered list of all the ID references that a Reading System can reach, starting from a given item's fallback attribute, represents the fallback chain for that item. The order of the resources in the fallback chain represents the EPUB Creator's preferred fallback order.

Fallback chains MUST conform to one of the following requirements, as appropriate:

Fallback chains MUST NOT contain circular or self-references to item elements in the chain.

EPUB Creators MAY provide fallbacks for Top-Level Content Documents that are EPUB Content Documents (e.g., to provide fallbacks for scripted content ).

EPUB Creators MAY also provide manifest fallbacks for Core Media Type Resources (e.g., to allow Reading Systems to select from more than one image format).

Note

Refer As it is not possible to the [ HTML ] and [ SVG ] specifications use manifest fallbacks for the resources represented in data URLs , EPUB Creators can only represent Foreign Resources as data URLs where an intrinsic fallback capabilities their elements provide. mechanism is available.

2.2.2 2.2.6 Resource Locations

EPUB Creators MAY host the following types of Publication Resources outside the EPUB Container:

EPUB Creators MUST store all other resources within the EPUB Container.

Storing all resources inside the EPUB Container is strongly encouraged whenever possible as it allows users access to the entire presentation regardless of connectivity status so is strongly encouraged whenever possible. status.

These rules for locating Publication Resource apply regardless of whether the given resource is a Core Media Type Resource or a Foreign Resource .

Note

Refer to the remote-resources property for more information on how to indicate that a manifest item references a Remote Resource .

2.2.3 2.2.7 Data URLs

The data: URL scheme [ RFC2397 ] is used to encode resources directly into a URL string. The advantage of this scheme is that it allows EPUB Creators to embed a resource within another, avoiding the need for an external file.

EPUB Creators MAY use data URLs in EPUB Publications provided their use does not result in a Top-level Content Document or top-level browsing context [ HTML ]. This restriction applies to data URLs used in the following scenarios:

Note

The list of prohibited uses for data URLs is subject to change as the respective standards that allow their use evolve.

This restriction on their use is to prevent security issues and also to ensure that Reading Systems can determine where to take a user next (i.e., because these resources are not be listed in the spine).

Resources represented as data URLs are not Publication Resources so are exempt from the requirement for EPUB Creators to list them in the manifest .

EPUB Creators MUST encode Data URLs as Core Media Types Type Resources or use them where they can provide a fallback (i.e., Data URLs are subject to the foreign resource Foreign Resource restrictions ).

2.2.4 2.2.8 XML Conformance

Any Publication Resource that is an XML-Based Media Type:

The above constraints apply regardless of whether the given Publication Resource is a Core Media Type Resource or a Foreign Resource .

Note

[ HTML ] and [ SVG ] are removing support for the XML base attribute [ XMLBase ]. EPUB Creators should avoid using this feature.

2.3 Package Document

All [ XML ] elements defined in this section are in the http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf namespace [ XML-NAMES ] unless otherwise specified.

2.3.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

The Package Document is an XML document that consists of a set of elements that each encapsulate information about a particular aspect of an EPUB Publication . These elements serve to centralize metadata, detail the individual resources, and provide the reading order and other information necessary for its rendering.

The following list summarizes the information found in the Package Document:

  • Metadata — mechanisms to include and/or reference metadata. information about the EPUB Publication.

  • A manifest — identifies via URL [ URL ], and describes via MIME media type [ RFC4839 ], the set of Publication Resources .

  • A spine — an ordered sequence of ID references to top-level resources in the manifest from which Reading Systems can reach or utilize all other resources in the set. The spine defines the default reading order.

  • Collections — a method of encapsulating and identifying subcomponents within the Package.

  • Manifest fallback chains — a mechanism that defines an ordered list of top-level resources as content equivalents. A Reading System can then choose between the resources based on which it is capable of rendering.

Note

An EPUB Publication can reference more than one Package Document, allowing for alternative representations of the content. For more information, refer to 6.1.6.3.1 Container File ( container.xml )

Note

Refer to H.1 The application/oebps-package+xml Media Type for information about the file properties of Package Documents.

2.3.2 Parsing URLs in the Package Document

To parse a URL string url used in the Package Document, the URL Parser � [ URL ] MUST be applied to url , with the content URL of the Package Document as base .

2.3.3 Shared Attributes

This section provides definitions for shared attributes (i.e., attributes allowed on two or more elements).

2.3.3.1 The dir Attribute

Specifies the base direction [ BIDI ] of the textual content and attribute values of the carrying element and its descendants

Allowed values are:

  • ltr  left-to-right base direction;
  • rtl  right-to-left base direction; and
  • auto  base direction is determined using the Unicode Bidi Algorithm [ BIDI ].

Reading Systems will assume the value auto when EPUB Creators omit the attribute or use an invalid value.

Note

The base direction specified in the dir attribute does not affect the ordering of characters within directional runs, only the relative ordering of those runs and the placement of weak directional characters such as punctuation.

Allowed on: collection , dc:contributor , dc:coverage , dc:creator , dc:description , dc:publisher , dc:relation , dc:rights , dc:subject , dc:title , meta and package .

2.3.3.2 The href Attribute

A valid URL string � [ URL ] that references a resource. If the value is an absolute URL , it SHOULD NOT use the "file" URI scheme [ rfc8089 ].

Allowed on: item and link .

2.3.3.3 The id Attribute

The ID [ XML ] of the element, which MUST be unique within the document scope.

Allowed on: collection , dc:contributor , dc:coverage , dc:creator , dc:date , dc:description , dc:format , dc:identifier , dc:language , dc:publisher , dc:relation , dc:rights , dc:source , dc:subject , dc:title , dc:type , item , itemref , link , manifest , meta , package and spine .

2.3.3.4 The media-type Attribute

A media type [ RFC2046 ] that specifies the type and format of the referenced resource.

Allowed on: item and link .

2.3.3.5 The properties Attribute

A space-separated list of property values.

Refer to each element's definition for the reserved vocabulary for the attribute.

Allowed on: item , itemref and link .

2.3.3.6 The refines Attribute

Establishes an association between the current expression and the element or resource identified by its value. EPUB Creators MUST use as the value a path-relative-scheme-less-URL string , optionally followed by U+0023� (#) and a URL-fragment string that references the resource or element they are describing.

The refines attribute is OPTIONAL depending on the type of metadata expressed. When omitted, the element defines a primary expression .

When creating expressions about a Publication Resource , the refines attribute SHOULD specify a fragment identifier that references the ID of the resource's manifest entry .

Refinement chains MUST NOT contain circular references or self-references.

Allowed on: link and meta .

2.3.3.7 The xml:lang Attribute

Specifies the language of the textual content and attribute values of the carrying element and its descendants, as defined in section 2.12 Language Identification of [ XML ]. The value of each xml:lang attribute MUST be a well-formed language tag [ BCP47 ].

Allowed on: collection , dc:contributor , dc:coverage , dc:creator , dc:description , dc:publisher , dc:relation , dc:rights , dc:subject , dc:title , meta and package .

2.3.4 The package Element

The package element is the root element of the Package Document .

Element Name

package

Usage

The package element is the root element of the Package Document.

Attributes
Content Model

In this order:

The version attribute specifies the EPUB specification version to which the given EPUB Publication conforms. The attribute MUST have the value " 3.0 " to indicate conformance with EPUB 3.

Note

Updates to this specification do not represent new versions of EPUB 3 (i.e., each new 3.X specification is a continuation of the EPUB 3 format). The Working Group is committed to minimizing any changes that would invalidate existing content, allowing the version attribute value to remain unchanged.

The unique-identifier attribute takes an IDREF [ XML ] that identifies the dc:identifier element that provides the preferred, or primary, identifier.

The prefix attribute provides a declaration mechanism for prefixes not reserved by this specification . Refer to D.1.4 The prefix Attribute for more information.

2.3.5 Metadata Section

2.3.5.1 The metadata Element

The metadata element encapsulates meta information.

Element Name

metadata

Usage

REQUIRED first child of package .

Attributes

None

Content Model

In any order:

The Package Document metadata element has two primary functions:

  1. to provide a minimal set of meta information for Reading Systems to use to internally catalogue an EPUB Publication and make it available to a user (e.g., to present in a bookshelf).

  2. to provide access to all rendering metadata needed to control the layout and display of the content (e.g., fixed-layout properties ).

The Package Document does not provide complex metadata encoding capabilities. If EPUB Creators need to provide more detailed information, they can associate metadata records (e.g., that conform to an international standard such as [ ONIX ] or are created for custom purposes) using the link element. This approach allows Reading Systems to process the metadata in its native form, avoiding the potential problems and information loss caused by translating to use the minimal Package Document structure.

In keeping with this philosophy, the Package Document only has the following minimal metadata requirements: it MUST contain the [ DCTERMS ] dc:title , dc:identifier , and dc:language elements together with the [ DCTERMS ] dcterms:modified property . All other metadata is OPTIONAL .

The meta element provides a generic mechanism for including metadata properties from any vocabulary . Although EPUB Creators MAY use this mechanism for any metadata purposes, they will typically use it to include rendering metadata defined in EPUB specifications.

Note

See [ EPUB-A11Y-11 ] for accessibility metadata recommendations.

2.3.5.2 Metadata Values

The Dublin Core elements [ DCTERMS ] and meta element have mandatory child text content [ DOM ]. This specification refers to this content as the value of the element in their descriptions.

These elements MUST have non-empty values after leading and trailing ASCII whitespace [ Infra ] is stripped (i.e., they must consist of at least one non-whitespace character).

Whitespace within these element values is not significant. Sequences of one or more whitespace characters are collapsed to a single space [ Infra ] during processing .

2.3.5.3 DCMES Dublin Core Required Elements
2.3.5.3.1 The dc:identifier Element

The dc:identifier element [ DCTERMS ] contains an identifier such as a UUID , DOI or ISBN .

Element Name

dc:identifier

Namespace

http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/

Usage

REQUIRED child of metadata . Repeatable.

Attributes

  • id [conditionally required]

Content Model

Text

The EPUB Creator MUST provide an identifier that is unique to one and only one EPUB Publication  its Unique Identifier  in an dc:identifier element. This dc:identifier element MUST specify an id attribute whose value is referenced from the package element's unique-identifier attribute .

Although not static, EPUB Creators should make changes to the Unique Identifier for an EPUB Publication as infrequently as possible. Unique Identifiers should have maximal persistence both for referencing and distribution purposes. EPUB Creators should not issue new identifiers when making minor revisions such as updating metadata, fixing errata, or making similar minor changes.

EPUB Creators MAY specify additional identifiers. The identifiers should be fully qualified URIs.

EPUB Creators MAY use the identifier-type property to indicate that the value of a dc:identifier element conforms to an established system or an issuing authority granted it.

2.3.5.3.2 The dc:title Element

The dc:title element [ DCTERMS ] represents an instance of a name for the EPUB Publication .

Element Name

dc:title

Namespace

http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/

Usage

REQUIRED child of metadata . Repeatable.

Attributes
Content Model

Text

The first dc:title element in document order is the main title of the EPUB Publication (i.e., the primary one Reading Systems present to users).

EPUB Creators should use only a single dc:title element to ensure consistent rendering of the title in Reading Systems.

Note

Although it is possible to include more than one dc:title element for multipart titles, Reading System support for additional dc:title elements is inconsistent. Reading Systems may ignore the additional segments or combine them in unexpected ways.

For example, the following example shows a basic multipart title: 

<metadata …>
   <dc:title>
      THE LORD OF THE RINGS
   </dc:title>
   <dc:title>
      Part One: The Fellowship of the Ring
   </dc:title>
   …

</

metadata

>

The same title could instead be expressed using a single dc:title element as follows: 

<metadata …>
   <dc:title>
       THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Part One:
       The Fellowship of the Ring
   </dc:title>
   …

</

metadata

>

Previous versions of this specification recommended using the title-type and display-seq properties to identify and format the segments of multipart titles (see the Great Cookbooks example ). It is still possible to add these semantics, but they are also not well supported.

2.3.5.3.3 The dc:language Element

The dc:language element [ DCTERMS ] specifies the language of the content of the EPUB Publication .

Element Name

dc:language

Namespace

http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/

Usage

REQUIRED child of metadata . Repeatable.

Attributes

id [optional]

Content Model

Text

The value of each dc:language element MUST be a well-formed language tag [ BCP47 ].

Although EPUB Creators MAY specify additional dc:language elements for multilingual Publications, Reading Systems will treat the first dc:language element in document order as the primary language of the EPUB Publication.

Note

Publication Resources do not inherit their language from the dc:language element(s). EPUB Creators must set the language of a resource using the intrinsic methods of the format.

2.3.5.4 DCMES Dublin Core Optional Elements
2.3.5.4.1 General Definition

All [ DCTERMS ] elements except for dc:identifier , dc:language , and dc:title are designated as OPTIONAL . These elements conform to the following generalized definition:

Element Name

dc:contributor | dc:coverage | dc:creator | dc:date | dc:description | dc:format | dc:publisher | dc:relation | dc:rights | dc:source | dc:subject | dc:type

Namespace

http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/

Usage

OPTIONAL child of metadata . Repeatable.

Attributes

  • dir [optional] – only allowed on dc:contributor , dc:coverage , dc:creator , dc:description , dc:publisher , dc:relation , dc:rights , and dc:subject .

  • id [optional] – allowed on any element.

  • xml:lang [optional] – only allowed on dc:contributor , dc:coverage , dc:creator , dc:description , dc:publisher , dc:relation , dc:rights , and dc:subject .

Content Model

Text

This specification does not modify the [ DCTERMS ] element definitions except as noted in the following sections.

2.3.5.4.2 The dc:contributor Element

The dc:contributor element [ DCTERMS ] is used to represent the name of a person, organization, etc. that played a secondary role in the creation of the content.

The requirements for the dc:contributor element are identical to those for the dc:creator element in all other respects.

2.3.5.4.3 The dc:creator Element

The dc:creator element [ DCTERMS ] represents the name of a person, organization, etc. responsible for the creation of the content. EPUB Creators MAY associate a role property with the element to indicate the function the creator played.

The dc:creator element should contain the name of the creator as EPUB Creators intend Reading Systems to display it to users.

EPUB Creators MAY use the file-as property to associate a normalized form of the creator's name, and the alternate-script property to represent the creator's name in another language or script.

If an EPUB Publication has more than one creator, EPUB Creators should specify each in a separate dc:creator element.

The document order of dc:creator elements in the metadata section determines the display priority, where the first dc:creator element encountered is the primary creator.

EPUB Creators should represent secondary contributors using the dc:contributor element .

2.3.5.4.4 The dc:date Element

The dc:date element [ DCTERMS ] defines the publication date of the EPUB Publication . The publication date is not the same as the last modified date (the last time the EPUB Creator changed the EPUB Publication).

It is RECOMMENDED that the date string conform to [ ISO8601 ], particularly the subset expressed in W3C Date and Time Formats [ DateTime ], as such strings are both human and machine readable.

EPUB Creators should express additional dates using the specialized date properties available in the [ DCTERMS ] vocabulary, or similar.

EPUB Publications MUST NOT contain more than one dc:date element.

2.3.5.4.5 The dc:subject Element

The dc:subject element [ DCTERMS ] identifies the subject of the EPUB Publication. EPUB Creators should set the value of the element to the human-readable heading or label, but may use a code value if the subject taxonomy does not provide a separate descriptive label.

EPUB Creators MAY identify the system or scheme they drew the element's value from using the authority property .

When a scheme is identified, EPUB Creators MUST associate a subject code using the term property .

The term property MUST NOT be associated with a dc:subject element that does not specify a scheme.

The values of the dc:subject element and term property are case sensitive only when the designated scheme requires.

2.3.5.4.6 The dc:type Element

The dc:type element [ DCTERMS ] is used to indicate that the EPUB Publication is of a specialized type (e.g., annotations or a dictionary packaged in EPUB format).

EPUB Creators MAY use any text string as a value .

Note

The former IDPF EPUB 3 Working Group maintained an informative registry of specialized EPUB Publication types for use with this element. This Working Group no longer maintains this registry and does not anticipate developing new specialized publication types.

2.3.5.5 The meta Element

The meta element provides a generic means of including package metadata.

Element Name

meta

Usage

As child of the metadata element. Repeatable.

Attributes
Content Model

Text

Each meta element defines a metadata expression. The property attribute takes a property data type value that defines the statement made in the expression, and the text content of the element represents the assertion. (Refer to D.1 Vocabulary Association Mechanisms for more information.)

This specification defines two types of metadata expressions that EPUB Creators can define using the meta element:

  • A primary expression is one in which the expression defined in the meta element establishes some aspect of the EPUB Publication . A meta element that omits a refines attribute defines a primary expression.
  • A subexpression is one in which the expression defined in the meta element is associated with another expression or resource using the refines attribute to enhance its meaning. A subexpression might refine a media clip, for example, by expressing its duration, or refine a creator or contributor expression by defining the role of the person.

EPUB Creators MAY use subexpressions to refine the meaning of other subexpressions, thereby creating chains of information.

Note

All the DCMES [ DCTERMS ] elements represent primary expressions, and permit refinement by meta element subexpressions.

The Meta Properties Vocabulary is the default vocabulary for use with the property attribute.

EPUB Creators MAY add terms from other vocabularies as defined in D.1 Vocabulary Association Mechanisms .

The scheme attribute identifies the system or scheme the EPUB Creator obtained the element's value from. The value of the attribute MUST be a property data type value that resolves to the resource that defines the scheme.

2.3.5.6 Last Modified Date

The metadata section MUST contain exactly one [ DCTERMS ] modified property containing the last modification date. The value of this property MUST be an [ XMLSCHEMA-2 ] dateTime conformant date of the form: CCYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ

EPUB Creators MUST express the last modification date in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and MUST terminate it with the " Z " (Zulu) time zone indicator.

EPUB Creators should update the last modified date whenever they make changes to the EPUB Publication.

EPUB Creators MAY specify additional modified properties in the Package Document metadata, but they MUST have a different subject (i.e., they require a refines attribute that references an element or resource).

Note

The requirements for the last modification date are to ensure compatibility with earlier versions of EPUB 3 that defined a release identifier [ EPUBPackages-32 ] for EPUB Publications.

2.3.6 Manifest Section

2.3.6.1 The manifest Element

The manifest element provides an exhaustive list of Publication Resources used in the rendering of the content.

Element name

manifest

Usage

REQUIRED second child of package , following metadata .

Attributes

id [optional]

Content Model

item [1 or more]

EPUB Creators MUST list all Publication Resources in the manifest , regardless of whether they are Local or Remote Resources , using item elements .

Note that the manifest is not self-referencing: EPUB Creators MUST NOT specify an item element that refers to the Package Document itself.

Note

Failure to provide a complete manifest of resources may lead to rendering issues. Reading Systems might not unzip such resources or could prevent access to them for security reasons.

2.3.6.2 The item Element

The item element represents a Publication Resource .

Element Name

item

Usage

As a child of manifest . Repeatable.

Attributes
Content Model

Empty

Each item element identifies a Publication Resource by the URL [ URL ] in its href attribute. The value MUST be an absolute- or path-relative-scheme-less-URL string� [ URL ]. EPUB Creators MUST ensure each URL is unique within the manifest scope after parsing .

The Publication Resource identified by an item element MUST conform to the applicable specification(s) as inferred from the MIME media type provided in the media-type attribute . For Core Media Type Resources , EPUB Creators MUST use the media type designated in 2.2.1.2 2.2.2 Supported Core Media Types .

The fallback attribute takes an IDREF [ XML ] that identifies a fallback for the Publication Resource referenced from the item element, as defined in 2.3.6.2.2 2.2.5 Manifest Fallbacks .

The media-overlay attribute takes an IDREF [ XML ] that identifies the Media Overlay Document for the resource described by this item . Refer to 7.3.5 Media Overlays Packaging for more information.

Note

The order of item elements in the manifest is not significant. The spine element provides the presentation sequence of content documents.

2.3.6.2.1 Resource Properties

The properties attribute provides information to Reading Systems about the content of a resource. This information enables discovery of key resources, such as the cover image and EPUB Navigation Document . It also allows Reading Systems to optimize rendering by indicating, for example, whether the resource contains embedded scripting, MathML, or SVG.

The Manifest Properties Vocabulary is the default vocabulary for the properties attribute.

EPUB Creators MUST set the following properties whenever a resource referenced by an item element matches their respective definitions:

These properties do not apply recursively to content included into a resource (e.g., via the HTML iframe element). For example, if a non-scripted XHTML Content Document embeds a scripted Content Document, only the embedded document's manifest item properties attribute will have the scripted value.

EPUB Creators MUST declare exactly one item as the EPUB Navigation Document using the nav property .

If an EPUB Publication contains a cover image, it is recommended to set the cover-image property , but setting this property is OPTIONAL .

EPUB Creators MAY add terms from other vocabularies as defined in D.1 Vocabulary Association Mechanisms .

2.3.6.2.2 Manifest Fallbacks Manifest fallbacks are a feature of the Package Document that create fallback chains to Core Media Type Resources. They are used to create fallbacks for Foreign Resources in the spine and when intrinsic fallback capabilities are not available (e.g., for the [ HTML ] img element) in order to satisfy the requirements in 2.2.1.3 Foreign Resources . The fallback attribute on the manifest item element specifies the fallback for the referenced Publication Resource. The fallback attribute's IDREF [ XML ] value MUST resolve to another item in the manifest . This fallback item MAY itself specify another fallback item , and so on. The ordered list of all the ID references that a Reading System can reach, starting from a given item's fallback attribute, represents the fallback chain for that item. The order of the resources in the fallback chain represents the EPUB Creator's preferred fallback order. Fallback chains MUST conform to one of the following requirements, as appropriate: For Foreign Resources referenced directly from spine itemref elements , the chain MUST contain at least one EPUB Content Document . For Foreign Resources for which an EPUB Creator cannot provide an intrinsic fallback, the chain MUST contain at least one Core Media Type Resource . Fallback chains MUST NOT contain circular or self-references to item elements in the chain. EPUB Creators MAY provide fallbacks for Top-Level Content Documents that are EPUB Content Documents (e.g., to provide fallbacks for scripted content ). EPUB Creators MAY also provide manifest fallbacks for Core Media Type Resources (e.g., to provide a static alternative to a Scripted Content Document ). Note As it is not possible to use manifest fallbacks for resources represented in data URLs , EPUB Creators can only represent Foreign Resources as data URLs where an intrinsic fallback mechanism is available.
2.3.6.2.3 2.3.6.2.2 Examples
2.3.6.3 The bindings Element (Deprecated)

The bindings element defines a set of custom handlers for media types not supported by this specification.

Use of the element is deprecated .

Refer to the bindings element definition in [ EPUBPublications-301 ] for more information.

2.3.7 Spine Section

2.3.7.1 The spine Element

The spine element defines an ordered list of manifest item references that represent the default reading order.

Element name

spine

Usage

REQUIRED third child of package , following manifest .

Attributes
Content Model

itemref [1 or more]

The spine MUST specify at least one Publication Resource EPUB Content Document or Foreign Content Document .

EPUB Creators MUST list in the spine all Publication Resources EPUB and Foreign Content Documents that are hyperlinked to from Publication Resources in the spine , where hyperlinking encompasses any linking mechanism that requires the user to navigate away from the current resource. Common hyperlinking mechanisms include the href attribute of the [ HTML ] a and area elements and scripted links (e.g., using DOM Events and/or form elements). The requirement to list hyperlinked resources applies recursively (i.e., EPUB Creators must list all Publication Resources EPUB and Foreign Content Documents hyperlinked to from hyperlinked Publication Resources, documents, and so on.).

EPUB Creators also MUST list in the spine all Publication Resources EPUB and Foreign Content Documents hyperlinked to from the EPUB Navigation Document , regardless of whether EPUB Creators include the Navigation Document in the spine .

Note

As Remote Resources referenced from hyperlinks to resources outside the EPUB Container are not Publication Resources, they are not subject to the requirement to include in the spine (e.g., web pages and web-hosted resources).

Publication Resources used in the rendering of spine items (e.g., referenced from [ HTML ] embedded content ) similarly do not have to be included in the spine.

The page-progression-direction attribute sets the global direction in which the content flows. Allowed values are ltr (left-to-right), rtl (right-to-left) and default . When EPUB Creators specify the default value, they are expressing no preference and the Reading System can choose the rendering direction.

Although the page-progression-direction attribute sets the global flow direction, individual Content Documents and parts of Content Documents MAY override this setting (e.g., via the writing-mode CSS property). Reading Systems may also provide mechanisms to override the default direction (e.g., buttons or settings that allow the application of alternate style sheets).

The legacy toc attribute takes an IDREF [ XML ] that identifies the manifest item that represents the NCX .

2.3.7.2 The itemref Element

The itemref element identifies a Publication Resource an EPUB Content Document or Foreign Content Document in the default reading order.

Element Name

itemref

Usage

As a child of spine . Repeatable.

Attributes
Content Model

Empty

Each itemref element MUST reference the ID of an item in the manifest via the IDREF� [ XML ] in its idref attribute, and item IDs MUST NOT be referenced more than once.

Each referenced manifest item MUST be either a) an EPUB Content Document or b) another type of Publication Resource a Foreign Content Document which, regardless of whether it is a Core Media Type Resource or a Foreign Resource , MUST include an EPUB Content Document in its fallback chain .

Note

Although EPUB Publications require an EPUB Navigation Document , it is not mandatory to include it in the spine .

The linear attribute indicates whether the referenced item contains content that contributes to the primary reading order and that Reading Systems must read sequentially (" yes "), or auxiliary content that enhances or augments the primary content that Reading Systems can access out of sequence (" no "). Examples of auxiliary content include notes, descriptions, and answer keys.

The linear attribute allows Reading Systems to distinguish content that a user should access as part of the default reading order from supplementary content which a Reading System might, for example, present in a popup window or omit from an aural rendering.

Specifying that content is non-linear does not require Reading Systems to present it in a specific way, however; it is only a hint to the purpose. Reading Systems may present non-linear content where it occurs in the spine, for example, or may skip it until users reach the end of the spine.

Note

EPUB Creators should list non-linear content at the end of the spine except when it makes sense for users to encounter it between linear spine items.

A linear itemref element is one whose linear attribute value is explicitly set to " yes "" " or that omits the attribute� —� Reading Systems will assume the value " yes " for itemref elements without the attribute. The spine MUST contain at least one linear itemref element.

EPUB Creators MUST provide a means of accessing all non-linear content (e.g., hyperlinks in the content or from the EPUB Navigation Document ).

The Spine Properties Vocabulary is the default vocabulary for the properties attribute.

EPUB Creators MAY add terms from other vocabularies as defined in D.1 Vocabulary Association Mechanisms .

2.3.8 Collections

2.3.8.1 The collection Element

The collection element defines a related group of resources.

Element Name

collection

Usage

OPTIONAL sixth element of package . Repeatable.

Attributes
Content Model

In this order: metadata [0 or 1] , ( collection [1 or more] or ( collection [0 or more] , link [1 or more] ))

The collection element allows EPUB Creators to assemble resources into logical groups for a variety of potential uses: enabling reassembly into a meaningful unit of content split across multiple EPUB Content Documents (e.g., an index split across multiple documents), identifying resources for specialized purposes (e.g., preview content), or collecting together resources that present additional information about the EPUB Publication .

EPUB Creators MUST identify the role of each collection element in its role attribute, whose value MUST be one or more NMTOKENs [ XMLSCHEMA-2 ] and/or absolute-URL-with-fragment strings [ URL ].

The requirements for authoring specialized collections are defined by their respective specifications.

Note

The former IDPF EPUB 3 Working Group maintained both a registry of role extensions and a list of custom extension roles . This Working Group no longer maintains these registries.

2.3.8.2 Defining Collection Types (Deprecated)

The creation of new collection element roles is now deprecated .

Refer to the collection element definition in [ EPUBPackages-32 ] for more information about the creation of specialized collections, including the requirements and restrictions on their use.

2.3.9 Legacy Content

2.3.9.1 The meta Element

The meta element [ OPF-201 ] is a legacy feature that previously provided a means of including generic metadata. The EPUB 3 meta element , which uses different attributes and requires text content, replaces this element.

Refer to the meta element definition in� [ OPF-201 ] for more information.

Note

The [ OPF-201 ] meta element is retained in EPUB 3 primarily so that EPUB Creators can identify the cover image for compatibility with EPUB 2 Reading Systems. In EPUB 3, the cover image must be identified using the cover-image property on the manifest item for the image.

2.3.9.2 The guide Element

The guide element � [ OPF-201 ] is a legacy feature that previously provided machine-processable navigation to key structures. The landmarks nav in the EPUB Navigation Document replaces this element.

Refer to the guide element definition in� [ OPF-201 ] for more information.

2.3.9.3 NCX

The NCX [ OPF-201 ] is a legacy feature that previously provided the table of contents. The EPUB Navigation Document replaces this document.

Refer to the NCX definition in� [ OPF-201 ] for more information.

3. EPUB Content Documents

3.1 XHTML Content Documents

3.1.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

This section defines a profile of [ HTML ] for creating XHTML Content Documents. An instance of an XML document that conforms to this profile is a Core Media Type Resource and is referred to in this specification as an XHTML Content Document .

3.1.2 XHTML Requirements

An XHTML Content Document:

Unless specified otherwise, XHTML Content Documents inherit all definitions of semantics, structure, and processing behaviors from the [ HTML ] specification.

Note

The recommendation that EPUB Publications follow the accessibility requirements in [ EPUB-A11Y-11 ] applies to XHTML Content Documents. See Accessibility .

3.1.3 HTML Extensions

This section defines EPUB 3 XHTML Content Document extensions to the underlying [ HTML ] document model.

Note

Although [ HTML ] allows user agents to support vendor-neutral extensions , unless such extensions are listed in this section, they are not supported features of EPUB 3.

3.1.3.1 Structural Semantics

EPUB Creators MAY use the epub:type attribute in XHTML Content Documents to express structural semantics .

As the [ HTML ] head element contains metadata for the document, structural semantics expressed on this element or any descendant of it have no meaning.

3.1.3.2 RDFa

The [ HTML-RDFA ] specification defines a set of attributes that EPUB Creators MAY use in XHTML Content Documents to semantically enrich the content. The use of these attributes MUST conform to the requirements defined in [ HTML-RDFA ].

The [ HTML-RDFA ] specification defines changes to the [ HTML ] content model when authors use RDFa attributes. This modified content model is valid in XHTML Content Documents.

Note

The listing of RDFa does not express a preference on the part of the Working Group, only that these attributes represent an extension of the HTML grammar. EPUB Creators can also specify microdata attributes [ HTML ] and linked data [ JSON-LD11 ] in XHTML Content Documents as both are natively supported.

3.1.3.3 Content Switching (Deprecated)

The switch element provides a simple mechanism through which EPUB Creators can tailor the content displayed to users, one that is not dependent on the scripting capabilities of the EPUB Reading System .

Use of the element is deprecated .

Refer to the switch element definition in� [ EPUBContentDocs-301 ] for more information.

3.1.3.4 The epub:trigger Element (Deprecated)

The trigger element enables the creation of markup-defined user interfaces for controlling multimedia objects, such as audio and video playback, in both scripted and non-scripted contexts.

Use of the element is deprecated .

Refer to the epub:trigger element definition in� [ EPUBContentDocs-301 ] for more information.

3.1.3.5 Custom Attributes

XHTML Content Documents MAY contain custom attributes, which are prefixed [ XML-NAMES ] attributes whose namespace URL does not include either of the following strings in its domain [ URL ]:

  • w3.org
  • idpf.org

When using custom attributes, the content MUST remain consumable by a user without any information loss or other significant deterioration, regardless of the Reading System it is rendered on.

Note

Custom attributes are usually defined in a Reading System-specific manner and are not intended for use by other Reading Systems. This specification should be extended to provide extensions that multiple independent Reading Systems can use.

3.1.4 HTML Deviations and Constraints

This section defines deviations from, and constraints on, the underlying [ HTML ] document model applicable to EPUB 3 XHTML Content Documents .

3.1.4.1 Embedded MathML

XHTML Content Documents support embedded [ MATHML3 ]. Occurrences of MathML markup MUST conform to the constraints expressed in the MathML specification [ MATHML3 ], with the following additional restrictions:

Presentation MathML

The math element MUST contain only Presentation MathML , except within the annotation-xml element.

Content MathML

EPUB Creators MAY include Content MathML within MathML markup in XHTML Content Documents, and, when present, MUST include it within an annotation-xml child element of a semantics element.

When EPUB Creators include Content MathML per the previous condition, they MUST set the given annotation-xml element's encoding attribute to either of the functionally-equivalent values MathML-Content or application/mathml-content+xml , and the name attribute to contentequiv .

Deprecated MathML

EPUB Creators MUST NOT include elements and attributes marked as deprecated in [ MATHML3 ] within MathML markup in XHTML Content Documents.

This subset eases the implementation burden on Reading Systems and promotes accessibility, while retaining compatibility with [ HTML ] user agents.

Note

The mathml property of the manifest item element indicates that an XHTML Content Document contains embedded MathML.

3.1.4.2 Embedded SVG

XHTML Content Documents support the embedding of SVG document fragments [ SVG ] by reference (embedding via reference, for example, from an img or object element) and by inclusion (embedding via direct inclusion of the svg element in the XHTML Content Document).

The content conformance constraints for SVG embedded in XHTML Content Documents are the same as defined for SVG Content Documents in 3.2.3 Restrictions on SVG .

Note

The svg property of the manifest item element indicates that an XHTML Content Document contains embedded SVG.

3.1.4.3 Discouraged Constructs

This section is non-normative.

3.1.4.3.1 The base Element

The [ HTML ] base element can be used to specify the document base URL for the purposes of parsing URLs. When using it in an EPUB Publication , the interpretation of the base elements may inadvertently result in references to Remote Resources , i.e., resources that are outside the EPUB Container . Using the base element in an EPUB Publication may cause Reading Systems to misinterpret the location of resources (e.g., relative links to other documents in the publication might appear as links to a web site if the base element specifies an absolute URL). To avoid significant interoperability issues, EPUB Creators should not use the base element.

3.1.4.3.2 The rp Element

The [ HTML ] rp element is intended to provide a fallback for older Reading Systems that do not recognize ruby markup (i.e., a parenthesis display around ruby markup). As EPUB 3 Reading Systems are ruby-aware, and can provide fallbacks, EPUB Creators should not use rp elements.

3.1.4.3.3 The embed Element

Since the [ HTML ] embed element does not include intrinsic facilities to provide fallback content for Reading Systems that do not support scripting, EPUB Creators are discouraged from using the element when the referenced resource includes scripting. The [ HTML ] object element is a better alternative, as it includes intrinsic fallback capabilities.

3.1.4.4 Foreign Resource Restrictions EPUB Creators MAY reference Foreign Resources from elements that have intrinsic fallback mechanisms, where an intrinsic fallback method is the capability to offer an alternative presentation if Reading Systems do not support the foreign resource. For example, most [ HTML ] embedded content elements provide options for alternative rendering, such as allowing multiple sources to be specified or allowing embedded HTML content for when user agents cannot render a resource. When referencing a Foreign Resource, EPUB Creators MUST provide a Core Media Type Resource or embedded HTML content via the given element's intrinsic fallback mechanism. EPUB Creators MAY embed [ HTML ] flow content within the audio and video elements for rendering in older Reading Systems that do not recognize these elements (e.g., EPUB 2 Reading Systems), but it does not represent a fallback Core Media Type Resource. Due to the variety of sources that EPUB Creators can specify in the [ HTML ] img element , the following fallback conditions apply to its use: If it is the child of a picture element : it MUST reference Core Media Type Resources from its src and srcset attributes, when EPUB Creators specify those attributes; and each sibling source element MUST reference a Core Media Type Resource from its src and srcset attributes unless it specifies a media type in its type attribute that is not a Core Media Type. Otherwise, it MAY reference Foreign Resources in its src and srcset attributes provided EPUB Creators define a manifest fallback . EPUB Creators MAY reference Foreign Resources from the following [ HTML ] elements without providing a fallback Core Media Type Resource: link track video — including any child source elements Note Refer to manifest fallbacks for the provision of fallbacks for elements without intrinsic mechanisms, such as the [ HTML ] iframe .

3.2 SVG Content Documents

Caution

Reading Systems may not support all the features of [ SVG ] or supported them across all platforms that Reading Systems run on. When utilizing such features, EPUB Creators should consider the inherent risks on interoperability and document longevity.

3.2.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) specification [ SVG ] defines a format for representing final-form vector graphics and text.

Although EPUB Creators typically use XHTML Content Documents as the top-level document type, the use of SVG Content Documents is also permitted. EPUB Creators will typically only need SVGs for certain special cases, such as when final-form page images are the only suitable representation of the content (e.g., for cover art or in the context of manga or comic books).

This section defines a profile for [ SVG ] documents. An instance of an XML document that conforms to this profile is a Core Media Type Resource and is referred to in this specification as an SVG Content Document .

Note

This section defines conformance requirements for SVG Content Documents . Refer to 3.1.4.2 Embedded SVG for the conformance requirements for SVG embedded in XHTML Content Documents.

3.2.2 SVG Requirements

An SVG Content Document:

Note

The recommendation that EPUB Publications follow the accessibility requirements in [ EPUB-A11Y-11 ] applies to SVG Content Documents. See Accessibility .

3.2.3 Restrictions on SVG

This specification restricts the content model of SVG Content Documents and SVG embedded in XHTML Content Documents as follows:

3.3 Common Resource Requirements

This section defines requirements for technologies usable in both XHTML and SVG Content Documents.

3.3.1 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

3.3.1.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

CSS is an integral part of the Open Web Platform. Readers, publishers, and document authors expect CSS to "just work," as they expect HTML to just work.

In the past, EPUB defined a profile of CSS that mandated support for certain properties and provided prefixed versions of numerous other properties. Although the CSS Working Group no longer recommends the use of prefixed properties, this specification maintains some prefixed properties to avoid breaking existing content. But with the minor exceptions defined in this section, EPUB defers to the W3C to define CSS.

Note

Keep in mind that some Reading Systems will not support all desired features of CSS. The following are known to be particularly problematic:

  • Reading System-induced pagination can interact poorly with style sheets as Reading Systems sometimes paginate using columns. This may result in incorrect values for viewport sizes. Fixed and absolute positioning are particularly problematic.

  • Some types of screens will render animations and transitions poorly (e.g., those with high latency).

3.3.1.2 CSS Requirements

A CSS style sheet:

Note

This specification restricts the use of the direction and unicode-bidi properties because Reading Systems may not implement, or may switch off, CSS processing. EPUB Creators must use the following format-specific methods when they need control over these aspects of the rendering:

3.3.1.3 Prefixed Properties

Earlier version of EPUB included prefixed CSS properties, as many CSS features related to world languages were not yet mature. To ensure backwards compatibility for content authored using these prefixes, they have been retained in this specification. Unless otherwise noted, prefixed properties and values behave exactly as their unprefixed equivalents as described in the appropriate CSS specification. The prefixed properties are documented in E. Prefixed CSS Properties .

Caution

EPUB Creators should use unprefixed properties and Reading Systems should support current CSS specifications. This specification retains the widely used prefixed properties from [ EPUBContentDocs-301 ] but removes support for the less-used ones. EPUB Creators should use CSS-native solutions for the removed properties whenever available.

The Working Group recommends that EPUB Creators currently using these prefixed properties move to unprefixed versions as soon as support allows, as the Working Group does not anticipate supporting them in the next major version of EPUB.

Note

In some cases, the unprefixed versions of these properties now support additional values. Reading Systems may support these values even with the prefixed property.

3.3.2 Scripting

3.3.2.1 Script Inclusion

EPUB Content Documents MAY contain scripting using the facilities defined for this in the respective underlying specifications ([ HTML ] and [ SVG ]). When an EPUB Content Document contains scripting, this specification refers to it as a Scripted Content Document . This label also applies to XHTML Content Documents when they contain instances of [ HTML ] forms .

The scripted property of the manifest item element is used to indicate that an EPUB Content Document is a Scripted Content Document .

When an [ HTML ] script element contains a data block [ HTML ], it does not represent scripted content.

Note

[ SVG ] does not define data blocks as of publication, but the same exclusion would apply if a future update adds the concept.

EPUB Creators should note that Reading Systems are required to behave as though a unique origin [ URL ] has been assigned to each EPUB Publication. In practice, this means that it is not possible for scripts to share data between EPUB Publications.

Which context a script is used in also determines the rights and restrictions that a Reading System places on it (refer to Scripting Conformance [ EPUB-RS-33 ] for more information).

Note

Reading Systems may render Scripted Content Documents in a manner that disables other EPUB capabilities and/or provides a different rendering and user experience (e.g., by disabling pagination).

3.3.2.2 Scripting Contexts

EPUB 3 defines two contexts for script execution:

Note

Scripts may execute in other contexts, but Reading System support for these contexts is optional. For example, a scripted SVG document may be referenced from an [ HTML ] object tag .

Refer to the processing of scripts [ EPUB-RS-33 ] for more information.

Whether EPUB Creators embed the code directly in the script element or reference it via the element's src attribute makes no difference to its executing context.

Which context EPUB Creators use for their scripts affects both what actions the scripts can perform and the likelihood of support in Reading Systems, as described in the following subsections.

Note

Refer to G.1 G.2 Scripting Contexts for an example of the difference between the two contexts.

3.3.2.2.1 Container-Constrained Scripts

A container-constrained script is either of the following:

A container-constrained script MUST NOT contain instructions for modifying the DOM of the EPUB Content Document that embeds it (i.e., the one that contains the iframe element). It also MUST NOT contain instructions for manipulating the size of its containing rectangle.

EPUB Creators should note that support for container-constrained scripting in Reading Systems is only recommended in reflowable documents [ EPUB-RS-33 ]. Furthermore, Reading System support in fixed-layouts EPUBs is optional.

EPUB Creators should ensure container-constrained scripts degrade gracefully in Reading Systems without scripting support (see 3.3.2.5 Scripting Fallbacks ).

Note

EPUB Creators choosing to restrict the usage of scripting to the container-constrained model will ensure a more consistent user experience between scripted and non-scripted content (e.g., consistent pagination behavior).

3.3.2.2.2 Spine-Level Scripts

A spine-level script is an instance of the [ HTML ] script or [ SVG ] script element contained in a Top-level Content Document .

EPUB Creators should note that support for spine-level scripting in Reading Systems is only recommended in fixed-layout documents and reflowable documents set to scroll [ EPUB-RS-33 ]. Furthermore, Reading System support in all other contexts is optional.

Top-level Content Documents that include spine-level scripting SHOULD remain consumable by the user without any information loss or other significant deterioration when scripting is disabled or not available (e.g., by employing progressive enhancement techniques or fallbacks ). Failing to account for non-scripted environments in Top-level Content Documents can result in EPUB Publications being unreadable.

3.3.2.3 Event Model

This section is non-normative.

EPUB Creators should consider the wide variety of possible Reading System implementations when adding scripting functionality to their EPUB Publications (e.g., not all devices have physical keyboards, and in many cases a soft keyboard is activated only for text input elements). Consequently, EPUB Creators should not rely on keyboard events alone; they should always provide alternative ways to trigger a desired action.

3.3.2.4 Scripting Accessibility

EPUB Content Documents that contain scripting SHOULD employ relevant [ WAI-ARIA ] accessibility techniques to ensure that the content remains consumable by all users.

3.3.2.5 Scripting Fallbacks

EPUB Content Documents that contain scripting MAY provide fallbacks for such content, either by using intrinsic fallback mechanisms (such as those available for the [ HTML ] object and canvas elements) or, when an intrinsic fallback is not applicable, by using a manifest-level fallback .

EPUB Creators MUST ensure that scripts only generate Core Media Type Resources or fragments thereof.

4. EPUB Navigation Document

4.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

The EPUB Navigation Document is a mandatory component of an EPUB Publication . It allows EPUB Creators to include a human- and machine-readable global navigation layer, thereby ensuring increased usability and accessibility for the user.

The EPUB Navigation Document is a special type of XHTML Content Document that defines the table of contents for Reading Systems . It may also include other specialized navigation elements, such as a page list and a list of key landmarks . These navigation elements have additional restrictions on their content to facilitate their processing.

The EPUB Navigation Document is not exclusively for machine processing, however. There are no restrictions on the structure or content of the EPUB Navigation Document outside of the specialized navigation elements (i.e., EPUB Creators can mark the rest of the document up like any other XHTML Content Document). As a result, it can also be part of the linear reading order, avoiding the need for duplicate tables of contents. EPUB Creators can hide navigation elements that are only for machine processing (e.g., the page list) with the hidden attribute .

Note that Reading Systems may strip scripting, styling, and HTML formatting as they generate navigational interfaces from information found in the EPUB Navigation Document, and this may make the result difficult to read. If EPUB Creators require such formatting and functionality, then they should also include the EPUB Navigation Document in the spine . The use of progressive enhancement techniques for scripting and styling of the navigation document will help ensure the content will retain its integrity when rendered in a non-browser context.

4.2 The nav Element: Restrictions

When a nav element carries the epub:type attribute in an EPUB Navigation Document , this specification restricts the content model of the element and its descendants as follows:

Content Model
nav

In this order:

ol

In this order:

  • li [1 or more]

li

In this order:

  • ( span or a ) [exactly 1]

  • ol [conditionally required]

span and a

In any order:

Note that there are no restrictions on the attributes allowed on these elements.

Refer the definition below for additional requirements.

The following elaboration of the content model of the nav element explains the purpose and restrictions of the various elements:

As a conforming XHTML Content Document, EPUB Creators MAY include the EPUB Navigation Document in the spine .

In the context of this specification, the default display style of list items within nav elements is equivalent to the list-style: none property [ CSSSnapshot ]. EPUB Creators MAY specify alternative list styling using CSS for rendering of the document in the spine .

4.3 The nav Element: Types

4.3.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

The nav elements defined in an EPUB Navigation Document are distinguished semantically by the value of their epub:type attribute .

This specification defines three types of navigation aid:

toc

Identifies the nav element that contains the table of contents. The toc nav is the only navigation aid that EPUB Creators must include in the EPUB Navigation Document.

page-list

Identifies the nav element that contains a list of pages for a print or other statically paginated source.

landmarks

Identifies the nav element that contains a list of points of interest.

An EPUB Navigation Document may contain at most one navigation aid for each of these types.

The EPUB Navigation Document may include additional navigation types. See 4.3.5 Other nav Elements for more information.

4.3.2 The toc nav Element

The toc nav element defines the primary navigational hierarchy. It conceptually corresponds to a table of contents in a printed work (i.e., it provides navigation to the major structural sections of the publication).

The toc nav element MUST occur exactly once in an EPUB Navigation Document.

EPUB Creators SHOULD order the references in the toc nav element such that they reflect both:

4.3.3 The page-list nav Element

The page-list nav element provides navigation to positions in the content that correspond to the locations of page boundaries present in a print source.

The page-list nav element is OPTIONAL in EPUB Navigation Documents and MUST NOT occur more than once.

The page-list nav element SHOULD contain only a single ol descendant (i.e., no nested sublists).

EPUB Creators MAY identify the destinations of the page-list references in their respective EPUB Content Documents using the pagebreak term [ EPUB-SSV-11 ].

4.3.4 The landmarks nav Element

The landmarks nav element identifies fundamental structural components in the content to enable Reading Systems to provide the user efficient access to them (e.g., through a dedicated button in the user interface).

The landmarks nav element is OPTIONAL in EPUB Navigation Documents and MUST NOT occur more than once.

The landmarks nav element SHOULD contain only a single ol descendant (i.e., no nested sublists).

The epub:type attribute is REQUIRED on a element descendants of the landmarks nav element. The structural semantics of each link target within the landmarks nav element is determined by the value of this attribute.

The landmarks nav MUST NOT include multiple entries with the same epub:type value that reference the same resource, or fragment thereof.

EPUB Creators should limit the number of items they define in the landmarks nav to only items that a Reading System is likely to use in its user interface. The element is not meant to repeat the table of contents.

The following landmarks are recommended to include when available:

  • bodymatter [ EPUB-SSV-11 ]  Reading Systems often use this landmark to automatically jump users past the front matter when they begin reading.
  • toc � [ EPUB-SSV-11 ]  If the table of contents is available in the spine, Reading Systems may use this landmark to take users to the document containing it.

Other possibilities for inclusion in the landmarks nav are key reference sections such as indexes and glossaries.

Although the landmarks nav is intended for Reading System use, EPUB Creators should still ensure that the labels for the landmarks nav are human readable. Reading Systems may expose the links directly to users.

4.3.5 Other nav Elements

EPUB Navigation Documents MAY contain one or more nav elements in addition to the toc , page-list , and landmarks nav elements defined in the preceding sections. If these nav elements are intended for Reading System processing, they MUST have an epub:type attribute and are subject to the content model restrictions defined in 4.2 The nav Element: Restrictions .

This specification imposes no restrictions on the semantics of any additional nav elements: they MAY represent navigational semantics for any information domain, and they MAY contain link targets with homogeneous or heterogeneous semantics.

4.4 Using in the Spine

This section is non-normative.

Although it is possible to reuse the EPUB Navigation Document in the spine , it is often the case that not all of the navigation structures, or branches within them, are needed. EPUB Creators will often want to hide the page list and landmarks navigation elements or trim the branches of the table of contents for books that have many levels of subsections.

While the display property [ CSSSnapshot ] controls the visual rendering of EPUB Navigation Documents in Reading Systems with Viewports , Reading Systems without Viewports may not support CSS. To better ensure the proper rendering in these Reading Systems, EPUB Creators should use the [ HTML ] hidden attribute to indicate which (if any) portions of the navigation data are excluded from rendering in the content flow.

The hidden attribute has no effect on how Reading Systems render the navigation data outside of the content flow (such as in dedicated navigation user interfaces provided by Reading Systems).

Note

The hidden attribute can be used together with the display property to maximize interoperability across all Reading Systems.

5. Layout Rendering Control

5.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

Not all rendering information can be expressed through the underlying technologies that EPUB is built upon. For example, although HTML with CSS provides powerful layout capabilities, those capabilities are limited to the scope of the document being rendered.

This section defines properties that allow EPUB Creators to express package-level rendering intentions (i.e., functionality that can only be implemented by the EPUB Reading System ). If a Reading System supports the desired rendering, these properties enable the user to be presented the content as the EPUB Creator optimally designed it.

5.2 Fixed Layouts

5.2.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

EPUB documents, unlike print books or PDF files, are designed to change. The content flows, or reflows, to fit the screen and to fit the needs of the user. As noted in Rendering and CSS "content presentation adapts to the user, rather than the user having to adapt to a particular presentation of content." [ EPUB-OVERVIEW-33 ]

But this principle does not work for all types of documents. Sometimes content and design are so intertwined it is not possible to separate them. Any change in appearance risks changing the meaning or losing all meaning. Fixed-Layout Documents give EPUB Creators greater control over presentation when a reflowable EPUB is not suitable for the content.

EPUB Creators define fixed layouts using a set of Package Document properties to control the rendering in Reading Systems . In addition, they set the dimensions of each Fixed-Layout Document in its respective EPUB Content Document.

Note

EPUB 3 affords multiple mechanisms for representing fixed-layout content. When fixed-layout content is necessary, the EPUB Creator's choice of mechanism will depend on many factors including desired degree of precision, file size, accessibility, etc. This section does not attempt to dictate the EPUB Creator's choice of mechanism.

5.2.2 Fixed-Layout Package Settings

5.2.2.1 Layout

The rendition:layout property specifies whether the content is reflowable or pre-paginated.

When the rendition:layout property is specified on a meta element, it indicates that the paginated or reflowable layout style applies globally (i.e., for all spine items).

EPUB Creators MUST use one of the following values with the rendition:layout property:

reflowable

The content is not pre-paginated (i.e., Reading Systems apply dynamic pagination when rendering). Default value.

pre-paginated

The content is pre-paginated (i.e., Reading Systems produce exactly one page per spine itemref when rendering).

Note

Reading Systems typically restrict or deny the application of user or user agent style sheets to pre-paginated documents because dynamic style changes are likely to have unintended consequence on the intrinsic properties of such documents. EPUB Creators should consider the negative impact on usability and accessibility that these restrictions have when choosing to use pre-paginated instead of reflowable content. Refer to Guideline 1.4 - Provide text configuration [ UAAG20 ] for related information.

When the property is set to pre-paginated for a spine item, its content dimensions MUST be set as defined in 5.2.2.6 Content Document Dimensions .

EPUB Creators MUST NOT declare the rendition:layout property more than once.

They also MUST NOT declare the property using the refines attribute . Refer to 5.2.2.1.1 Layout Overrides for setting the property for individual EPUB Content Documents .

5.2.2.1.1 Layout Overrides

EPUB Creators MAY specify the following properties locally on spine itemref elements to override the global value for the given spine item:

rendition:layout-pre-paginated
Specifies that the given spine item is pre-paginated.
rendition:layout-reflowable
Specifies that the given spine item is reflowable.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT use more than one of these overrides on any given spine item.

5.2.2.2 Orientation

The rendition:orientation property specifies which orientation the EPUB Creator intends the content to be rendered in.

When the rendition:orientation property is specified on a meta element, it indicates that the intended orientation applies globally (i.e., for all spine items).

EPUB Creators MUST use one of the following values with the rendition:orientation property:

landscape

Reading Systems should render the content in landscape orientation.

portrait

Reading Systems should render the content in portrait orientation.

auto

The content is not orientation constrained. Default value.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT declare the rendition:orientation property more than once.

They also MUST NOT declare the property using the refines attribute . Refer to 5.2.2.2.1 Orientation Overrides for setting the property for individual EPUB Content Documents .

5.2.2.2.1 Orientation Overrides

EPUB Creators MAY specify the following properties locally on spine itemref elements to override the global value for the given spine item:

rendition:orientation-auto
Specifies that the Reading System determines the orientation to render the spine item in.
rendition:orientation-landscape
Specifies that Reading Systems should render the given spine item in landscape orientation.
rendition:orientation-portrait
Specifies that Reading Systems should render the given spine item in portrait orientation.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT use more than one of these overrides on any given spine item.

5.2.2.3 Synthetic Spreads

The rendition:spread property specifies the intended Reading System synthetic spread behavior.

When the rendition:spread property is specified on a meta element, it indicates that the intended Synthetic Spread behavior applies globally (i.e., for all spine items).

EPUB Creators MUST use one of the following values with the rendition:spread property:

none

Do not incorporate spine items in a Synthetic Spread. Reading Systems should display the items in a single viewport positioned at the center of the screen.

landscape

Render a Synthetic Spread for spine items only when the device is in landscape orientation.

portrait (deprecated)

The use of spreads only in portrait orientation is deprecated .

EPUB Creators should use the value " both " instead, as spreads that are readable in portrait orientation are also readable in landscape.

both

Render a Synthetic Spread regardless of device orientation.

auto

The EPUB Creator is not defining an explicit Synthetic Spread behavior. Default value.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT declare the rendition:spread property more than once.

They also MUST NOT declare the property using the refines attribute . Refer to 5.2.2.3.1 Synthetic Spread Overrides for setting the property for individual EPUB Content Documents .

Note

When Synthetic Spreads are used in the context of HTML and SVG Content Documents, the dimensions given via the viewport meta element and viewBox attribute represents the size of one page in the spread, respectively.

Note

Refer to spine for information about declaration of global flow directionality using the page-progression-direction attribute and that of local page-progression-direction within content documents.

5.2.2.3.1 Synthetic Spread Overrides

EPUB Creators MAY specify the following properties locally on spine itemref elements to override the global value for the given spine item:

rendition:spread-auto
Specifies the Reading System determines when to render a synthetic spread for the spine item.
rendition:spread-both
Specifies the Reading System should render a synthetic spread for the spine item in both portrait and landscape orientations.
rendition:spread-landscape
Specifies the Reading System should render a synthetic spread for the spine item only when in landscape orientation.
rendition:spread-none
Specifies the Reading System should not render a synthetic spread for the spine item.
rendition:spread-portrait

The rendition:spread-portrait property is deprecated .

Refer to the spread-portrait property definition in� [ EPUBPublications-301 ] for more information.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT use more than one of these overrides on any given spine item.

5.2.2.4 Spread Placement

When a Reading System renders a Synthetic Spread , the default behavior is to populate the spread by rendering the next EPUB Content Document in the next available unpopulated viewport, where the next available viewport is determined by the given page progression direction or by local declarations within Content Documents. An EPUB Creator MAY override this automatic population behavior and force Reading Systems to place a document in a particular viewport by specifying one of the following properties on its spine itemref element:

rendition:page-spread-center
The rendition:page-spread-center property is an alias of the spread-none property for centering a spine item.
rendition:page-spread-left
The rendition:page-spread-left property is an alias of the page-spread-left property for placing a spine item in the left-hand slot of a two-page spread.
rendition:page-spread-right
The rendition:page-spread-right property is an alias of the page-spread-right property for placing a spine item in the right-hand slot of a two-page spread.

The rendition:page-spread-center , rendition:page-spread-left , and rendition:page-spread-right properties apply to both pre-paginated and reflowable content. They only apply when the Reading System is creating Synthetic Spreads.

Although EPUB Creators often indicate to use a spread in certain device orientations, the content itself does not represent true spreads (i.e., two consecutive pages that Reading Systems must render side-by-side for readability, such as a two-page map). To indicate that two consecutive pages represent a true spread, EPUB Creators SHOULD use the rendition:page-spread-left and rendition:page-spread-right properties on the spine items for the two adjacent EPUB Content Documents, and omit the properties on spine items where one-up or two-up presentation is equally acceptable.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT declare more than one page-spread-* property on any given spine item.

Note

The rendition:page-spread-left and rendition:page-spread-right properties were created to allow the use of a single vocabulary for all fixed-layout properties. EPUB Creators can use either property set, but older Reading Systems might only recognize the unprefixed versions.

The rendition:page-spread-center was created to make it easier for EPUB Creators to understand the process of switching between two-page spreads and single centered pages. EPUB Creators can use either rendition:page-spread-center or spread-none to disable spread behavior in Reading Systems.

5.2.2.5 Viewport Dimensions (Deprecated)

The rendition:viewport property allows EPUB Creators to express the CSS initial containing block (ICB) [ CSS2 ] for XHTML and SVG Content Documents whose rendition:layout property has been set to pre-paginated .

Use of the property is deprecated .

Refer to the rendition:viewport property definition in� [ EPUBPublications-301 ] for more information.

5.2.2.6 Content Document Dimensions

This section defines rules for the expression and interpretation of dimensional properties of Fixed-Layout Documents .

Fixed-Layout Documents specify their initial containing block [ CSS2 ] in the manner applicable to their format:

Expressing in XHTML

For XHTML Fixed-Layout Documents , the initial containing block [ CSS2 ] dimensions MUST be expressed in a viewport meta tag using the syntax defined in [ CSS-Device-Adapt-1 ].

Expressing in SVG

For SVG Fixed-Layout Documents , the initial containing block� [ CSS2 ] dimensions MUST be expressed using the viewBox attribute [ SVG ].

5.3 Reflowable Layouts

Although control over the rendering of EPUB Content Documents to create fixed layouts is an obvious need not handled by other technologies, there are also considerations for reflowable content that are unique to EPUB Publications (e.g., how to handle the flow of content in the Viewport ). This section defines properties that allow EPUB Creators to control presentation aspects of reflowable content.

5.3.1 The rendition:flow Property

The rendition:flow property specifies the EPUB Creator preference for how Reading Systems should handle content overflow.

When the rendition:flow property is specified on a meta element, it indicates the EPUB Creator's global preference for overflow content handling (i.e., for all spine items). EPUB Creators MAY indicate a preference for dynamic pagination or scrolling. For scrolled content, it is also possible to specify whether consecutive EPUB Content Documents are to be rendered as a continuous scrolling view or whether each is to be rendered separately (i.e., with a dynamic page break between each).

EPUB Creators MUST use one of the following values with the rendition:flow property:

paginated

Dynamically paginate all overflow content.

scrolled-continuous

Render all Content Documents such that overflow content is scrollable, and the EPUB Publication is presented as one continuous scroll from spine item to spine item (except where locally overridden ).

Note that EPUB Creators SHOULD NOT create publications in which different resources have different block flow directions, as continuous scrolled rendition in EPUB Reading Systems would be problematic.

scrolled-doc

Render all Content Documents such that overflow content is scrollable, and each spine item is presented as a separate scrollable document.

auto

Render overflow content using the Reading System default method or a user preference, whichever is applicable. Default value.

Note that when two reflowable EPUB Content Documents occur sequentially in the spine, the default rendering for their [ HTML ] body elements is consistent with the page-break-before property [ CSSSnapshot ] having been set to always . In addition to using the rendition:flow property, EPUB Creators MAY override this behavior through an appropriate style sheet declaration, if the Reading System supports such overrides.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT declare the rendition:flow property more than once.

They also MUST NOT declare the property using the refines attribute . Refer to 5.3.1.1 Spine Overrides for setting the property for individual EPUB Content Documents .

Figure 6 Rendering of an EPUB publication with a single spine item, and with the rendition:flow set to paginated .
The continuous progression of paginated content produced for a single document.
Image description

Three column-like rectangles linked left-to-middle and middle-to-right with respective arrows, with a text flowing from one rectangle to the next one. The text is sectioned with headers figuring 'Chapter 1', '2', and '3'. The leftmost rectangle is enclosed in a schematic view of a tablet.

Figure 7 Rendering of an EPUB publication with multiple spine items, and with the rendition:flow set to paginated .
The continuous progression of paginated content produced for each document with transitions to new pages between documents.
Image description

Three column-like rectangles linked left-to-middle and middle-to-right with respective arrows, with a text flowing from one rectangle to the next one. The text is sectioned with headers figuring 'Chapter 1', '2'. The section with 'Chapter 2' starts at the top of the rightmost rectangle, leaving an empty space at the bottom of the middle rectangle. The leftmost rectangle is enclosed in a schematic view of a tablet.

Figure 8 Rendering of an EPUB publication with a single spine item, and with the rendition:flow set to scrolled-continuous .
The progression of a continuous scroll of content extends vertically off the user's screen, with new documents added to the bottom as encountered.
Image description

A single, column-like strip (i.e., a rectangle without a bottom edge) with a text flowing down the strip. The text is sectioned with headers figuring 'Chapter 1', '2'. The top part of the strip is enclosed in a schematic view of a tablet.

Figure 9 Rendering of an EPUB publication with multiple spine items, and with the rendition:flow set to scrolled-doc .
The progression of scrollable documents depicting how only the content within each document is scrollable.
Image description

Three column-like strips (i.e., a rectangles without bottom edges) linked left-to-middle and middle-to-right with respective arrows, each containing a text flowing down the strip. The text is sectioned with headers figuring 'Chapter 1', '2' and '3'. Each strip starts with a chapter header and flows down the strip. The top part of the leftmost strip is enclosed in a schematic view of a tablet.

5.3.1.1 Spine Overrides

EPUB Creators MAY specify the following properties locally on spine itemref elements to override the global value for the given spine item:

rendition:flow-auto
Indicates no preference for overflow content handling by the EPUB Creator.
rendition:flow-paginated
Indicates the EPUB Creator preference is to dynamically paginate content overflow.
rendition:flow-scrolled-continuous
Indicates the EPUB Creator preference is to provide a scrolled view for overflow content, and that consecutive spine items with this property are to be rendered as a continuous scroll.
rendition:flow-scrolled-doc
Indicates the EPUB Creator preference is to provide a scrolled view for overflow content, and each spine item with this property is to be rendered as a separate scrollable document.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT use more than one of these overrides on any given spine item.

5.3.2 The rendition:align-x-center Property

The rendition:align-x-center property specifies that the given spine item should be centered horizontally in the viewport or spread.

The property MUST NOT be set globally for all EPUB Content Documents (i.e., in a meta element without a refines attribute ). It is only available as a spine override for individual EPUB Content Documents via the itemref element's properties attribute .

Note

This property was developed primarily to handle "Naka-Tobira (中扉)" (sectional title pages), in the absence of reliable centering control within the content rendering. As support for paged media evolves in CSS, however, this property is expected to be deprecated. EPUB Creators are encouraged to use CSS solutions when effective.

6. Open Container Format

6.1 OCF Abstract Container

6.1.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

The OCF Abstract Container file system model uses a single common Root Directory for all the contents. All Local Resources for the EPUB Publication are located within the directory tree headed by the Root Directory, but no specific file system structure for them is mandated by this specification.

The file system model also includes a mandatory directory named META-INF that is a direct child of the Root Directory and stores the following special files:

container.xml [required]

Identifies the Package Document(s) that define the EPUB Publication.

signatures.xml [optional]

Contains digital signatures for various assets.

encryption.xml [optional]

Contains information about the encryption of Publication Resources . This file is mandatory when EPUB Creators use font obfuscation .

metadata.xml [optional]

Used to store metadata about the OCF ZIP Container .

rights.xml [optional]

Used to store information about digital rights.

manifest.xml [optional]

A manifest of container contents as allowed by Open Document Format [ ODF ].

Refer to 6.1.6 META-INF Directory for conformance requirements for the various files in the META-INF directory.

6.1.2 File and Directory Structure

The virtual file system for the OCF Abstract Container MUST have a single common Root Directory for all the contents of the container.

The OCF Abstract Container MUST include a directory for configuration files named META-INF that is a direct child of the container's Root Directory. Refer to 6.1.6 META-INF Directory for the requirements for the contents of this directory.

The file name mimetype in the Root Directory is reserved for use by OCF ZIP Containers , as explained in 6.2 OCF ZIP Container .

EPUB Creators MAY locate all other files within the OCF Abstract Container in any location descendant from the Root Directory, provided they are not within the META-INF directory. EPUB Creators MUST NOT reference files in the META-INF directory from an EPUB Publication.

Note

Some Reading Systems do not provide access to resources outside the directory where the Package Document is stored. EPUB Creators should therefore place all resources at or below the directory containing the Package Document to avoid interoperability issues.

This problem is more commonly encountered when creating multiple renditions [ EPUB-MULTI-REND-11 ] of the publication.

6.1.3 File Paths and File Names

In the context of the Abstract Container, File Paths and File Names are case sensitive.

In addition, the following restrictions are designed to allow File Paths and File Names to be used without modification on most operating systems:

  • File Names and Paths MUST be UTF-8 [ Unicode ] encoded.

  • File Names MUST NOT exceed 255 bytes.

  • The File Paths for any directory or file within the OCF Abstract Container MUST NOT exceed 65535 bytes.

  • File Names MUST NOT use the following [ Unicode ] characters, as commonly used operating systems may not support these characters consistently:

    • SOLIDUS: / ( U+002F )

    • QUOTATION MARK: " ( U+0022 )

    • ASTERISK: * ( U+002A )

    • FULL STOP as the last character: . ( U+002E )

    • COLON: : ( U+003A )

    • LESS-THAN SIGN: < ( U+003C )

    • GREATER-THAN SIGN: > ( U+003E )

    • QUESTION MARK: ? ( U+003F )

    • REVERSE SOLIDUS: \ ( U+005C )

    • VERTICAL LINE: | ( U+007C )

    • DEL ( U+007F )

    • C0 range ( U+0000 … U+001F )

    • C1 range ( U+0080 … U+009F )

    • Private Use Area ( U+E000 … U+F8FF )

    • All Unicode Non Characters, specifically:

      • The 32 contiguous characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane ( U+FDD0 … U+FDEF )

      • The last two code points of the Basic Multilingual Plane ( U+FFFE and U+FFFF )

      • The last two code points at the end of the Supplementary Planes ( U+1FFFE, U+1FFFF … U+EFFFE, U+EFFFF )

    • Specials ( U+FFF0 … U+FFFF )

    • The Deprecated Characters in the Tags and Variation Selectors Supplement ( U+E0001 and U+E007F )

    • Supplementary Private Use Area-A ( U+F0000 … U+FFFFF )

    • Supplementary Private Use Area-B ( U+100000 … U+10FFFF )

  • All File Names within the same directory MUST be unique following Unicode canonical normalization [ UAX15 ] and then full case folding [ Unicode ]. (Refer to Unicode Canonical Case Fold Normalization Step [ CHARMOD-NORM ] for more information.)

Note

If EPUB Creators dynamically integrate resources (i.e., where the naming is beyond their control), they should be aware that automatic truncation of File Names to keep them within the 255 bytes limit can lead to corruption. This is due to the difference between bytes and characters in multibyte encodings such as UTF-8; it is, therefore, important to avoid mid-character truncation. See the section on "Truncating or limiting the length of strings" in [ international-specs ] for more information.

Note

EPUB Creators should use an abundance of caution in their file naming when interoperability of content is key. The list of restricted characters is intended to help avoid some known problem areas, but it does not ensure that all other Unicode characters are supported. Although Unicode support is much better now than in earlier iterations of EPUB, older tools and toolchains may still be encountered (e.g., ZIP tools that only support [ US-ASCII ]).

If EPUB Creators need to ensure compatibility with EPUB 2 Reading Systems that only accept URIs [ RFC3986 ], they should further consider restricting resource names to the ASCII character set [ US-ASCII ].

6.1.4 Deriving File Paths

To derive the File Path , given a file or directory file in the OCF Abstract Container , apply the following steps (expressed using the terminology of [ INFRA ]):

  1. Let path be an empty list .
  2. Let current be file .
  3. While current is not the Root Directory :
    1. prepend the File Name of current to path ;
    2. set current to the parent directory of current .
  4. Return the concatenation of path using the U+002F� (/) character.

6.1.5 URLs in the OCF Abstract Container

The container root URL is the URL � [ URL ] of the Root Directory . It is implementation-specific, but EPUB Creators MUST assume it has the following properties:

The content URL of a file or directory in the OCF Abstract Container is the result of parsing the file's File Path with the container root URL as base .

Note

The container root URL is the URL assigned by the Reading System to the root of the container. It typically depends on how the reading system internally implements the container file system.

However, a Reading System cannot arbitrarily use any URL, but one that honors the constraints defined above. These constraints ensure that any relative URL string found in the EPUB will always be parsed to a URL of a resource within the container (which may or may not exist). The primary reason for these constraints is to avoid potential run-time security issues that would be caused by parsed URLs "leaking" outside the container files.

For example, URLs like https://localhost:12345/ or https://www.example.org:12345/ honor these properties. But URLs like https://localhost:12345/path/to.epub/ , file:///path/to.epub#path=/ , or jar:file:/path/to.epub!/EPUB/ do not (parsing the URL string " .. " with these three examples as base would return https://localhost:12345/path/ , file:///path/ , and a parsing error, respectively). It is the responsibility of the Reading System to assign a URL to the root directory that complies with the properties defined above.

Note

Parsing may replace some characters in the File Path by their percent encoded alternative. For example, A/B/C/file name.xhtml becomes A/B/C/file%20name.xhtml .

A string url is a valid-relative-ocf-URL-with-fragment string if it is a path-relative-scheme-less-URL string , optionally followed by U+0023� (#) and a URL-fragment string , and if the following steps return true :

  1. Set the container root URL to https://a.example.org/A/ .
    Explanation

    The goal of the algorithm is to detect whether url could be seen as "leaking" outside the container. To do that, the standard URL parsing algorithm is used with an artificial root URL; the detection of the "leak" is done by comparing the result of the parsing with the presence of the first test path segment ( A ). (Note that the artificial container root URL wilfully violates, for the purpose of this algorithm, the required properties by using that first test path segment.)

  2. Let base be the base URL that must be used to parse url as defined by the context (document or environment) where url is used, and according to the content URL of the Package Document (see 2.3.2 Parsing URLs in the Package Document ).
    Explanation

    In the case of a URL in the package document the base variable is set to the content URL of the Package Document . In the case of a document within the META-INF directory, the base variable is set to the container root URL (see 6.1.6.2 Parsing URLs in the META-INF Directory ). In the case of a URL in an XHTML Content Document, the base URL used for parsing is defined by the HTML standard . Typically, it will be the content URL of the content document (unless the discouraged base element is used).

  3. Let testURLRecord be the result of applying the URL parser to url , with base .
  4. Let testURLStringA be the result of applying the URL Serializer to testURLRecord .
  5. Set the container root URL to https://b.example.org/B/ .
    Explanation

    The reasons to repeat the same steps twice with different, and artificial, settings of the container root URL is to avoid collision which may occur if the url string also includes /A/ . Consider, for example, the case where url is ../../A/doc.xhtml .

  6. Set base to be the base URL that must be used to parse url as defined by the context (document or environment) where url is used, and according to the content URL of the Package Document (see 2.3.2 Parsing URLs in the Package Document ).
  7. Set testURLRecord to be the result of applying the URL parser to url , with base .
  8. Let testURLStringB be the result of applying the URL Serializer to testURLRecord .
  9. If testURLStringA does not start with https://a.example.org/ or testURLStringB does not start with https://b.example.org/ , return true .
    Explanation

    If any of the result does not share the test URL host, it means that url , or its base URL (for example, in HTML, if it is explicitly set with the base element), was absolute and points outside the container. This is acceptable.

  10. If testURLStringA starts with https://a.example.org/A/ and testURLStringB starts with https://b.example.org/B/ , return true .
    Explanation

    The presence of the first test path segments ( A , respectively B ) indicate that the URL doesn't leak outside the container.

  11. Return false .

In the OCF Abstract Container , any URL string MUST be an absolute-URL-with-fragment-string or a valid-relative-ocf-URL-with-fragment string .

In addition, all relative-URL-with-fragment strings [ URL ] MUST , after parsing , be equal to the Content URL of an existing file in the OCF Abstract Container.

Note

These constraints on URL strings mean that:

  • relative URL strings starting with a / ( U+002F ) (for example, /EPUB/content.xhtml ) are disallowed;
  • relative URL strings containing more double-dot path segments than needed to reach the target file (for example, EPUB/../../../../config.xml ) are disallowed;
  • any other absolute or relative URL string is allowed.

Note that in any case, even the disallowed URL strings described above will not "leak" outside the container after parsing (as explained in the first note of this section). They are nevertheless disallowed for better interoperability with non-conforming or legacy Reading Systems and toolchains.

6.1.6 META-INF Directory

6.1.6.1 Inclusion in OCF Abstract Container

All OCF Abstract Containers MUST include a directory called META-INF in their Root Directory .

This directory is reserved for configuration files, specifically those defined in 6.1.6.3 Reserved Files .

6.1.6.2 Parsing URLs in the META-INF Directory

To parse a URL string url used in files located in the META-INF directory the URL Parser MUST be applied to url , with the container root URL as base .

6.1.6.3 Reserved Files
6.1.6.3.1 Container File ( container.xml )

The REQUIRED container.xml file in the META-INF directory identifies the Package Documents available in the OCF Abstract Container .

All [ XML ] elements defined in this section are in the urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container namespace [ XML-NAMES ] unless specified otherwise.

The contents of this file MUST be valid to the definition in this section after removing all elements and attributes from other namespaces (including all attributes and contents of such elements).

Note

An XML Schema also informally defines the content of this file.

6.1.6.3.1.1 The container Element

The container element is the root element of the container.xml file.

Element Name

container

Usage

Root element of the container.xml file.

Attributes
version [required]
This attribute MUST have the value " 1.0 ".
Content Model

In this order:

6.1.6.3.1.2 The rootfiles Element

The rootfiles element contains a list of Package Documents available in the EPUB Container .

Element Name

rootfiles

Usage

REQUIRED first child of container .

Attributes

None

Content Model
6.1.6.3.1.3 The rootfile Element

Each rootfile element identifies the location of one Package Document in the EPUB Container .

Element Name

rootfile

Usage

As child of the rootfiles element. Repeatable.

Attributes
full-path [required]

Identifies the location of a Package Document .

The value of the attribute MUST be a path-relative-scheme-less-URL string [ URL ]. The path is relative to the Root Directory .

media-type [required]

Identifies the media type of the Package Document.

The value of the attribute MUST be " application/oebps-package+xml ".

Content Model

Empty

If an EPUB Creator defines more than one rootfile element, each MUST reference a Package Document that conforms to the same version of EPUB. Each Package Document represents one rendering of the EPUB Publication.

Note

Although the EPUB Container provides the ability to reference more than one Package Document, this specification does not define how to interpret, or select from, the available options. Refer to [ EPUB-MULTI-REND-11 ] for more information on how to bundle more than one rendering of the content.

6.1.6.3.1.6 Examples

This section is non-normative.

6.1.6.3.2 Encryption File ( encryption.xml )

The OPTIONAL encryption.xml file in the META-INF directory holds all encryption information on the contents of the container. If an EPUB Creator encrypts any resources within the container, they MUST include an encryption.xml file to provide information about the encryption used.

6.1.6.3.2.1 The encryption element
Element Name

encryption

Namespace

urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container

Usage

Root element of the encryption.xml file.

Attributes

None

Content Model

In any order:

  • EncryptedKey [1 or more]
  • EncryptedData [1 or more]

The encryption element contains child elements of type EncryptedKey and EncryptedData as defined by [ XMLENC-CORE1 ].

An EncryptedKey element describes each encryption key used in the container, while an EncryptedData element describes each encrypted file. Each EncryptedData element refers to an EncryptedKey element, as described in XML Encryption.

Note

An XML Schema also informally defines the content of the encryption.xml file.

OCF encrypts individual files independently, trading off some security for improved performance, allowing the container contents to be incrementally decrypted. Encryption in this way exposes the directory structure and file naming of the whole package.

OCF uses XML Encryption [ XMLENC-CORE1 ] to provide a framework for encryption, allowing a variety of algorithms to be used. XML Encryption specifies a process for encrypting arbitrary data and representing the result in XML. Even though an OCF Abstract Container may contain non-XML data, EPUB Creators can use XML Encryption to encrypt all data in an OCF Abstract Container. OCF encryption supports only the encryption of entire files within the container, not parts of files. EPUB Creators MUST NOT encrypt the encryption.xml file when present.

Encrypted data replaces unencrypted data in an OCF Abstract Container. For example, if an EPUB Creator encrypts an image named photo.jpeg , they should replace the contents of the photo.jpeg resource with its encrypted contents. Within the ZIP directory, EPUB Creators SHOULD store encrypted files rather than Deflate-compress them.

Note that some situations require obfuscating the storage of embedded fonts referenced by an EPUB Publication to make them more difficult to extract for unrestricted use. Although obfuscation is not encryption, Reading Systems use the encryption.xml file in conjunction with the font obfuscation algorithm to identify fonts to deobfuscate.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT encrypt the following files:

  • mimetype
  • META-INF/container.xml
  • META-INF/encryption.xml
  • META-INF/manifest.xml
  • META-INF/metadata.xml
  • META-INF/rights.xml
  • META-INF/signatures.xml
  • Package Document

EPUB Creators MAY subsequently encrypt signed resources using the Decryption Transform for XML Signature [ XMLENC-DECRYPT ]. This feature enables a Reading System to distinguish data encrypted before signing from data encrypted after signing.

6.1.6.3.2.2 Order of Compression and Encryption

When stored in a ZIP container, EPUB Creators SHOULD compress streams of data with Non-Codec content types before encrypting them. EPUB Creators MUST use Deflate compression. This practice ensures that file entries stored in the ZIP container have a smaller size.

EPUB Creators SHOULD NOT compress streams of data with Codec content types before encrypting them. In such cases, additional compression introduces unnecessary processing overhead at production time (especially with large resource files) and impacts audio/video playback performance at consumption time. In some cases, the combination of compression with some encryption schemes might even compromise the ability of Reading Systems to handle partial content requests (e.g. HTTP byte ranges), due to the technical impossibility to determine the length of the full resource ahead of media playback (e.g. HTTP Content-Length header).

When EPUB Creators compress streams of data before encrypting, they SHOULD provide additional EncryptionProperties metadata to specify the size of the initial resource (i.e., before compression and encryption), as per the Compression XML element defined below. When EPUB Creators do not compress streams of data before encrypting, they MAY provide the additional EncryptionProperties metadata to specify the size of the initial resource (i.e., before encryption).

Element Name

Compression

Namespace

http://www.idpf.org/2016/encryption#compression

Usage

OPTIONAL child of EncryptionProperty .

Attributes
Method [required]

Identifies the compression method used.

Value is either " 0 " (no compression) or " 8 " (Deflate algorithm).

OriginalLength [required]

Represents the size of the initial resource (number of bytes).

Value is a positive integer.

Content Model

Empty

6.1.6.3.3 Manifest File ( manifest.xml )

The OPTIONAL manifest.xml file in the META-INF directory provides a manifest of files in the Container.

The OCF specification does not mandate a format for the manifest.

Note that Package Documents specify the only manifests used for processing EPUB Publications . Reading Systems do not use this file.

Note
This feature exists only for compatibility with [ ODF ].
6.1.6.3.4 Metadata File ( metadata.xml )

The OPTIONAL metadata.xml file in the META-INF directory is only for container-level metadata.

If EPUB Creators include a metadata.xml file, they SHOULD use only namespace-qualified elements [ XML-NAMES ] in it. The file SHOULD contain the root element metadata in the namespace http://www.idpf.org/2013/metadata , but this specification allows other root elements for backwards compatibility.

This version of the specification does not define metadata for use in the metadata.xml file. Future versions of this specification MAY define container-level metadata.

6.1.6.3.5 Rights Management File ( rights.xml )

This specification reserves the OPTIONAL rights.xml file in the META-INF directory for digital rights management (DRM) information for trusted exchange of EPUB Publications among rights holders, intermediaries, and users.

When EPUB Creators do not include a rights.xml file, no part of the container is rights governed at the container level. Rights expressions might exist within the EPUB Publications.

If EPUB Creators do not include a rights.xml file, no part of the OCF Abstract Container is rights governed.

6.1.6.3.6 Digital Signatures File ( signatures.xml )
Note

Adding a digital signature is not a guarantee that a malicious actor cannot tamper with an EPUB Publication as Reading Systems do not have to check signatures.

The OPTIONAL signatures.xml file in the META-INF directory holds digital signatures for the container and its contents.

6.1.6.3.6.1 The signatures element
Element Name

signatures

Namespace

urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container

Usage

Root element of the signature.xml file.

Attributes

None

Content Model
  • Signature [1 or more]

The signature element contains child elements of type Signature , as defined by [ XMLDSIG-CORE1 ]. EPUB Creators can apply signatures to an EPUB Publication as a whole or to its parts, and can specify the signing of any kind of data (i.e., not just XML).

Note

An XML Schema also informally defines the content of the signatures.xml file.

When an EPUB Creator does not include a signatures.xml file, they are not signing any part of the container at the container level. Digital signing might exist within the EPUB Publication .

When an EPUB Creator creates a data signature for the container, they SHOULD add the signature as the last child Signature element of the signatures element.

Note

Each Signature in the signatures.xml file identifies by URL [ URL ] the data to which the signature applies, using the [ XMLDSIG-CORE1 ] Manifest element and its Reference sub-elements. EPUB Creator may sign individual container files separately or together. Separately signing each file creates a digest value for the resource that Reading Systems can validate independently. This approach might make a Signature element larger. If EPUB Creators sign files together, they can list the set of signed files in a single XML Signature Manifest element and reference them by one or more Signature elements.

EPUB Creators can sign any or all files in the container in their entirety, except for the signatures.xml file since that file will contain the computed signature information. Whether and how EPUB Creators sign the signatures.xml file depends on their objective.

If the EPUB Creator wants to allow signatures to be added or removed from the container without invalidating their signature, they SHOULD NOT sign the signatures.xml file.

If the EPUB Creator wants any addition or removal of a signature to invalidate their signature, they can use the Enveloped Signature transform defined in Section 6.6.4 of [ XMLDSIG-CORE1 ] to sign the entire pre-existing signature file excluding the Signature being created. This transform would sign all previous signatures, and it would become invalid if a subsequent signature were added to the package.

Note

If the EPUB Creator wants the removal of an existing signature to invalidate their signature, but also wants to allow the addition of signatures, they could use an XPath transform to sign just the existing signatures. The details of such a transform are outside the scope of this specification, however.

The [ XMLDSIG-CORE1 ] specification does not associate any semantics with a signature; an agent might include semantic information, for example, by adding information to the Signature element that describes the signature. The [ XMLDSIG-CORE1 ] specification describes how additional information can be added to a signature, such as by use the SignatureProperties element.

6.2 OCF ZIP Container

6.2.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

An OCF ZIP Container is a physical single-file manifestation of an OCF Abstract Container . The Container allows:

  • the exchange of in-progress EPUB Publication between different individuals and/or different organizations;

  • the transfer of EPUB Publications from a publisher or conversion house to the distribution or sales channel; and

  • the delivery of EPUB Publications to EPUB Reading Systems or users.

6.2.2 ZIP File Requirements

An OCF ZIP Container uses the ZIP format as specified by [ ZIP ], but with the following constraints and clarifications:

  • The contents of the OCF ZIP Container MUST be a conforming OCF Abstract Container .

  • OCF ZIP Containers MUST NOT use the features in the ZIP application note [ ZIP ] that allow ZIP files to be spanned across multiple storage media or be split into multiple files.

  • OCF ZIP Containers MUST include only stored (uncompressed) and Deflate-compressed ZIP entries within the ZIP archive.

  • OCF ZIP Containers MAY use the ZIP64 extensions defined as "Version 1" in section V, subsection G of the application note [ ZIP ] and SHOULD use only those extensions when the content requires them.

  • OCF ZIP Containers MUST NOT use the encryption features defined by the ZIP format; instead, encryption MUST be done using the features described in 6.1.6.3.2 Encryption File ( encryption.xml ) .

  • OCF ZIP Containers MUST encode File System Names using UTF-8 [ Unicode ].

The following constraints apply to specific fields in the OCF ZIP Container archive:

  • In the local file header table, EPUB Creators MUST set the version needed to extract fields to the values 10 , 20 or 45 to match the maximum version level needed by the given file (e.g., 20 for Deflate, 45 for ZIP64).

  • In the local file header table, EPUB Creators MUST set the compression method field to the values 0 or 8 .

6.2.3 OCF ZIP Container Media Type Identification

EPUB Creators MUST include the mimetype file as the first file in the OCF ZIP Container . In addition:

  • The contents of the mimetype file MUST be the MIME media type [ RFC2046 ] string application/epub+zip encoded in US-ASCII [ US-ASCII ].
  • The mimetype file MUST NOT contain any leading or trailing padding or white space.
  • The mimetype file MUST NOT begin with the Unicode byte order mark U+FEFF.
  • EPUB Creators MUST NOT compress or encrypt the mimetype file.
  • EPUB Creators MUST NOT include an extra field in its ZIP header.
Note

Refer to H.2 The application/epub+zip Media Type for further information about the application/epub+zip media type.

6.3 Font Obfuscation

Caution

Better methods of protecting fonts exist. Both [ WOFF ] and [ WOFF2 ] fonts, for example, allow the embedding of licensing information and provide some protection through font table compression. The use of remotely hosted fonts also allows for font subsetting. EPUB Creators are advised to use font obfuscation as defined in this section only when no other options are available to them. See also the limitations of obfuscation .

6.3.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

Since an OCF ZIP Container is fundamentally a ZIP file, commonly available ZIP tools can be used to extract any unencrypted content stream from the package. Moreover, the nature of ZIP files means that their contents might appear like any other native container on some systems (e.g., a folder).

While this simplicity of ZIP files is quite useful, it also poses a problem when ease of extraction of fonts is not a desired side-effect of not encrypting them. An EPUB Creator who wishes to include a third-party font, for example, typically does not want that font extracted and re-used by others. More critically, many commercial fonts allow embedding, but embedding a font implies making it an integral part of the EPUB Publication, not just providing the original font file along with the content.

Since integrated ZIP support is so ubiquitous in modern operating systems, simply placing a font in the ZIP archive is insufficient to signify that the font cannot be reused in other contexts. This uncertainty can undermine the otherwise useful font embedding capability of EPUB Publications.

To discourage reuse of their fonts, some font vendors might only allow their use in EPUB Publications if the fonts are bound in some way to the EPUB Publication. That is, if the font file cannot be installed directly for use on an operating system with the built-in tools of that computing device, and it cannot be directly used by other EPUB Publications.

It is beyond the scope of this specification to provide a digital rights management or enforcement system for fonts. This section instead defines a method of obfuscation that will require additional work on the part of the final OCF recipient to gain general access to any obfuscated fonts.

6.3.2 Limitations

This section is non-normative.

This specification does not claim that obfuscation constitutes encryption, nor does it guarantee that the resource will be secure from copyright infringement. The hope is only that this algorithm will meet the requirements of vendors who require some assurance that their fonts cannot be extracted simply by unzipping the OCF Container and copying the resource.

Obfuscation, like any protection scheme, cannot fully protect fonts from being accessed in their deobfuscated state. The mechanism only provides an obstacle for those who are unaware of the license details. It will not prevent a determined user from gaining full access to the font through such alternative means as:

  • applying the deobfuscation algorithm to extract the raw font file;
  • accessing the deobfuscated font through a Reading System that must dedobfuscate it to render the content (e.g., by accessing the resources through a browser-based Reading System); or
  • accessing the deobfuscated font through authoring tools that provide the visual rendering of the content.

As a result, whether this method of obfuscation satisfies the requirements of individual font licenses remains a question for the licensor and licensee. EPUB Creators are responsible for ensuring their use of obfuscation meets font licensing requirements.

EPUB Creators should also be aware that obfuscation may lead to interoperability issues in Reading Systems as Reading Systems are not required to deobfuscate fonts. As a result, the visual presentation of their publications may differ from Reading System to Reading System.

Also note that the algorithm is restricted to obfuscating fonts. It is not intended as a general-purpose mechanism for obfuscating any resource in the EPUB Container.

6.3.3 Obfuscation Key

EPUB Creators MUST derive the key used in the obfuscation algorithm from the Unique Identifier .

All white space characters, as defined in section 2.3 of the XML 1.0 specification [ XML ], MUST be removed from this identifier — specifically, the Unicode code points U+0020 , U+0009 , U+000D and U+000A .

EPUB Creators MUST generate a SHA-1 digest of the UTF-8 representation of the resulting string as specified by the Secure Hash Standard [ FIPS-180-4 ]. They can then use this digest as the key for the algorithm.

6.3.4 Obfuscation Algorithm

The algorithm employed to obfuscate fonts consists of modifying the first 1040 bytes (~1KB) of the font file. (In the unlikely event that the font file is less than 1040 bytes, this process will modify the entire file.)

To obfuscate the original data, store, as the first byte of the embedded font, the result of performing a logical exclusive or (XOR) on the first byte of the raw font file and the first byte of the obfuscation key .

Repeat this process with the next byte of source and key and continue for all bytes in the key. At this point, the process continues starting with the first byte of the key and 21st byte of the source. Once 1040 bytes are encoded in this way (or the end of the source is reached), directly copy any remaining data in the source to the destination.

EPUB Creators MUST obfuscate fonts before compressing and adding them to the OCF Container. Note that as obfuscation is not encryption, this requirement is not a violation of the one in 6.1.6.3.2 Encryption File ( encryption.xml ) to compress fonts before encrypting them.

The following pseudo-code exemplifies the obfuscation algorithm.

  1. set ocf to OCF container file
  2. set source to font file
  3. set destination to obfuscated font file
  4. set keyData to key for file
  5. set outer to 0
  6. while outer < 52 and not ( source at EOF)
    1. set inner to 0
    2. while inner < 20 and not ( source at EOF)
      1. read 1 byte from source (Assumes read advances file position)
      2. set sourceByte to result of read
      3. set keyByte to byte inner of keyData
      4. set obfuscatedByte to ( sourceByte XOR keyByte )
      5. write obfuscatedByte to destination
      6. increment inner
      end while
    3. increment outer
    end while
  7. if not ( source at EOF) then
    1. read source to EOF
    2. write result of read to destination
    end if
  8. Deflate destination
  9. store destination as source in ocf

6.3.5 Specifying Obfuscated Fonts

Although not technically encrypted data, all obfuscated fonts MUST have an entry in the encryption.xml file accompanying the EPUB Publication (see 6.1.6.3.2 Encryption File ( encryption.xml ) ).

EPUB Creators MUST specify an EncryptedData element for each obfuscated font. Each EncryptedData element MUST contain a child EncryptionMethod element whose Algorithm attribute has the value http://www.idpf.org/2008/embedding . The presence of this attribute signals the use of the algorithm described in this specification.

EPUB Creators MUST list the path to the obfuscated font in the CipherReference child of the CipherData element. As the obfuscation algorithm is restricted to fonts, the URI attribute of the CipherReference element MUST reference a Font Core Media Type Resource .

To prevent trivial copying of the embedded font to other EPUB Publications, EPUB Creators MUST NOT provide the obfuscation key in the encryption.xml file.

7. Media Overlays

7.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

Mainstream ebooks, educational tools and ebooks formatted for persons with print disabilities are some examples of works that contain synchronized audio narration. In EPUB 3, EPUB Creators can create these types of books using Media Overlay Documents to describe the timing for the pre-recorded audio narration and how it relates to the EPUB Content Document markup. The specification defines the file format for Media Overlays as a subset of [ SMIL3 ], a W3C recommendation for representing synchronized multimedia information in XML.

The text and audio synchronization enabled by Media Overlays provides enhanced accessibility for any user who has difficulty following the text of a traditional book. Media Overlays also provide a continuous listening experience for readers who are unable to read the text for any reason, something that traditional audio embedding techniques cannot offer. They are even useful for purposes not traditionally considered accessibility concerns (e.g., for language learning).

The Media Overlays feature is transparent to EPUB Reading Systems that do not support the feature. The inclusion of Media Overlays in an EPUB Publication has no impact on the ability of Media Overlay-unaware Reading Systems to render the EPUB Publication as though the Media Overlays are not present.

Media Overlays in EPUB are not an equivalent to audiobooks, as audiobooks are primarily audio-based with text occasionally provided as an alternate format. The W3C [ Audiobooks ] recommendation is for building audio publications.

Although future versions of this specification might incorporate support for video media (e.g., synchronized text/sign-language books), this version supports only synchronizing audio media with the EPUB Content Document.

7.2 Media Overlay Documents

7.2.1 Media Overlay Document Requirements

A Media Overlay Document :

7.2.2 Media Overlay Document Definition

All elements [ XML ] defined in this section are in the https://www.w3.org/ns/SMIL namespace [ XML-NAMES ] unless otherwise specified.

7.2.2.1 The smil Element

The smil element is the root element of all Media Overlay Documents.

Element Name

smil

Usage

The smil element is the root element of the Media Overlay Document.

Attributes
version [required]

Specifies the version number of the [ SMIL3 ] specification to which the Media Overlay adheres.

This attribute MUST have the value " 3.0 ".

id [optional]

The ID [ XML ] of the element, which MUST be unique within the document scope.

epub:prefix [optional]

Declares additional metadata vocabulary prefixes.

Refer to 7.3.3 Structural Semantics in Overlays for more information.

Content Model

In this order:

7.2.2.2 The head Element

The head element is the container for metadata in the Media Overlay Document.

Element Name

head

Usage

The head element is the OPTIONAL first child of the smil element.

Attributes

None

Content Model

metadata [0 or 1]

As this specification does not define any metadata properties that must occur in the Media Overlay Document, the head element is OPTIONAL .

7.2.2.3 The metadata Element

The metadata element represents metadata for the Media Overlay Document. The metadata element is an extension point that allows the inclusion of metadata from any metainformation structuring language.

Element Name

metadata

Usage

As a child of the head element.

Attributes

None

Content Model

[0 or more] elements from any namespace

This specification does not require any metadata properties in the Media Overlay Document; the metadata element is provided for custom metadata requirements.

7.2.2.4 The body Element

The body element is the starting point for the presentation contained in the Media Overlay Document. It contains the main sequence of par and seq elements.

Element Name

body

Usage

The body element is a REQUIRED child of the smil element. It follows the head element, when that element is present.

Attributes
epub:type [optional]

An expression of the structural semantics of the corresponding element in the EPUB Content Document .

The value is a white space separated list of property types. Refer to 7.3.3 Structural Semantics in Overlays for more information.

id [optional]

The ID [ XML ] of the element, which MUST be unique within the document scope.

epub:textref [optional]

Refers to the associated EPUB Content Document and, optionally, identifies a specific part of it.

The value MUST be a path-relative-scheme-less-URL string , optionally followed by U+0023� (#) and a URL-fragment string .

Content Model

In any order:

MUST include at least one par or seq .

7.2.2.5 The seq Element

The seq element is a sequential time container for media objects and/or child time containers.

Element Name

seq

Usage

One or more seq elements MAY occur as children of the body element and of the seq element .

Attributes
epub:type [optional]

An expression of the structural semantics of the corresponding element in the EPUB Content Document .

The value is a white space separated list of property types. Refer to 7.3.3 Structural Semantics in Overlays for more information.

id [optional]

The ID [ XML ] of the element, which MUST be unique within the document scope.

epub:textref [required]

Refers to the associated EPUB Content Document and, optionally, identifies a specific part of it.

The value MUST be a path-relative-scheme-less-URL string , optionally followed by U+0023� (#) and a URL-fragment string .

Refer to 7.3.2.1 Overlay Structure for more information.

Content Model

In any order:

MUST include at least one par or seq .

7.2.2.6 The par Element

The par element is a parallel time container for media objects.

Element Name

par

Usage

One or more par elements MAY occur as children of the body and seq elements.

Attributes
epub:type [optional]

An expression of the structural semantics of the corresponding element in the EPUB Content Document .

The value is a white space separated list of property types. Refer to 7.3.3 Structural Semantics in Overlays for more information.

id [optional]

The ID [ XML ] of the element, which MUST be unique within the document scope.

Content Model

In any order:

7.2.2.7 The text Element

The text element references an element in an EPUB Content Document . A text element typically refers to a textual element but can also refer to other EPUB Content Document media elements (see 7.3.2.4 Embedded Media ). In the absence of a sibling audio element textual content referred to by this element may be rendered via text-to-speech .

Element Name

text

Usage

As a REQUIRED child of the par element.

Attributes
src [required]

Refers to the associated EPUB Content Document and, optionally, identifies a specific part of it.

The value MUST be a path-relative-scheme-less-URL string , optionally followed by U+0023� (#) and a URL-fragment string .

id [optional]

The ID [ XML ] of the element, which MUST be unique within the document scope.

Content Model

Empty

Note

This specification places no restriction on the src attribute of a text element. Authors should, however, refer to a content that can be styled with CSS to make the association with style information effective, i.e., palpable content for XHTML or paths , basic shapes , or text elements in SVG.

7.2.2.8 The audio Element

The audio element represents a clip of audio media.

Element Name

audio

Usage

An OPTIONAL child of the par element .

Attributes
id [optional]

The ID [ XML ] of the element, which MUST be unique within the document scope.

src [required]

The relative- or absolute-URL string [ URL ] reference to an audio file. The audio file MUST be one of the audio formats listed in the Core Media Type Resources table.

clipBegin [optional]

A clock value that specifies the offset into the physical media corresponding to the start point of an audio clip.

MUST be a [ SMIL3 ] clock value .

See G.3 G.4 Clock Values .

clipEnd [optional]

A clock value that specifies the offset into the physical media corresponding to the end point of an audio clip.

MUST be a [ SMIL3 ] clock value .

See G.3 G.4 Clock Values .

The chronological offset of the terminating position MUST be after the starting offset specified in the clipBegin attribute.

Content Model

Empty

7.3 Creating Media Overlays

7.3.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

EPUB Creators can represent a pre-recorded narration of a publication as a series of audio clips, each corresponding to part of an EPUB Content Document . A single audio clip, for example, typically represents a single phrase or paragraph, but infers no order relative to the other clips or to the text of a document. Media Overlays solve this problem of synchronization by tying the structured audio narration to its corresponding text (or other media) in the EPUB Content Document using [ SMIL3 ] markup. Media Overlays are, in fact, a simplified subset of SMIL 3.0 that define the playback sequence of these clips.

The SMIL elements primarily used for structuring Media Overlays are body (used for the main sequence), seq (sequence) and par (parallel). (Refer to 7.2.2 Media Overlay Document Definition for more information on these and other SMIL elements.)

The par element is the basic building block of an Overlay and corresponds to a phrase in the EPUB Content Document. The element provides two key pieces of information for synchronizing content: 1) the audio clip containing the narration for the phrase; and 2) a pointer to the associated EPUB Content Document fragment. The par element uses two media element children to represent this information: an audio element and a text element. Because par elements' media object children are timed in parallel, Reading Systems render the audio clip and EPUB Content Document fragment at the same time, resulting in a synchronized presentation.

The text element src attribute references the associated phrase, sentence, or other segment of the EPUB Content Document by its URL [ URL ] reference. The audio element src attribute similarly references the location of the corresponding audio clip and adds the OPTIONAL clipBegin and clipEnd attributes to indicate a specific offset within the clip.

EPUB Creators place par elements together sequentially to form a series of phrases or sentences. Not every element of the EPUB Content Document will have a corresponding par element in the Media Overlay, only those relevant to the audio narration.

EPUB Creators can also add par elements to seq elements to define more complex structures such as parts and chapters (see 7.3.2.1 Overlay Structure ).

7.3.2 Relationship to the EPUB Content Document

Note

In this section, the EPUB Content Document is assumed to be an XHTML Content Document . While EPUB Creators may use Media Overlays with SVG Content Documents , playback behavior might not be consistent and therefore interoperability is not guaranteed.

7.3.2.1 Overlay Structure

The body of a Media Overlay Document consists of two elements: the par element and the seq element . The ordering of these elements represents how Reading Systems render the content in the corresponding EPUB Content Documents during playback.

The par element represents a segment of content, such as a word, phrase, sentence, table cell, list item, image, or other identifiable piece of content in the markup. Each element identifies both the content to display (in the text element ) and audio to synchronize (in the audio element ) during playback.

The seq element represents sequences  sets of seq and/or par elements that together represent a logical component of the content. EPUB Creators can use it to represent nested containers such as sections, asides, headers, tables, lists, and footnotes. It allows EPUB Creators to retain the structure inherent in these containers in the Media Overlay Document.

The seq element MUST contain an epub:textref attribute . As seq elements do not provide synchronization instructions, this attribute allows a Reading System to match the fragment to a location in the text.

Note

The reason for grouping structures like sections, figures, tables, and footnotes in a seq element is so that Reading Systems can identify their start and end positions during playback. Reading Systems can then offer playback options tailored to the layout of the content, such as jumping past a long figure, turning off rendering of page break announcements (see 7.4 Skippability and Escapability ), or customizing the reading mode to suit structures such as tables.

7.3.2.2 Referencing Document Fragments

Both the epub:textref attribute and the text element's src attribute may contain a URL-fragment string that references a specific part (e.g., an element via its ID) of the associated EPUB Content Document .

For XHTML and SVG Content Documents, the URL-fragment string SHOULD be a reference to a specific element via its ID, or an SVG Fragment Identifier [ SVG ], respectively.

EPUB Creators MAY use other fragment identifier schemes, but Reading Systems may not support such identifiers.

7.3.2.3 Overlay Granularity

This section is non-normative.

The granularity level of the Media Overlay depends on how EPUB Creators mark up the EPUB Content Document and the type of fragment identifier they use in the text elements' src attributes and the seq elements' epub:textref attrbutes. For example, when referencing [ HTML ] elements, if the finest level of markup is at the paragraph level, then that is the finest possible level for Media Overlay synchronization. Likewise, if sub-paragraph markup is available, such as [ HTML ] span elements representing phrases or sentences, then finer granularity is possible in the Media Overlay. Finer granularity gives users more precise results for synchronized playback when navigating by word or phrase and when searching the text but increases the file size of the Media Overlay Documents. Fragment identifier schemes that do not rely on the presence of elements could provide even finer granularity, where supported.

7.3.2.4 Embedded Media

Any EPUB Content Document associated with a Media Overlay MAY contain embedded media such as video, audio, and images. EPUB Creators MAY use the Media Overlay text element in such instances to reference the embedded media by its element's id attribute value.

7.3.2.4.1 Embedded Audio and Video

When a text element references embedded audio or video, Reading Systems will initiate playback of the media in the absence of an audio element sibling.

EPUB Creators SHOULD avoid using scripts to control playback of referenced embedded EPUB Content Document media, as this might conflict with Media Overlays playback behavior.

EPUB Creators should carefully examine any overlapping audio situations and deal with them at the production stage, as Reading Systems handling of simultaneous volume levels is optional.

7.3.2.4.2 Embedded Images

When a text element references an embedded image, the audio sibling element is OPTIONAL . In the absence of an audio element, Reading Systems will voice the image using Text-to-Speech rendering .

EPUB Creators MUST ensure they provide fallback text for an image when an omitting an audio element (e.g., using the [ HTML ] alt attribute).

7.3.2.5 Text-to-Speech Rendering

This specification allows the use of text-to-speech (TTS)  the rendering of the textual content of an EPUB Publication as artificial human speech using a synthesized voice  in addition to pre-recorded audio clips.

When a Media Overlay par element omits its audio element , its text element may be rendered in Reading Systems via TTS. If the text fragment is not appropriate for TTS rendering (e.g., is not a text element and/or has no text fallback), this may produce unexpected results.

Note

See EPUB 3 Text-to-Speech Support [ EPUB-TTS-10 ] for more information about using TTS technologies in EPUB Publications.

7.3.3 Structural Semantics in Overlays

To express structural semantics in Media Overlay Documents , EPUB Creators MAY specify the epub:type attribute on par , seq , and body elements.

The epub:type attribute facilitates Reading System behavior appropriate for the semantic type(s) indicated. Examples of these behaviors are skippability and escapability and table reading mode [ EPUB-RS-33 ].

Media Overlays MAY use the applicable vocabulary association mechanisms for the epub:type attribute to define additional semantics.

7.3.4 Associating Style Information

EPUB Creators MAY express visual rendering information for the currently playing EPUB Content Document element in a CSS Style Sheet using author-defined classes.

When used, EPUB Creators MUST declare the class names in the Package Document using the active-class and playback-active-class properties.

EPUB Creators MUST define exactly one CSS class name in each property they define. Each property MUST define a valid CSS class name not including any selectors [ CSS2 ]. This specification does not reserve names for use with these properties.

EPUB Creators MAY define any CSS properties for the specified CSS classes but must ensure that each EPUB Content Document with an associated Media Overlay Document includes a CSS stylesheet (either embedded or linked) containing the class definitions. In the absence of such definitions Reading Systems might provide their own styling, or no styling at all.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT use the active-class and playback-active-class properties in conjunction with a refines attribute as they always apply to the entire EPUB Publication .

7.3.5 Media Overlays Packaging

7.3.5.1 Including Media Overlays

If an EPUB Content Document is wholly or partially referenced by a Media Overlay, then its manifest item element MUST specify a media-overlay attribute. The attribute MUST reference the ID [ XML ] of the manifest item for the corresponding Media Overlay Document.

EPUB Creators MUST only specify the media-overlay attribute on manifest item elements that reference EPUB Content Documents .

Manifest items for Media Overlay Documents MUST have the media type application/smil+xml .

7.3.5.2 Overlays Package Metadata

EPUB Creators MUST specify the duration of the entire EPUB Publication in the Package Document using a meta element with the duration property .

In addition, EPUB Creators MUST provide the duration of each Media Overlay Document. EPUB Creators MUST use the refines attribute to associate each duration declaration to the corresponding manifest item .

The sum of the durations for each Media Overlay Document SHOULD equal the total duration plus or minus one second.

Note

Although the sum of indivudal durations may not exactly match the total due to rounding the times to nearest fraction of a second, a difference of greater than one second indicates a mismatch arising from other issues.

EPUB Creators MAY also specify narrator information in the Package Document, as well as author-defined CSS class names to apply to the currently playing EPUB Content Document element.

Note

The media: prefix is reserved for inclusion of these properties in package metadata.

7.4 Skippability and Escapability

7.4.1 Skippability

While reading, users may want to turn on or off certain features of the content, such as footnotes, page numbers, or other types of secondary content. This feature is called skippability. Reading Systems use the semantic information provided by Media Overlay elements' epub:type attribute to determine when to offer users the option of skippable features.

EPUB Creators MAY use the following semantics to enable skippability:

  • footnote

  • endnote

  • pagebreak

This list is non-exhaustive, however. It represents terms from the Structural Semantics Vocabulary� [ EPUB-SSV-11 ] for which Reading Systems are most likely to offer the option of skippability.

7.4.2 Escapability

Escapable items are nested structures, such as tables and lists, that users might wish to skip over, continuing to read from the point immediately after the nested structure. The escapability feature differs from the skippability feature in that it does not enable or disable entire types of items, but provides an exit from them (e.g., a user can listen to some of the content before choosing to escape).

EPUB Creators MAY use the following semantics to enable escapability:

  • table

  • table-row

  • table-cell

  • list

  • list-item

  • figure

This list is non-exhaustive list, however. It represents terms from the Structural Semantics Vocabulary� [ EPUB-SSV-11 ] for which Reading Systems are most likely to offer the option of escapability.

7.5 Navigation Document Overlays

This section is non-normative.

As the EPUB Navigation Document is an XHTML Content Document , EPUB Creators may associate an audio Media Overlay with it. Unlike traditional XHTML Content Documents, however, Reading Systems must present the EPUB Navigation Document to users even when it is not included in the spine (see Navigation Document Processing [ EPUB-RS-33 ]). As a result, the method in which an associated Media Overlay behaves can change depending on the context:

Note

Specific implementation details are beyond the scope of this specification. The DAISY Media Overlays Playback Requirements document describes best practices for EPUB Creators and provides recommendations for Reading System developers.

8. Accessibility

This section is non-normative.

EPUB 3 builds upon the Open Web Platform expressly so that it can leverage the structure, semantics and, by extension, accessibility built into its underlying technologies.

The requirements and practices for creating accessible web content have already been documented in the W3C 's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [ WCAG2 ]. These guidelines also form the basis for defining accessibility in EPUB Publications.

As the current WCAG guidelines (version 2) are heavily focused on web pages, a separate specification, EPUB Accessibility [ EPUB-A11Y-11 ], defines how to apply the standard to EPUB Publications . It also adds EPUB-specific requirements and recommendations for metadata, pagination, and media overlays.

This specification recommends that EPUB Publications conform to the accessibility requirements defined in� [ EPUB-A11Y-11 ]. A benefit of following this recommendation is that it helps to ensure that EPUB Publications meet the accessibility requirements legislated in jurisdictions around the world.

EPUB Creators , however, should look beyond legal imperatives and treat accessibility as a requirement for all their content. The more accessible that EPUB Publications are, the greater the potential audience for them.

Note

This specification does not integrate the accessibility requirements to allow them to adapt and evolve independent of the EPUB specification  accessibility practices often need more frequent updating. The accessibility specification is also intended for use with past, present, and future versions of EPUB. The approach of a separate specification ensures that the evolution of EPUB does not lock accessibility in time (i.e., it allows producers of older versions of EPUB to reference the latest accessibility requirements).

9. Security and Privacy

This section is non-normative.

9.1 Overview

The particularity of an EPUB Publication is its structure. The EPUB format provides a means of representing, packaging, and encoding structured and semantically enhanced web content� —� including HTML, CSS, SVG, JavaScript, and other resources� —� for distribution in a single-file container.

This means that EPUB 3's security and privacy issues are primarily linked to the features of those formats, and closely mirror the threats presented by web content.

Although content risks are often equated with deliberately malicious authoring intent, EPUB Creators need to be aware that many practices followed with the best of intentions may expose users to privacy and security issues. The rest of this section explores the risk model of EPUB 3 with the aim of helping EPUB Creators recognize and mitigate these risks.

Note

For the risks associated with Reading Systems, refer to the security and privacy section of [ EPUB-RS-33 ].

9.2 Threat Model

EPUB Publications pose a variety of privacy and security threats to unsuspecting users. Many of these threats intersect with web content, but EPUB also introduces its own unique methods of attack that can be used to trick users into accessing malicious content or into providing sensitive information. Some of the more important attack vectors that EPUB Creators and users need to be aware of include:

Embedding of remote resources

EPUB 3 allows some resources to be remotely hosted , specifically resources whose sizes can negatively affect the downloading and opening of the EPUB Publication (e.g., audio, video, and fonts). Although helpful for users when used as intended, these exemptions can also be used to inject malicious content into a publication.

This threat is not limited to accessing content created by a bad actor. If EPUB Creators embed content from untrustworthy sources (e.g., third party audio and video), there is always the possibility that users may receive compromised resources.

Checking for malware and exploits at distribution time is not always reliable, either, as the malicious content can be swapped in any time after publication, unlike resources that come embedded in the EPUB Container.

The origin of an EPUB is both unknown to the EPUB Creator and specific to each Reading System implementation. Consequently, if the EPUB Creator hosts remote resources on a web server they control, the server effectively cannot use security features that require specifying allowable origins, such as headers for CORS , Content-Security-Policy , or X-Frame-Options .

Linking to external resources

Whether intentional or not, links to external web sites and resources expose users to potential exploits that can compromise their Reading System or operating system. Although external links will typically open in a web browser, and be subject to the browser security model, this does not protect users from all exploits.

Even if the intentions of the EPUB Creator are not malicious, adding tracking information to external links is problematic for user privacy as it can allow a user's activity to be tracked without their consent.

Broken-link hijacking  when a domain expires and is bought by another party to exploit the links to it  can also lead to users being taken to resources the EPUB Creator did not intend.

Including malicious content

Resources embedded in the EPUB Container are not immune to malicious actors, especially when EPUB Publications are obtained from untrusted sources. Resources may contain exploits or forms may submit sensitive information to unintended parties.

The use of third-party content, such as games and quizzes, may also lead to security and privacy issues if the EPUB Creator is not able to fully vet the content.

Allowing scripts network access

When scripts can access a device's network, it provides a variety channels to exploit the user:

  • collecting information about the user and their activities, whether malicious or not;
  • attempting to access the file system and local storage to harvest information;
  • phishing attempts (e.g., making an EPUB Content Document appear like a trusted web site to get the user to submit login information); and
  • injecting malicious content from external sites into the EPUB Publication.

Network access may allow third-party content to exploit the user even if it was not the EPUB Creator's intent.

Securing content with digital rights management

The encryption and decryption of EPUB Publications using digital rights management schemes may allow personally identifiable information about the user, what vendors they use, and their reading choices to be relayed to third parties.

The effectiveness of these attacks also often depends on tricking users into believing that the publication they are interacting with is from a trustworthy source. These deceptions can take the following forms:

Falsified publication information

The EPUB Publication may include false information about itself to trick users into believing that it comes from a legitimate source. A malicious EPUB Creator might, for example, fake the title, authors, identifiers, and publisher for the work.

Although this misinformation itself does not present an immediate harm, it could lead users to trust malicious forms, links, and other content within the EPUB Publication believing it comes from a reliable source.

Spoofed platforms

Malicious EPUB Creators may also design their content to imitate or replicate a platform's experience to trick users into trusting their content.

9.2.1 EPUB-Specific Features

EPUB 3 tries to avoid extending the underlying technologies it builds on, but it has introduced some new features. The restricted scope of these features limits the threats they might pose, however:

The one potential exception is the epubReadingSystem object [ EPUB-RS-33 ] that allows EPUB Creators to query information about the current Reading System. EPUB Creators need to be mindful that they only use the information exposed by this object to improve the rendering of their content (i.e., avoid using the information to profile the user and their environment).

9.3 Recommendations

Although EPUB Creators cannot prevent every method of exploiting users, they are ultimately responsible for the secure construction of their content. That means that they should take precautions to limit the exposure of their EPUB Publications to the types of malicious exploits described in the previous section.

Some practical steps include:

EPUB Creators also need to consider the privacy rights of users and avoid situations where they are intentionally collecting data. Ideally, EPUB Creators should not track their users, but this is not realistic for all types of publishing.

When tracking must occur, EPUB Creators should obtain the approval of the user to collect information prior to opening the EPUB Publication (e.g., in educational course work). If this is not possible, they should obtain permission when users access the EPUB Publication for the first time. EPUB Creators should also allow users to opt out of tracking, when feasible, and provide users the ability to manage and delete any data that is collected about them.

Content authors also need to consider the inadvertent collection of information about users. Linking to content on a publisher's web site, or remotely hosting resources on their servers, can lead to profiling users, especially if unique tracking identifiers are added to the URLs.

When publishers and vendors must use digital rights management schemes, they should prefer schemes that do not utilize or transmit information about the user or their content to external parties to perform encryption or decryption.

EPUB Creators who want to maximally limit the privacy and security issues in their EPUB Publications should work to make the content as self-contained as possible. An EPUB Publication that comes with all its needed resources and has no dependencies on network access or links to external content not only benefits users but reduces future maintenance and improves archivability.

A. Unsupported Features

This specification contains certain features that are not yet fully supported in Reading Systems, that the Working Group no longer recommends for use, or that are only retained for interoperability with EPUB 2 Reading Systems. This section defines the meanings of the designations attached to these features and their support expectations.

A.1 Under-implemented Features

A under-implemented feature is a feature introduced prior to EPUB 3.3 for which the Working Group has not been able to establish enough implementation experience .

These features are considered important to retain despite this limitation because they are known to be implemented by EPUB Creators (i.e., their deprecation would invalidate existing content) and/or they are integral to the content model on which EPUB is built.

If this specification designates a feature as under-implemented, the following hold true:

Note

EPUB Conformance Checkers should alert EPUB Creators to the presence of under-implemented features when encountered in EPUB Publications but must not treat their inclusion as a violation of the standard (i.e., not emit errors or warnings).

Caution

Whether under-implemented labels are removed or replaced by deprecation in a future version of the standard cannot be determined at this time. EPUB Creators should strongly consider the interoperability problems that may arise both now and in the future when using these features.

Note

The marking of features as under-implemented is a one-time event to account for the different process under which EPUB was developed prior to being brought into W3C . This label will not be used for new features developed under W3C processes.

A.2 Deprecated Features

A deprecated feature is one the Working Group no longer recommends for use in this version of the specification. Deprecated features typically have limited or no support in Reading Systems and/or usage in EPUB Publications. If this specification designates a feature as deprecated, the following hold true:

Note

EPUB Conformance Checkers should alert EPUB Creators to the presence of deprecated features when encountered in EPUB Publications.

A.3 Legacy Features

A legacy feature is one that the Working Group has retained only for authoring content that is compatible with versions of EPUB prior to 3.0. If this specification designates a feature as legacy, the following hold true:

Note

EPUB Conformance Checkers should not alert EPUB Creators about the presence of legacy features in an EPUB Publication , as their inclusion is valid for backwards compatibility. EPUB Conformance Checkers must alert EPUB Creators if a legacy feature does not conform to its definition or otherwise breaks a usage requirement.

B. Allowed External Identifiers

The following table lists the public and system identifiers [ XML ] allowed in document type declarations . [ XML ]

EPUB Creators MAY use these external identifiers only in Publication Resources with the listed media types specified in their manifest declarations. (Refer to 2.2.4 2.2.8 XML Conformance for more information.)

Media Type(s) Public Identifier System Identifier
  • application/mathml+xml
  • application/mathml-presentation+xml
  • application/mathml-content+xml
-// W3C //DTD MathML 3.0//EN http://www.w3.org/Math/DTD/mathml3/mathml3.dtd
application/x-dtbncx+xml -//NISO//DTD ncx 2005-1//EN http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/ncx-2005-1.dtd
image/svg+xml -// W3C //DTD SVG 1.1//EN http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd

C. Expressing Structural Semantics

C.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

Structural semantics add additional meaning about the specific structural purpose an element plays. The epub:type attribute is used to express domain-specific semantics in EPUB Content Documents and Media Overlay Documents , with the structural information it carries complementing the underlying vocabulary.

The applied semantics refine the meaning of their containing elements without changing their nature for assistive technologies, as happens when using the similar role attribute [ HTML ]. The attribute does not enhance the accessibility of the content, in other words, only provides hints about the purpose.

Semantic metadata enriches content for use in publishing workflows and for author-defined purposes. It also allows Reading Systems to learn more about the structure and content of a document (e.g., to enable skippability and escapability in Media Overlays).

This specification defines a method for adding structural semantics using the attribute axis : instead of adding new elements, EPUB Creators can append the epub:type attribute to existing elements to add the desired semantics.

C.2 The epub:type Attribute

Attribute Name

type

Namespace

http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops

Usage

Global attribute . EPUB Creators MAY specify on all elements.

Value

A white space-separated list of property values, with restrictions as defined in D.1 Vocabulary Association Mechanisms .

White space is the set of characters as defined in [ XML ].

Caution

Although the epub:type attribute is similar in nature to the role attribute [ HTML ], the attributes serve different purposes. The values of the epub:type attribute do not enhance access through assistive technologies like screen readers as they do not map to the accessibility APIs used by these technologies. This means that adding epub:type values to semantically neutral elements like [ HTML ] div and span does not make them any more accessible to assistive technologies. Only ARIA roles influence how assistive technologies understand such elements.

The epub:type attribute is consequently only intended for publishing semantics and Reading System enhancements. Reading Systems may use epub:type values to provide accessibility enhancements like built-in read aloud or Media Overlays functionality where interaction with assistive technologies is not essential.

Refer to Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0 [ DPUB-ARIA-1.0 ] for more information about accessible publishing roles.

The epub:type attribute inflects semantics on the element on which it appears. Its value is one or more white space-separated terms stemming from external vocabularies associated with the document instance.

The default vocabulary for the epub:type attribute is the EPUB� 3 Structural Semantics Vocabulary� [ EPUB-SSV-11 ]. EPUB Creators MAY include unprefixed terms that are not part of this vocabulary, but the preferred method for adding custom semantics is to use prefixes for them. Refer to D.1 Vocabulary Association Mechanisms for more information.

D. Vocabularies

This appendix defines a general set of mechanisms by which attributes in this specification can reference terms from vocabularies. It also defines EPUB-specific vocabularies for use with the attributes.

D.1 Vocabulary Association Mechanisms

D.1.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

EPUB defines a formal method of referencing terms and properties defined in metadata and semantic vocabularies using the property data type . The epub:type attribute uses this data type in EPUB Content Documents and Media Overlay Documents to add structural semantics , for example, while the property and rel attributes use the data type to define properties and relationships in the Package Document .

A property value is like a CURIE [ RDFA-CORE ]  it represents a URL [ URL ] in compact form. The expression consists of a prefix and a reference, where the prefix — whether literal or implied — is a shorthand mapping of a URL that typically resolves to a term vocabulary. When a Reading System converts the prefix to its URL representation and combines with the reference, the resulting URL normally resolves to a fragment within that vocabulary that contains human- and/or machine-readable information about the term.

To reduce the complexity for authoring, each attribute that takes a property data type also defines a default vocabulary . Terms and properties referenced from the default vocabularies do not include a prefix as the mapping Reading Systems use to map to a URL is predefined.

The power of the property data type lies in its easy extensibility. To incorporate new terms and properties, EPUB Creators only need to declare a prefix . In another authoring convenience, this specification also reserves prefixes for many commonly used publishing vocabularies (i.e., their declaration is optional).

The following sections provide additional details on the property data type and vocabulary association mechanism.

D.1.2 The property Data Type

The property data type is a compact means of expressing a URL [ URL ] and consists of an OPTIONAL prefix separated from a reference by a colon.

(EBNF productions ISO/IEC 14977 )
All terminal symbols are in the Unicode Block 'Basic Latin' (U+0000 to U+007F).
property = [ prefix , ":" ] , reference ; � 
prefix = ? xsd:NCName ? ; � 
reference = ? path-relative-scheme-less-URL string [ URL ] ? ; /*� as defined in [ URL ]� */

This specification derives the property data type from the CURIE data type defined in [ RDFA-CORE ]. A property represents a subset of CURIEs.

When an EPUB Creator omits a prefix from a property value, the expressed reference represents a term from the default vocabulary for that attribute.

An empty string does not represent a valid property value, even though it is valid to the definition above.

D.1.3 Default Vocabularies

A default vocabulary is one that EPUB Creators do not have to declare a prefix for in order to use its terms and properties where a property value is expected. EPUB Creators MUST NOT add a prefix to terms and properties from a default vocabulary.

EPUB Creators MUST NOT assign a prefix to the URLs associated with these vocabularies using the prefix attribute.

Note

Refer to the definition of each attribute that takes a property data type for more information about its default vocabulary.

D.1.4 The prefix Attribute

The prefix attribute defines prefix mappings for use in property values .

The value of the prefix attribute is a white space-separated list of one or more prefix-to-URL mappings of the form:

(EBNF productions ISO/IEC 14977 )
All terminal symbols are in the Unicode Block 'Basic Latin' (U+0000 to U+007F).
prefixes = mapping , { whitespace , { whitespace } , mapping } ; � 
mapping = prefix , ":" , space , { space } , ? xsd:anyURI ? ; � 
prefix = ? xsd:NCName ? ; � 
space = #x20 ; � 
whitespace = (#x20 | #x9 | #xD | #xA) ; � 

EPUB Creators MUST only specify the prefix attribute on the root element of the respective format.

The attribute is not namespaced when used in the Package Document .

EPUB Creators MUST declare the attribute in the namespace http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops in EPUB Content Documents and Media Overlay Documents .

Note

Although the prefix attribute is modeled on the identically named prefix attribute in [ RDFA-CORE ], EPUB Creators cannot use the attributes interchangeably. The prefix attribute without a namespace in EPUB Content Documents is the RDFa attribute.

It is common for both attributes to appear in EPUB Content Documents that also specify RDFa expressions. 

<html … prefix="…"
        xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops"
        epub:prefix="…">   …

</

html

>

Note that for embedded SVG , prefixes MUST be declared on the [ HTML ] root html element .

To avoid conflicts, EPUB Creators MUST NOT use the prefix attribute to declare a prefix that maps to the default vocabulary .

EPUB Creators MUST NOT declare the prefix '_' as this specification reserves this prefix for future compatibility with RDFa [ RDFA-CORE ] processing.

For future compatibility with alternative serializations of the Package Document, EPUB Creators MUST NOT declare a prefix for the Dublin Core /elements/1.1/ namespace [ DCTERMS ]. EPUB Creators MUST use only the [ DCTERMS ] elements allowed in the Package Document metadata .

D.1.5 Reserved Prefixes

Caution

Although reserved prefixes are an authoring convenience, EPUB Creators should avoid relying on them as they may cause interoperability issues. EPUB Conformance Checkers will often reject new prefixes until their developers update the tools to the latest version of the specification, for example. EPUB Creators should declare all prefixes they use to avoid such issues.

EPUB Creators MAY use reserved prefixes in attributes that expect a property value without declaring them in a prefix attribute .

EPUB Creators SHOULD NOT override reserved prefixes in the prefix attribute .

The reserved prefixes an EPUB Creators can use depends on the context:

Package Document

EPUB Creators MAY use the following prefixes in Package Document attributes without having to declare them.

Prefix URL
a11y http://www.idpf.org/epub/vocab/package/a11y/#
dcterms http://purl.org/dc/terms/
marc http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/
media http://www.idpf.org/epub/vocab/overlays/#
onix http://www.editeur.org/ONIX/book/codelists/current.html#
rendition http://www.idpf.org/vocab/rendition/#
schema http://schema.org/
xsd http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#
Structural Semantics

EPUB Creators MAY use the following reserved prefixes in the epub:type attribute without having to declare them.

Prefix URL
msv http://www.idpf.org/epub/vocab/structure/magazine/#
prism http://www.prismstandard.org/specifications/3.0/PRISM_CV_Spec_3.0.htm#

D.2 Property Field Definitions

The fields in the vocabulary definition tables have the following implicit requirements:

Allowed Values

Specifies the REQUIRED type of value using [ XMLSCHEMA-2 ] datatypes.

Applies To

Specifies which Publication Resource type(s) EPUB Creators MAY specify the property on.

This field appears for properties used in the properties attribute .

Cardinality

Specifies the number of times EPUB Creators MAY specify the property, whether globally or attached to another element or property.

Properties with a minimum cardinality of one MUST be specified.

Description

Describes the purpose of the property and specifies any additional usage requirements that EPUB Creators must follow.

Example

Provides informative usage examples.

Extends

Identifies what EPUB Creators MAY associate the property with.

This field appears for properties that define primary expressions and subexpressions and relationships .

Name

Specifies the name of the property as it MUST appear in the metadata.

Error 

Cannot
GET
/uploads/Jzu2Ql/tmp/vocab/meta-property.html

/uploads/9Ahh5N/tmp/vocab/meta-property.html
Error 

Cannot
GET
/uploads/Jzu2Ql/tmp/vocab/link.html

/uploads/9Ahh5N/tmp/vocab/link.html
Error 

Cannot
GET
/uploads/Jzu2Ql/tmp/vocab/rendering.html

/uploads/9Ahh5N/tmp/vocab/rendering.html
Error 

Cannot
GET
/uploads/Jzu2Ql/tmp/vocab/item-properties.html

/uploads/9Ahh5N/tmp/vocab/item-properties.html
Error 

Cannot
GET
/uploads/Jzu2Ql/tmp/vocab/itemref-properties.html

/uploads/9Ahh5N/tmp/vocab/itemref-properties.html
Error 

Cannot
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/uploads/Jzu2Ql/tmp/vocab/overlays.html

/uploads/9Ahh5N/tmp/vocab/overlays.html

E. Prefixed CSS Properties

This appendix describes the prefixed CSS properties supported by EPUB.

E.1 CSS Writing Modes

This section describes the -epub- prefixed properties for [ CSS-Writing-Modes-3 ].

E.1.1 The -epub-text-orientation Property

This is a prefixed version of the CSS text-orientation property.

Name: -epub-text-orientation
Value: mixed | upright | sideways | sideways-right

Previous versions of EPUB 3 used additional values of -epub-text-orientation . See the table below for how these values translate to unprefixed CSS:

Deprecated value Value to be used
vertical-right mixed
rotate-right sideways
rotate-normal sideways

E.1.2 The -epub-writing-mode Property

This is a prefixed version of the CSS writing-mode property, with the same syntax and behavior.

Name: -epub-writing-mode
Value: horizontal-tb | vertical-rl | vertical-lr

E.1.3 The -epub-text-combine-horizontal and -epub-text-combine Properties

These are prefixed versions of text-combine-upright , although -epub-text-combine is deprecated. See the table below for how values of both properties translate to unprefixed CSS.

Name: -epub-text-combine-horizontal
Value: none | all
Name: -epub-text-combine (deprecated)
Value: none | horizontal | horizontal <number>

The following table shows how to map from the prefixed versions to the current CSS versions.

Prefixed version CSS equivalent
-epub-text-combine-horizontal: none text-combine-upright: none
-epub-text-combine-horizontal: all text-combine-upright: all
-epub-text-combine: none text-combine-upright: none
-epub-text-combine: horizontal text-combine-upright: all
-epub-text-combine: horizontal <number> no equivalent

E.2 CSS Text Level 3

This section describes the -epub- prefixed properties (and one prefixed value) for [ CSS-Text-3 ].

E.2.1 The -epub-hyphens Property

This is a prefixed version of the hyphens property.

Name: -epub-hyphens
Value: none | manual | auto | all
Note

The all value is no longer supported in CSS.

E.2.2 The -epub-line-break Property

This is a prefixed version of the line-break property.

Name: -epub-line-break
Value: auto | loose | normal | strict

E.2.3 The -epub-text-align-last Property

This is a prefixed version of the text-align-last property.

Name: -epub-text-align-last
Value: auto | start | end | left | right | center | justify

E.2.4 The -epub-word-break Property

This is a prefixed version of the word-break property.

Name: -epub-word-break
Value: normal | keep-all | break-all

E.2.5 The text-transform Property

This is a prefixed value for the text-transform property.

Name: text-transform
Value: -epub-fullwidth

The following table describes the equivalent value in CSS.

EPUB version CSS equivalent
text-transform: -epub-fullwidth text-transform: full-width

E.3 CSS Text Decoration Level 3

This section describes the -epub- prefixed properties for [ CSS-Text-Decor-3 ].

E.3.1 The -epub-text-emphasis-color Property

This is a prefixed version of the text-emphasis-color property.

Name: -epub-text-emphasis-color
Value: <color>

E.3.2 The -epub-text-emphasis-position Property

This is a prefixed version of the text-emphasis-position property.

Name: -epub-text-emphasis-position
Value: [ over | under ] && [ right | left ]

E.3.3 The -epub-text-emphasis-style Property

This is a prefixed version of the text-emphasis-style property.

Name: -epub-text-emphasis-style
Value: none | [ [ filled | open ] || [ dot | circle | double-circle | triangle | sesame ] ] | <string>

E.3.4 The -epub-text-underline-position Property

This is a prefixed version of the text-underline-position property. One value is no longer supported by CSS.

Name: -epub-text-underline-position
Value: auto | [ under || [ left | right ] ] | alphabetic

The following table describes the equivalent value in CSS.

EPUB version CSS equivalent
-epub-text-underline-position: alphabetic text-underline-position: auto

F. Schemas

This section is non-normative.

F.1 Package Document Schema

A non-normative schema for Package Documents is available at https://github.com/w3c/epubcheck/tree/master/src/main/resources/com/adobe/epubcheck/schema/30/package-30.nvdl .

Validation using this schema requires a processor that supports [ NVDL ], [ RelaxNG-Schema ], [ ISOSchematron ] and [ XMLSCHEMA-2 ].

Note

The NVDL schema layer can be substituted by a multi-pass validation using the embedded RELAX NG and ISO Schematron schemas alone.

Note

These schemas may be updated and corrected outside of formal revisions of this specification. As a result, they are subject to change at any time.

F.2 OCF Schemas

F.2.1 Schema for container.xml

A non-normative schema for container.xml files is available at https://github.com/w3c/epubcheck/tree/master/src/main/resources/com/adobe/epubcheck/schema/30/ocf-container-30.nvdl .

Validation using this schema requires a processor that supports [ RelaxNG-Schema ] and [ XMLSCHEMA-2 ].

F.2.2 Schema for encryption.xml

The schema for encryption.xml files is included in [ XMLSEC-RNGSCHEMA-20130411 ].

F.2.3 Schema for signatures.xml

The schema for signatures.xml files is included in [ XMLSEC-RNGSCHEMA-20130411 ].

F.3 Media Overlays Schema

A non-normative schema for Media Overlays is available at https://github.com/w3c/epubcheck/tree/main/src/master/resources/com/adobe/epubcheck/schema/30/media-overlay-30.nvdl .

Validation using this schema requires a processor that supports [ NVDL ], [ RelaxNG-Schema ], [ ISOSchematron ] and [ XMLSCHEMA-2 ].

Note

The NVDL schema layer can be substituted by a multi-pass validation using the embedded RELAX NG and ISO Schematron schemas alone.

G. Detailed Examples

This section is non-normative.

G.1 Publication Resources

Consider the following extracts of a Package Document and an XHTML Content Document :

<package …>    <metadata …>
        …
        <link rel="record" href="meta/data.xml" media-type="application/marc"/>
        …
    </metadata>    <manifest>
        …
        <item id="page"            href="page.xhtml"            media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>        <item id="nav"            href="nav.xhtml"            media-type="application/xhtml+xml"            properties="nav"/>        <item id="style"                    href="style.css"            media-type="text/css"/>        <item id="font_otf"            href="fonts/font-file.otf"            media-type="font/otf"/>        <item id="font_cff"            href="fonts/font-file.cff"            media-type="font/sfnt"/>        <item id="pls"            href="speech/cmn.pls"            media-type="application/pls+xml"/>        <item id="image_1"            href="media/image_1.png"            media-type="image/png"/>        <item id="image_2"            href="media/image_2.png"            media-type="image/png"            fallback="#image_desc"/>        <item id="image_desc"            href="image_desc.xhtml"            media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>        <item id="image_3_heic"            href="media/image_3.heic"            media-type="image/heic"/>        <item id="image_3_png"            href="media/image_3.png"            media-type="image/png"/>        <item id="widget"            href="widget.xhtml"            media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
        …
    </manifest>    <spine>
        …
        <itemref idref="page_001"/>        <itemref idref="image_2"/>
        …
    </spine></package>
	
<html …>    <head …>
        …
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css"/>        <link rel="pronunciation" type="application/pls+xml" href="speech/cmn.pls"/>
        …
    </head>    <body>        <img src="media/image1_png"/>
        …
        <a href="media/image_3.png">…</a>
        …
        <picture>            <source srcset="media/image_3.heic" type="image/heic"/>            <img src="media/image_3.png"/>        </picture>
        
        <iframe src="widget.xhtml"></iframe>    </body>
</

html

>

The various resources in the EPUB Publication can be categorized as follows. (Refer to 2.2 Publication Resources for more information about these categories.)

meta/data.xml

The resource is a metadata record. It is linked via a link element in the Package Document metadata. It is therefore a Linked Resource on the manifest plane and not listed in the manifest .

page.xhtml

The resource is an XHTML document. It is listed in the spine. It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , an EPUB Content Document on the spine plane , and not present on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

nav.xhtml

The resource is the EPUB Navigation Document . It is not listed in the spine. It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane and not present on either the spine plane or the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

style.css

The resource is a CSS file. It is not listed in the spine but is referenced from an [ HTML ] link element . It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , not present on the spine plane , and is a Core Media Type Resource on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

font/font-file.otf

The resource is a TrueType font file. It is not listed in the spine but is referenced from a CSS file. It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , not present on the spine plane , and is a Core Media Type Resource on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

font/font-file.cff

The resource is a font file in Compact Font Format. It is not listed in the spine but is referenced from a CSS file. Its media type is not listed as a core media type . It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , not present on the spine plane , and is an Exempt Resource on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

speech/cmn.pls

The resource is a Pronunciation Lexicon file. It is not listed in the spine but is referenced from an [ HTML ] link element . It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , not present on the spine plane , and is an Exempt Resource on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

image/image_1.png

The resource is a PNG image file. It is not listed in the spine but is referenced from an [ HTML ] img element . It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , not present on the spine plane , and is a Core Media Type Resource on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

image/image_2.png

The resource is a PNG image file. It is referenced via an [ HTML ] a element . Because it is referenced from a hyperlink, it must be listed in the spine. It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , a Foreign Content Document on the spine plane , and a Core Media Type Resource on the content plane . As a Foreign Content Document a fallback is required, and is provided via a manifest fallback .

image_desc.xhtml

The resource is an XHTML document. It is the "target" of a manifest fallback so is not listed in the spine (i.e., it replaces the existing spine reference when needed). It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , an EPUB Content Document on spine plane , and not present on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

image/image_3.heic

The resource is a High Efficiency (HEIC) image file. It is not listed in the spine but is referenced from an [ HTML ] source element . It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , not present on the spine plane , and is a Foreign Resource on the content plane . As a Foreign Resource , a fallback is required and is provided via the sibling [ HTML ] img element .

image/image_3.png

The resource is a PNG image file. It is not listed in the spine but is referenced from an [ HTML ] img element that is an intrinsic fallback of the [ HTML ] picture element . It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , not present on the spine plane , and is a Core Media Type Resource on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

widget.xhtml

The resource is an XHTML document. It is not listed in the spine but is referenced from an [ HTML ] iframe element . It is a Publication Resource on the manifest plane , not present on spine plane , and a Core Media Type Resource on the content plane . No fallback is necessary.

G.2 Scripting Contexts

Consider the following example Package Document: 

<package …>
    …
    <manifest>
        …
        <item id="chap01" 
            href="scripted01.xhtml" 
            media-type="application/xhtml+xml"
            properties="scripted"/>
        <item id="inset01" 
            href="scripted02.xhtml" 
            media-type="application/xhtml+xml"
            properties="scripted"/>
        <item id="slideshowjs" 
            href="slideshow.js" 
            media-type="text/javascript"/>
    </manifest>
    
    <spine …>
        <itemref idref="chap01"/>
        …
    </spine>
    …

</

package

>

and the following file scripted01.xhtml : 

<html …>
    <head>
        …
        <script type="text/javascript">
            alert("Reading System name: " + navigator.epubReadingSystem.name);
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        …
        <iframe src="scripted02.xhtml" … />
        …
    </body>

</

html

>

and the following file scripted02.xhtml : 

<html …>
    <head>
        …
        <script type="text/javascript" href="slideshow.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
        …
    </body>

</

html

>

From these examples, it is true that:

G.2 G.3 Packaged EPUB

This example demonstrates the use of the OCF format to contain a signed and encrypted EPUB Publication within an OCF ZIP Container .

Ordered list of files in the OCF ZIP Container: 

mimetype
META-INF/container.xml
META-INF/signatures.xml
META-INF/encryption.xml
EPUB/As_You_Like_It.opf
EPUB/book.html
EPUB/nav.html
EPUB/images/cover
.png

The contents of the mimetype file 


application/epub+zip

The contents of the META-INF/container.xml file 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<container
    version="1.0"
    xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container">
   <rootfiles>
      <rootfile
          full-path="EPUB/As_You_Like_It.opf"
          media-type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>
   </rootfiles>

</

container

>

The contents of the META-INF/signatures.xml file 

<signatures
    xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container">
   <Signature
       Id="AsYouLikeItSignature"
       xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
        
      <!--
           SignedInfo is the information that is actually signed.
           In this case, the SHA-1 algorithm is used to sign the 
           canonical form of the XML documents enumerated in the
           Object element below.
      -->
      
      <SignedInfo>
         <CanonicalizationMethod
             Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xml-c14n-20010315"/>
         <SignatureMethod
             Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#dsa-sha1"/>
         <Reference
             URI="#AsYouLikeIt">
            <DigestMethod
                Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
            <DigestValue>
               …
            </DigestValue>
         </Reference>
      </SignedInfo>
      
      <!--
           The signed value of the digest above, using the DSA 
           algorithm
      -->
      <SignatureValue>
         …
      </SignatureValue>
      
      <!--
           The key used to validate the signature
      -->
      <KeyInfo>
         <KeyValue>
            <DSAKeyValue>
               <P>…</P>
               <Q>…</Q>
               <G>…</G>
               <Y>…</Y>
            </DSAKeyValue>
         </KeyValue>
      </KeyInfo>
      
      <!--
           The list of resources to sign (note that the canonical
           form of XML documents is signed, while the binary form
           of all other resources is used)
      -->
      <Object>
         <Manifest
             Id="AsYouLikeIt">
            <Reference
                URI="EPUB/As_You_Like_It.opf">
               <Transforms>
                  <Transform
                      Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xml-c14n-20010315"/>
               </Transforms>
               <DigestMethod
                   Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
               <DigestValue>
               </DigestValue>
            </Reference>
            
            <Reference URI="EPUB/book.html">
               <Transforms>
                  <Transform
                      Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xml-c14n-20010315"/>
               </Transforms>
               <DigestMethod
                   Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
               <DigestValue>
               </DigestValue>
            </Reference>
            
            <Reference
                URI="EPUB/images/cover.png">
               <DigestMethod
                   Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
               <DigestValue>
               </DigestValue>
            </Reference>
         </Manifest>
      </Object>
   </Signature>

</

signatures

>

The contents of the META-INF/encryption.xml file 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<encryption
    xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container"
    xmlns:enc="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#"
    xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
   <!--
        The RSA-encrypted AES-128 symmetric key used to encrypt
        data enumerated in EncryptedData blocks below
   -->
   <enc:EncryptedKey
       Id="EK">
      <enc:EncryptionMethod
          Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#rsa-1_5"/>
      <ds:KeyInfo>
         <ds:KeyName>
            John Smith
         </ds:KeyName>
      </ds:KeyInfo>
      <enc:CipherData>
         <enc:CipherValue>
            xyzabc…
         </enc:CipherValue>
      </enc:CipherData>
   </enc:EncryptedKey>
   <!--
        Each EncryptedData block identifies a single resource
        that has been encrypted using the AES-128 algorithm.
        The data remains stored, in its encrypted form, in the
        original file within the container.
   -->
   <enc:EncryptedData Id="ED1">
      <enc:EncryptionMethod
          Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#kw-aes128"/>
      <ds:KeyInfo>
         <ds:RetrievalMethod
             URI="#EK"
             Type="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#EncryptedKey"/>
      </ds:KeyInfo>
      <enc:CipherData>
         <enc:CipherReference
             URI="EPUB/book.html"/>
      </enc:CipherData>
   </enc:EncryptedData>
   <enc:EncryptedData Id="ED2">
      <enc:EncryptionMethod
          Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#kw-aes128"/>
      <ds:KeyInfo>
         <ds:RetrievalMethod
             URI="#EK" Type="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#EncryptedKey"/>
      </ds:KeyInfo>
      <enc:CipherData>
         <enc:CipherReference
             URI="EPUB/images/cover.png"/>
      </enc:CipherData>
   </enc:EncryptedData>

</

encryption

>

The contents of the EPUB/As_You_Like_It.opf file 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package
    version="3.0"
    xml:lang="en"
    xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf"
    unique-identifier="pub-id">
    
   <metadata
       xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
      
      <dc:identifier
          id="pub-id">
         urn:uuid:B9B412F2-CAAD-4A44-B91F-A375068478A0
      </dc:identifier>
      
      <dc:language>
         en
      </dc:language>
      
      <dc:title>
         As You Like It
      </dc:title>
       
      <dc:creator
          id="creator">
         William Shakespeare
      </dc:creator>
      
      <meta
          property="dcterms:modified">
         2000-03-24T00:00:00Z
      </meta>
      
      <dc:publisher>
         Project Gutenberg
      </dc:publisher>
      
      <dc:date>
         2000-03-24
      </dc:date>
      
      <meta
          property="dcterms:dateCopyrighted">
         9999-01-01
      </meta>
      
      <dc:identifier
          id="isbn13">
         urn:isbn:9780741014559
      </dc:identifier>
      
      <dc:identifier
          id="isbn10">
         0-7410-1455-6
      </dc:identifier>
      
      <link
          rel="xml-signature"
          href="../META-INF/signatures.xml#AsYouLikeItSignature"/>
   </metadata>
    
   <manifest>
      <item id="r4915" 
          href="book.html" 
          media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
      <item id="r7184" 
          href="images/cover.png" 
          media-type="image/png"/>
      <item id="nav" 
          href="nav.html" 
          media-type="application/xhtml+xml" 
          properties="nav"/>
   </manifest>
   
   <spine>
      <itemref
          idref="r4915"/>
   </spine>

</

package

>

G.3 G.4 Clock Values

The following are examples of allowed clock values:

H. Media Type Registrations

This section is non-normative.

H.1 The application/oebps-package+xml Media Type

This appendix registers the media type application/oebps-package+xml for the EPUB Package Document. This registration supersedes [ RFC4839 ].

The Package Document is an XML file that describes an EPUB Publication. It identifies the resources in the EPUB Publication and provides metadata information. The Package Document and its related specifications are maintained and defined by the World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ).

MIME media type name:

application

MIME subtype name:

oebps-package+xml

Required parameters:

None.

Optional parameters:

None.

Encoding considerations:

Package Documents are UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoded XML.

Security considerations:

Package Documents contain well-formed XML conforming to the XML 1.0 specification.

Clearly, it is possible to author malicious files which, for example, contain malformed data. Most XML parsers protect themselves from such attacks by rigorously enforcing conformance.

All processors that read Package Documents should rigorously check the size and validity of data retrieved.

There is no current provision in the EPUB 3 specification for encryption, signing, or authentication within the Package Document format.

Interoperability considerations:

None.

Published specification:

This media type registration is for the EPUB Package Document, as described by the EPUB 3 specification located at https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-33/ .

The EPUB 3 specification supersedes the Open Packaging Format 2.0.1 specification, which is located at http://www.idpf.org/epub/20/spec/OPF_2.0.1_draft.htm and which also uses the application/oepbs-package+xml media type.

Applications which use this media type:

This media type is in wide use for the distribution of ebooks in the EPUB format.

Additional information:
Magic number(s):

none

File extension(s):

.opf

Macintosh File Type Code(s):

TEXT

Fragment Identifiers:

EPUB Canonical Fragment Identifiers are custom fragment identifiers that can resolve to application/oebps-package+xml documents.

Person & email address to contact for further information:

public-epub3@w3.org

Intended usage:

COMMON

Author/Change controller:

World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C )

H.2 The application/epub+zip Media Type

This section is non-normative.

This appendix registers the media type application/epub+zip for the EPUB Open Container Format (OCF).

An OCF ZIP Container , or EPUB Container , file is a container technology based on the [ ZIP ] archive format. It is used to encapsulate the EPUB Publication. OCF and its related standards are maintained and defined by the World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ).

MIME media type name:

application

MIME subtype name:

epub+zip

Required parameters:

None.

Optional parameters:

None.

Encoding considerations:

OCF ZIP Container files are binary files encoded in the application/zip media type.

Security considerations:

All processors that read OCF ZIP Container files should rigorously check the size and validity of data retrieved.

In addition, because of the various content types that can be embedded in OCF ZIP Container files, application/epub+zip may describe content that poses security implications beyond those noted here. However, only in cases where the processor recognizes and processes the additional content, or where further processing of that content is dispatched to other processors, would security issues potentially arise. In such cases, matters of security would fall outside the domain of this registration document.

Security considerations that apply to application/zip also apply to OCF ZIP Container files.

Interoperability considerations:

None.

Published specification:

This media type registration is for the EPUB Open Container Format (OCF), as described by the EPUB 3 specification located at https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-33/ .

The EPUB 3 specification supersedes both RFC 4839 and the Open Container Format 2.0.1 specification, which is located at http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/epub/OCF_2.0.1_draft.doc , and which also uses the application/epub+zip media type.

Applications that use this media type:

This media type is in wide use for the distribution of ebooks in the EPUB format.

Additional information:
Magic number(s):

0: PK 0x03 0x04 , 30: mimetype , 38: application/epub+zip

File extension(s):

OCF ZIP Container files are most often identified with the extension .epub .

Macintosh file type code(s):

ZIP

Fragment identifiers:

EPUB Canonical Fragment Identifiers are custom fragment identifiers that can resolve to application/epub+zip and application/oebps-package+xml documents.

Person & email address to contact for further information:

public-epub3@w3.org

Intended usage:

COMMON

Author/change controller:

World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C )

I. Change Log

This section is non-normative.

Note that this change log only identifies substantive changes since EPUB 3.2  those that affect the conformance of EPUB Publications or are similarly noteworthy.

For a list of all issues addressed during the revision, refer to the Working Group's issue tracker .

Error 

Cannot
GET
/uploads/Jzu2Ql/common/acknowledgements-dedication.html

/uploads/9Ahh5N/common/acknowledgements-dedication.html

J. References

J.1 Normative references

[BCP47]
Tags for Identifying Languages . A. Phillips, Ed.; M. Davis, Ed.. IETF. September 2009. Best Current Practice. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5646
[BIDI]
Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm . Mark Davis; Aharon Lanin; Andrew Glass. Unicode Consortium. 27 August 2021. Unicode Standard Annex #9. URL: https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/tr9-44.html
[charmod-norm]
Character Model for the World Wide Web: String Matching . Addison Phillips et al. W3C. 11 August 2021. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/charmod-norm/
[CSS-Device-Adapt-1]
CSS Device Adaptation Module Level 1 . Rune Lillesveen; Florian Rivoal; Matt Rakow. W3C. 29 March 2016. W3C Working Draft. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-device-adapt-1/
[CSS-Text-3]
CSS Text Module Level 3 . Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii; Florian Rivoal. W3C. 22 April 2021. W3C Candidate Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-text-3/
[CSS-Text-Decor-3]
CSS Text Decoration Module Level 3 . Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii. W3C. 13 August 2019. W3C Candidate Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-text-decor-3/
[CSS-Writing-Modes-3]
CSS Writing Modes Level 3 . Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii. W3C. 10 December 2019. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-writing-modes-3/
[CSS2]
Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification . Bert Bos; Tantek Çelik; Ian Hickson; Håkon Wium Lie. W3C. 7 June 2011. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/
[CSSSnapshot]
CSS Snapshot . URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS/
[DateTime]
Date and Time Formats . W3C. 27 August 1998. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime
[DCTERMS]
DCMI Metadata Terms . DCMI Usage Board. DCMI. 20 January 2020. DCMI Recommendation. URL: https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/
[DOM]
DOM Standard . Anne van Kesteren. WHATWG. Living Standard. URL: https://dom.spec.whatwg.org/
[DPUB-ARIA-1.0]
Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0 . Matt Garrish; Tzviya Siegman; Markus Gylling; Shane McCarron. W3C. 14 December 2017. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/dpub-aria-1.0/
[ECMASCRIPT]
ECMAScript Language Specification . Ecma International. URL: https://tc39.es/ecma262/multipage/
[EPUB-A11Y-11]
EPUB Accessibility 1.1 . Matt Garrish; George Kerscher; Charles LaPierre; Gregorio Pellegrino; Avneesh Singh. W3C. 30 March 2022. W3C Working Draft. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-a11y-11/
[EPUB-RS-33]
EPUB Reading Systems 3.3 . Matt Garrish; Ivan Herman; Dave Cramer. W3C. 31 March 2022. W3C Working Draft. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-rs-33/
[EPUB-SSV-11]
EPUB 3 Structural Semantics Vocabulary 1.1 . Ivan Herman; Matt Garrish. W3C. 10 March 2022. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-ssv-11/
[EPUBContentDocs-301]
EPUB Content Documents 3.0.1 . Markus Gylling; William McCoy; Elika J. Etimad; Matt Garrish. IDPF. 26 June 2014. URL: http://idpf.org/epub/301/spec/epub-contentdocs-20140626.html
[EPUBPackages-32]
EPUB Packages 3.2 . Matt Garrish; Dave Cramer. EPUB 3 Community Group. 08 May 2019. URL: https://www.w3.org/publishing/epub32/epub-packages.html
[EPUBPublications-301]
EPUB Publications 3.0.1 . Markus Gylling; William McCoy; Matt Garrish. IDPF. 26 June 2014. URL: http://idpf.org/epub/301/spec/epub-publications-20140626.html
[FIPS-180-4]
FIPS PUB 180-4 Secure Hash Standard . U.S. Department of Commerce/National Institute of Standards and Technology. URL: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.180-4.pdf
[GIF]
Graphics Interchange Format . CompuServe Incorporated. 31 July 1990. URL: https://www.w3.org/Graphics/GIF/spec-gif89a.txt
[HTML]
HTML Standard . Anne van Kesteren; Domenic Denicola; Ian Hickson; Philip Jägenstedt; Simon Pieters. WHATWG. Living Standard. URL: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/
[HTML-RDFA]
HTML+RDFa 1.1 - Second Edition . Manu Sporny. W3C. 17 March 2015. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/html-rdfa/
[Infra]
Infra Standard . Anne van Kesteren; Domenic Denicola. WHATWG. Living Standard. URL: https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/
[ISO8601]
Representation of dates and times. ISO 8601:2004. . International Organization for Standardization (ISO). 2004. ISO 8601:2004. URL: http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=40874
[JPEG]
JPEG File Interchange Format . Eric Hamilton. C-Cube Microsystems. Milpitas, CA, USA. September 1992. URL: https://www.w3.org/Graphics/JPEG/jfif3.pdf
[MATHML3]
Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0 2nd Edition . David Carlisle; Patrick D F Ion; Robert R Miner. W3C. 10 April 2014. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/MathML3/
[MP3]
Information technology — Coding of moving pictures and associated audio for digital storage media at up to about 1,5 Mbit/s — Part 3: Audio . ISO/IEC. August 1993. Published. URL: https://www.iso.org/standard/22412.html
[MP4]
Information technology — Coding of audio-visual objects — Part 14: MP4 file format . ISO/IEC. January 2020. Published. URL: https://www.iso.org/standard/79110.html
[MPEG4-Audio]
Information technology — Coding of audio-visual objects — Part 3: Audio . ISO/IEC. December 2019. Published. URL: https://www.iso.org/standard/76383.html
[ONIX]
ONIX for Books 3.0 . URL: https://www.editeur.org/8/ONIX/
[OpenType]
OpenType specification . Microsoft. URL: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/default.htm
[OPF-201]
Open Packaging Format 2.0.1 . IDPF. 04 September 2010. URL: http://www.idpf.org/epub/20/spec/OPF_2.0.1_draft.htm
[PNG]
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification (Second Edition) . Tom Lane. W3C. 10 November 2003. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/PNG/
[RDFA-CORE]
RDFa Core 1.1 - Third Edition . Ben Adida; Mark Birbeck; Shane McCarron; Ivan Herman et al. W3C. 17 March 2015. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-core/
[RFC2046]
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types . N. Freed; N. Borenstein. IETF. November 1996. Draft Standard. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2046
[RFC2119]
Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels . S. Bradner. IETF. March 1997. Best Current Practice. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119
[RFC2397]
The "data" URL scheme . L. Masinter. IETF. August 1998. Proposed Standard. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2397
[RFC4329]
Scripting Media Types . B. Hoehrmann. IETF. April 2006. Informational. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4329
[RFC7845]
Ogg Encapsulation for the Opus Audio Codec . T. Terriberry; R. Lee; R. Giles. IETF. April 2016. Proposed Standard. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7845
[rfc8089]
The "file" URI Scheme . M. Kerwin. IETF. February 2017. Proposed Standard. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8089
[RFC8174]
Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words . B. Leiba. IETF. May 2017. Best Current Practice. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174
[SMIL3]
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0) . Dick Bulterman. W3C. 1 December 2008. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL3/
[SVG]
SVG . W3C. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/
[TrueType]
TrueType™ Reference Manual . Apple, Inc. URL: https://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/
[UAX15]
Unicode Normalization Forms . Ken Whistler. Unicode Consortium. 27 August 2021. Unicode Standard Annex #15. URL: https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr15/tr15-51.html
[Unicode]
The Unicode Standard . Unicode Consortium. URL: https://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/
[URL]
URL Standard . Anne van Kesteren. WHATWG. Living Standard. URL: https://url.spec.whatwg.org/
[US-ASCII]
"Coded Character Set - 7-bit American Standard Code for Information Interchange", ANSI X3.4, 1986. .
[WAI-ARIA]
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 . James Craig; Michael Cooper et al. W3C. 20 March 2014. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/
[WebP-Container]
WebP Container Specification . URL: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/riff_container
[WebP-LB]
WebP Lossless Bitstream Specification . URL: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/webp_lossless_bitstream_specification
[WOFF]
WOFF File Format 1.0 . Jonathan Kew; Tal Leming; Erik van Blokland. W3C. 13 December 2012. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/WOFF/
[WOFF2]
WOFF File Format 2.0 . Vladimir Levantovsky; Raph Levien. W3C. 10 March 2022. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/WOFF2/
[XInclude]
XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 (Second Edition) . Jonathan Marsh; David Orchard; Daniel Veillard. W3C. 15 November 2006. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xinclude/
[XML]
Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition) . Tim Bray; Jean Paoli; Michael Sperberg-McQueen; Eve Maler; François Yergeau et al. W3C. 26 November 2008. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/
[XML-NAMES]
Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Third Edition) . Tim Bray; Dave Hollander; Andrew Layman; Richard Tobin; Henry Thompson et al. W3C. 8 December 2009. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xml-names/
[xmldsig-core]
XML Signature Syntax and Processing (Second Edition) . Donald Eastlake; Joseph Reagle; David Solo; Frederick Hirsch; Thomas Roessler et al. W3C. 10 June 2008. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/
[XMLDSIG-CORE1]
XML Signature Syntax and Processing Version 1.1 . Donald Eastlake; Joseph Reagle; David Solo; Frederick Hirsch; Magnus Nyström; Thomas Roessler; Kelvin Yiu. W3C. 11 April 2013. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core1/
[XMLENC-CORE1]
XML Encryption Syntax and Processing Version 1.1 . Donald Eastlake; Joseph Reagle; Frederick Hirsch; Thomas Roessler. W3C. 11 April 2013. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xmlenc-core1/
[XMLENC-DECRYPT]
Decryption Transform for XML Signature . Merlin Hughes; Takeshi Imamura; Hiroshi Maruyama. W3C. 10 December 2002. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xmlenc-decrypt/
[XMLSCHEMA-2]
XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes Second Edition . Paul V. Biron; Ashok Malhotra. W3C. 28 October 2004. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/
[ZIP]
.ZIP File Format Specification . 1 September 2012. Final. URL: https://www.pkware.com/documents/casestudies/APPNOTE.TXT

J.2 Informative references

[Audiobooks]
Audiobooks . Wendy Reid; Matt Garrish. W3C. 10 November 2020. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/audiobooks/
[CSS3-MediaQueries]
Media Queries . Florian Rivoal et al. W3C. 19 June 2012. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/
[EPUB-MULTI-REND-11]
EPUB 3 Multiple-Rendition Publications 1.1 . Matt Garrish. W3C. 30 March 2022. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-multi-rend-11/
[EPUB-OVERVIEW-33]
EPUB 3 Overview . Matt Garrish; Ivan Herman. W3C. 30 March 2022. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-overview-33/
[EPUB-TTS-10]
EPUB 3 Text-to-Speech Enhancements 1.0 . Matt Garrish. W3C. 10 March 2022. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-tts-10/
[FETCH]
Fetch Standard . Anne van Kesteren. WHATWG. Living Standard. URL: https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org/
[H264]
H.264 : Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services . 2017-04-13. URL: https://www.itu.int/ITU-T/recommendations/rec.aspx?rec=13189
[international-specs]
Internationalization Best Practices for Spec Developers . Richard Ishida; Addison Phillips. W3C. 25 March 2021. W3C Working Draft. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/international-specs/
[ISOSchematron]
ISO/IEC 19757-3: Rule-based validation — Schematron . 2006-06-01. URL: http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/c040833_ISO_IEC_19757-3_2006(E).zip
[JSON-LD11]
JSON-LD 1.1 . Gregg Kellogg; Pierre-Antoine Champin; Dave Longley. W3C. 16 July 2020. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld11/
[NVDL]
ISO/IEC 19757-4: NVDL (Namespace-based Validation Dispatching Language) . 2006-06-01. URL: http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/c038615_ISO_IEC_19757-4_2006(E).zip
[ODF]
Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 . 1 May 2005. URL: https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/12572/OpenDocument-v1.0-os.pdf
[RelaxNG-Schema]
Information technology -- Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL) -- Part 2: Regular-grammar-based validation -- RELAX NG . ISO/IEC. 2008. URL: http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/c052348_ISO_IEC_19757-2_2008(E).zip
[RFC3986]
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax . T. Berners-Lee; R. Fielding; L. Masinter. IETF. January 2005. Internet Standard. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986
[RFC4839]
Media Type Registrations for the Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS) Package File (OPF) . G. Conboy; J. Rivlin; J. Ferraiolo. IETF. April 2007. Informational. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4839
[RFC6386]
VP8 Data Format and Decoding Guide . J. Bankoski; J. Koleszar; L. Quillio; J. Salonen; P. Wilkins; Y. Xu. IETF. November 2011. Informational. URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6386
[UAAG20]
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0 . James Allan; Greg Lowney; Kimberly Patch; Jeanne F Spellman. W3C. 15 December 2015. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG20/
[WCAG2]
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 . W3C. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG2/
[WebVTT]
WebVTT: The Web Video Text Tracks Format . Silvia Pfeiffer. W3C. 4 April 2019. W3C Candidate Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/webvtt1/
[XHR]
XMLHttpRequest Standard . Anne van Kesteren. WHATWG. Living Standard. URL: https://xhr.spec.whatwg.org/
[XMLBase]
XML Base (Second Edition) . Jonathan Marsh; Richard Tobin. W3C. 28 January 2009. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xmlbase/
[XMLSEC-RNGSCHEMA-20130411]
XML Security RELAX NG Schemas . Murata Makoto; Frederick Hirsch. W3C. 11 April 2013. W3C Working Group Note. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/2013/NOTE-xmlsec-rngschema-20130411/
[XMP]
Extensible metadata platform (XMP) specification -- Part 1 . Adobe Systems Incorporated. ISO/IEC. 15 February 2012. URL: http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=57421