This document provides delivery information for all accepted media and files for Apple Books. It describes the basics of EPUB 3 creation, and provides guidelines for various EPUB styles and features.
In addition to this guide, two example EPUB files are available for your reference in the “Preparing Your Books” section of the Apple Books Guides page:
Flowing book example: Apple Books EPUB Example
Fixed-layout book example: Apple Books Fixed-Layout EPUB Example
Note: Apple Books Asset Guide 5.3 and later cover EPUB 3 files only. For EPUB 2 information, refer to the Internet Archive EPUB 2 page.
Changes Made in This Release
Date/Version
Changes Made
September 2023 - Version 5.3
Updates for the EPUB 3.3 specification.
What’s New in Apple Books Asset Guide 5.3?
EPUB 3.3 Specification
This edition includes significant updates in support of the EPUB 3.3 specification. This edition removes references to the EPUB 2 specification.
Multi-Touch Books
This edition removes support for multi-touch books (.ibooks).
Digital Book Essentials
Digital Books Overview
Apple Books supports EPUB (.epub) books that can be created with Pages or other third-party tools.
EPUB
Apple Books supports the EPUB 3.3 specification, and is backwards compatible with previous versions of EPUB 3. The EPUB 3 specification be used to create flowing and fixed-layout books:
A flowing book is ideal for books that are primarily text content. A flowing book's text can be resized by the reader, and the text reflows to various screen sizes without requiring scaling of the content. Flowing books support images, audio, video, and interactivity.
A fixed-layout book can be created for books that need a precise design or layout. A fixed-layout book supports full-bleed images, audio, video, interactivity, and read aloud features. Read aloud features allow you to sync a narrator's voice with the text in the book.
Structure of a Version 3 EPUB
EPUB 3 Structure Overview
EPUB 3 Specification: See the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) EPUB 3 page.
When you unzip an EPUB 3, you see one file and two folders:
File: mimetype
Folders: META-INF and OEBPS
The META-INF folder, which contains the book's metadata information, can contain one or more files. But it must contain a container.xml file. This file tells Apple Books how to process the rest of the EPUB package. See Container (container.xml).
The Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS) folder contains the book’s content, metadata, style, and table of contents. In the OEBPS folder:
The package document (.opf) includes all of the information about a book including metadata, manifest, and spine. See Package Document (.opf).
The navigation document (toc.xhtml) includes information about how to navigate a book and includes the table of contents, landmarks, and page-list. See Navigation Document.
The following sections break down the structure and describe the requirements.
Container (container.xml)
The container file (container.xml) primarily contains a reference to the package (.opf) document.
The package document contains information about the book including the metadata, manifest, and spine. It also defines what version of EPUB you are using. For EPUB 3 books, the version must be 3.0.
The <manifest> is a listing of every file that is used to create your book, for example, all content documents, CSS, fonts, and images. Use the properties attribute to identify the navigation document and the cover image of the book.
The <spine> is a list that defines the linear reading order of the content documents of the book. The first item in the list is the first item in the book.
Nonlinear content (linear="no") includes documents that supplement the main content, but are outside the reading flow of the book. For example, nonlinear content can be charts, tables, and review answers. See Nonlinear Content.
Elements in the navigation document are created using the HTML5 <nav> element. Because each navigation feature is created using the same <nav> element structure, you must also include an epub:type attribute to identify the purpose of each nav structure. The navigation document is also a content document and therefore can be visible in the pages of the book.
Navigation structures include the table of contents, landmarks, and page-list:
A table of contents is required for all books.
The landmarks structure is required for fixed-layout books if you do not provide a custom sample.
The main table of contents in Apple Books is created using a nav element with an epub:type value of "toc". Readers use the table of contents to navigate to key locations in the book. Note that you do not define page numbers for each entry. Apple Books calculates those for the reader to accommodate different font and screen sizes.
The landmarks structure identifies key component files within the book, such as the cover page, bibliography, and so on. It is created using a nav element with an epub:type value of "landmarks". Apple Books references the landmarks when generating the sample for a book. A landmarks nav is required for fixed-layout books if you do not provide a custom sample.
Landmarks can also be used to define the start page of a flowing book, which is the first page a reader will see the first time they open a book. Apple Books opens to the first landmark item that contains the epub:type value of "ibooks:reader-start-page". If that value is not specified in the landmarks navigation structure, Apple Books opens to the first spine item that contains one of the following epub:type landmarks values:
bodymatter
acknowledgements
dedication
epigraph
foreword
preface
introduction
frontmatter
Within the package, only one "landmarks"nav element can be delivered.
The landmarks structure uses the epub:type attribute to identify both the <nav> element and the document functions listed within it. Apple recommends you identify all of the key files in your book. The required epub:type attribute describes the publication component referenced by the href attribute. The value for the epub:type attribute is case-sensitive. Apple suggests you label the first chapter of the book with an epub:type value of "bodymatter", with all other epub:type attributes tagged with the appropriate type ("toc", "titlepage", "epilogue", "preface", and so on). Within the landmarks <nav> block, there can be only one epub:type attribute of each type; for example, there cannot be multiple epub:type attributes of type "bodymatter". For a full listing of the values available for epub:type, see EPUB 3 Structural Semantics Vocabulary.
The <nav> element using the epub:type="page-list" attribute provides a method to designate pages in an EPUB that correspond to the pages of the physical book. This is especially useful in a classroom setting when the teacher instructs students to turn to a particular page. You can use the optional epub:type="page-list" attribute to define an empty string to that page so that it is not numbered. Similarly, you can define Roman numerals (i, ii, iii), letters (a, b, c), or numbers (1, 2, 3) for page numbers. If you use something other than numbers or a single word, make sure it is meaningful, keep it very short, and check to make sure it doesn't get truncated on the screen.
Page-List Example
Page-list is supported for both flowing and fixed-layout books. The example below shows how to provide page navigation using epub:type="page-list":
This section describes the following features supported in EPUB 3 books:
Pop-up footnotes
Page progression direction
Text direction
Other features supported by EPUB 3 include embedded audio and video, read aloud (for fixed-layout books), and interactivity, which are covered in other sections in this document.
In addition to the features listed above, presentational MathML is also supported. See W3C Math Home for details.
Pop-up Footnotes
In EPUB 3 flowing and fixed-layout books, you can create pop-up footnotes by labeling footnotes with the appropriate epub:type values. You use two elements to create a pop-up footnote: an anchor (<a>) element that triggers the popup and the <aside> element that contains the footnote text. Both elements have an epub:type attribute to identify their purpose: epub:type="noteref" to trigger the popup and epub:type="footnote" to indicate the footnote’s text.
In the example below, the anchor element (<a>) has two attributes: epub:type="noteref" and a link that references the location of the element that contains the popup's text.
The <aside> element that contains the popup's text also has two attributes:
id="myNote" that matches the value of the href attribute in the link that references it
epub:type="footnote"
Because the <aside> element has an epub:type of footnote, the text is hidden in the main body of the book. The text will only be seen by the reader in the context of the popup.
Note: Use of the epub:type attribute requires the inclusion of the namespace xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops in the <html> element.
If your book requires a specific text direction, such as right-to-left, and you want the footnote text direction to match, wrap the footnote text in a <p> element and add a style to specify the text direction:
Note: When adding pop-up footnotes in EPUB 3 books, you can replace the <aside> element with a <div> or <p> element. Use the <aside> element when you want to hide the footnote; use a <div> or <p> element when you want the footnote to appear in the normal reading view. If you use <div> or <p> and a user clicks the footnote link, the content appears in a popup, but the footnote is also visible as part of the text on the page.
Page Progression Direction
By default, Apple Books paginates from left to right. However, for some languages like Japanese and Chinese, you might want right to left pagination. Apple Books 3.0 (or later) supports both pagination directions. You can define the pagination direction by including the page-progression-direction on the <spine> element in the OPF. The page-progression-direction attribute is a global attribute and therefore defines the pagination flow of the book as a whole. The allowed values are "ltr" (left-to-right), "rtl" (right-to-left), and "default". If you specify "default" or if you do not specify the attribute, Apple Books can choose the rendering direction.
Apple Books supports both right-to-left and left-to-right text direction, defined with the dir attribute on the <package> element, as described in the EPUB 3 standard: dir attribute.
Apple Books also supports both vertical and horizontal text directions using the CSS 3 Writing Modes as outlined in the EPUB 3 standard. Text direction (horizontal and vertical) is defined by the CSS writing-mode property. The writing-mode must be set on the <body> or <html> element instead of setting it on a descendent element. Supported values include: horizontal-tb (horizontal top-to-bottom), vertical-rl (vertical right-to-left), and vertical-lr (vertical left-to-right). Each content document can support a single writing-mode value. If you want both horizontal and vertical text in your book, then each text direction must be split into separate content documents.
html {-epub-writing-mode: vertical-rl;}
Important: If you want to use a Japanese font that is available in macOS or iOS, it is strongly recommended that you use Hiragino Kaku ProN and Hiragino Mincho ProN as both are pre-installed for the reader. YuGothic, YuMincho, and Hiragino Maru Gothic ProN require the reader to download the font from the Apple Books Font menu before the font is available for use.
For information on scrolling with vertical text, such as Japanese and Chinese, see Scrolling in Flowing Books.
Note: Tatechuyoko must be created using the CSS property -webkit-text-combine, not the CSS property writing-mode. See the Tatechuyoko section, below.
If the table of contents in the Apple Books menu needs to be rendered vertically as opposed to horizontally, the text direction must be specified for the table of contents in the navigation document.
Tatechuyoko
In vertical text, it is sometimes preferable to include a short run of horizontal numbers or Latin text known as Tatechuyoko. To create Tatechuyoko, you must use the CSS property, -webkit-text-combine. For example:
In the CSS:
.number {-webkit-text-combine: horizontal;}
In the HTML of the page:
<span class="number">50</span>
Languages
The language of your book should be defined in two places:
In the metadata provided to Apple (the language metadata provided to Apple must be the same language as specified in the OPF).
Note: For Chinese language books, you must specify both the language (zh) and the script (Hans or Hant) portions of the language code. The language code for Simplified Chinese is zh-Hans and the code for Traditional Chinese is zh-Hant. The code must be specified in both the book’s OPF file and in the metadata using the <language> tag. See Apple Books Metadata XML File Annotated in the Apple Books Book Package Specification for information on the <language> tag.
Embedding Language-Appropriate Fonts
Apple Books has a large selection of fonts available through the iOS system fonts. Some languages may require a more extensive font library. If your book requires a more extensive font library, you can embed the font. See Defining Book Layout Metadata for EPUB 3 flowing and fixed-layout books.
Book Versioning
Book Versioning Overview
Providing a book asset with a version string is what makes a versioned book. The version string is supplied within a meta element in the package document for the book asset.
For new books, versioning is optional. Previously-published books that used version numbers are required to continue to use version numbers.
Note: Sample assets cannot be versioned. Sample files that contain version numbers are blocked from delivery. Samples inherit the version number of the source asset. If the previous book version included a custom sample and you do not deliver a replacement sample, the old sample is used. If the previous book version did not include a custom sample and you do not deliver one, a new sample is generated.
Book Versioning in EPUBs
To submit a version number, include the following prefix attribute in the <package> element in the OPF file:
Note: In the prefix example above, the space between ibooks: and http:// is important; it needs to be a single, regular space character and not a return, non-breaking space, or any other kind of whitespace.
The version of your book is specified within a meta element in the package document. The meta element has a property value of "ibooks:version":
<meta property="ibooks:version">1.1.2</meta>
In addition, you must supply some text explaining the changes made in the updated version using the <version_whats_new> tag in the metadata XML delivery. See Book Versioning Metadata XML File Annotated in the Apple Books Book Package Specification for details.
Note: If you create a new version of a book, keep in mind that the idrefs in the OPF should always refer to the same content across different versions of the book. For example, ID "html9" should refer to the same chapter in both versions of the book, even if the actual name of the HTML file or the order of the elements in the spine may have changed. By keeping the idrefs the same, the annotations a customer made in a chapter in one version of the book will remain with the correct chapter when synced to the newer version. If you do not keep the idrefs the same, the annotations end up in the wrong chapter in the new version.
Version Numbers
In general, the first number of the version number represents a major revision; the second number would be used for a revision containing several changes/new information; the third number would be used to indicate minor changes, such as fixing a typo or formatting issues.
For example, if the first version of the book was 1.0:
A subsequent minor revision could be 1.0.1
A more substantial revision could be 1.1
A total rewrite could be 2.0
When providing version numbers:
Previously-published books that used version numbers are required to continue to use version numbers. Enter a new version number when publishing an update.
Use dot-separated integers, with a maximum of two dots, three components, and four integers per component. For example: 1111.1111.1111
1.10 is considered larger than 1.9
Initial zeros are ignored. 1.01 is read as 1.1
Letters are not permitted
Each time you update a book, at least the right-most segment of the version must change
Apple recommends that you use version 1.0 for the first asset delivered to Apple Books. The version number is consumer-facing and is meant to manage delivering updates to consumers. Increment future versions as appropriate.
Book Cover Art
The book’s cover art that appears on Apple Books, also known as the marketing image, is the image delivered alongside the book asset. It does not refer to the interior cover image included in the book asset. The pixel limit for the interior cover, as with all interior book images, is 5.6 million pixels.
The book’s cover art must use RGB color mode and should be at least 1400 pixels along the shorter axis. For best results, a good rule of thumb is to use an image that is a minimum of 300 dpi.
The book’s cover art file must be a high-quality JPEG with .jpg or .jpeg extension or PNG with .png extension.
The 5.6 million pixel limit on interior book images does not apply to the external cover/marketing image that is sent alongside the book asset.
Important: Do not increase the size of a smaller image to meet the minimum image size dimension standard. Excessively blurry or pixelated images are rejected.
Recommendations for Creating Books
Presentation and Styling
Keep the following best practices on presentation in mind when developing your book.
Line Breaking
To prevent text from being clipped by the bounds of the content area, insert soft hyphens into long words and especially into linked text and headings. Soft hyphens are described in detail in the Text section of the HTML 4.01 Specification.
Page Breaks
Page breaks are supported in flowing books. if you include page breaks to mark a chapter break, use page-break-after to create a break at the end of a chapter, not page-break-before to insert the break at the beginning of the chapter. This modification improves performance with the table of contents.
To indicate that a page break should come before or after an element, set up a style in CSS using the page-break-before or page-break-after properties. Accepted values for these properties include:
auto: Insert a page break before or after the element as necessary
always: Insert a page break before or after the element
Below is an example of a CSS style to add a page break before all text styled as a heading 1:
h1{page-break-before:always;}
Custom Text Colors with Dark Themes
Custom text colors are supported when the reader selects dark themes. To have Apple Books display custom text colors with dark themes, use class="ibooks-dark-theme-use-custom-text-color".
The following example shows how to support custom text colors with dark themes.
<html> <head> <style> :root { color-scheme: light dark } @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { p { color: white; } code { color: oldlace; } code.comment { color: aquamarine; } code.keywork { color: darkorchid; } code.text { color: gray; } code.variable { color: deepskyblue; } } @media (prefers-color-scheme: light) { p { color: black; } code { color: darkslategray; } code.comment { color: green; } code.keywork { color: magenta; } code.text { color: gray; } code.variable { color: dimgray; } } </style> </head> <body> <!-- Other content --> <div id="content" class="main"> <h3>Main Content Heading</h3> <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.</p> <!-- The following DIV uses custom text colors with dark themes. --> <div id="code-sample-1" class="ibooks-dark-theme-use-custom-text-color"> <p>Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</p> <code> <code class="comment">// Source Code Comment Line </code> <br/> <code class="keyword">function</code> <code class="variable">function-name</code>() { <code class="keyword">return</code> <code class="variable">variable-name"</code> ; } </code> </div> </div> </body></html>
When a reader selects a dark theme, child elements in the container inherit the designated colors.
If you do not specify class="ibooks-dark-theme-use-custom-text-color", Apple Books uses white text when a reader selects a dark theme.
In-Book Cover Page
The background color on HTML in-book cover pages should be undefined. Specifying colors results in uneven, dark borders around the cover image on the cover page.
Interior Image Requirements
Keep the following in mind when preparing images:
All images should be prepared in digital format and should not contain any text. All text must be created using HTML. Embedding text in images creates issues that cause a large number of customer complaints: customers can’t use the dictionary or search the text, and in addition, the book becomes not accessible for persons using the VoiceOver feature. Therefore, books with images that contain embedded text are rejected from sale on Apple Books.
JPEG with .jpg or .jpeg extension (quality unconstrained) or PNG with .png extension.
RGB (screen standard).
Note: Apple recommends that you set the colorspace on your book images to sRGB. This colorspace functions best on hardware.
Images that have any transparent areas should be PNG format or, ideally, use JPEGs with WebKit PNG masks. Images that do not have transparency should be JPEGs.
Be sure to preview your book in night mode. In night mode, the transparent areas of an image are black. If your image has dark text within a transparent image, that text could be difficult to read in night mode. Instead, we suggest you use a JPEG with a white background.
Images within the EPUB cannot exceed 5.6 million pixels. Apple recommends providing images that are at least 1.5 times the intended viewing size, up to a maximum of 5.6 million pixels. To calculate whether an image inside the book file exceeds 5.6 million pixels, multiply the height of the image by the width.
In flowing EPUB books, it is recommended to size images using viewport units to maintain adaptability for various screen sizes. For example:
HTML:
<img src="images/bears.jpg" alt="three bears peer at Goldilocks"/>
CSS:
img { height: 50vh;}
Images should be defined using img tags in the HTML. Styles such as dimensions and positioning should be defined in the CSS.
To ensure proper viewing of images in content, use the HTML img tag instead of wrapping images in svg:image.
The maximum recommended size is about 10 MB of un-encoded image data per XHTML file.
For accessibility, the alt attribute for an image must be included; the value must be an appropriate replacement for the image. Alt text is an attribute of an image element contained within the HTML <img> tag. Place the alt attribute after the src (image source) attribute, and include text in quotation marks that describes the image. It should just be what you would have put in the prose if the image was not included, as shown in the following example:
<p>The hillside was covered in poppies. <img src="images/page1/flowers.jpeg" alt="The poppies are red, orange, and yellow, and a winding path leads to a house."> A dog was asleep on the porch.</p>
The following example is not as effective; the alt text only describes the image, instead of being a textual replacement for the image. When reading without the image, the text does not flow as well as the example above.
<p>The hillside was covered in poppies. <img src="images/page1/flowers.jpeg" alt="A bunch of poppies and a house."> A dog was asleep on the porch.</p>
The following alt attributes are not acceptable: alt="none", alt="nothing", alt="image", or alt="page 3". Leaving out the alt attribute is also not acceptable. The attribute alt="" is acceptable in cases where the image is decorative and does not have any content or meaning.
Apple recommends that you run final image assets through image optimizations, such as ImageOptim (which is a free, open source optimization tool).
Gaiji
Gaiji are small, inline images that represent characters that are not available in a character or font set. Gaiji are typically used for older symbols or characters in Japanese that have fallen out of use. Apple Books controls image dimensions to ensure that images fit on the page, but with Gaiji, you may want to define a specific image size. You can use one of two different mechanisms to ensure the image dimensions you define are respected. Use these mechanisms only for small, inline Gaiji. Be sure to test these images on a small screen like an iPhone. Gaiji images should have transparent backgrounds for optimum display across themes.
If a book is written in Japanese, follows the EBPAJ guide, and has one or more class names that contain the term "gaiji", then Apple Books respects the dimensions for the images that have class names containing the term "gaiji". For example:
Custom Class Name: If the book is not defined as following the EBPAJ guide, you can define a custom class name for which Apple Books will respect an image's dimensions. The custom class name is defined in the metadata section of the package document (.opf) file, and requires the inclusion of the ibooks prefix in the package element. For example:
Note: Mechanism 2 takes precedence over Mechanism 1. In other words, if a custom class is defined, then Apple Books will respect dimensions for that class, and not search for class names that include "gaiji".
Gaiji Accessibility
To make the gaiji image accessible for readers who use VoiceOver, do one of the following:
When gaiji is used to display a character that is not available in a particular font, the alternative text should be the unicode character.
When gaiji is used to represent an image similar to emoji, use a short description of the image's content (for example, "thumbs up", "sunrise", or "smiling woman").
When gaiji is used to represent a new or made-up character that does not exist in the font and has no unicode representation, use the phonetic Hiragana or Katakana string in the alternative text to represent the pronunciation of the new or made-up character.
DRM
All text, fonts, and images have DRM (Digital Rights Management), a form of encryption, applied. Other media including audio, video, and PDF do not have DRM applied.
Fonts
Fonts Overview
A book can be styled using system fonts or embedded fonts. Both system fonts (fonts that exist on the device) and embedded fonts (developer supplied fonts within the book) are defined using standard CSS. Embedded fonts must be listed in the manifest of the OPF .opf. If you intend to provide embedded fonts in a flowing book or a fixed-layout book, you must set the "specified-fonts" option to true. See Defining Book Layout Metadata for an example.
Note: If you plan to use a bold-style font in your book, include a bold type face when declaring embedded fonts. This prevents iOS from having to synthesize a bold font from a normal weight font face.
In flowing Books, if the "specified-fonts" property is set to true, the reader can select a new font when reading the book. However, readers always have the option in the Apple Books interface to return to the book's original fonts.
It is recommended that explicit font families only be used to achieve an intended effect, such as conveying that a note is handwritten.
Take into account that users have control over font face, font size, and justification in flowing books. Test your book to make sure it works in most, if not all, cases.
Font sizes should be defined in em or px, not by name (for example, x-small, small, medium, large).
To ensure ideal readability and font scaling, the main text of a book should either not have a defined font-size or should have a font-size of 1em.
Check the font hinting and metrics on embedded fonts to avoid layout problems. Be sure to test them to avoid layout issues and cropped text.
OpenType, TrueType, and SVG embedded fonts are supported.
SVG text should be reserved for use of irregular text paths.
Embedded fonts must be declared in the OPF and CSS.
Font licensing should be verified before embedding fonts.
Font Obfuscation
Apple Books supports font obfuscation, a method of font encryption that is part of the EPUB 3 spec. For information about font obfuscation, see Font obfuscation in EPUB Reading Systems 3.3.
Audio and Video
Audio and Video Overview
You can embed audio and video inside a book to enhance a customer’s reading experience. This section describes asset requirements for video and audio and how to embed the content for EPUB books only.
Important: When sending books with embedded audio or video content, keep in mind that the maximum file size for the .zip file is 2GB. For usability's sake, the maximum recommended size is 500 MB. Larger files take longer to download and may become unwieldy on older devices.
Encoding Audio
Apple recommends that audio be encoded as an MPEG-4 file with .m4a as the file extension:
Stereo
AAC/MP4
256 kbps
Note: Mono recordings are accepted if stereo is not available.
HD videos embedded in a book must include posterframe art and meet the following requirements.
Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
ITU-R BT.709 color space, file tagged correctly as 709
VBR expected at ~220 Mbps
1920 x 1080 square pixel aspect ratio material
Native frame rate of original source:
23.98 progressive frames for content originally authored at 24fps and inverse-telecined
24 progressive frames for content originally authored for at film frame rate in a tapeless workflow
25 progressive frames for content originally authored for PAL delivery
29.97 either interlaced or progressive content originally authored for NTSC delivery
Telecined 23.98 content containing a 3:2 pulldown is not accepted
HD with source shot at 24 but authored at 29.97 is not accepted
All source must contain correct field information as verified by Compressor or Dumpster
Content may be delivered matted: letterbox, pillarbox, or windowbox.
Stereo audio tracks, uncompressed linear PCM, channels properly mapped as LT and RT or L and R
Important: All videos must begin and end with at least one black frame.
SD Source
SD videos embedded in a book must include posterframe art and meet the following requirements.
Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
VBR expected at 40-60 Mbps
720 x 480 and 853 x 480 encoded pixels; for display at either 640 x 360 for 16:9 content or 640 x 480 for 4:3 content
All encoded content must include pixel aspect ratio (pasp) that defines content as either 4:3 or 16:9.
Native frame rate of original source:
23.98 progressive frames for content originally authored at 24fps and inverse-telecined
24 progressive frames for content originally authored for at film frame rate in a tapeless workflow
25 progressive frames for content originally authored for PAL delivery
29.97 either interlaced or progressive content originally authored for NTSC delivery
Telecined 23.98 content containing a 3:2 pulldown is not accepted
HD with source shot at 24 but authored at 29.97 is not accepted
All source must contain correct field information as verified by Compressor or Dumpster
Content may be delivered matted: letterbox, pillarbox, or windowbox.
Stereo audio tracks, uncompressed linear PCM, channels properly mapped as LT and RT or L and R
Encoding Video
Encode videos using Compressor 3.5.2 or later (an application included in Final Cut Studio 3):
Select the H.264 for iPod video and iPhone 640X480 setting found in the Apple Devices directory of the Compressor settings list.
In the settings inspector on the Encoder pane, select iPod/iPhone (VGA) for native 4X3 content or iPod/iPhone (Anamorphic) for 16X9 recorded in a full 4X3 raster (referred to as “anamorphic”).
When using the anamorphic encoder instructions, select the gear across from the Aspect Ratio scroll and select 16:9 (640X480). This creates a Pixel Aspect value that appears in the Geometry pane.
Use the Geometry pane to enter crop values to remove any black borders or inactive pixels.
Click the Preview button on the Compressor Batch window to verify the accuracy of the crop values and also to access the source and setting buttons to test the results of the aspect ratio setting.
Note: Video files can be delivered in HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) in an MPEG-4 container or in H.264 in an MPEG-4 container with the file extension .m4v (.mp4 is allowed, but less preferable).
Video Posterframe
The posterframe is the image that displays inline in the book. It is usually a clip (or frame) from the video. The posterframe should be the same size and aspect ratio as the video.
Embedding Audio and Video
All audio and video are embedded in XHTML documents using standard HTML5.
When sending books with embedded audio or video content, keep the following in mind:
The maximum file size for the .zip file is 2GB. The larger the file is, the longer it takes for a consumer to download your book.
Keep audio and video content to a minimum to avoid long download times.
All audio files need to be the same sample rate.
It may take longer for your book to appear on Apple Books because the files need to be checked by Apple for quality control purposes.
Note that audio and video files do not have DRM applied in the final book, regardless of contract or the metadata; however, DRM is applied to the text in the book.
Fallback video content is not currently supported. All video must be either HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) in an MPEG-4 container or H.264 in an MPEG-4 container.
Important: Make sure you specify the correct media-type for your audio files in the OPF. For example, the expected media-type for m4a files is "audio/m4a"). If the media-type is incorrect, the audio won’t play after customers have purchased the book. This issue won’t be evident when testing locally prior to delivering to Apple Books.
For optimal user experience, audio and video content should appear on its own line in the EPUB and be centered on the page using text-align:center defined in the CSS. Apple Books provides default dimensions for audio and video. The standard video pane dimensions are a 1:2 ratio and display at 300px wide by 150px tall on the iPad. However, the width can also be defined using CSS, ideally as a percentage of the screen width. Apple Books ensures that video and audio fit on a page, no matter the screen size. To avoid layout issues, do not set an explicit height on video elements.
Note: To enable readers to revisit embedded media, Apple recommends that you provide entries in the Table of Content that point to media.
Refer to the EPUB example (Apple Books EPUB Example) that is available in the “Preparing Your Books” section in Resources and Help.
Embed videos or audio using standard HTML5 tags:
video src="video/H264-640x480.m4v" controls="controls" poster="images/posterimage.jpg"/>
<audio src="audio/loop.m4a" controls="controls"/>
Note that the video tag must include the required poster image. The customer sees the poster image in the text and clicks the image to start the video. The controls attribute allows readers to play, pause, and scrub the media. The autoplay attribute automatically starts playing the audio or video without stopping. The controls and autoplay attributes are boolean. Including them activates the attribute no matter their value. For example, autoplay="false" is the same as autoplay="true". Note that although autoplay is supported, Apple recommends that it not be used. It is best to allow readers to control their own reading experience as they know the environment in which they are reading.
The following two examples show how to embed audio and video content in the EPUB, followed by a screenshot of how the audio and video would appear on the device:
Audio
<h3>Below is an embedded audio file.</h3>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
<audio src="audio/loop.m4a" controls="controls"/>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
Video
<h3>Below is an embedded video file.</h3>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
Links
Linking Overview
Since the EPUB format is based on HTML, links can be used to augment and enhance book content. Links can be within a document, as in the case of an index or endnotes, or can link to the web or other external resources such as an author or publisher website.
Apple Books also has a very simple linking architecture that enables you to link directly to books within Apple Books. This could be used for marketing from your own website or online advertisements, or it could be used within an EPUB to direct a customer to other related titles at the end of a book. For information about linking to the store, see Link to Apple Books in the Apple Books Publisher User Guide.
At the end of flowing books, Apple Books automatically includes links to other books by the same author, prioritized by popularity.
Link Styles
To customize the style and color of links, you can use CSS. If you define the color of the link, you must also include the specified-fonts layout metadata. See Defining Book Layout Metadata.
PDFs
PDFs are embedded using a standard anchor element tag that links an image to the PDF file. When the image is tapped, it opens the PDF in a new window where the reader can pan and zoom-in.
Note: When including PDFs, keep in mind the maximum overall book size of 2GB. Larger PDFs may also cause poor performance on some devices.
The tag references the PDF file and the image is nested in the anchor element.
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p><a href="pdf/sample.pdf"><img src="images/pdf.jpg"/></a>
Adobe Page Template
The Adobe Page Template XPGT is currently not supported. Use CSS3 instead.
Books with JavaScript Interactivity
Overview
Interactive content is supported for both flowing books and fixed-layout books. This section provides information and tips for creating interactivity using JavaScript. EPUBs with JavaScript interactivity require Apple Books 1.5.
In addition to this guide, an example book that contains interactivity (Apple Books Fixed-Layout EPUB Example) is available for your reference in the “Preparing Your Books” section in Resources and Help.
Best Practices for Developing Scripts for Books with JavaScript Interactivity
Apple Books supports JavaScript similarly to Safari. In books, JavaScript allows for features like drag and drop, and touch or mouse events to initiate audio or animation. However, scripts developed for books should take into account the following best practices:
Develop scripts that perform well on both macOS and iOS devices. Interactivity on desktop computers requires input from a mouse while interactivity on iOS devices require touch input.
When developing interactive books, be mindful of file size and the amount of interactivity on each page. Interactivity can be a great addition to a book, but good performance must be a priority.
Books must not rely on external resources. Do not use JavaScript to access resources outside of the book. Books must be self-contained.
Books must not include databases. Apple Books does not sync the status of AJAX, HTML5 databases, or SQL, and therefore does not save this information. Do not include these resources for interactivity in your books.
Use JavaScript for triggering interactivity, but use CSS for animations and transitions. Animations and transitions perform best when created using CSS rather than JavaScript. Use CSS 3D transforms instead of setting top/bottom/left/right positions— this creates smoother transitions because they are hardware accelerated, but should be reserved for high-priority elements.
Avoid using the JavaScript alert feature. Apple recommends that you not use the JavaScript alert feature, which is frequently used to alert users of errors. If you choose to use this feature, remember that your readers will see them.
Designing Content for Books with JavaScript Interactivity
The following sections discuss the technical considerations and design tips to keep in mind when designing content for books with JavaScript interactivity.
Preventing Default Behavior
By default, Apple Books recognizes gestures and clicks to cue menus, pagination, and zoom. However, in books with JavaScript interactivity, Apple Books needs to know when to ignore gestures and clicks so that the reader can interact with the interactive portions of your book without prompting Apple Books' user interface options to appear. You can disable this default behavior for the interactive element by sending the preventDefault message to the event object.
Note: It is important to keep a significant portion of the page edge unaffected by preventDefault to allow the reader to turn the page.
For information on preventDefault, see Handling Events in Safari Web Content Guide.
Designing for Both iOS Devices and macOS
Design interactive books to work on both iOS devices and macOS. Interactivity on desktop computers use input from a mouse while interactivity on iOS devices use touch input. This means that your script must determine if it should provide a touch or mouse event as required by that platform. You can query if a platform supports mouse or touch events by using the hasFeature method defined in the EPUB 3 (epubReadingSystem object) documentation. For example, if navigator.epubReadingSystem.hasFeature('touch-events') returns true, then you should provide touch events in your JavaScript.
If your book uses features that are specific to iOS like the accelerometer or multi-finger gestures, you need to include input alternatives, like buttons, that are supported on desktop computers.
Keep in mind that a finger is larger than a mouse, so interactive objects should have a hit area that's large enough for a finger. Because Apple Books scales the page to fit the screen of the device, the size of the hit area is relative to the page size defined in the viewport and may vary for different devices.
When placing interactive objects, avoid placing them close to page edges and text. Objects too close to the edge of the page may cause the reader to unintentionally turn the page. Similarly, objects placed too close to text may cause the reader to unintentionally trigger the re-reading of a word in read aloud content.
Interaction Cues
Most of the interaction in a book should have a cue so that the reader knows what they can interact with. On macOS, you can use CSS to style the mouse so that interactive areas are indicated with a pointer (see http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_class_cursor.asp). In iOS, you’ll want to use visual cues like the following:
General interactivity:
Animate or move elements on a page, alerting the reader that elements on the page or in the book can have interaction. In the example below, the title page begins as a blank page, but has text and images that move onto the screen. This example indicates interactivity in the following pages of the book.
Touch interactivity:
Use bold formatting or add a glow behind words that trigger sound or animation. In the example below, touching winds triggers a wind noise.
Add a glow, pulse, or wiggle to an interactive object. In the example below, the flower on the left is glowing, the flower in the middle is pulsing, and the flower on the right is wiggling.
Have an animatable element perform a behavior that prompts the reader to interact with the other elements. In the example below, the pulsing stars and blinking eyes invite the reader to discover that the stars can be interacted with, and that the moon can be dragged across the screen.
Create a scene with an out of place element, an unusual blank area, or incomplete image that prompts the reader to investigate the odd element, fill in the blank, or complete the image. In the two examples below, the single red flower invites the reader to interact with the other flower stalks or the empty hillside to complete the flowered landscape.
Drag and drop elements:
Design elements to feel separate from rest of page, as if they were on a separate layer. When working with drag and drop elements, be sure to keep them behind any text in your book, like in the example below.
Make the element float, wiggle, or move. In the example below, the rotating halo around the sun invites readers to drag the sun across the screen.
Example Code
In addition to this guide, a simple example of a book with JavaScript interactivity (Apple Books Fixed-Layout EPUB Example) is available for your reference in the “Preparing Your Books” section in Resources and Help. This example contains examples of key interactions: drag and drop, touch to initiate audio, touch to create a new element, and touch to change the state of an element.
Page Layout
Each page of an interactive, fixed-layout book is a separate web view, similar to two Safari windows next to each other. Content is isolated on each page with the spine as a firm barrier between the two pages. The body must have dimensions defined in the CSS identical to the aspect ratio of the viewport dimensions.
Tips for Improving Performance in Books with JavaScript Interactivity
Keep the following in mind to improve performance:
Limit the number of animations per page; keep only those that are most necessary.
Use CSS (not JavaScript) for animations.
Use CSS 3D transforms instead of setting top/bottom/left/right positions. This creates smoother transitions because they are hardware accelerated, but should be reserved for high-priority elements.
Reduce page complexity.
Performance is best when JavaScript is tailored to the book. Third-party JavaScript libraries can often be large and may result in poor performance.
Technical Guidelines and Requirements
All books with JavaScript interactivity designed for Apple Books should follow these technical guidelines and requirements:
Including JavaScript Files In the OPF
JavaScript should be in its own document, not inline in the XHTML. All JavaScript files must be included in the manifest of the OPF and given the mimetype of application/javascript.
Using the Apple Books JavaScript Library
The Apple Books JavaScript Library (ibooks.js) is a collection of pre-written JavaScript that makes it easier to develop books with JavaScript interactivity for Apple Books. The Apple Books JS Library provides functionality to:
defer an event
make an element draggable
make an element stamp-able
make an element toggle-able
add audio
define constants
To begin using ibooks.js, first include the script in your markup.
When a page has loaded, ibooks.js appends a CSS class build-in to the body. The addition of this class can be used to trigger animations.
Deferred Events
Sometimes, a developer wants to fire a delayed event after the content has loaded. By adding ibooks-deferred-event to an element, ibooks.js will append a CSS class active to the target element after a delay, by default this value in milliseconds is 1000. This delay can be defined on a per element basis by adding a HTML attribute data-deferred-event-delay and setting the desired value in milliseconds.
<!-- "active" class appended after default delay, 1000ms --><div class="ibooks-deferred-event"></div>
<!-- "active" class appended 5000ms after content load --><div class="ibooks-deferred-event" data-deferred-event-delay="5000"></div>
Draggable Elements
Draggable elements respond to touch events and can be moved around the page. HTML elements can be made draggable by simply appending the CSS class ibooks-draggable.
<!-- Makes the target element draggable --><div class="ibooks-draggable"></div>
Stamp-able Elements
Any element with a CSS class ibooks-stampable will act as a parent container for stamp-able elements. Stamp-able elements respond to touch gestures; on touch, ibooks.js will append an empty <div> element with the CSS class stamp to the parent container. You can then style the appended element.
ibooks.js relies on a SVG path to define a valid touch area; without a SVG path ibooks.js will not respond to touch events. It is worth noting that SVG patches are especially useful when defining irregular shaped hit areas, such as hills.
<div class="ibooks-stampable"><!--svg defines irregularly-shaped hit area for replicating script--><svg version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" x="0px" y="0px" width="1224px" height="792px" viewBox="0 0 1224 792" enable-background="new 0 0 1224 792"><path fill="#82983E" d="M612.806,387.128c-8.555,0-17.023,0.229-25.394,0.656c-50.48-31.565-116.654-60.656-189.107-60.656 c-8.653,0-16.846,0.42-24.805,1.205v136.949l14.525,0.023l296.721,0.478l215.824,0.347 C900.57,466.128,771.732,387.128,612.806,387.128z"/></svg></div>
Toggle-able Elements
ibooks.js provides the ability to make elements toggle-able, by appending the CSS class ibooks-toggleable, on touch elements will toggle the CSS class active.
<!-- Inactive, toggle-able element --><div class="ibooks-toggleable"></div><!-- Active, toggle-able element --><div class="ibooks-toggleable active"></div>
Audio
Any HTML element can be used to trigger audio by appending the CSS class ibooks-media-audio and defining a value for the HTML attribute data-ibooks-audio-src. Additionally, the audio source playhead can be reset each time the element is touched by defining data-ibooks-audio-reset-on-play. Read aloud can be paused after the media has played or is paused by setting an HTML attribute: "ibooks:pause-readaloud" to "true". See Embedding Read Aloud Controls for more information.
Note: Only one audio source can be played at a time.
<!-- Toggles between play, pause on touch --><div class="ibooks-media-audio" data-ibooks-audio-src="audio/source.m4a"></div><!-- Plays source on touch, resets playback position to start on subsequent touches --><div class="ibooks-media-audio" data-ibooks-audio-reset-on-play="true" data-ibooks-audio-src="audio/source.m4a"></div>
Defining Constraints
If desired, many of the ibooks.js constants can be defined by the developer; these variables are located within initConfigurables.
/*** Configuration of user defined constants.*/iBooksBaseController.prototype.initConfigurables = function() {// CSS class name on active elementsiBooks.ACTIVE_CSS_CLASS = "active"; // CSS class name appended to body on page load iBooks.CSS_CLASS_ON_LOAD = "build-in"; // Delay in milliseconds before deferred events fire iBooks.DEFERRED_EVENT_DELAY = "1000";// CSS selector for page iBooks.PAGE_CSS_SELECTOR = ".page";// CSS class for stamped elementsiBooks.STAMPED_ELEMENT_CSS_CLASS = "stamp";};
Using Safari Web Inspector
The Safari Web Inspector is an open source web development tool built into Safari that makes it easy to proof your content on OS X. The Web Inspector can be enabled within Apple Books on OS X 10.9 (or later). During book development, using this tool allows you to more easily modify, debug, and optimize your book.
To enable the inspector from the Terminal, execute:
In the EPUB, select any text and right-click (Control-click on Mac) and choose Show Inspector from the shortcut menu.
Note that this will only work on DRM-free books.
Book Validation
All books must adhere to EPUB standards. To ensure quality content, your book must pass validation at the time of import. There are a few issues commonly encountered with books that prevent them from importing into the Apple Books system. Review all books carefully to ensure that the following are addressed prior to delivery:
All books must pass Transporter validation.
All characters in the URIs must be valid with non-alphanumeric characters properly encoded (for example, space should be encoded as '%20'). This problem most often surfaces in URIs in the NCX files and is due to spaces included in filenames.
All files included in EPUBs must be listed in the book manifest (OPF file). Books containing unmanifested files will fail import, as these files are by definition not intentionally included.
Only UTF-8 and UTF-16 encodings are allowed in books. Any books that are improperly encoded will fail import, so it is important to use the correct character encodings.
The maximum book size is constrained by the ZIP standard, and is currently 2 GB.
If you use custom attributes, they must be HTML5 data attributes. A data attribute is an attribute that exists outside of a namespace and starts with the string data-.
For more information on HTML5 data attributes, see:
Namespaces define the XML vocabularies that contain the elements and attributes you're using in the EPUB’s content documents. Each namespace is declared using a URL and the attribute xmlns or xmlns:. For example, xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml".
In the above declaration, xmlns: is the attribute and xhtml is its prefix. After you declare it, you can use the prefix in front of any element or attribute name separated by a colon. This identifies which XML vocabulary that element or attribute is referencing.
If a delivery ends in an error related to an element or attribute that’s not allowed, the specific element or attribute you're using might not be in the namespace vocabularies declared in the EPUB. To resolve the issue, change the element or attribute to one that is valid.
Book Samples
About Book Samples
Apple Books automatically creates samples for all books (except read aloud books). What the sample is made up of depends on the type of book.
If you do not want Apple Books to generate the sample automatically, you can create a separate, custom .epub file and deliver it for use as the sample on Apple Books. Note that not all tools support this option. If you contract with a third party to manage your content delivery, they should be able to do this for you. Contact your delivery company directly for more details.
Note: A purchased book replaces its sample in the customer's library. Be sure to include all sample content in the full book.
Samples for Flowing Books
If a book is predominantly text, the sample is based on a percentage of the number of words (the percentage used is specified in your contract). Where the sample begins can vary depending on how the book has been structured. The words on which the percentage is calculated are counted from the beginning of the book. For flowing books, the beginning is determined by finding the first landmark where the epub:type attribute is "bodymatter". If that attribute is specified, Apple Books starts generating the sample from the publication component in the spine item referenced by the href attribute in the landmark. Then, the sample is generated either from the first item in the landmarks <nav> block, or the percentage of the words, whichever is greater. For example, if the first item in the landmarks <nav> block contains only 2% of the total word count and the percentage specified in the contract is 5%, then the remaining 3% is taken from the next item in the landmarks <nav> block. Any images, movies, or audio included in that percentage will be included in the sample.
If the "bodymatter" attribute is not specified in the landmarks structure, Apple Books looks for the first landmark where the epub:type attribute is not one of the following: "cover", "frontmatter", "toc", "foreword", "introduction", or "dedication" and starts with the spine items immediately following the component referenced in the prior "cover", "frontmatter", "toc", "foreword", "introduction", or "dedication" landmark.
Note: It is recommended that the publication component referenced by the href attribute in the "bodymatter" landmark not be listed close to the last item on the list of spine items. When generating the sample based on percentage of words, Apple Books could potentially include publication components that precede the referenced spine item, which could result in Apple Books including the entire book in the sample.
Samples for Fixed-Layout Books
If your book is a picture book or other fixed-layout book, you must indicate pre-paginated in the <meta property="rendition:layout"> tag in the <metadata> element within the OPF file. (See Defining Book Layout Metadata for instructions.) The pre-paginated option determines how the sample is generated. Without this option, the sample is generated as if the content is a text-heavy book like a novel. With this option, the sample is generated based on a percentage of the number of pages rather than word count. Apple Books determines the first page of the book (each page of a fixed-layout Book, whether a single page or a two-page spread, must be a separate XHTML file) and then generates the sample from a percentage of total page count. The sample looks to the landmarks <nav> block of the .opf to determine the start of the content of the book. For optimal samples, include epub:type="bodymatter" to indicate the beginning of the book's content. Note that a landmarks nav is required for fixed-layout books only if you do not provide a custom sample.
Samples for Books with Interactive Content
To provide an optimal quality sample for books with interactive content, Apple recommends that you supply your own custom sample due to the dynamic, complex nature of an interactive book. However, a custom sample is optional for books with interactive content. To create a custom sample, create a separate .epub file that includes the pages you want in the sample and deliver it within the <assets> block with type="preview". See Apple Books Metadata XML File Annotated in Apple Books Book Package Specification for more information.
Note: Automatically-generated samples are not supported for books with JavaScript interactivity if they are also read aloud.
Samples for Read Aloud Books
If your book is a read aloud book, you must indicate pre-paginated in the <meta property="rendition:layout"> tag in the <metadata> element within the OPF file. (See Defining Book Layout Metadata for instructions.) Read aloud content requires a custom sample. If you do not provide a custom sample, the book won’t be accepted to Apple Books. To create a custom sample, create a separate .epub file that includes the pages you want in the sample and deliver it within the <assets> block with type="preview". See Apple Books Metadata XML File Annotated in Apple Books Book Package Specification for more information.
Guidelines for Flowing Books
Overview
This chapter describes guidelines for creating flowing books. Refer to Digital Book Essentials for best practices that apply to all types of books.
Content Structure
In flowing books, supplying landmarks in the navigation document is recommended but not required.
In flowing books, divide each chapter into its own XHTML document. Apple Books creates a page break between documents.
Separating chapters into documents improves performance in Apple Books.
Use header tags (for example, <h1>, <h2>) for headers. Do not create a header using <p> styled to look like a header. Apple Books relies on HTML semantics when laying out the text of a book. Using a <p> instead of a header results in poor text layout such as unexpected hyphenation.
Alignment
If specifying line-height, extra spacing between text blocks and any padding around images should be a multiple of the specified line-height to keep text aligned across the spine.
Nonlinear Content
Nonlinear content includes documents that supplement the main content, but are outside the reading flow of the book. For example, nonlinear content can be charts, tables, and review answers. You provide a link on the page that points to a nonlinear document (for example, <a href="answerkey.xhtml">See Answer</a>). That link is a standard anchor element and can be associated with both text or an image.
Note: Nonlinear content is for flowing books, and is not supported for fixed-layout books.
To indicate if a spine item is nonlinear, specify a value of no for the optional linear attribute. Note that the linear attribute is not required on spine items. All items without a linear attribute will default to linear="yes".
When a reader selects a link that leads to a nonlinear document, the content opens in a separate window that overlays the book. Because the window is outside the flow of the book, it maintains its layout and formatting. The content is searchable from within the book and can be panned and zoomed in on. The following graphic shows an example of a nonlinear document.
The EPUB example (Apple Books EPUB Example) located in the “Preparing Your Books” section in Resources and Help shows an example that links to a nonlinear document.
Note: If the <spine> references a PDF, the linear attribute must be set to no. If the linear attribute is set to yes, delivery will fail.
Scrolling in Flowing Books
Apple Books has several viewing themes that the reader can select for flowing books. These include Book, Full Screen, and Scroll. The Scroll theme scrolls vertically for books with horizontal text, and scrolls horizontally for books with vertical text. This ensures an unbroken/unpaginated text flow.
By default, Japanese and Chinese books scroll horizontally, while all other languages scroll vertically. To redefine the scroll direction, the book must include the following metadata in the .opf file: "ibooks:scroll-axis". Possible values are vertical, horizontal, and default. For example:
This example is appropriate for a book with horizontal Japanese or Chinese text. When rendered with Apple Books' Scroll theme, horizontal text is most easily read scrolling top to bottom on the vertical axis.
Tables
Apple Books automatically recognizes tables. In flowing books, Apple Books sizes large tables to fit within the width of the page. When a reader double taps the table, the table opens in a new web view that overlays the book. In this web view, the reader can pan and zoom in on the table.
Fonts
Font sizes should be defined in em or % (percentage), not by or pixel (px) units or by name, for example, small and large.
The main text of a book should either not have a defined font-size or should have a font-size of 1em. This will ensure ideal readability and font scaling.
When specifying line-height, set the value to a unit-less multiple of the font-size, for example, line-height: 1.2;. Including units, such as em or %, can cause lines of text to overlap if allowed to cascade to an element with a font-size that is larger than the element on which the line-height was declared.
Guidelines for Fixed-Layout Books
Overview
This chapter describes guidelines for creating fixed-layout books. Refer to Digital Book Essentials for best practices that apply to all types of books. Fixed-layout books lend themselves to interactive content, so be sure to check out Books with Javascript Interactivity in Chapter 2. Note that nonlinear documents are not supported for fixed-layout books.
Fixed-layout books are used to create highly-designed books like children's picture books, cookbooks, and art books. Fixed-layout books support text overlapping images and full-bleed images—two features not possible with flowing books. These features are made possible with the support of CSS positioning. This chapter provides guidelines to follow when creating a fixed-layout book. Not following these guidelines could adversely affect the way the book is displayed.
In addition to this guide, an example fixed-layout book (Apple Books Fixed-Layout EPUB Example) is available for your reference in the “Preparing Your Books” section in Resources and Help.
Note: Fixed layout is a global definition that affects an entire book. Fixed layout cannot be used on a per-page basis.
Setting Up the Document
Fixed-layout books are like flowing books, but with the following additions:
Apple Books 3.0 or later supports EPUB 3 fixed-layout books. Using EPUB 3, you have the choice of creating a single spread using one or two content documents. By default, a book with two documents per spread maintains the book-like appearance including the book spine, pages, and page curl. By default, a book with a single document per spread does not include the book-like appearance and instead the spread looks like a single sheet, similar to the PDF view.
In fixed-layout books that have two documents per spread, the first page of a left-to-right paginated book (for example, English) will be on the right side of the spread. In a right-to-left paginated book (for example, Japanese), the first page of content will be on the left page of the spread. Generally, this first page is the cover page.
A fixed-layout book must have the height and width of the book defined in a <meta> tag in the head of each XHTML document. For example, <meta name="viewport" content="width=600, height=1000" />. Apple Books uses these dimensions to determine the aspect ratio of the book. These dimensions must be consistent and must match the dimensions of the <body> tag.
A fixed-layout book must have pre-paginated in the <meta property="rendition:layout"> tag in the <metadata> element within the OPF file. See Defining Book Layout Metadata for more information.
The landmarks navigation structure is required for fixed-layout books only if you do not provide a custom sample. Apple Books references the landmarks when generating the sample. It allows Apple Books to determine where the main content of the book starts (see Landmarks).
Vertical Scrolling
Some books, such as Manga, are designed for content to be presented in one continuous scroll without white space or gaps. Vertical scrolling allows the reader to view and read the content from top-to-bottom. Apple Books presents the content documents in the order listed in the <spine> element, which defines the linear reading order of the book. By specifying vertical scrolling, Apple Books presents the content continuously without any space between content documents.
For books designed for content using top-to-bottom reading, keep the following guidelines in mind:
Vertical scrolling fixed-layout books are optimized for portrait mode, which provides a gapless, top-to-bottom reading experience for content such as Manga.
When creating vertical scrolling fixed-layout books, a book must have scrolled-continuous in the <meta property="rendition:flow"> tag in the <metadata> element within the OPF file. See Defining Book Layout Metadata for more information annotations.
Readers can turn on Vertical Scrolling Mode by selecting it in font preferences.
Images inside fixed-layout books must not exceed 5.6 million pixels. You can calculate whether an image inside the book file exceeds 5.6 million pixels by multiplying the height and width of the image. See Optimizing Images in Fixed-Layout Books for details.
Defining Book Layout Metadata
EPUB 3 fixed-layout books use the <metadata> structure to define a book’s layout. In EPUB 2, this metadata was defined in the Apple Display Options file, but in EPUB 3, the metadata is defined in the <metadata> element within the OPF file. For example:
Defines whether a book is a flowing book or a fixed-layout book. Supported values are reflowable (standard flowing book) and pre-paginated (fixed-layout book). This is equivalent to fixed-layout : true|false in EPUB 2.
rendition:spread
Examples designating two content documents per spread:
<meta property="rendition:spread">auto</meta> or <meta property="rendition:spread">both</meta>
Example designating a single content document per spread:
<meta property="rendition:spread">none</meta>
Defines if there are one or two content documents per spread. Supported values are auto, both, and none.
rendition:flow
Example designating content documents to be rendered in a continuous scrolling view from spine item to spine item:
Must be defined if your book is to be presented in one continuous scroll without space or gaps in vertical scrolling mode. (See Vertical Scrolling.) Otherwise, a book will be presented vertically with space between content documents.
Must be defined if your book contains embedded fonts. This is equivalent to specified-fonts : true|false in EPUB 2.
Tip: You can use the specified-fonts attribute to override a user’s justification preference. You do not need to use embedded fonts in this instance. Apple Books provides a preference that a user can choose to display the text in a book to full justification. This option overrides any text alignment you specify and justifies all paragraphs in a book, including all headings. You can preserve your text alignment by using the specified-fonts attribute and setting it to true. This attribute preserves the font settings as specified in your CSS stylesheet, as long as the user does not choose a different font when reading the book. When this happens, the justification for paragraphs returns to the user preference, but the text alignment for your headings is preserved. If the user later returns to the “original” font, your text alignments are respected.
Note: When creating fixed-layout books in EPUB 3, you must include the following prefix attribute in the <package> element in the OPF file:
Fixed-layout books include a thumbnail table of contents allowing for easy visual navigation. This visual table of contents is the default for fixed-layout books. A traditional list table of contents is also created using the HTML5 <nav> element for EPUB 3 books. The list table of contents is very helpful with large books with distinct chapters or sections such as cookbooks. However, the list table of contents is not very helpful with a short picture book and may be suppressed for those books. To suppress the list table of contents for an EPUB 3 book, include only one item in the <nav epub:type="toc"> block in the navigation document—the thumbnail table of contents will still be available. The following shows a thumbnail table of contents:
In fixed-layout books, epub:type="page-list" for EPUB 3 can be used to define the page numbers that Apple Books assigns to each page. For example, the first page of the book is page 1 by default, but in some books, this may be the cover page and shouldn't be numbered. You can use pageList or epub:type="page-list" to define an empty string to that page so that it is not numbered. Similarly, you can define i, ii, iii or a, b, c then 1, 2, 3 for page numbers. Using <pageList> or epub:type="page-list" in fixed-layout books requires Apple Books 2.0 or higher.
The following shows an EPUB 3 example of epub:type="page-list" within an <nav> block:
Note: In the prefix example above, the space between ibooks: and http:// is important; it needs to be a single, regular space character and not a return, non-breaking space, or any other kind of whitespace.
Using Fonts in Fixed-Layout Books
Fonts are defined in the opf and CSS just as in flowing books. In addition to the font recommendations in Fonts, the following apply to working with fonts in fixed-layout books:
Use pixels instead of ems for the font-size.
Text placement should be specified in pixels.
Do not use fractional measurements for letter spacing, font size, and text placement. An example of a fractional measurement is 5.255px.
The ideal font-size (in pixels) is ~3% of viewportheight. For example, if <meta name="viewport" content="width=600, height=1000” />, Apple Books recommends the font-size to be 30px (1000 x .03).
Optimizing Images in Fixed-Layout Books
In addition to the image recommendations in Interior Image Requirements, the following apply to working with images in fixed-layout books:
Images inside fixed-layout books must be in JPEG or PNG format. To reduce file size, use JPEG for any images that do not require transparency. Using JPEGs results in a smaller file size and better performance. We recommend using a quality of 85 for JPEGs.
Images inside fixed-layout books must not exceed 5.6 million pixels. You can calculate whether an image inside the book file exceeds 5.6 million pixels by multiplying the height and width of the image.
Layout
Because Apple Books scales the book to fit within the viewport, both landscape-dominant and portrait-dominant books will maintain their intended layout in either orientation of the device, even after an orientation change.
Readers can choose to read the book at the zoom-level that is most comfortable for them.
When developing fixed-layout books, you may notice that Apple Books sometimes remembers the appearance of your book even after it has been deleted and replaced with an updated version. This is due to caching. If you anticipate making a number of revisions to your books while editing, you can modify metadata in the package document (.opf file) to iterate the date-modified metadata. For example:
Use the following guidelines for text in fixed-layout books:
“Wavy” and other strongly-formatted text can be created using SVG text paths. Apple recommends that SVG should be used sparingly.
Note: SVG text selection is best when each letter is in its own <tspan>.
When using absolute positioning to place text in fixed-layout books, Apple recommends positioning the text at the sentence or paragraph levels; not at the word level. Positioning at the word level results in a poor user experience when selecting text and using search.
Read Aloud Books
Overview
In Read Aloud books, an audio file using a narrator’s voice can read the text on a page and the words can be highlighted as they are spoken. The reader can choose to have the pages turn automatically to keep the session flowing, or set them to turn manually. A tap on the screen displays controls in the upper-right corner of the book to customize the reading and listening experience. Note that read aloud content is supported only in fixed-layout books. Apple Books syncs text and audio using Media Overlays, an EPUB-specific subset of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL). This section provides information about Media Overlays, SMIL files, and tips for using Media Overlays to create Apple Books read aloud content.
Books that have the read aloud feature have an audio button in the top toolbar. Tapping the audio button opens a popover with a volume slider, a Turn Pages option menu, and a Start Reading/Stop Reading button. Reading begins on the current page and text is highlighted as the audio is read. If automatic page turn is on, the page turns after the audio content on the page finishes playing.
Tools for Creating Read Aloud Content for Apple Books
To create read aloud content for Apple Books, you need:
a fixed-layout book
a narrative audio file
an audio editing tool for marking times within an audio file
Note: This document has instructions for marking start times and end times in an audio file using Audacity, a free, cross-platform audio editing tool. You can use another audio editing tool to mark start and end times in an audio file. Steps for marking start and end times in an audio file will vary depending on the tool you are using.
Media Overlays Structure
During the read aloud narration, the text being read can be highlighted word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence, or not highlighted at all. Highlighting words during read aloud is accomplished using Media Overlays. The Media Overlay is EPUB3's method of syncing a portion of an audio file to a phrase of corresponding text. Text phrases are identified using a standard HTML id attribute. The corresponding audio is referenced by a start time and end time. The identified text and audio are paired together using a SMIL XML file. The SMIL file contains a series of <par> elements, each containing an <audio> element and a <text> element. Both the <text> and <audio> elements contain a required src attribute. The src attribute used in the <text> element uses a URL with a fragment identifier (the segment attached to the end of the src attribute starting with a # (hash)) to point to the identified word, text phrase, or sentence. The src attribute used in the <audio> element is a URL pointing to the location of the audio file within the EPUB bundle. The highlighting of words or sentences in the <text> element is defined by the fragment identifier, and the corresponding spoken words or sentences in the <audio> element is defined by the attributes, clipBegin and clipEnd.
Note: Apple recommends that you start the audio on the title page and have the title and author read as part of the audio.
All <par> elements must follow the narrative order of the book. (For example, <par id=”par2”> must follow <par id=”par1”>)
Highlighting the words during read aloud can be as detailed or broad as the content-creator defines it. For children's books, word-by-word highlighting is strongly preferred. Text ID attributes could also be defined at a sentence level.
The highlighting is defined using CSS. You can set the color of the highlight or make the color of the highlight the same color as the text to turn off the highlighting. See CSS Styling of Media Overlays.
Create one SMIL document per XHTML document.
Pages Without Audio
You can set the timing for page turning in pages that do not have audio. Apple Books has two default zoom levels in each orientation: page and spread. When a reader zooms into a page, each page is focused independently during navigation. When a reader zooms to a spread, the spread is treated as a single step during book navigation.
If Turn Pages is set to Automatically, Apple Books pauses reading for 3 seconds on any pages or spreads that do not have any associated audio. After 3 seconds, reading continues, and the reader is taken to the next page or spread.
If Turn Pages is set to Manually, Apple Books takes the reader to pages or spreads with no audio, and the corner of the page is immediately turned up, indicating to the reader that it is time for them to turn the page.
To override this behavior and skip the spread entirely, provide a <par> that corresponds to the skipped spread, and define a duration of 0s. If you want a pause longer than 3 seconds, build that time into the audio file.
Processing Audio for Media Overlays
This section describes how to work with pages that have audio, including marking start and end times of the audio.
Marking Start and End Times in Audio Files
Narrative audio can be one long audio file or a series of clips. An audio editing tool can be used to mark the start and end time of a word or text phrase within an audio file, making it easier to define in an SMIL file.
Note: The following instructions show how to mark start and end times in an audio file using Audacity, a free, cross-platform audio editing tool. You can use another audio file tool to mark the start and end times in an audio file, however steps to do this will vary depending on the audio editing tool used.
To mark the start and end times in an audio file using Audacity:
Import the audio file.
Move the cursor to the desired start time.
Press Command-B to add a label to the cursor location.
Name the label using a naming convention with no spaces.
In the label track, drag the the right-side handle of the newly added marker to the end time. The label now represents a span, marking both the start and end time of a phrase.
To export one or more labels, go to File > Export Labels and save the labels as a text document.
Final audio files should be encoded following the standard Apple Books audio encoding guidelines. Audio tracks should be in stereo. Encode audio files as AAC at 256 kbps with .m4a as the file extension.
CSS Styling of Media Overlays
The currently-playing content will highlight as it is read aloud. Apple Books has a default blue highlight, but you can specify another style by defining your own CSS styles for the media overlay active class. This class supports standard CSS styling (for example, color, text-shadow, and so on) to indicate that the content is active. If the book’s text has a defined color (not default black), the book must include a defined -epub-media-overlay-active color because the text color will overwrite Apple Books’ default color for the actively-playing word.
To define your own media overlay active class, you must define the class name in the package document (.opf) metadata, using the meta property, active-class. For example:
Then, include that class name in your stylesheet. CSS example:
.-epub-media-overlay-active { color: red;}
When styling media overlays using CSS, follow these best practices:
Use the same color consistently throughout; do not change the color of the highlight unless it serves a specific purpose (for example, to distinguish a sound, such as an onomatopoeia, from the rest of the text).
Use a color that contrasts both font and background colors; the ideal color will depend on the design or background of each book.
Avoid pastels or light colors in favor of high-chroma colors.
Ambient Soundtrack
To add an ambient soundtrack to your book, include an audio element with the attribute epub:type="ibooks:soundtrack" and include both the xmlns:epub namespace and the epub:prefix="ibooks:" namespace (see the code example below).
Note: It is best to have a single soundtrack throughout the entire book. If you define a new soundtrack for each spread, know that there is a delay between when the previous soundtrack ends and the new soundtrack starts.
Note: In the prefix example above, the space between ibooks: and http:// is important; it needs to be a single, regular space character and not a return, non-breaking space, or any other kind of whitespace.
If you have a single soundtrack that is intended for the entire book, include the same audio file in every XHTML document. Apple Books will play this soundtrack seamlessly across documents. This audio file will play on a loop.
For ideal performance, use CSS to place soundtrack audio outside of the page boundary.
audio { position: absolute; top: -30px;}
Embedding Read Aloud Controls
If a book contains Media Overlays, the read aloud controls automatically appear in the Apple Books toolbar. However, you may also embed Start, Stop, and toggle controls in the content of the book by including the readaloud attribute. If you include this attribute, you must also include the ibooks namespace and prefix in <html>.
Note: In the prefix example above, the space between ibooks: and http:// is important; it needs to be a single, regular space character and not a return, non-breaking space, or any other kind of whitespace.
Embedded Controls Example
<p ibooks:readaloud="startstop">Read Aloud</p>
The following attributes are supported:
"start", which starts readaloud
"stop", which stops readaloud
"startstop", which plays readaloud if stopped, or stops readaloud if playing.
Defining the Page Turn Style
You can define the Page Turn Style of the embedded read aloud controls. The page turn style can be automatic or manual. These two values function the same as if the reader selected Automatic or Manual page turn directly from the Read Aloud menu.
By default, if a Read Aloud book includes audio or video files in addition to the read aloud narration, the media will play in parallel with read aloud. You can control the read aloud behavior with a few simple changes.
To control read aloud behavior, make sure the namespace is set to http://vocabulary.itunes.apple.com/rdf/ibooks/vocabulary-extensions-1.0/"; this is typically done on the document's HTML tag.
If you are using our Apple Books JS library, add a data-pause-readaloud attribute to your trigger element with its value set to "true"
If you are using <audio> or <video> elements, add a pause-readaloud attribute to your media element with its value set to "true"
When a user interacts with the media elements, the narration will pause while the media plays; narration will resume when the media is finished playing.
The following examples show how to use the pause-readaloud attribute with static media elements:
Additionally, when using Apple Books JS including data-ibooks-audio-reset-on-play and setting it to "true" will force the media element to play from the beginning each time the user triggers it.
Using this attribute requires Apple Books 1.5 or later.
Styling Read Aloud Controls
Use .-ibooks-media-overlay-enabled to style "startstop" element depending on the current state.
html #mybutton { /* style when readaloud is stopped */ color: green;}
html.-ibooks-media-overlay-enabled #mybutton { /* style when readaloud is playing */ color: red;}
Adding a SMIL File and Audio File to an EPUB
SMIL documents and audio files must be included in the manifest of the OPF. In addition to listing the SMIL and narrative audio files, a SMIL document must be cross-referenced with its corresponding XHTML document by including the media-overlay attribute on the XHTML document. The media-overlay attribute has a value equal to the id name of the corresponding SMIL document.
Important: Make sure you specify the correct media-type for your audio files in the OPF (the expected media-type for m4a files is "audio/m4a"). If the media-type is incorrect, the audio will not play after customers have purchased the book. This issue will not be evident when testing locally prior to delivering to Apple Books.
The package document must include the duration of each media overlay as well as of the entire book. The refines attribute references the ID of the corresponding SMIL document.
The following table lists the previously-released specifications and the revisions:
Date/Version
Summary
April 10, 2022 - Version 5.2.14
Updated the interior book image requirements and the method to create direct links to books.
December 12, 2022 - Version 5.2.13
Added information about using custom text colors with dark themes.
April 5, 2021 - Version 5.2.12
Added support for vertical scrolling. Added new screenshot sizes.
October 28, 2019 - Version 5.2.11
Video files can be delivered in HEVC in an MPEG-4 container.
June 24, 2019 - Version 5.2.10
Added font recommendations for fixed-layout books. Added best practices for media overlays in Read Aloud books.
October 8, 2018 - Version 5.2.9
Added recommendations for fonts and audio. Changed the branding of iBooks to Apple Books where appropriate.
April 12, 2017 - Version 5.2.8
Fixed code examples that included extra characters.
November 16, 2016 - Version 5.2.7
Clarified media-type format for SMIL files. Clarified fixed-layout books. Added screenshot sizes for iPad Pro.
July 21, 2016 - Version 5.2.6
Corrections to font sizing. Minor changes.
May 17, 2016 - Version 5.2.5
Added font guidelines. Clarified text alignment and footnotes. Corrections to font sizing and interior images.
February 16, 2016 - Version 5.2.4
Deprecated orientation and binding tags in fixed-layout books. Added guidelines for Gaiji images and embedded audio.
July 9, 2015 - Version 5.2.3
Changed interior book image requirements.
October 22, 2014 - Version 5.2.2
Added iBooks link format. Described the new book proofing tool. Clarified MathML.
September 18, 2014 - Version 5.2.1
Changed image sizing for flowing EPUB books. Clarified video posterframe art. Clarified links. Clarified delivering Chinese language codes. Changed the name for the fixed-layout book example to FixedLayout_3-2.epub and the flowing book example to FlowingExample3-1.epub.
April 9, 2014 - Version 5.2
Changes to image requirements and recommendations. Additions and changes to the available EPUB proofing tools. Changes to embedding audio or video. Changes to book versioning. Changed the version number of this specification from 5.1 Revision 2 to 5.2 to keep the version number in sync with the new schema version.
August 13, 2013 - Version 5.1.2
Added design considerations for books with JavaScript Interactivity. Identified the Japanese fonts available in iBooks. When creating a new version of a book, keep the same idrefs in the OPF as the previous version. Clarified scrolling in flowing books. Clarified book cover art. Increased the pixel limits for interior images. Corrected new iPad screenshot sizes. Clarified sample cutting. Corrected typos. Changed the branding of iBookstore to iBooks.
February 21, 2013 - Version 5.1.1
Clarified image size, text direction, and versioning. Added support for Tatechuyoko. Added a layout property to hide the book binding in fixed-layout books. iBooks' fonts follow the font orientation guidelines of UTR 50 draft 6. Clarified that nonlinear documents are not supported for fixed-layout books.
October 31, 2012 - Version 5.1
Added information on support for EPUB 3. Added versioning. Added support for Gaiji. Made changes to Read Aloud books based on new EPUB 3 support. Changed how linking works. Changed ibook.js to ibooks.js (and iBook JS to iBooks JS) to reflect the updated name. Updated namespace throughout. Removed all sections relevant to EPUB 2; refer to the Apple Books Asset Guide 5.0 for EPUB 2.
May 30, 2012 - Version 5.0
Book marketing image requirements have changed. Removed TIFF from the list of recommended image formats.
April 3, 2012 - Version 4.9
Both flowing and fixed-layout books can have custom page numbers. Added a new chapter for Multi-Touch books. Added best practices for images and flowing books. Added asset requirements for screenshots. Clarified that Read Aloud books require a custom preview.
December 8, 2011 - Version 4.8
Reorganized and simplified the structure of the document and eliminated redundant sections. Renamed “standard EPUBS” to “flowing books” throughout the document. Clarified treatment of tables. Added best practices for fonts and fixed-layout books. Added a new section for books that contain interactive content. Inline CSS within HTML comments will be ignored. A PDF referenced in the <spine> must be set to linear=no.
July 13, 2011 - Version 4.7.4
Added a chapter describing how to deliver read aloud content.
Made several corrections throughout the document.
June 16, 2011 - Version 4.7.3
Removed documentation on features not supported in iBooks 1.3.
Added a link to an example use of linear="no". Added color space requirement for HD source.
February 9, 2011 - Version 4.6
Removed size recommendations for full-bleed images. Images should not contain embedded text.
December 21, 2010 - Version 4.5.1
Added support for fixed-layout books (such as picture books, cookbooks, and art books). Added support for embedded fonts and for linear="no". Page breaks are now supported for standard (flowing) EPUBs.
December 1, 2010 - Version 4.5
First release of the standalone asset specification for books. This guide contains only the video and audio source formats for books; it does not list formats for music, film, and TV. An additional chapter describes best practices in preparing book content for iBooks.
Changes in Apple Books Asset Guide 5.2.14
Interior Book Images: Pixel Limit
The pixel limit for the interior cover and all interior book images has been increased from 4 million pixels to 5.6 million pixels.
Some books, such as Manga, are designed for content to be presented in one continuous scroll without white space or gaps. Vertical scrolling allows the reader to view and read the content from top-to-bottom. Apple Books presents the content documents in the order listed in the <spine> element, which defines the linear reading order of the book. By specifying vertical scrolling, Apple Books presents the content continuously without any space between content documents.
To specify vertical scrolling, use scrolled-continuous in the <meta property="rendition:flow"> tag in the <metadata> element within the OPF file. See Vertical Scrolling.
Screenshots
Screenshot size requirements have been added for 11-inch iPad devices (iPad Pro, 4th generation iPad Air) and for 10.5-inch iPad devices (iPad 8th generation, iPad 7th generation, iPad Pro, iPad Air).
11-inch:
1668 x 2388 pixels (portrait)
2388 x 1668 pixels (landscape)
1640 x 2360 pixels (portrait)
2360 x 1640 pixels (landscape)
10.5-inch:
1668 x 2224 pixels (portrait)
2224 x 1668 pixels (landscape)
Changes in Apple Books Asset Guide 5.2.11
Video Encoding
Video files can be delivered in HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) in an MPEG-4 container, in addition to H.264 in an MPEG-4 container.
Changes in iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.10
Fixed-Layout Books: Font Recommendation
For fixed-layout books, the ideal font-size (in pixels) is ~3% of viewportheight. For example, if <meta name="viewport" content="width=600, height=1000” />, Apple Books recommends the font-size to be 30px (1000 x .03).
Read Aloud Books: CSS Styling of Media Overlays
When styling media overlays using CSS, follow these best practices:
Use the same color consistently throughout; do not change the color of the highlight unless it serves a specific purpose (for example, to distinguish a sound, such as an onomatopoeia, from the rest of the text).
Use a color that contrasts both font and background colors; the ideal color will depend on the design or background of each book.
Avoid pastels or light colors in favor of high-chroma colors.
Changes in iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.9
Fonts: Recommendation
If you plan to use a bold-style font in your book, include a bold type face when declaring embedded fonts. This prevents iOS from having to synthesize a bold font from a normal weight font face.
Audio: Recommendation
When embedding audio, make sure you specify the correct media-type for your audio files in the OPF (the expected media-type for m4a files is "audio/m4a"). If the media-type is incorrect, the audio will not play after customers have purchased the book. This issue will not be evident when testing locally prior to delivering to Apple Books.
Audio Encoding
Previous versions of this guide required that audio be encoded as stereo. However, mono recordings are accepted if stereo is not available.
Store Rebranding
Changed the name of iBooks and iBooks Store to Apple Books throughout, except the names of prior versions of this guide in Revision History and the names of prior versions of the iBooks app. Tags, attribute names, attribute values, and file names used in the XML with ibooks in them have not changed. The name of iBooks Author and the .ibooks extension have also not changed.
Changes in iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.8
Correction
Some previous, image-related code examples included extra characters (en.lproj/), which have been removed from the revision of this guide.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.7
Read Aloud Books: SMIL Files Clarification
When adding a SMIL file to a read aloud book, make sure you specify the correct media-type for your audio files in the OPF (the expected media-type for m4a files is "audio/m4a"). If the media-type is incorrect, the audio will not play after customers have purchased the book. This issue will not be evident when testing locally prior to delivering to iBooks. See Adding a SMIL File and Audio File to an EPUB.
Fixed-Layout Books: Layout Clarification
When creating fixed-layout books in EPUB 3, you must include the following prefix attribute in the <package> element in the OPF file:
When using absolute positioning to place text in fixed-layout books, Apple recommends positioning the text at the sentence or paragraph levels; not at the word level. Positioning at the word level results in a poor user experience when selecting text and using search. See Text for more information.
Marketing Screenshots
You can deliver screenshots for iPad Pro 12.9-Inch Retina Displays. Below lists the sizes in pixels shown width by height.
2048 x 2732: (iPad Pro portrait)
2732 x 2048: (iPad Pro landscape)
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.6
Flowing Books: Font Guidelines Correction
In the previous version of this guide, an example given for font guidelines incorrectly showed the font-size parameter instead of the line-height parameter. The font guideline should be: When specifying line-height, set the value to a unit-less multiple of the font-size, for example, line-height: 1.2;.
Minor Changes
Cross references to other documents have been updated to link directly to the referenced section in the document. References to sample files now link directly to the Preparing Your Books section in Resources and Help where the files are stored.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.5
Flowing Books: Font Guidelines
When specifying line-height, set the value to a unit-less multiple of the font-size, for example, line-height: 1.2;. Including units, such as em or %, can cause lines of text to overlap if allowed to cascade to an element with a font-size that is larger than the element on which the line-height was declared.
Text Alignment: Clarification
iBooks provides a preference that a user can choose to display the text in a book to full justification. This option overrides any text alignment you specify and justifies all paragraphs in a book. You can preserve your text alignment by using the specified-fonts attribute and set it to true. This attribute preserves the font settings as specified in your CSS stylesheet, as long as the user does not choose a different font when reading the book. See Fonts Overview for more information on fonts and see Defining Book Layout Metadata for information on using specified-fonts.
Pop-Up Footnotes: Clarification
When adding pop-up footnotes in EPUB 3 books, you can use the <aside> element as explained in Pop-up Footnotes or you can use a <div> or <p> element. You can replace the <aside> element with a <div> or <p> element. Use the <aside> element when you want to hide the footnote; use a <div> or <p> element when you want the footnote to appear in the normal reading view. If you use <div> or <p> and a user clicks the footnote link, the content appears in a popup, but the footnote is also visible as part of the text on the page.
Flowing Books: Font Sizing Correction
In previous versions of this guide, it was recommended that when sizing fonts in flowing books, you should use either em or pixel (px) units. However, using pixel units prevents users from adjusting the font size. Font sizes should be defined in em or percentage (%).
Interior Images: Correction
In the following image guideline, the svg:img was changed to svg:image: To ensure proper viewing of images in content, use the HTML img tag instead of wrapping images in svg:image.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.4
Fixed-Layout Books: Orientation Locking
Due to the iOS split screen feature, you can no longer specify that a book’s orientation be locked. Any text and examples that included the orientation locking, and the following properties have been removed from this guide:
rendition:orientation
ibooks:ipad-orientation-lock
ibooks:iphone-orientation-lock
Fixed-Layout Books: Binding
Previously, in a fixed-layout book with two documents per spread, iBooks maintained a book-like appearance by including the book spine, pages, and page curl. The ibooks:binding property could be used to override the book-like appearance. iBooks no longer supports the book-like appearance for fixed-layout books. Any text and examples that included the binding property have been removed from this guide.
Gaiji Images
To ensure that the images you use for Gaiji characters appear optimally across all themes, such as Sepia or Night, make sure the images have transparent backgrounds. Otherwise, the backgrounds could be visible in certain themes.
Embedded Audio
The standard video pane dimensions are a 1:2 ratio and display at 300px wide by 150px tall on the iPad. However, the width can also be defined using CSS, ideally as a percentage of the screen width. iBooks will ensure that video and audio fit on a page, no matter the screen size. To avoid layout issues, do not set an explicit height on video elements.
Correction
The manifest example for SMIL documents included an incorrect media-type. The media-type has been changed from audio/mpeg to audio/m4a as follows:
The pixel limit for the interior cover, as with all interior book images, has been increased to 4 million pixels from 3.2 million pixels.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.2
iBooks Link Format
In a book made using iBooks Author, you can link from an HTML widget to another place within the same book, or you can link to an EPUB (.epub) book or to another Multi-Touch (.ibooks) book. When linking to a Multi-Touch book, you can link to a specific location, such as a figure, chapter, section, or page number. See Links for more information.
Book Proofing
iBooks for OS X Yosemite or later includes a book proofing feature that lets you know how your EPUB will look in iBooks to your readers. Once you have your proof set up on your Mac and iOS device, changes you make to your EPUB will update automatically in iBooks on your Mac and any iOS device you have synced. Use this to make sure everything looks and works to your satisfaction before you distribute your book or submit it for sale.
MathML Clarification
The sentence “In addition to the features listed above, MathML is also supported” has been changed to “In addition to the features listed above, presentational MathML is also supported.”
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.2.1
Images
When sizing images in flowing EPUB books, container <div> elements are no longer required. To size images, use viewport units to maintain adaptability for various screen sizes. See Interior Image Requirements for examples.
Images should be defined using img tags in the HTML. Styles such as dimensions and positioning should be defined in the CSS.
Links
Removed the sentence that indicated links in EPUBs are underlined and blue by default.
Video Posterframe Art
The posterframe is the image that displays inline in the book. It is usually a clip (or frame) from the video. The posterframe should be the same size and aspect ratio as the video.
Chinese Language Books: Clarification
For Chinese language books, you must specify both the language (zh) and the script (Hans or Hant) portions of the language code. The language code for Simplified Chinese is zh-Hans and the code for Traditional Chinese is zh-Hant. The code must be specified in both the book’s OPF file and in the metadata using the <language> tag. See Apple Books Metadata XML File Annotated in the Apple Books Book Package Specification for information on the <language> tag.
iTunes Connect Section Names
Changed the iTunes Connect module names throughout the guide to match the new section names (for example, “Deliver Your Content” has been changed to “Resources and Help.”
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.2
Images
When sizing interior images in the EPUB, it is recommended to size the container using viewport units to maintain adaptability for various screen sizes. Previous versions of this guide recommended using percentage units. See Interior Image Requirements for examples.
Apple recommends that you set the colorspace on your book images (for both EPUB and Multi-Touch books) to sRGB. This colorspace functions best on hardware, and iBooks Author can best optimize images that use this colorspace.
Embedding Audio and Video
The height and width attributes of embedded audio and video in an EPUB can be defined in either HTML or in the CSS. The height and width attributes have been removed from the HTML examples. See Embedding Audio and Video.
EPUB Proofing
The Safari Web Inspector is an open source web development tool built into Safari that makes it easy to proof your content on OS X. The Web Inspector can be enabled within iBooks on OS X 10.9 (or later). During book development, using this tool allows you to more easily modify, debug, and optimize your book. See Using Safari Web Inspector for more information.
Book Versioning
Books can be either versioned or unversioned. A “versioned book” refers to a book asset that has been revised with a version number. Only EPUB 3 and Multi-Touch books can be versioned. An “unversioned” book is one that has not had a version number assigned and can apply to EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 books.
When you deliver a new book asset for an unversioned book (either EPUB 2 or EPUB 3), you can provide text in the <version_whats_new> tag to explain what has changed in the new version. You do not need to supply a version string unless the asset was previously assigned a version number. See the Apple Books Book Package Specification for information.
Sample assets should not be versioned; however, if you do supply a version number for a sample file, the version number will be ignored. The sample inherits the version number of the book asset.
Schema Version
The version number of this guide has changed from 5.1 to 5.2 to keep the version number in sync with the new schema version.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.1.2
JavaScript Interactivity
The section that describes how to design books with JavaScript interactivity has been modified to include design and technical considerations necessary for both macOS and iOS. See the section Books with JavaScript Interactivity for more information.
Japanese Fonts: Clarification
In vertical writing mode, characters are rotated automatically based on the font sets and the glyphs that are available to iBooks. The following lists the system-provided fonts you should use for Japanese text:
Hiragino Kaku ProN
Hiragino Mincho ProN
Hiragino Maru Gothic ProN
YuGothic
YuMincho
Important: If you want to use a Japanese font that is available in macOS or iOS, it is strongly recommended that you use Hiragino Kaku ProN and Hiragino Mincho ProN as both are pre-installed for the reader. YuGothic, YuMincho, and Hiragino Maru Gothic ProN require the reader to download the font from the iBooks Font menu before the font is available for use.
Book Versioning
If you create a new version of a book, keep in mind that the idrefs in the OPF should always refer to the same content across different versions of the book. For example, ID "html9" should refer to the same chapter in both versions of the book, even if the actual name of the HTML file or the order of the elements in the spine may have changed. By keeping the idrefs the same, the annotations a customer made in a chapter in one version of the book will remain with the correct chapter when synced to the newer version. If you do not keep the idrefs the same, the annotations end up in the wrong chapter in the new version.
Flowing Books: Scrolling Clarification
By default, Japanese and Chinese books scroll horizontally, while all other languages scroll vertically. You can redefine the scroll direction using the "ibooks:scroll-axis" property in the OPF .opf file. See Scrolling in Flowing Books for an example.
Exterior Book Cover Art: Clarification
The book’s cover art that appears on the store (also known as the marketing image) is the image delivered alongside the book asset and does not refer to the cover image included in the book asset.
The book’s cover art must use RGB color mode and should be at least 1400 pixels along the shorter axis. For best results, a good rule of thumb is to use an image that is a minimum of 300 dpi.
Interior Book Images: Pixel Limit
The pixel limit for the interior cover, as with all interior book images, has been increased to 3.2 million pixels from 2 million pixels.
Screenshots: Clarification
The sizes of the new iPad screenshots with the status bar removed have been corrected. Below, all screenshots are listed and the sizes are shown width by height. When the screenshots are cropped to remove the status bar, those pixels come off the height.
1024 x 768: (iPad 1/2 horizontal)
1024 x 748: (iPad 1/2 horizontal with status bar removed)
768 x 1024: (iPad 1/2 vertical)
768 x 1004: (iPad 1/2 vertical with status bar removed)
2048 x 1536: (new iPad horizontal)
2048 x 1496: (new iPad horizontal with status bar removed)
1536 x 2048: (new iPad vertical)
1536 x 2008: (new iPad vertical with status bar removed)
Sample Cutting: Clarification
Previous versions of this guide did not specify what is meant by “beginning of the book” when describing how iBooks uses the percentage of words method to cut a sample for preview. Where the sample begins can vary depending on how the book has been structured. The words on which the percentage is calculated are counted from the beginning of the book. For flowing books, the beginning is determined by finding the first landmark where the epub:type attribute is "bodymatter". If that attribute is specified, iBooks starts cutting the sample from the publication component in the spine item referenced by the href attribute in the landmark. If the "bodymatter" attribute is not specified, iBooks looks for the first landmark where the epub:type attribute is not one of the following: "cover", "frontmatter", "toc", "foreword", "introduction", or "dedication" and starts with the spine items immediately following the component referenced in the prior "cover", "frontmatter", "toc", "foreword", "introduction", or "dedication" landmark.
For example, if the Landmarks structure included epub:type attributes of "cover", "frontmatter", "page1", and "bibliography", iBooks searches the spine for the component referenced in the "frontmatter" landmark and starts the sample cutting with the spine item immediately following it.
Note: It is recommended that the publication component referenced by the attribute in the landmark be listed close to the last item on the list of items. When cutting the sample based on percentage of words, iBooks could potentially include publication components that precede the referenced spine item, which could result in iBooks including the entire book in the sample. href"bodymatter"notspine
Corrections
Corrected typos in the Book Versioning section, and in the Table of Contents and Ambient Soundtrack sections in the fixed-layout books chapter. In these sections, a space was missing between ibooks: and http:// in the prefix examples. Note that the space between ibooks: and http:// is important; it needs to be a single, regular space character and not a return, non-breaking space, or any other kind of whitespace.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.1.1
Text Direction: Tatechuyoko
In vertical text, it is sometimes preferable to include a short run of horizontal numbers or Latin text. This is known as Tatechuyoko. To create Tatechuyoko, you must use the CSS property, -webkit-text-combine. See Text Directions for details.
Text Direction: Clarification
Each content document can support a single writing-mode value. If you want both horizontal and vertical text in your book, then each text direction must be split into separate content documents. Tatechuyoko should not be created using the CSS writing-mode property.
Gaiji Images
To make a gaiji image accessible for readers who use VoiceOver, the alt attribute for a gaiji image must be included. See Interior Image Requirements for details.
Book Cover/Marketing Image
The 2 million pixel limit on image size does not apply to the external cover/marketing image that is sent alongside the book asset. It applies only to images inside the book asset.
Book Versioning
Apple recommends that you declare the first asset delivered to iBooks version 1.0. The version number is consumer-facing and is meant to manage delivering updates to consumers. Future versions should increment as is appropriate.
Changed the word “preview” to “sample.” Added a sentence to explain where the What’s New text is displayed.
For flowing books, iBooks has several viewing themes that the reader can select. The Scroll theme scrolls vertically for books with horizontal text, and scrolls horizontally for books with vertical text. This is useful for a book with vertical Japanese or Chinese text. When rendered with iBooks' Scroll theme, vertical text is most easily read scrolling right to left on the horizontal axis. See Scrolling in Flowing Books for details on scrolling, and the metadata required for defining a book's scroll direction.
Fixed-Layout Books: Hide Book Binding
If you create a fixed-layout book that is two documents per spread, but you do not want it to have the book-like appearance, you can hide the book binding by including the binding layout property and giving it a value of false. See Defining Book Layout Metadata.
Fixed-Layout Books: Clarification
Nonlinear documents are not supported fixed-layout books; only flowing books support nonlinear documents.
Read Aloud Books: Clarification
If you include the readaloud attribute, you must also include the iBooks namespace and prefix in <html>. See Embedding Read Aloud Controls for an example.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.1
EPUB 3 Support
iBooks 3.0 supports EPUB 3 for both flowing and fixed-layout books including features such as pop-up footnotes, page progression direction, text direction, interactivity, and presentational MathML. See EPUB 3 Features for more information.
The structure of a version 3 EPUB differs from a version 2 EPUB. A version 3 EPUB includes a Package Document (.opf) and a Navigation Document (toc.xhtml). The Package Document includes all of the information about a book including Metadata, Manifest, and Spine. The Navigation Document includes information about how to navigate a book and includes the Table of Contents, Landmarks, and Page-list. In EPUB 3, the Apple Display Options file has been replaced with Layout Metadata in the Package Document. See Structure of a Version 3 EPUB.
Book Versioning
For EPUB 3 and Multi-Touch books, you can provide book versioning information when you publish a new version of a book previously published to iBooks. The updated book replaces the old book on iBooks and is available to future consumers. Customers who have downloaded the old version of the book will be notified that a new version is available for download, and if the customer chooses to download it, the new version will replace the prior version on their device. For Multi-Touch books, book versioning is built into iBooks Author version 2. In iBooks Author, when you publish a new version of a previously published book, you are asked to provide versioning information during the publishing process. For EPUBs, see Book Versioning in EPUBs.
Read Aloud Books
In Read Aloud books, the currently-playing text will highlight as it is read aloud. iBooks allows you to embed read aloud controls in the page of a book. With iBooks 3.0, you can define if the page turn style is automatic or manual for the embedded read aloud controls. See CSS Styling of Media Overlays for more information.
New to EPUB 3, the Package Document must include the duration of each Media Overlay as well as the duration of the narration audio for the entire book. See Adding a SMIL File and Audio File to an EPUB for an explanation.
Links
You can link directly to your book on iBooks from your own website, from online advertisements, or within a book. The linking structure can link by ISBN. See Linking Directly to Your Book in Apple Books for details.
To customize the style of the links, you can use CSS to define the color and style of the anchor element. If you customize the style, you must also include the specified-fonts layout metadata. See Defining Book Layout Metadata.
Images
Clarified image sizes for book cover art and images inside the book. Added support for Gaiji. See Interior Image Requirements for more information.
Screenshots
You can deliver up to five screenshots for a book.
Miscellaneous Changes
ibook.js has been changed to ibooks.js (and iBook JS to iBooks JS) to reflect the updated name. The iBooks namespace has changed to xmlns:ibooks="http://vocabulary.itunes.apple.com/rdf/ibooks/vocabulary-extensions-1.0/".
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 5.0
Book Cover Art
The book’s cover art, which is also known as the marketing image, that appears on iBooks must use RGB color mode and be at least 1400 pixels along the shorter axis. The book’s cover art file must also be a high-quality JPEG with .jpg extension or PNG with .png extension. Do not increase the size of a smaller image to meet the minimum image size dimension standard. Excessively blurry or pixelated images will be rejected.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.9
Flowing and Fixed-Layout Books: Custom Page Numbers
In flowing and fixed-layout books, <pageList> can be used to define the page numbers that iBooks assigns to each page. For example, the first page of the book is page 1 by default, but in some books, this may be the cover page and shouldn't be numbered. You can use <pageList> to define an empty string to that page so that it is not numbered. Similarly, you can define Roman numerals (i, ii, iii), letters (a, b, c), or numbers (1, 2, 3) for page numbers. If you use something other than numbers or a single word, make sure it is meaningful, keep it very short, and check to make sure it doesn't get truncated on the device. Using <pageList> requires iBooks 2.1 and newer.
Multi-Touch Books for iPad
Added a new chapter to describe best practices and asset requirements and encoding for Multi-Touch books for iPad. Multi-Touch books require iBooks 2.0 or later, iOS 5.0 or later, macOS X 10.7.3 Lion or later, and iTunes 10.5.3 or later.
NCX File Clarifications
For optimal customer experience, Apple requires the navMap element in the NCX. iBooks uses the data provided in the NCX to build the customer-facing table of contents. The navMap element must contain one or more navPoint elements. Each navPoint creates an entry in the table of contents. However, if the navMap contains only one navPoint, iBooks suppresses the list table of contents, which could be useful when creating fixed-layout books. For example, a picture book does not need a list table of contents as it does not have chapters. iBooks will always create a thumbnail table of contents for a fixed-layout book.
Images: Best Practices
When testing your book, be sure to preview it in night mode (the Night option under Theme). The Night reading theme makes reading books in the dark easier on the eyes. In night mode, the transparent areas of an image will be black. If your image has dark text within a transparent image, that text could be difficult to read in night mode. Instead, we suggest you use a JPG with a white background.
We recommend providing images that are at least 1.5 times the intended viewing size up to a maximum of 2 million pixels (image height multiplied by image width should be less than 2,000,000px). For example, a single-page, full-bleed image should be around 1200px by 1600px.
Links
When setting up a link to a book on iBooks, use itms-books:// instead of http:// at the beginning of the URL. This takes the readers directly to the book on iBooks without first displaying a message that they're leaving the iBooks app. See Linking Directly to Your Book in Apple Books for more details.
Flowing Books: Font Best Practices
Font sizes should be defined in ems (em) or pixels (px), not by name, for example, small or large. The main text of a book should either not have a defined font-size or should have a font-size of 1em. This will ensure ideal readability and font scaling.
Screenshots must be full-sized iPad 1/2 images (1024 x 768 or 768 x 1024) or full-sized new iPad images (2048 x 1536 or 1536 x 2048) in PNG (.png) or JPEG (.jpg) format. For a cleaner look, you can optionally remove the status bar (making the images 1004 x 768 or 748 x 1024 for iPad 1/2, or 2028 x 1536 or 1536 x 2028 for the new iPad). Note that screenshots can only be provided when the book is first delivered.
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Error Fix
The Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 bug that resulted in XHTML errors in EPUBs exported by InDesign has been fixed. If you have encountered this problem using InDesign CS5.5, apply the 7.5.2 update and regenerate the EPUB file. You can find the update here: https://www.adobe.com/downloads/.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.8
Flowing Books: Text Alignment
If specifying line-height, extra spacing between text blocks should be a multiple of the specified line-height to keep text aligned across the spine. See Alignment.
Flowing Books: Tables
In flowing books, iBooks sizes large tables to fit within the width of the page. When a reader double taps the table, the table will open in a new web view that overlays the book. In this web view, the reader can pan and zoom in on the table.
Flowing Books: Spine Items
If the <spine> references a PDF, the linear attribute must be set to no. If the linear attribute is set to yes, delivery will fail.
CSS Styles
If you define CSS styles inline using a <style> tag in the XHTML document, note the following changes. In iOS 5, HTML comments in an XHTML document will always be treated as comments, even if they appear in inline CSS. This behavior is compliant to XHTML standards. Previously, HTML comments within a style tag were ignored, thus applying the style within them, but beginning in iOS 5, <style> nested within <!--> will be ignored. Verify your books and correct if necessary.
Image Alt Attribute Clarification
For accessibility, the alt attribute for an image must be included. To read best practices on using the alt attribute, see Interior Image Requirements.
Fixed-Layout Books: Best Practices
When developing fixed-layout books, you may notice that iBooks sometimes remembers the appearance of your book even after it has been deleted and replaced with an updated version. This is due to caching. If you anticipate making a number of revisions to your books while editing, Apple recommends that you use the Book Proofer app (note: as of October 2014, iBooks for OS X Yosemite or later includes a book proofing tool). Another option is to include the edition's date in the metadata of the OPF. Changing this date will circumvent iBooks' caching.
A fixed-layout book must include a <reference> of type="text" In the <guide> block of the .opf file.
Read Aloud Books
If a Read Aloud Book includes audio or video files in addition to the read aloud narration, you can include the pause-readaloud attribute (or data-pause-readaloud if using iBooks JS) on the <audio> or <video> element. The namespace must be set to http://apple.com/ibooks/html-extensions and pause-readaloud to "true". Using this attribute requires iBooks 1.5. See Embedding Read Aloud Controls for more information.
Books with JavaScript Interactivity
A new section describing delivery requirements and best practices for books with interactive content has been added.
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Error
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 has a bug that may result in XHTML errors in EPUBs exported by InDesign. See Book Validation for details.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.7.4
Read Aloud Content
You can add read aloud content to fixed-layout books using Media Overlays, an EPUB-specific subset of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL). These SMIL files sync audio with the text, so readers can follow along as the words are read aloud. In some books, the words can be highlighted as they are spoken. See Read Aloud Books for more information.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.7.3
Corrections
Previous versions of the iBooks Asset Guide incorrectly described features of iBooks 1.3.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.7.2
Multimedia Delivery Requirements
Videos embedded in a multimedia EPUB must use H.264 video codec and end with MP4 or M4V file extension. Audio embedded in a multimedia EPUB must use AAC audio codec and end with M4A file extension.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.7
<spine> Element
The <spine> must have at least one item with the attribute linear="yes", which is the default. Any spine item without the linear attribute defaults to linear="yes". Any spine item with the linear="no" attribute will open in its own window. See Nonlinear Content for more information and a link to an example.
Samples
Removed the sentence “If you deliver via iTunes Producer, creating custom samples is not an option at this time.” You can now deliver samples using iTunes Producer.
Assets
HD video source must be tagged as 709 color space.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.6
Images: Clarifications
The following sentence was removed from the Images section: “We recommend full-bleed images that are at least 1476 x 1970 pixels (double the size of a single page in iBooks on the iPad) up to a 2 million pixel limit.” It was removed because the size (1476 x 1970 pixels) results in an image that is more than 2 million pixels.
Embedding text in images creates issues that cause a large number of customer complaints: customers can’t use the dictionary or search the text, and in addition, the book becomes not accessible for persons with disabilities. Therefore, books with images that contain embedded text will be rejected from sale on iBooks.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.5.1
Picture Book Support
New features have been added to support how a book displays when a customer opens a fixed layout (picture) book. Fixed-layout books require that a display option be set to indicate the EPUB has a fixed layout ("fixed-layout"=true). See Text Directions for instructions. Other display options for fixed-layout books specify if the EPUB should open to a two-page spread, and open in portrait or landscape orientation. Display options can be specified by platform (iPad and iPhone/iPod touch).
Embedded Font Support
EPUBs can now use embedded fonts, in addition to the already-supported system fonts. If you want to use embedded fonts, you must specify that the EPUB contains fonts. Otherwise, the embedded fonts will not be respected, and user-specified fonts will be used instead.
Navigation Support
In the OPF .opf file, the <spine> element is used to indicate the linear reading order of the content. When the person reading the book uses “next page” navigation, the pages are displayed based on the spine order. If a spine item is auxiliary to the main flow of the book (for example, an answer key in a textbook), you can use the optional linear attribute set to no to skip over the item to avoid disrupting the reading flow.
Page Break Support
In standard, flowing EPUBs, you can use the CSS properties page-break-before and page-break-after to add page breaks before or after an element. See Presentation and Styling.
Changes in the iBooks Asset Guide 4.5
First release of the standalone asset specification for books. (The version number of 4.5 was used to match the current version of the schema.) This guide contains only the video and audio source formats for books; it does not list formats for music, film, and TV. An additional chapter describes best practices in preparing book content for iBooks.
