EPUB: Accessible Electronic Documents

EPUB® 3 defines a distribution and interchange format for digital publications and documents. The EPUB format provides a means of representing, packaging and encoding structured and semantically enhanced Web content — including HTML, CSS, SVG and other resources — for distribution in a single-file container. This specification represents the second major revision of the standard.

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

Summary of EPUB

  • Based on HTML, CSS, Javascript and ARIA technologies.
  • Uses the same accessibility techniques as HTML.
  • Unlike PDF document, ePub documents adapt their rendering to a wide range of technologies and the document sizes are much smaller.
  • More information on EPub readers and authoring tools.

Use of EPUB at Illinois for Instructional Materials