Covers in EPUB 3
by Keith Fahlgren
Now that EPUB 3 is an IDPF Proposed Specification it seems like a good time to update some of our EPUB blog posts. One of the most popular was Best practices in ePub cover images, which helped clarify how to include a cover image for most ebook readers. While cover image markup wasn’t specified in EPUB, I’m happy to report that EPUB 3 clearly explains how to include a dedicated cover image.
Note: If you’re new to the EPUB 3 specifications, the best place to get a clear introduction to the four parts of the specification is the EPUB 3 Overview. Marking a specific image is a metadata problem at the publication level, so we’ll be referring to the EPUB Publications 3.0 specification. As expected, it includes “Publication metadata — mechanisms for including and/or referencing metadata applicable to the entire Publication and particular resources within it.”
Without further delay, here is the markup to mark an image as the cover in EPUB 3:
<item id="img24"
properties="cover-image"
href="the_cover.jpg"
media-type="image/jpeg"/>
The new properties attribute is added to an otherwise “normal” OPF item and is all that’s required to mark an image as the cover. While including a cover image is still optional in EPUB 3, you may only mark one image as the cover.
Most of the metadata improvements in EPUB 3 are based on this properties attribute. Its uses range from noting that content includes MathML or JavaScript to indicating the type of publication.
If there are specific EPUB 3 topics you’d like to see us write about, please leave a note in the comments—Thanks!
Comments
Is the automatic hyphenation/soft hyphen character issue sorted out in Epub3?
How are book subtitles best dealt with in Epub3? They could be included with a meta data property, but is there a recommended way so that a reader recognizes them, to display them sensibly (eg subtitles display in smaller font under the main title etc)?
Here’s an example by B.Obama:
Title: Dreams from My Father
Subtitle: A Story of Race and Inheritance
I want some more epub3 format file
How to validate epub3 format file
What’s your position these days on the use of the so called SVG-hack? From where I’m standing, it still seems like the only viable option to make covers look real nice in ADE, and it doesn’t seem to mess things upp in other e-readers as far as I can tell..
@Hannes: I do think the SVG workaround causes problems with some current EPUB reading systems, but I hope that it will become unnecessary when ADE is revised to support EPUB 3.
Hello,
an epub3 question…
can device orientation be recognised in epub3? For example together with @media queries and/or screen widths?
E.g. if a book refers to a map throughout (e.g. Lord of the Rings):
-Can that map be made to appear if the ereader is turned to landscape? Portrait displays just text.
-On a fixed screen that doesn’t have landscape/portrait, could this be recognised? Here, the map can be viewed with a pop-out?
Thanks, Thomas
EPUB3 question: Would you please discuss mapping to print pages? I believe this is an accessibility function picked up from DAISY. An example of proper tagging would be great. Thanks.