Digital Publishing

SMIL. It's AZARDI 11

AZARDI 11 has been released. This is a major feature upgrade. It can be downloaded from azardi.infogridpacific.com.

AZARDI 11 has significant changes in the reading interface and now matches AZARDI Cloud Reader (aka AZARDI Online). It supports SMIL Audio overlays in ePub3. There is a demonstration SMIL audio ePub3 on the resources page. This is the full  A Christmas Carol  by Charles Dickens, with some interesting highlighting patterns including single word, phrase, sentence and paragraph.

Digital Content at APEX@IGP

One thing I have noticed on my various blogs is that  people looking for digital content answers in 2012 get articles from 2010 and earlier in their search result. These are often dated information.

Blogs are wonderful and a rich source of information. The reason I bother to blog is primarily to address technical issues related to the production of digital content in a way that brings value to anyone who bothers to read it.

It's probably a personality disorder, but I find it relatively hard to maintain serious technical content as a blog entry. By maintain, I mean keep it relevant, updated, corrected and free from irrelevant (opinion) content.

Content of "technical value" will now be maintained and available at apex.infogridpacific.com - APEX@IGP.  Be warned, it is all technical. Don't go there for a laugh. There are none.

The blog remains an opinion and announcement vehicle.

APEX@IGP REQUIRES A HIGHLY STANDARDS COMPLIANT BROWSER. Read the requirements on the home page. Be afraid IE anything users.

The relevant digital content blogs from the past are being moved and updated. They will then be maintained to reflect the state of the digital content game. It is also easier to apply and maintain More advanced CSS and Javascript to better illustrated topics such as interactivity. It will take sometime for the search engines to find all this digital content goodness, but we wait.

I have started with a short set of articles on creating our ePub 3 format packager and the various issues that had to be thought-through and addressed. There are some stubs on other formats and the Information Wing IGP:FoundationXHTML is almost ready to go live.

EPUB3 UNLEASHED - AZARDI Online

EPUB3 UNLEASHED is now available for viewing in AZARDI Online. This release includes MathJax to make MathML available on all browsers and platforms.

Fixed layout becomes platform neutral when delivered from AZARDI Online. All of the interactive goodness in EPUB3 UNLEASHED is easily accessed directly from your favourite standards-compatible browser. Remember if you are using IE 6-9 you will need the Google Frame plug-in to make it work. Tablets are targeted for the Beta release.

To view EPUB3 UNLEASHED in AZARDI Online, go to azardi.infogridpacific.com/azardi-online.html. Scroll down to the section Infogrid Pacific Demonstration Specials.

AZARDI Online Alpha Release

Infogrid Pacific is pleased to announce the Alpha release of AZARDI Online. A demonstration is available at  azardi.infogridpacific.com.

AZARDI OL, like its sibling AZARDI Desktop, is an ePub reader supporting ePub 2, ePub 3 and when appropriate specific HTML5 packages. AZARDI OL is the first Reader in the AZARDI family to support SMIL Audio Overlays.

AZARDI OL is designed to allow the distribution of all ePub content on all platforms and devices which have standards compliant browsers, using virtually any screen size.

Just a quick first page warning to save time. Check out the browser compatibility advice.

AZARDI 8 Released

AZARDI 8 is now available at azardi.infogridpacific.com. This is the first release with auto updating. Mac and Linux will silently update. For those with AZARDI 7, Windows 7 may ask for permission and show an unsigned/unknown publisher box.

This is a relatively low-key upgrade. We have a lot more features planned for the next release based on requests and recommendations from users, and to address the demands of digital content.

Digital Content in 2012

The current fascination with Javascript and CSS, the encapsulated formats of PDF and ePub, and other distractions, blinds many to the value and need of consistent, reliable, highly controlled XHTML and the serious foundation business strategy needed for digital content ownership... regardless of content genre.

I read a laughable comment about how we produced EPUB3 UNLEASHED. "The market will wait until Adobe comes out with the tools". That is the joke. Sure they will have tools that will be able to produce something like EPUB UNLEASHED. But not with a controlled XHTML foundation and in two days, with  two production "resources" in India. The cost of producing EPUB3 UNLEASHED... around INR 5000 or US$100.

EPUB3 UNLEASHED Available

We uploaded an informational demonstration book to the AZARDI download location today. EPUB3 UNLEASHED is a highly interactive ePub3. The book is pure HTML5, CSS3, SVG, MathML and Javascript.

AZARDI is designed for the controlled channel delivery of  interactive content. It is optimized for specialist vertical channel content rather than being "just another reader".  This demonstration starts to demonstrate what is possible.

You can download EPUB3 UNLEASHED and AZARDI 7 here.

One of the motivations for producing this was to show that the core technologies can deliver a lot more than anything that is in the market at present, and it can do it easily and cost effectively. The IGP:FoundationXHTML that is packaged into an ePub3 here can also be delivered as a Web Site and WebApp (with the exception that Android doesn't handle SVG!)

AZARDI 7 Released

AZARDI 7 was released today (21 Nov 2011). This version has a number of bug-fixes and feature updates.

the ePub3 support has been improved and most significantly the AZARDI Interactive Engine has been updated and included.

For more information and to download AZARDI 7 go to azardi.infogridpacific.com.

AZARDI is strictly a desktop digital content reader. It works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, Macs and Linux (Debian). As such it goes a lot further in digital content capabilities than mobile devices.

AZARDI has been designed for education, training and instructional content which requires large scale interactivity. The AZARDI Interactive Engine introduces advanced Question and Answer tools, Story line and Events modules to reduce production costs and time to market.

AZARDI 7 is licensed at no cost in its simple ePub3 form, and is available for customization for publishers and institutions.

Reviewing XML Options

I have been on a remorseless LinkedIn discussion on the values of XHTML vs. XML DTDs (again). I take the position that the big three DTDs DocBook, TEI and NLM are holes to sink money into. Most others say we see the point but we think all publishers should use DB/TEI/NLM.

These XML options have a place and application, but they are not a suitable option for general publisher content.

I am planning a guideline for creating an XML strategy using XHTML in my next article. Before we start with the XHTML strategy, lets look at these big three which are tirelessly quoted over and over as being suitable for "any" XML strategy. This gives some context. It may be more information than you wanted to know, but here goes.

Digital Publishing 2011

I had an enforced sabbatical from my ePub and XML blogs from October 2010 until present due to work commitments. The two old blogs are technically oriented and have ended their natural life. Using ePub and Publishing with XML are now put out to the bottom pasture, and they will be sent to the Knacker's yard later this year.

So assuming the publishing industry is getting its head around the coarse weaving of ePubs and Kindle e-books for device limitations, and starting to play with the embroidery of enhanced ePubs; the publisher problem for 2011 is what next? Is digital publishing just sending these "digital assets" to some e-retailer?

For me the subject for 2011 is digital publishing strategies; with the focus on practical implementation of the digital content fulfilment strategies the visionaries espouse. That means getting digital content under control and delivered to consumers with the required business model; whether it is selling, lending, subscribing or some other permission map. In the context of this blog, it also means doing that with the IGP digital publishing products.

2010 was the year that digital publishing became a painful reality for trade publishers. Sales volumes are big enough to matter, and like all things IT, confusion, opinions, options and maybe opportunities, are everywhere. Digital content is old hat in academic and education publishing in various forms, but going through a revival.

The publishing noise of 2010 was definitely about trade books, ePub and devices.2011 is shaping up as the year publishers need to get real digital content business strategies up and running. That means more than just shipping an e-book to Amazon or Google books where all content of any quality is relegated to the $9.99 e-book proletariat.

Currently there are very few usable and affordable digital business strategy options available for publishers, especially Small and Medium size publishers. Digital publishing choices, options and strategies is the focus of this blog. It just so happens to be the exact point of the plot where Infogrid Pacific rides in on a white horse.