The EPUB file is a open format, used primarily to create e-books. EPUB stands for “electronic publication”, which means “electronic publication” in French. The EPUB format succeeded the older Open eBook format and is under development since 2007 under the aegis of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Its file extension is .EPUB. Furthermore, this XML-based format is the standard for digital publications and digital books and is compatible with many programs.
An EPUB file combines both textual content and its structure, covers, images, and possibly sounds, as well as metadata such as a table of contents. Open web formats such as CSS, XHTML and XML are used for this purpose. In addition to the book data itself, the EPUB file may also contain digital rights management (DRM). The target audience for the EPUB file type is primarily publishers and consumers who create and read e-books.
The EPUB format is based on three open formatsall managed by the IDPF:
- PAHO : the Free Publishing Structure, for content formatting.
- FPO : the Free Packaging Format, which defines the structure.
- OCF : Free Container Format, which allows all necessary data to be stored in a ZIP archive with the extension .EPUB
