A popular and emerging format of choice across publishers is ePub (the standard introduced by the International Digital Publishing Forum – www.idpf.org – and endorsed by the Association of American Publishers). ePub is a worthy format in that it provides universal acceptance to a wide and growing range of eBook devices and readers as per IDPF.

ePub is an XML packaging system which seeks universal acceptance by commercial reading devices, mobile phones and desktop/laptop based reading applications. Notably amongst a host of reading devices at present ePub is the file structure now accepted by Kindle, iPad, Nook and Sony, as well as mobiPocket reader, Adobe Digital Editions and the Stanza reader (utilized by iPhones and touch-screen iPods) and others.

Note ePub is not, nor is it prescribed to be, a single source of XML content. Publishers looking for the prescribed capabilities of XML content – reuse, 'chunking', automated XSLT transformations to alternate formats or 'interoperability' of content across all applications and operating systems – will find these lacking in ePub content and should consider an XML first workflow.

codeMantra offers comprehensive conversion and transformation services for publishers to convert from source to the ePUB format. Given the increasing array of ePub-compliant readers and the vigorous upgrade schedules that each manufacturer implements to remain competitive, the ePub specification is evolving to take advantage of new device capabilities (color and multi-column layout, for example). codeMantra keeps abreast of the changes to both the ePub spec and the devices, and can seamlessly deliver to the latest ePUB specification to meet your growing needs and those of your customers.