International Digital Publishing Forum
Encyclopedia
The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) is a trade and standards association for the digital publishing industry, that has been set up in order to establish a reliable and complete standard for ebook publishing.
Starting from the Open eBook Publication Structure or "OEB" (1999), which was created loosely around HTML
, it then defined the OPS (Open Publication Structure), the OPF (Open Packaging Format) and the OCF (Open Container Format). These formats are the basis for the common EPUB
and Mobipocket
ebook file format
s (Comparison of e-book formats).
While the basic standards are now established (pages, hyperlinks, definition of table of contents, authors, etc.) some other standards intersect the hardware field, such as those for power and for features of the hardware reader devices, and are still undergoing change and evolution. Other standards for ecommerce (including Digital Rights Management
protections), are tied to the way the ebook is sold or delivered, and are therefore controlled by the respective vendors.
Starting from the Open eBook Publication Structure or "OEB" (1999), which was created loosely around HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
, it then defined the OPS (Open Publication Structure), the OPF (Open Packaging Format) and the OCF (Open Container Format). These formats are the basis for the common EPUB
EPUB
EPUB is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum...
and Mobipocket
Mobipocket
Mobipocket SA is a French company incorporated in March 2000 which produces Mobipocket Reader software, an E-Book reader for some PDAs, phones and desktop operating systems....
ebook file format
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
s (Comparison of e-book formats).
While the basic standards are now established (pages, hyperlinks, definition of table of contents, authors, etc.) some other standards intersect the hardware field, such as those for power and for features of the hardware reader devices, and are still undergoing change and evolution. Other standards for ecommerce (including Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
protections), are tied to the way the ebook is sold or delivered, and are therefore controlled by the respective vendors.