Multimedia eBooks

There has been a long standing debates regarding whether there should be multimedia included in ebooks are not! What exactly would be multimedia in eooks? Audio, well then why not have the entire book as a narrative and as an audio book. Video, then why not make a movie out of it or put in on popular video streaming sites.

The very idea of multimedia eBooks poses a lot of unanswered questions

File size?
What happens the file size of the eBook? including audio an video in the ebook will always have an inherent boom in the file size. How much would one want to compress the file? Compression means loss of quality. A quality failure means the eBook will not be sold. Another aspect is that now most of the eBooks are being created with hand held devices in mind. All of these hand held devices will be mostly connected through WiFi, meaning less download speed. Increase in file size will only slow down the process, irritating the readers?

Reading Experience?
Once multimedia is included the reading experience will go for a toss. There will be no reading sequence, or it will be listening and seeing sequence.

Multimedia eBooks are good for the academic and education sector, but it’s a small market. There are already people creating multimedia education systems, hence books run out of the race.

Device Size?
Multimedia requires crystal clear sharpness in Audio as well as Video. Are we looking at 17” hand held devices now? Like holding a monitor, I think it is going that way. Most of us don’t like small screens hence we have 42” LCD or LED televisions, don’t we? But we do want to have multimedia in books. Wow a library of heavy duty books in a big and compact HDD attached to a large hand held screen, I see it coming :)

Why is everyone running in for multimedia eBooks? It’s a long way down. I see people getting back to chisel and hammer to carve out on rocks. Because that is what remains. A good book is the one with an excellent reading experience, and NOT listening or seeing experience. For that Audio books DTBs are there,and for Video movies (created from books) are there.


Content is very important, however different media and mediums have different purposes. Let them be used with the purpose they are meant to be used. Leave the books to be read rather than heard or seen :). There are many other ways of including multimedia with the book rather than within the book. Sometime later I might lose my laziness and express my views on that :)

This is completely my opinion you can very well disagree with it!

PDF - As I Understand It

Earlier I have written about PDF and the types of PDF files that can be created. Today I want to elaborate on the my understanding of the PDF.

Since I became accustomed to PDF I always wondered what "Exactly is a PDF file", to be more precise, what exactly is "page in a PDF". I compared it to Microsoft Word, Open Office writer and many similar softwares. One fine day (this was in early 2002), in one of the conversation with my CEO (Versaware India Pvt. Ltd.), he mentioned "its just like paper".

When I returned to my desk, I sat down for a while just thinking on the statement. I realised he was absolutely right. It is a "paper", similar to the ones we day in day out keep printing stuff that is not essential. The only difference being that a PDF is an electronic paper (nature friendly). Enough of flash back, back to real thing.

As per my understanding PDF consists of four layers.

1) Content Layer: This is the upper most layer, which consists of text and or images. This is the layer that is visible (mostly, I will comeback to why I say mostly)
2) Inline Style Layer: This is the layer that decorates the content, the inline styles bold, italics, underline, superscript, subscript etc.
3) Content Style Layer: This is the layer that defines the structure of the content, the paragraph styles, fonts, font size etc.
4) Canvas Layer: This is the layer that defines the Page size,the galley, the margins and the header and footer area.

Seriously I never knew about this until, we were experimenting on content extraction from PDF and I requested one of the programmers to extract as much information from the PDF file as possible. To my surprise, all of the above information is stored very systematically within the PDF. This information can be extracted and reused and repurposed if the content is extracted with the PDF.

It is very important to note that once a PDF is created you cannot do much with it, it is the same as a printed page. At the most you can add in some remarks or annotations or notes. Nothing much.

PDF is a very good source of content storage in an absolutely elegantly styled way.

Coming back to mostly, there are some PDF files where the entire page is an image and the text content of the page is either maintained in front of the image or behind the image. If it is behind the image the text content will not be visible. This mostly done to make an image PDF searchable.

I think content if styled properly, can be extracted to HTML files and this content can be used to created ePUB files. By styled properly I mean the page layout with clearly defined and not to clogged layout. This will help to have the ePUB looking closer to the PDF. It is also important to note that making eBooks look pretty will not always help your books. Most devices just go ahead and destroy your layout.

Keep it simple! Thats the best Bet!

Cheers!!
VY!

Standards, and Adhering to them

Many a times during various phases of my career, I have faced many situations where I have hated to work with standards. Today as I see it, Standards are a must. be it eBook Production, Publishing or Secure Document Management.

So many times I have had this question in mind, everyone is talking about creation of eBooks, Workflows, however I have seen no one talking about Section 508 compliance, or any certification of Production for authenticity of content. For eg. in Singapore any document that is digitized or is digitally created, and needs to be produced in court, needs to be certified under the Evidence Act of Singapore.

In the US documents that are produced need to be compliant to the Section 508 for making the content available for the physical impaired people.

My question, is it that difficult to comply to standards. Today ePUB is sweeping everyone of their feet, however it is a standard by itself.

So many people talking about ePUB and the readers on which they can be read on, not one note have I seen about making it available to the physically impaired people. I may be wrong as I cannot read or see the billions of notes that are being made all over the world, but certainly I am not seeing them in the main stream.

For me all standards compliance is very important. Today there are standards that have been made flexible for certain sectors, people should be taking advantage of this and should increase the number of audience/readers, to their works.

Standards are the way to go.... for me atleast.

ePUB Packaging

Umpteen times I have seen, heard or read, about how to package an ePUB.

A Wikipedia link actually details about the ePUB format as well as the packaging: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB

However what it does not explain is the answer to the question: I selected all my files and created a zip out of it, renamed it as .epub but still it doesnt work?

Here is the structure of the ePUB package (right out from the Wikipedia article).

--ZIP Container--
mimetype
META-INF/
 container.xml
OPS/
 book.opf
 chapter1.xhtml
 ch1-pic.png
 css/
   style.css
   myfont.otf

If you have created a zip and it has all the above components and still it does not display as an ePUB file. These are the things that probably have gone wrong.

1) You have created a zip of the folder containing the files. If this is the case get inside the folder, select all files and create the zip.
2) You have done the right thing with creating the zip file, yet it does not display the ePUB file, perform this action,

• Ctrl + A to select all
• Click once on mimetype to de-select it
• Click mimetype to select it
• then create the zip

Whenever you open the zip file using Winzip or Winrar the mimetype must be the first file. And yes don't zip the folder zip the contents of the folder (after making sure all the necessary components, ie files and the content within the file is as per the standard)

VY

PDF - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Back again... Seriously did not get time but now that I have time I would want to present my ideas or thoughts on PDF.

Currently with so many electronic formats for content available around the Globe, PDF has been compared to all the electronic content formats from since 1990s. Many people have posted the view that PDF is not a format that is sustainable in the long run. Since the very start PDF has been compared with the likes Softbook, OeB and currently with ePUB. People fail to realise that is not just an eBook.

Currently people fail to realize that there is no other format that can replicate the paper version of any content as PDF can. PDF is a not just a format, it is a standard by itself. I would rather not compare it with other eFormats available for electronic medium distribution.

PDF for me is a universal formats. I have been asked numerous times on what types of PDFs are available or can be created.

For me there are two major types of PDF files in terms of structure further divided in to sub types:

1. Scan PDF
2. Text PDF

Scan PDF or Bitmap PDF: This is where the PDF is created out of image files. These good be scanned images of paper or digitally photographed content. In this PDF the content on the PDF pages is non searchable. This type is further sub divided into

• Printable (POD PDF)
  This PDF is used to create Print Version of the content that is to a particular standard and used majorly for commercial production of content. The images used in this PDF are high resolution for good quality reproduction on paper
  
• Non-Printable Scan PDF
  This PDF is generally used only to retain the digital copy of the content in the image format. This format cannot be used for commercial printing as the quality of reproduction on paper is not as good. However this can be used for quality printing which will not be commercially saleable.
  
• On-Line Scan PDF
  This PDF is for typical created for online viewing or easy downloads from the internet. These PDF files have a very low resolution images which is supported on PC's and other devices for easy and quick rendition. The sole purpose of this PDF is for making content available online or in a format that is easily distributable, but not printable.

Text PDF: In this PDF file the text is searchable, however images still are not searchable. The content is highly structured or styled, however this does not stop the user from creating the Text PDF from unstructured text.

• Printable (POD PDF and Traditional Print)
  This PDF is used for commercially viable printing. Hence this PDF is generally used for creation of Books, Magazines, Journals, Newspapers etc. which can be distributed in the print format. The content structure in this PDF is highly structured and styled. Mainly to appeal to the reader and make it look good
  
• Non-Printable Text PDF
  This PDF cannot be used for commercial printing however is very good for distribution of content with searchable content. In this PDF the structure or the style used in the PDF does not carry much importance as the reach of this PDF is very low.
  
• On-Line Text PDF
  This PDF is for typical created for online viewing or easy downloads from the internet. These PDF files have a very low resolution images which is supported on PC's and other devices for easy and quick rendition. The sole purpose of this PDF is for making content available online or in a format that is easily distributable, but not printable. In this PDF the struture and style may have relatively high value as these can be the online versions of commercially printed content search Books, Magazines, Journals, Newspapers etc.

There is another format of the PDF, that has a very different purpose, the Text Under/Over Image PDF. In this PDF the main content is rendered or captured as pages created of the images, however there is a Text layer that is introduced either under or over the Image of the page. The purpose of this to retain the structure or style of the content as is as well as make it searchable. There is a major reason I see as to why this format or version of the PDF is created. The structure or the style of the original content needs to be retained, but the underlying reason is creating a replica of the content structure using Text PDF creation methods is highly expensive in comparison to creation of Scan PDF with a layer of text under or over it.

Secure PDF
Content security is carries utmost importance. Even free to distribute content carries rights. Secure PDF can be created while creation of the PDF itself or using third party DRM servers. Each level of security has its own purpose and carries certain amount of importance.

PDF as Archive Standard
PDF/A is a standard which defines the requirements of creation of PDF file format for long term archiving. There are two sub standards:

• PDF/A-1a - Level A compliance
• PDF/A-1b - Level B compliance

More and detailed information about these standards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF/A

Document Security...

As a company it is very important that utmost security is maintained for all documents physical or digital. There are many large, medium and small firms generate physical documents that range in hundreds or thousands of documents everyday. These firms, mainly include banks, hospitals, education institutions. Mainly firms that deal with large number of people. As I have a publishing background I am quite familiar with security solutions available for the publishing world as well as some familiarity of the Document World.

Digital Security
In the publishing world the security concerns mainly hover around security of content. Mainly related to rights of content. Now there is ample inclination towards also maintaining security of physical assets (meaning documents in terms of electronic file formats. Now that the world is getting more and more digital it is imperative that all data that is transfered, transformed and stored is secure in all aspects.

Digital security in terms publishing world is mainly and widely termed as Digital Rights Management. This includes encryption, secure storage and secure distribution.

1. The encryption for the publishing world is mainly in the form of encrypted ebooks either to be read on the Portable Devices or Online.
2. Secure storage is must as rights is directly related to content. It is amply important to maintain highest level of security for documents to be stored, as a un-secure storage is an open world to Piracy
3. Distribution requires that the content leaves the storage location and travels up to the end users reading environment. Which means that data needs to be secure at all stages from the source to the destination. It also means that the content is kept secure on the readers destination.
   

In the world of documents, the documents are mainly stored digitally for easy retrieval purposes (using indexed data) and to give away with large spaces that are used up to store documents. However it is also important that all security aspects of storing and retrieval data.

The data needs to be secure right from the creation stage right up to the storage of the data. Data creation in most cases is just indexing of data. This data is stored in document management system for easy retrieval on based on the indexed data. The document management system can be as simple as one index field retrieval to extremely complex indexed data that can be stored in Enterprise Content Management Systems. To take it forward some ECM also provide services such as creating copies, editing, automatic versioning as well as rights based access to content.

In both cases that is Book Publishing and Document Publishing the main aim seems to be moving away from paper to a paperless work flow.

As Digital "Instruments" are getting smaller, the digital storage is getting more complex, Or is it we are making it complex...

Business Level Problem Solving or Issue Resolution

While being into Business or running a company there are several occasions that there are problems that are seemingly difficult to solve, or you run into issues that seem to be an uphill task to resolve.

As I have observed, it is a common trend for people to JUMP onto the problem immediately. Many a times I have observed there is loss of time just because it is completely unknown, "what is the actual problem". Everyone wants to hold either of the one ends and create a chaos about it.

Problem Identification
In most cases, it is evident that no one knows what exactly is "the problem". But then there is another big problem how do we identify it? For me the elimination method works the best. How do I work?

1. List all the possible items that has led to the problem or so called problem.
2. Eliminate each item after confirming that it is not a problem or not caused the problem
3. After reaching to a single item, evaluate (dont conclude) whether is it really "the problem" or has led to "the problem"
4. If the answer is Yes, you got the culprit, if no, still need to do more forensic investigation.

The problem is identified, What next?

Problem Solving
After getting to the problem it does not mean that the problem can be easily resolved. Again the elimination method work, however have to be very careful on this.

1. List down the possible solutions or resolutions to the problem or issues.
2. List down the possible impacts (because many a times we get into problem solving and forget about the negative impact it might be having on other items not listed or observed)
3. Have preventive action in place to ensure that it is not repeated
4. Document everything done so that it can be easily passed or referenced in future.

Business Level Scenarios
On the business level the scenario may not differ much from the day to day problem resolution. The participants change, the impacts change.

For Example: IF there are quality failures observed by your client from time to time there could be a negative impact on the business relationship. However few things to note:
a. Are these problems due to frequent changes requested by the client.
b. Has the client made his best effort to provide you enough information leading you to resolving the problem
c. Or is that the client is being just a Brick Wall

If either of the above is true, then its better to discontinue the relation, if not, you are out of Business.

It is best that the client and the service provider engage in honest and complete efforts in issue resolutions. This is mutual business growth.

Beware never take the client for granted to help resolve all the problems. You are the service provider, and its your job to provide the services with the agreed quality level. It is always expected that the service provider at all times provides the service to the agreed SLA and quality levels.

Business continuity also leads to an attitude to give in to all the clients demands at all points in time. This is however very crucial to understand, as long as there are businesses running there will be clients, customers, endusers, and providers.

I have also seen scenarios, where CXO level executives talking about solving business problems of potential clients, and for a fact are in the same scenario probably worse than the client.

Businesses need to identify and resolve the internal problems first, set achievable the business goals, the direction and then move ahead confidently.

Its like "You Can Never Lay A Foundation on Loose Sand"

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