I'm very glad that here and there there are talks about EPUB3 as the most modern e-book format. I've been waiting for these conversations and concrete steps to get started with the format for a long time. But there are a few features and problems of EPUB3 that are not always obvious to those discussing it.
Fixed layout
When people talk about EPUB3 in vain, they often mean one of its two modifications — the fixed on-screen layout of the e-book. It is in this layout that all the unseen, unimaginable, amazing possibilities of multimedia and interactivity in e-books are revealed.
The first problem is that this layout will be fixed on all screens, and the chosen size may be too big for smartphones, too small for tablets, and e-ink readers may not be technically capable of such functionality. The second problem follows from the first: it makes no sense to make fixed layouts for regular text books. That's why when people talk about EPUB3 with fixed layout, they assume its use only in the niches of children's and educational content, and this is only a small part of the e-book market.
Increased markup requirements
An important feature of EPUB3 is extended semantics of text markup. You can specify page numbers of the printed book, mark up the text directly in EPUB for a better voice synthesizer in the reader, specify the language of each element of the text, down to the letter, and do much more. Since there are such features, they are slowly becoming a global standard for e-book file layout and sometimes even become mandatory (at the request of book services or even regulatory bodies). But improving the quality of markup entails more time to prepare each file, expensive improvements to the software used to prepare and display EPUB, and the need for additional training of layout designers. It is no longer possible to convert a source into EPUB2 as it used to be, to put in tags hastily (though not everyone does this). And services may refuse to accept such files, and you will lose to competitors. In general, you will have to transform all the processes of preparing book files if you want to be successful in digital book publishing in the EPUB3 era.
Readers
Still, more than 10 years after the EPUB 3.0 specification was introduced, not all readers support this format in full, especially fixed layouts. JavaScript underlying the interactive features of EPUB3, audio and video inside books, CSS and SVG animation — all this requires a lot of resources of devices on which such books will be read. In addition, a significant number of users prefer e-ink readers, the technical stuffing of which is often inferior to average smartphones in terms of performance. Not to mention the black-and-white or color-limited screens of such readers. Some desktop readers (e.g. Apple Books on Mac, Thorium Reader on all platforms), smartphones, tablets and, perhaps, the most powerful readers with color E-Ink screens on Android can now fully handle interactive EPUB3. In Russia, among book services only Stroki announced that they will support EPUB3 with a fixed layout — in 2025.
JS limitations
EPUB3's marvelous interactive features are based on JavaScript, which in many of its manifestations is tied to a fixed layout. Illustrations will only move on their own, or when tapped on the screen, if JS understands the coordinate system within the screen on a fixed layout. This means that it will be possible to make books with inexhaustible possibilities of interactivity and animation, which are customized for one of the screen variants — a relatively small smartphone screen or a tablet screen enlarged and close in size to the printed book. Such books will have a lot of illustrations, design, and movement, but not a lot of text, which narrows down the possibilities of using the format.
Skeptics and economics
The skeptics are, of course, not a problem with the EPUB3 format itself, but with attitudes towards it. Text books with reflowable layout in EPUB3 are becoming standard in developed countries, but interactive EPUB3 is still seen as an experiment and a risky venture. Not so long ago Google Play Books reminded us that they have quite a few interactive children's books in their catalog that implement EPUB3 features — perhaps this will spark a new round of interest in the format.
One of the limiting factors so far has been the relative high cost of preparing such books, which require additional designers, motion designers, web developers to customize JS — all these specialists feel good about themselves in IT and are in no hurry to go into the publishing business, which has significantly less financial resources. But right now we live in an era when ChatGPT and other neural networks have learned to write code on text query, generate and animate images and do many other things. And if yesterday's skeptics learn how to use all this, they will be able to apply advanced technologies to create great books in EPUB3 format.
The above mentioned EPUB3 problems will have to be solved jointly by publishers, book services, neural networks and even book authors themselves, but I'm sure that we will cope with them and reach a new stage of EPUB3 development. In Russia, this will be only the first real attempt, and why shouldn't it be successful right away.
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