EPUB (Electronic Publication)
EPUB is the open standard for reflowable e-books, used by Apple Books, Kobo, and most e-readers except Kindle. It adapts text to fit any screen size, supports embedded fonts, images, audio, video, and interactive content using HTML and CSS.
MIME Type
application/epub+zip
Type
Binary
Compression
Lossless
Advantages
- + Reflowable text adapts to any screen size and font preference
- + Open standard supported by most e-readers and reading apps
- + Supports accessibility features like text-to-speech and screen readers
- + EPUB 3 enables rich media, interactive content, and MathML
Disadvantages
- − Amazon Kindle requires conversion from EPUB to KF8/MOBI
- − Fixed-layout EPUB is more complex to create than reflowable
- − Advanced interactivity support varies across reading systems
When to Use .EPUB
Use EPUB for e-books, digital magazines, and any long-form content designed to be read on e-readers, tablets, and phones.
Technical Details
An EPUB file is a ZIP archive containing XHTML content files, a CSS stylesheet, an OPF package file (metadata and spine), and a navigation document. The mimetype file must be the first entry in the ZIP.
History
EPUB was created by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) in 2007 as a successor to the Open eBook format. EPUB 3, based on HTML5 and CSS3, was released in 2011 and is now maintained by the W3C.