From the course: EPUB Accessibility Using InDesign

EPUB 3 vs. EPUB 2 - InDesign Tutorial

From the course: EPUB Accessibility Using InDesign

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EPUB 3 vs. EPUB 2

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- [Instructor] All of the advice in this video holds true for EPUB 3. Some of it may be applicable for EPUB 2, but I will spend the majority of my time working towards the EPUB 3 specification, which is more natively accessible than the more generic EPUB 2 format. EPUB 3 is capable of a couple of things that EPUB 2 just can't handle. It has, for example, much richer navigation, both human- and machine-readable, and allows for a wider variety of navigation types. Semantic inflection, this is something we'll go into great detail in later on in the course, but it's only possible in EPUB 3. MathML markup language is only usable in EPUB 3. It's not relevant to EPUB 2 and is very important for some kinds of publishers. Audio and video media content are only possible in EPUB 3. EPUB 2 had limited support, but mostly for images only. Media overlays which allow synchronized audio was technically possible in EPUB 2, but those EPUBs wouldn't validate. It's only really possible in EPUB 3. And fixed-layout e-books. All of the major and minor retailers are capable of ingesting EPUB 3 now. There are no good reasons to hang onto EPUB 2, other than workflow tools and force of habit. When you add accessibility to the list of reasons to move on from EPUB 2, it seems to me that sticking with EPUB 2 is an unwinnable argument.

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