Standardization of eBook documents in the Korean industry

Abstract

An electronic book (eBook) has quite a few advantages over a paper-based book. However, several technical problems have not been solved until now in spite of the growing interest in eBooks. eBook industries are using different document formats with the result of difficulty in exchanging and sharing eBook contents and reinvestment in developing the related software. The US and Japan have realized the importance of a standard document format for eBooks, so they have developed the Open eBook Publication Structure (OEB PS) and JepaX, respectively, with the support from government agencies and related industries. Recently, the Electronic Book of Korea (EBK) has established a working group and developed a standard format based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for eBooks. The goals of the standard include the explicit exchange of eBook contents reflecting the characteristics of the Korean publishing environment, simplicity in creation and exchangeability with the related formats. The standard supports the logical structure of various document classes as well as advanced style control such as vertical writing and multi-column editing based on XSL. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.