ibooks author: creating multi-touch books for ipad

iBooks Authorcreating Multi-Touch books for iPad

New England Chapter of ASIS&T MIT, Cambridge, MAJanuary 30, 2013

http://nicolehennig.com

Wednesday, January 30, 13

Outline

• What is iBooks Author?• Examples• iBookstore• Why choose this platform?• Other authoring platforms• Software overview• My book projects• Learn more• Discussion

Slides available

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What is iBooks Author?

free Mac app

What is iBooks Author?

• creates multi-touch ebooks that can be sold (or offered for free) in Apple’s iBookstore

• or create non-interactive books that can be sold elsewhere (PDF)

Textbook creator

Other interactive books

Interactive widgets

Math equations

•Equation editor

•MathML or LaTeX

•works with MathType application

iBooks Shelf

Examples

http://macsparky.com/paperless/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/create-your-first-interactive/id530135111?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/book/id552255768?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/frankenweenie-electrifying/id557041056?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/nypl-point-john-cages-prepared/id559342852?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/edwin-the-super-duper-otter/id520566217?mt=11

Examples

[ live demo on iPad ]

iBookstore

Why choose this platform?

• easiest way (at present) to make interactive books without being a developer

• Apple’s audience

• you get 70%

• design and distribute free books

Why choose this platform?

• designed to work with volume discount plan for schools purchasing textbooks

• easy to distribute in iTunes U

• Apple accessibility guidelines

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5073

Accessibilityguidelines

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5073

Legal

What you can’t do:- You can’t sell your multi-touch book on other platforms, or your own website.

What you can do:- If you are making your title free, you can distribute it both on the iBookstore and your own website.

Legal

More things you CAN do:

- take the written content from your book (without interactive elements), and publish it on other platforms (such as Kindle or print).

- export your book to a PDF file that you can sell on any platform.

Example

Other authoring platforms

$4.99

http://www.redjumper.net/bookcreator/

https://www.inkling.com/habitat/

http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/booktype/

iBooks and file types

• epub• epub (with DRM)• PDF

• .ibooks used by iBooks Author

iBooks app on iPad can read:

Ebook file types

https://www.writelydone.com/blogs/darnzen/understanding-e-book-file-formats-00818

Ebook file types made simple

• epub = iBooks and many others

• mobi = Kindle

• PDF

Book types in iTunes

•Book = a book you downloaded from the Internet

•Purchased book = DRM-free book from iBookstore

•Protected book = copy-protected book from iBookstore

DRM-free

multiple formats

Best practices(in my opinion)

DRM-free

multiple formats

Best practices(in my opinion)

• On the proprietary nature of the iBooks Author file format - John Gruberhttp://daringfireball.net/2012/01/ibooks_author_file_format

• Why the Emotional Criticism of iBooks Author is Wrong - Mike Elginhttp://www.cultofmac.com/141832/why-the-emotional-criticism-of-ibooks-author-is-wrong/

Why I don’t mind that .ibooks files are proprietary

http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/ibooks_author_file_format

http://www.cultofmac.com/141832/why-the-emotional-criticism-of-ibooks-author-is-wrong/

Software overview

Mac app store, free

Templates