The full form of EPUB is Electronic Publication. As the name suggests, the files with the .epub extensions are the e-books which are created by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). These files are primarily related to the &qout;Open Publication Structure&qout; by the IDPF. The EPUB actually refer to three different types of open standards, namely the Open Publication Structure (OPS) , Open Packaging Format (OPF) and the Open Container Format (OCF). These files are the XML-based documents for the accessing of digital books and publications. The . epub extension helps a publisher in distributing as it is designed for the reflowable content.
The OPS format of these files describes the content markup of the document. The OPF format refers to the structure of the eBook which is to be accessed and finally, the OCF format is the one which packages all the files of the eBook together, in a compressed format. These files are classified under the head of the Archive Files. They can be easily opened through the various types of document viewing softwares available online. For example, the Adobe Reader, EPUB Reader (the Firefox extension) and the Calibre are some of the most prevalent ones.
The latest version of the files of the EPUB is the version 3.0, which contains a 4-point specification set. It includes the EPUB Publications 3.0, EPUB Content Documents 3.0, EPUB Open Container Format (OCF) 3.0 and the EPUB Media Overlays 3.0. Though the latest version supersedes the earlier versions by a long way, still it has been subject to certain criticisms. EPUB may not be very suitable for the publications requiring precise and specialized layout.
In case there is a problem with the files with .epub extension, then it can be solved by the way of validation. There is an open-source tool called the epubcheck which is available for detecting and solving all the errors related to the structural markup formats (OPS, OCF and OPF) in the EPUB. This tool can be accessed by using the command line, or it may also be used as a library in the webapps and applications. This tool was primarily created and published by the Adobe Systems.
Open EPUB File on Windows OS
- Look for an EPUB file you need to open in Windows Explorer and double-click on it
- If the file doesn’t open automatically and you see a “Windows can’t open a file” message then you should search for a program which can open EPUB file
- If you have a program which can open EPUB file installed on your computer then launch that program and select “File” and then “Open” or similar options from its menu to open the EPUB file
- If you don’t have the program installed then you need to try searching for “EPUB wiki”, “how to open EPUB file” in the search engine.
- Once you find the application, install it on your computer
- After the program is installed double-click on the EPUB file to open it
File extensions are used by Windows operating system to specify what kind of information is stored in the file. Every file in Windows OS needs to have file extension and file extensions are used by Windows to determine which application it should use to open the file. Every application installed on Windows OS places information about which extensions it could open into the Windows registry and Windows uses this information to determine which application it should launch when user double-clicks on the file. If application which can open EPUB file is not installed, then Windows will show ‘Windows can’t open EPUB file’ message and buttons to either select an application on the computer which can open the file or to search the web for the application which can open EPUB file.