iBooks

bookshelf

The iBooks app is a great new way to read and buy books for the iPad. Download the free app from the App Store and buy everything from classics to best sellers from the built-in iBookstore which is part of iTunes. Once you’ve bought a book, it’s displayed on your Bookshelf. Just tap it to start reading.

Overview

There isn't much information available about this application. What we know is:

• it supports ePub format.
• it will use Apple's FairPlay DRM scheme to protect some eBooks purchased via iTunes. This will limit the use of these eBooks to Apple devices.
• it will be able to import ePUB books from other sources via iTunes desktop
• touching and holding any word lets users look it up in the built-in dictionary, on Wikipedia, or search for it in the book or on the Web.
• TTS via iPad's VoiceOver screen-reading technology

reading

iBooks 2

Version 2 has added specific support for text books and moves closer to ePub 3 features.

• Multi-Touch textbooks designed for iPad
• iBooks textbooks include interactive features, diagrams, photos, and videos
• Tap to dive into images with interactive captions, rotate 3D objects, swipe through image galleries, watch videos in full screen, and more
• Use a finger as a highlighter when swiping over text in a textbook
• Take advantage of Study Cards to help you memorize important highlights, notes, and glossary terms
• Tap glossary terms to see definitions of key topics and concepts without leaving the page

Tips

While iBooks reads ePUB files it does have extensions that are not necessarily ePUB compliant.

• Expandable photo blocks in iBooks - zoom images.
• Version 1.2 and later supports a new Fixed layout ePub which is unique to this reader.
• Padiliciouse multi-column layout - article. Other articles are available from the site.
• If the cover doesn't show up, you can open it in Sigil, browse to the "Images" folder, right click the image, select "Add Semantics" and choose "Cover".
• Embedded fonts will not be used by iBooks unless a special file is included in the ePub with special content. The file is: META-INF/com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml and must contain:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<display_options>
<platform name="*">
<option name="specified-fonts">true</option>
</platform>
</display_options>

Known Issues

"In some cases, you may find book pages are missing or repeated at the end of a chapter, or text in the chapter appears truncated in an ePub digital book in iBooks." Here's the full article from Apple support: iBooks: Pages missing or repeated in ePub. Making code as clean and light as possible by removing empty spans and extraneous code from originating software or document minimized the issue.