Report: IDPF Workshop on EPUB for Comics/Manga

April 7, 2014

Nearly a hundred technologists, publishers, and digital artists gathered on March 26 in Paris, France and via web conference for the first-ever IDPF workshop dedicated to EPUB for comics, manga, and sequential art in general. Inspiring demonstrations of interactive and enhanced digital comics were given by « Turbo Media » pioneer Balak, « Infinite Comics » authorsfrom Marvel Geoffo & Mast , and the publishers of the digital comics magazine "Professeur Cyclope". A taxonomy of enhancement types for digital sequential art was provided by Samuel Petit of Actialuna, and Matthieu Kopp of Aquafadas provided an overview of work to date on advanced fixed layout capabilities in EPUB. After a panel and open discussion among attendees, several specific gaps were identified relative to declarative, interoperable representation of interactive digital comics in EPUB. Additional requirements identified include the need for the ability of a content author to be able to capture and control page transition events and customize navigation affordances. A likely next step after this workshop will be a second workshop in Asia, after which it may be timely to expand an existing working group charter and/or create a new focused working group to address these requirements. The workshop in Paris was co-sponsored by Cap Digital and hosted by BpiFrance. The event was recorded and videos of sessions will be made available soon.