The Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan recently announced that it would soon adopt Epub 3 as its standard. When the standard is finalized in May, part of the spec will include support for vertical text, making it possible for Japanese-language e-books to be viewed on reader devices sold overseas.

Curiously enough, the Japanese language supports both vertical and horizontal text, and you might sometimes see both on the same sign.

The 43 members of the EBPAJ, including Sharp, Dai Nippon Printing, and others, have been working on the new standard since November. The group is expected to publish its draft specification shortly and finalise the standard by the end of March.

via Nikkei

image via Flictkr

Yesterday the IPDF announced the release of the first public draft of the new Epub 3 standards. This draft is the result of more than 7 months of work by the Epub Working Group.

Epub 3 is the next major revision of the Epub ebook format, an XML and Web Standards based format that has become a key global standard in the rapidly developing digital publishing industry. The new revision adds support for:

• HTML5
• Accessibility improvements
• Rich media such as video, audio
• Interactivity
• Layout improvements
• Global languages

This initial draft is being released for comments from the general public, as well as for trial use by early implementors. The final Recommended Specification of EPUB 3 is anticipated by mid 2011.

Epub 3 via IDPF