ePub…exactly how do we write that?

I’m confused! Okay, so this happens quite regular, but on this occasion I think I might have good reason.

I’ve been following this new IDPF format for some time now and I certainly have great belief in it, but it seems to me that no one knows how the word should be written. Here’s a short list of what I’ve seen so far;

  • ePub (my current preferred way)
  • Epub
  • EPub
  • EPUB
  • epub

I haven’t made up my mind completely but my two favourites are ePub and EPUB. David at TeleRead has often mentioned the need for an ePub logo and I whole-heartedly agree. Let’s get the ‘look’ in peoples minds and what better way than a logo.

But is it really so important? When I think on how people talk about “mp3” I don’t have any fixed ideas in mind (nor a logo for that matter) and mp3 is huge!

Well, until someone says otherwise, I think I’ll stick with ePub.

I you have have your own thoughts on this, please do leave a comment.

UPDATE: The IDPF officially chose “EPUB” as the correct way to write about the standard.

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Author: Michael Cook

Founder of epubBooks.com - Free ebooks. Founder of Drablr.com - a self-publishing service dedicated to 100-word Drabble fiction.

5 thoughts on “ePub…exactly how do we write that?”

  1. tsk, tsk, commenting on my own posts. Still, I wanted to add this thought.

    Today I came across a poll on mobileread.com about how eBook is written. In the lead is “ebook” and if you read though some of the comments there are actually some nice arguments for the different approaches. Worth considering for sure.

    When the EPub Community starts up I’ll be making my first post on this very subject.

  2. Common/standard English indicates an answer:

    It is not an initialism (apparently, probably) so not EPUB.
    But it is a proper noun (or at least some kind of) so it would be capitalised.
    As a refinement, it might be a partial initialism for ‘electronic publication’ so a capital p is possible.
    Initialising the p but not the e (ePub) seems a merely fashionable ornamentation (not in itself too bad, but the proclivity of marketing-oriented corporations).

    That would mean: Epub, or maybe EPub.

  3. I guess my feelings are that this is outside the bounds of proper English. Are we not talking about a brand here?

    Thanks for the comment hxa7241.

    There’s been some interesting posts over on the EPub Community about this topic. Also, TeleRead is now running a Poll on the Best way to spell IDPF e-book format name. As I write this, my personal favourite “ePub”, is way out in the lead. Still, there are only 20 votes so this could change quite quickly.

  4. I have an .epub ebook with DTBook Vocabularies. When I try to open this file in adobe digital edition this shows following errors.

    The document appears to have minor errors that might cause it to be displayed incorrectly
    — errorListChange —

    Can someone tell me if why avove error occures?

    does Adobe digital edition conform DTBook based .epub?

  5. Hi Mangal,

    My apologies for the late reply. I don’t have an immediate answer to your question but you could try signing up to the ePub Community. There are some very clued up people there who I am sure can give you some good advice.

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