EPUB 3 Best Practices by Matt Garrish

Author:Matt Garrish [Garrish, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: COMPUTERS / Electronic Publishing
ISBN: 9781449325299
Publisher: O'Reilly
Published: 2013-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6. Media Overlays

Having looked at embedding audio content within documents, the natural progression is to look now at how to provide synchronized audio narration, another of the key new additions introduced in EPUB 3. Media overlays, as you’re about to see, are the secret behind how this magic works.

When you watch words get highlighted in your reading system as a narrator speaks, the term media overlay probably doesn’t immediately jump to mind to describe the experience, but what you are in fact witnessing is a media type (audio) being layered on top of your text content. Apple was the first to adopt this technology, adding it to their support of EPUB 2 under the name Read Aloud while the EPUB 3 specification was still being finalized, but other reading systems, like Readium, have since appeared offering beta support. Even Amazon has jumped into the synchronization game, if not with the same media overlays technology.

But the ability to synchronize text and audio in ebooks isn’t a new development in the grander scheme of ebook formats. It goes back fifteen years in DAISY digital talking books, and even further in antecedents to that format. The value of text and audio synchronization for learning has an equally long history, which is why the technology is so important across the entire spectrum of readers. Media overlays are more than just an accessibility feature of EPUB 3, in other words.

Overlays enable any reader to quickly and easily switch from one reading modality to the other. For example, you don’t have to be interested in reading along with the words to find value. You might switch from visually reading a book while at home to listening aurally while commuting on the train to work. You might want to temporarily switch from visual to audio reading while turbulence is rocking you around on your latest business trip and making you sick to your stomach, and then switch back when it passes.

But overlays run even deeper than the ability to switch from visual to aural for casual reading. Imagine you are working in an environment where you need your hands free, but also need to hear instructions or have a QA checklist read back. If you turn on a media overlay, you can listen while you work. No need for embedded videos. No need to rely on potentially incomprehensible text-to-speech (TTS) rendering.

Foreign language learning is another example of where overlays shine. Without precise audio pronunciations, books that teach second languages are often extremely difficult to follow. Listen to the proper pronunciation while you read and you’ll be fluent in no time. There’s a lot more to media overlays than just storybook reading for children.

The audiovisual magic that overlays enable in EPUBs is just the tip of the iceberg, too. Overlays represent a bridge between the audio and text worlds, and between mainstream and accessibility needs, which is what really makes this new technology so exciting.

From a mainstream publisher’s perspective, overlays provide a bridge between audiobook and ebook production streams.

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