Category: interactivity

La entretenida, by Miguel de Cervantes

La entretenida, by Miguel de Cervantes: A Digital, Annotated Edition and an English Translation (The Diversion)
This edition presents a new perspective on Cervantes as a dramatist, and incorporates features that will be of interest to academics, theatre practitioners and translators alike. 
It is the result of AHRC-funded collaborative research carried out at King’s College London, within the Out of the Wings project, by John O’Neill of the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies and a team from the Department of Digital Humanities led by Paul Spence.

It presents four versions of the Spanish text that allow different views of the punctuation and spelling (facsimile, modern spelling transcription, ed. O’Neill and unpunctuated), together with an English translation, by John O’Neill.

With performance in mind, the verse is presented in a way that clearly displays the poetic form, while the Performance Information and Track Character menus provide useful information about what is happening on stage.
Various indices (names, places, occupations, specialist terminology, sub-languages, proverbs and performance) and a Google Map of places mentioned help to contextualize the play.

More information:

Interactive books using HTML5 canvas in association with JavaScript

Interactive books using HTML5 canvas in association with JavaScript
(Creando libros digitales con EPUB3 y HTML5)
Producing interactive digital books with EPUB3 and HTML5 is now an excellent option. EPUB3 is great for doing HTML5 ebook development, especially once EPUB 3.0 specification is formally adopted.
The following basic steps can be useful if you want to produce interactive digital books:
  1. Download Calibre application and convert your original to epub format. Do not expect a nice result after conversion. It will be just a starting point from which you have to work on
  2. Learn how to zip/unzip epub files, work with xhtml files inside an epub, and zip it again.
  3. Add EPUB3 and HTML5 multimedia and interactivity to expand beyond traditional text and graphic books. Just add your HTML5 file to your epub zip as any other HTML content, include the standard XHTML namespace on the <html> tag and get all resources referenced in the OPF <manifest> file.
  4. Validate your EPUB files with EpubCheck.
  5. Upload your EPUB to iBookstore (or other online stores, blog, webpages…).
If you are interested in making your ebook available on Amazon’s Kindle platform, EPUB is not an option. Amazon provides a tool called Kindlegen, but results are low performance.
If instead of EPUB, you are interested in making ebook apps, you may want to look into Baker ebook framework or PhoneGap.
If you are brave enough and enthusiastic about digital books, just try it. If not, you may want to contact digital book experts from Publiconsulting Media too.
Enjoy!

Inicio de publicaciones en la iBookstore de Apple

Inicio de publicaciones en la iBookstore de Apple

El libro La Aldehuela, de Lope de Vega ya se encuentra disponible en la tienda Apple iBooskstore por tan solo 0,99 euros. 
Puedes acceder al libro en la iBookstore a través de este enlace:
http://itunes.apple.com/es/book/la-aldehuela-lope-de-vega/id477666819?mt=11&ls=1
o haciendo clic sobre la imagen 

EPUB fixed-layout interactivo

Algunas personas se han interesado sobre el formato del libro recientemente publicado La Aldehuela, de Lope de Vega. 
El libro está en formato EPUB fixed-layout interactivo. Algunas características de este formato, que permiten una lectura más gratificante, son las siguientes:
  • El lector puede leer el libro en vertical y horizontal
  • Puede ampliar y reducir el tamaño de la letra con el gesto de los dos dedos sobre la pantalla
  • Pulsando sobre las palabras resaltadas, el lector hace aparecer un cuadro con la anotación correspondiente o, en algunas páginas, la imagen del manuscrito.  
Al abrir el libro en el iPad, para ajustar las páginas al tamaño de la pantalla en vertical u horizontal, simplemente hacer doble-click sobre la imagen y se ajustará al tamaño de pantalla completo.
Como siempre, los comentarios son bien recibidos. 

Five steps to produce interactive epub books for children

The following basic steps can be useful if you want to produce epub books for children:
  1. Download Calibre application and convert your book from pdf to epub format. Do not expect a nice result after conversion. It will be just a starting point from which you have to work on
  2. Download Sigil and open your epub book to clean it up, add images, text, etc.
  3. Learn how to zip/unzip epub files, work with xhtml files inside an epub, and zip it again.
  4. Add interactivity using JavaScript. For instance, tapping on any word from the text, the associated image fades in as a popup, tapping on the image again to dismiss it. Same effect with audios and videos.
  5. Add other EPUB3 and HTML5 functionalities. For instance, objects moving around when you change your iPad orientation, etc.
Enjoy!

Appstore vs. iBookstore [EN]

I was recently asked if my interactive epub books were applications for the appstore or epub books for the iBookstore.

Books in the appstore are applications as sophisticated and spectacular as old CD-ROM Multimedia. However, both suffer from the same defect: they are games for iPad or PC, which main driver is not reading text but user interaction through multiple possibilities that are related to reading the book only marginally.
By contrast, epub books from iBookstore focus almost exclusively on text and give readers just a few options to improve the reading experience. By default, tapping on the iPad screen you can bookmark pages, search words in the book, dictionary lookup (currently only in English), external searches (which now make you quit reading the book if, for example, want to google), access external links… and little else.
Interactive epub books I’m working on (some examples shown in this blog), try to pick the best of both worlds. First, main driver is text, as seems logical for books. Second, these books adapt digital content to epub format, adding interactive features (video, audio, images popup, references popup, searching …) that enrich the reading experience.
In summary, interactive epub books address readers seeking to follow text as main driver, and willing to use technology to interact with books in a non-intrusive way. The aim is to enrich the reader’s experience adding interactive features to text, without disrupt or impede, even when the reader decides to seek for an explanation of a term, listen to audio, or watch a video included in the book.

Interactive epub books for children… with video

The following images show how to implement interactivity on epub books. This example is illustrated with some pages from children’s classic picture book Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.

When the reader tap on any word from the text, the associated image of the page will fade in as a popup. Tap on the image again to dismiss it.


If instead of tapping on the image, you double-tap, the image is shown in full screen. With a new double-tap, it returns back to text.
And now, showtime…
I have added a very nice video of the book, found on Youtube, to the epub file. Video works on iBooks on iPad and the outcome is really, really cool.


Libros interactivos en el iPad para niños

Una nueva prueba de concepto: un libro epub para niños que incorpora funciones que permiten interactuar con el libro de una manera novedosa.
Las siguientes ilustraciones muestran cómo visualizar las imágenes del libro Where The Wild Things Are, de Maurice Sendak, a medida que el lector pulsa sobre el texto en su iPad. 

Pulsando en el texto de cada página, aparece una ventana con la imagen del libro relacionada. Pulsando de nuevo sobre la ventana, se cierra y se vuelve al texto original.


Si en lugar de pulsar en la ventana, se hace doble-click, aparece la imagen a pantalla completa. En el iPad esta imagen se puede ampliar a voluntad con el gesto de los dos dedos. Con un nuevo doble-click, se vuelve al texto.


Interactividad aplicada: manuscrito, primera edición y texto

Interactividad aplicada a la lectura de un libro digital significa, entre otras cosas, implantar funciones que permitan al lector, interactuar con el texto del libro pulsando sobre enlaces a imágenes, notas a pie de página, palabras poco conocidas, nombres de personas, personajes históricos, ciudades o cualquier otra palabra que tenga un enlace incorporado. 
De nuevo trabajando sobre el libro La Dama Boba, de Lope de Vega (ver entrada), presento a continuación una interesante aplicación de funciones interactivas mediante Javascript con eventos popup.
Las siguientes ilustraciones muestran cómo visualizar las imágenes del manuscrito de la obra o de la primera edición, cuando el lector pulsa sobre las opciones correspondientes, simbolizadas por cajas en la parte superior de la pantalla. 
Pulsando en la caja ‘Manuscrito’, aparece una ventana con la imagen de la página correspondiente en el manuscrito. Pulsando de nuevo sobre la ventana, se cierra y se vuelve al texto original.



Si en lugar de pulsar en la ventana, se hace doble-click, aparece la imagen a pantalla completa. En el iPad esta imagen se puede ampliar a voluntad con el gesto de los dos dedos. Con un nuevo doble-click, se vuelve al texto.



Del mismo modo, pulsando en la caja ‘Primera Edición’, aparece una ventana con la imagen de la página correspondiente a la edición de 1617, Doze Comedias de Lope de Vega sacadas de sus originales por él mismo – Novena Parte. Pulsando de nuevo sobre la ventana, se cierra y se vuelve al texto original.



Si se pulsa sobre cualquier otra palabra resaltada como enlace (hyperlink), aparece una ventana con la descripción de dicha palabra. Pulsando de nuevo sobre la ventana, se cierra y se vuelve al texto original.



Implementing interactivity in epub for iBooks (English version of ‘Interactivity, that is the question’)

Following an example on the blog of Liza Daly, JavaScript and interactivity in iBooks, I realized that iBooks supports JavaScript-based interactivity in epub content. Liza’s article refers also to Nicholas Gallaguer’s blog, and the article Pure CSS speech bubbles. 
I am implementing some interactive features to my books in epub format, which I find very interesting indeed. Here are some of them taking as an example some pages of the book La Dama Boba, by Lope de Vega (see post). In this example, I added some JavaScript-based event handlers.
First, I give priority to the digitized text, as one would expect. Now images of the manuscript only appear as a pop-up when you click on the ‘Manuscrito’ box located at the top of the screen.

If you tap on the hyperlinked word ‘Manuscrito’, an image of the page will fade in as a popup. Tap on the image again to dismiss it and return to the original text.

If instead of tapping on the image, you double-click, the image is shown in full screen. With a new double-click, it returns back to text. 

Second, in the same way as explained above, this system of pop-ups can incorporate references to footer, notes, definitions of uncommon words, references to places, references to historical people, and so on. If you tap on the hyperlinked words in the text, an annotation will fade in as a popup. Tap on the annotation again to dismiss it and return to the original text.

I think this example opens up a world of possibilities for implementing interactivity to enhanced ebooks.