EPUBReader

MathML in ePub Rated 5 out of 5 stars

by Mike Waters on Nov. 25, 2009 · permalink

WOW, this is an excellent development for STM publishing!

I'm interested in all things ePub, and also have a great interest in MathML. Unfortunately, the 2 technologies didn't mix well, and the usual solution for math in ePub is .gif images or SVG embedded in the XHTML. Now, with this gem of an add-on I can see some great things happening.

I've successully created a "Hello MathML World" ePub package that contains some torture tests from the W3C MathML Test Suite, including actiontype="toggle" tests that work -- dynamic MathML expressions in an ePub package!

With Firefox doing the rendering, CSS doing the styling, STIX beta fonts supplying the glyphs, and the EPUBReader add-on providing the ePub package management, I think we have an excellent combination for flexible, dynamic ePubs that include MathML.

Two issues that I came across: 1) There was a conflict with Adobe Digital Editions, which led me to uninstall ADE, to enable complete functionality of the add-on when opening ePubs. 2) MathML in XHTML requires a different DOCTYPE and namespace, so there are some obstacles there. Strictly speaking, my "Hello MathML World" ePub isn't valid, but it displays just fine. Issue 1 is easy to handle -- don't install ADE. Issue 2 -- well . . . .

Next test is to embed Flash video in ePub, as described by Liza Daly @ Threepress.

Hmm, Flash video and MathML in ePub. I can already see the possibilities for e-Learning.