The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) has introduced a new open source initiative to develop a comprehensive reference implementation of the IDPF EPUB 3 standard.

Known as the Readium Project, this initiative involves using WebKit, the widely adopted open source HTML5 rendering engine.

Developed by the IDPF, EPUB is an XML and Web Standards based format that has now become a key global standard in the digital publishing industry.

EPUB 3 is a major revision of the standard EPUB that enables digital books and publications to be portable across devices and reading systems.

The newly announced version was approved in October 2011 and is available here.

EPUB 3, notes IDPF, successfully aligns EPUB with HTML5 and adds support for video, audio, interactivity, vertical writing and other global language capabilities.

IDPF also elaborates on WebKit, noting it is an open source rendering engine for HTML5 and related Web Standards. Currently, WebKit is used as the underlying engine in several Web browsers and applications, including Apple Safari, Google (News - Alert) Chrome, Apple iBooks, Adobe AIR, Nokia MeeGo, HP webOS, and others.

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) is the global trade and standards organization for the digital publishing industry.

"Project Readium will significantly accelerate EPUB 3 adoption and increase implementation consistency," said Bill McCoy, executive director of the IDPF. "A universal digital publishing format for the open web benefits the entire industry and ultimately consumers, who want the freedom to read on their choice of applications and devices."

Ebooks and EPUB are now mainstream and IDPF organized several educational seminars at Digital Book 2011 to provide essential information for publishers, device manufacturers, and content distributors at every level.