Amazon.com has released new details on the next generation of its Kindle e-book format — dubbed Kindle Format 8 — saying it adds more support for HTML5, the latest version of the underlying language of the web.
The move will broaden an approach already being used in the company’s upcoming Kindle Fire tablet.
“As showcased on Kindle Fire, KF8 enables publishers to create great-looking books in categories that require rich formatting and design such as children’s picture books, comics & graphic novels, technical & engineering books and cookbooks,” the company says in an online announcement. “Kindle Format 8 replaces the Mobi format and adds over 150 new formatting capabilities, including fixed layouts, nested tables, callouts, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics, opening up more opportunities to create Kindle books that readers will love.”
Nate Hoffelder of the Digital Reader Blog posted on the news yesterday, noting that Amazon already uses HTML5 tags for audio and video, for use in the Kindle apps for iOS devices.
Amazon adds more detail on its plans in an FAQ: “In the coming months, we will roll out KF8 to our latest generation Kindle e-ink devices as well as our free Kindle reading apps.”
