Adobe Digital Editions has over 1 million installations since the June 2007 launch. The new software will be automatically provided to users who have installed Digital Editions 1.0, and is available at the product site .

Adobe has also released an updated Digital Editions installer and launcher for distributors of eBooks. The installer is used to detect and install the latest version of ADE for retail or library customers of Adobe eBooks. The software is free to use and available with implementation instructions .

With the recent update to the document (version 1.0.2) we've given you information on how big the chapters can be.

Anyway, the Best Practices, and lots of other useful information can be found over at the Developer Center:
Digital Publishing

You can find it here:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/install/

The Beta is an opportunity for customers to test and provide feedback to Adobe on new features and compatibility with their digital publications.

The key feature of this second Beta release is that we have enabled the "Setup Assistant". This walks the new user through the steps of authorizing their computer. With this assistant, you can also, optionally, decline to authorize your computer. Adobe very very strongly discourages this. We feel that you should *always* authorize your computer. More on this below.

The key feature of Digital Editions 1.5 is the addition of enhanced DRM support that provides “content portability” across computers and devices that you authorize with your Adobe ID. (Note that this portability is available ONLY if you authorize your computer).

Note: You should be aware that this beta release includes an enhanced version of DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection. If you plan on using Digital Editions for mission critical work, please consider using Digital Editions 1.0.

Key features of the enhanced DRM include:
- Ability to convert a user’s content to a “Named Authorization” license, enabling them to be backed up, copied and read on other computers or devices
- Authorization of end users’ DRM protected content with an Adobe ID (if authorized)
- Writing the secure license into the document
- Existing content is migrated to the new system and newly downloaded content is automatically converted when it is downloaded
- Content portability applies to both PDF and EPUB documents (again, only if the computer is authorized).
- Resulting documents can be copied just like any other file (if both computers are authorized)
- Documents can be opened on any computer or device which has been authorized by the owner
- The number of machines that can be authorized is controlled by the amount set by the Authorization server (up to 6 computers and 6 devices)
- We have added functionality within Digital Editions 1.5 to support mobile devices. At this time we are working hard on rolling out support for the actual devices which work with Digital Editions, which should become available later this year.
- The number of machines on which a document can be viewed is limited by the number of authorized machines, unless the document has been limited to a single machine by the publisher

Note that authorization with an Adobe ID is no longer required in 1.5, but is *strongly* recommended. If you do not authorize your computer, your content will, as in Digital Editions 1.0, be locked to the computer to which is was downloaded. Adobe feels very strongly that all users will be best served by authorizing their computers. Adobe Digital Editions does not use the ID for any purpose other than enabling portability by linking you and your books. The ID is not used for any other purpose, public or private. Please see Adobe's privacy policy here.

Publishers and vendors should note that this release does not alter the fulfillment of ebooks so existing ecommerce workflows are not affected.

In addition to the DRM enhancement, this release of Digital Editions also
Adds support for Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard)
- Fixes a bug in which double-byte (e.g. Asian, some European) users could not use Digital Editions
- Adds support for users whose My Documents folder is mapped to a network drive.
- Improved PDF support, including more complete support for the Adobe transparency model
- Support for named pages in PDF (e.g. i, ii, iii, etc.)
- Page map support in EPUB so that there is a mapping between the reflowed screens and the paper copy of a book
- Adds support for multiple books per ETD fulfillment
- Miscellaneous user interface improvements and bug fixes

The process that happens when you buy an ebook with Digital Editions 1.0 is that your book is downloaded and also a “voucher” (license) is downloaded from a secure server. The voucher contains the key to open your book. That voucher is then stored in secure database (the “voucher store”). That voucher store is locked to your machine and thus so is your book. This has caused some real problems when people upgrade to a new computer or their hard disk dies.

For Digital Editions 1.5 we have enhanced the DRM capability and changed how it works so that when your book and voucher are downloaded, the voucher does still get stored in the voucher store, but then your ebook is copied and the contents of the voucher are written INTO the copy of the document itself. (The original is backed up into a subfolder of your My Digital Editions folder). This means that the book and its key and license are self-contained. Can you then just copy your book to another machine and open it? Yes, with a very important “BUT”.

When you install Digital Editions, the very first action it takes is to contact a secure server at Adobe to get info that it uses to secure your books on your machine. This is very similar to what Digital Editions did. But, with DE 1.5 you have the option to authorize your machine by entering an Adobe ID. All Digital Editions does with the ID is store it on the same server along with the info that came down. This allows us to know that you are you. (Actually we only know that you are whatever Adobe ID you have, Digital Editions doesn’t know or care who you are. Your privacy is very important to us See Adobe’s privacy policy). Then, if you want to copy your content to another machine, all you have to do is go to another machine and install DE 1.5 and authorize that machine with the very same Adobe ID. Then the server downloads the same info so DE knows that your book belongs to you. And you will be able to copy your books back and forth between the two machines as often as you like.

But ... you have to authorize your PCs to get this content portability. If you do not authorize your computer, your content will, as in Digital Editions 1.0, be locked to the computer to which it was downloaded. This first Beta release does not actually offer the option to use the old-style “anonymous” mode of use, but the next Beta and the final release version will. But Adobe feels very strongly that all users will be best served by authorizing their computers. Digital Editions does not use the ID for any purpose other than providing the portability by identifying you and your books. The ID is not used for any other purpose, public or private.

It is also important to note that in the final release you will be able to decline to authorize your computer and then change your mind and authorize it later. And, when you do, all your books will become portable to any other computer you have authorized. BUT, really important point: If you have two (or more) computers that are not authorized and you buy books with each of them, then later authorize the PCs, only the first-authorized computer will have fully migrated books. The other computer(s) can then be authorized and books shared with the first-authorized computer, but the books that were downloaded anonymously on the other computers are forever locked to those computers. So, again, Adobe really really recommends that you authorize your computers as a matter of course. There is really no good reason not to do so – it is in your own best interest!

Note that this first beta does not have the final UI for the authorization process. The next beta will include the “setup assistant” which is a complete wizard-driven workflow that guides the user through the process of how and why they should authorize their computer. But it will also provide a way for users to decline to authorize their computer (even though we think that is not a good idea). If the user declines to authorize their computer at the beginning they can always do so later – but with the caveats outlined in the previous paragraph.

You can authorize up to 6 different machines. And up to 6 different devices. At present, there aren’t any publicly available devices that support Digital Editions, but they are coming soon! Also note that some publishers explicitly specify that their books cannot be transferred to any other machine than the one to which it was downloaded. Adobe of course abides by this restriction. You can find out if your book has this restriction by looking the book’s info, available in the library pane by selecting the book and pressing Ctrl+I (or using the book’s drop-down menu).

What about your existing books, that you downloaded with Adobe Reader, Acrobat or Digital Editions 1.0? When you first install Digital Editions 1.5, the application will migrate all your DRM-protected books, from whatever source, into the new enhanced DRM format. If you have authorized your computer, then those books are now portable to any similarly authorized computer with DE 1.5.

What about library books? Well, library books are somewhat special. Your existing library books (ones that you have checked out from the library when you upgrade to DE 1.5) will NOT be migrated. You’ll have to finish reading them in the old application, or early-return them and check them out again. Also, library books cannot currently be transferred from PC to PC. They can be transferred to a device, but not to another PC.

You can find it here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/install/

The Beta is an opportunity for customers to test and provide feedback to Adobe on new features and compatibility with their digital publications.

The key feature of Digital Editions 1.5 is the addition of new DRM support that provides “content portability” across computers and devices that you authorize with your Adobe ID.
Note: You should be aware that this beta release includes an enhanced version of DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection. If you plan on using Digital Editions for mission critical work, please consider using Digital Editions 1.0.

Key features of the enhanced DRM include:
- Conversion of user’s content to a “Named Authorization” license, enabling them to be backed up, copied and read on other computers or devices
- Authorization of end users’ DRM protected content with an Adobe ID
- Writing the secure license into the document
- Existing content is migrated to the new system and newly downloaded content is automatically converted when it is downloaded
- Content portability applies to both PDF and EPUB documents
- Resulting documents can be copied just like any other file
- Documents can be opened on any computer or device which has been authorized by the owner
- The number of machines that can be authorized is controlled by the amount set by the Authorization server (up to 6 computers and 6 devices)
- We have added functionality within Digital Editions 1.5 to support mobile devices. At this time we are working hard on rolling out support for the actual devices which work with Digital Editions, which should become available later this year.
- The number of machines on which a document can be viewed is limited by the number of authorized machines, unless the document has been limited to a single machine by the publisher

Note that authorization with an Adobe ID will not be required in the final release of 1.5, but is strongly recommended. If you do not authorize your computer, your content will, as in Digital Editions 1.0, be locked to the computer to which is was downloaded. This first Beta release does not actually offer the option to use the old-style “anonymous” mode of use, but the next Beta and the final release version will. But Adobe feels very strongly that all users will be best served by authorizing their computers. Adobe does not use the ID for any purpose other than providing the portability by identifying you and your books. The ID is not used for any other purpose, public or private.

Publishers and vendors should note that this release does not alter the fulfillment of ebooks so existing ecommerce workflows are not affected.

In addition to the DRM enhancement, this release of Digital Editions also
- Adds support for Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard)
- Fixes a bug in which double-byte (e.g. Asian, some European) users could not use Digital Editions
- Improved PDF support, including more complete support for the Adobe transparency model and support for named pages
- Page map support in EPUB so that there is a mapping between the reflowed screens and the paper copy of a book
- Adds support for multiple books per ETD fulfillment
- Miscellaneous user interface improvements and bug fixes

So Adobe is donating my time to help with this task. Of course I'm not the only one involved, Keith Fahlgren (over at O'Reilly Media) is also contributing. There's also the help and guidance from the docbook-apps discussion list. And there's always room for review and feedback.

To avoid the same sort of problems with eBook content, it is important to make sure that the content does satisfy the standard. This is especially important to make sure that eBooks work well on mobile devices where adding special-casing to "fix" broken content might be simply too expensive. The best way to make sure that the content is standard is to develop a tool that can validate epub files.

The need for such tool was for a long time recognized by IDPF members. As we were developing epub standard, we did the work on validating epub files. Now this tool (named EpubCheck) is available as an Open Source project. It is not complete (there are still many checks that we can do), but it is already fairly mature and extremely handy. If you author epub files, you should consider running this tool on your content regularly. Standard content is much less likely to have problems in today and future eBook readers and any problems with fully-compliant eBooks are much more likely to get serious attention of the developers. If you are a developer, I would like to invite you both to use EpubChecker code in your development (it is licensed under BSD terms) and to contribute back to the project.

Therefore our plan remains to promote named activation as the primary means of enabling DRM capabilities. Anonymous activation will be supported, but discouraged in order that users not be disappointed to discover that content they have purchased is inextricably tied to a single PC, or that they can’t participate in new social features. And the overall user experience of activation will be more integrated and seamless than the various DRM activation options that were present in Adobe Reader versions 6 and 7: we are working to keep it simple. We will post additional details about the new DRM activation coming in Digital Editions version 1.5 here on the blog soon.

What about the .xpgt file? It is possible to deduce most of it, but more complete detail would be good. (like: reducing the top margin on the first page, and interaction of column min-widths and font-size...)

And how will its operation fit with future implementation of the OPS extra CSS properties: display:oeb-page-head; display:oeb-page-foot; and oeb-column-number:[integer]; ?

Adobe wants your eBook experience to be as easy and seamless as possible. Naturally, this includes protecting your investment in eBooks from being lost or damaged. This is one of the key reasons why the upcoming release of Digital Editions 1.5 will feature “Named Activation.”

Some users have eBooks and other digital publications on their computers that have been licensed with Acrobat, Reader or Digital Editions using “Easy Activation.” These items cannot be moved to a new computer, essentially becoming locked on a particular machine. To solve this problem, Adobe Digital Editions 1.5 will convert items to a “Named Activation” license, enabling them to be backed up, copied and read on other computers. All items subsequently downloaded with Digital Editions 1.5 will be licensed using Named Activation. This change will also enable a new breed of mobile devices designed to be used with Digital Editions. However, note that your content will not be portable if the content distributor has specified a more restrictive setting, in which case you will need to re-acquire the content directly from them.

How will “Named Activation” work?

The first time you run Digital Editions 1.5, you'll be prompted to activate the application by entering an Adobe ID. If you don’t have an Adobe ID, you'll be provided with a link to get one. Then, when you purchase an item online or borrow one from the library with Digital Editions 1.5, the item will automatically be “tied” to your Adobe ID, rather than to your computer. This way, you'll be free to move your items to other machines where Digital Editions has been activated with your Adobe ID.

What about the eBooks I already have?

Once you’ve entered your Adobe ID, Digital Editions 1.5 will look for eBooks already on your computer. It will first back up the items it finds, then convert copies of the items to a new “named activation” license.

IMPORTANT: Digital Editions 1.5 will convert eBooks that have been purchased or borrowed with Acrobat, Reader or earlier versions of Digital Editions. However, items that were licensed using Easy Activation can only be converted on the same computer with which they were originally purchased or borrowed. If you are contemplating buying a new machine, please consider keeping your old machine intact unless you bought all of your books with Acrobat or Reader using Named Activation.

Is Easy Activation still an option?

Adobe introduced the Easy Activation option in Acrobat and Reader 6.01 (and it was the only activation option previously supported in Digital Editions). This option made it easy for users to get started with eBooks, as users did not have to go online and get a Microsoft Passport or Adobe ID. The downside of this convenience is that the books could not be transferred to another machine or device.

Based on feedback from our customers, the Digital Editions team has decided that the benefits of content portability outweigh the inconvenience of the user ID and activation processes. So the next release of Digital Edition will use only Named Activation.

The Digital Editions team understands that some users may be uncomfortable at first with the need to obtain an Adobe ID and activate their machines. But we are convinced that everyone will quickly see the value of safeguarding their investment in eBooks. We're working hard on this new release and look forward to sharing it with you soon.

For further info on this topic, please also see this post.

You may be aware that ePub is really made up of OPS, OPF and OCF, which are standards from the International Digital Publishing Forum (www.idpf.org). They build on other standards, including XML and XHTML. This means that the pages you're seeing in Digital Editions (when you export an ePub from InDesign) are XHTML. They have xml structures around them to aid navigation and presentation, and a package that wraps it all so that the many files are a single item on disk. Still, they are essentially XHTML and CSS, and that means they have certain strengths and weaknesses.

In building the current version of the Digital Editions export into InDesign, we made the decision to focus on book formats that lend themselves easily to automated layout - that is to say, narrative books where readability is important but the view of a double page spread or of a single page isn't a priority. Still, the XHTML nature and the focus on narrative books means that certain items won't be preserved when exporting ePubs from InDesign.

There's no support for putting text on a path in XHTML. When you put text on a path in InDesign that text would need to either be rendered as a graphic, or it looses the path. For CS3 we decided not to export the text as a graphic, so the ePub export preserves the text, but not the path, so that the text is still text in the XHTML. The same is true for text that is set at an angle. If you create a text frame in InDesign, and then rotate it a few degrees one direction or the other, the text will still be exported as XHTML, rather than choosing some other format. This means that the rotation is not exported, just the text. Of course if you have a document that uses these features, they're preserved perfectly when you export a PDF and open that in Digital Editions.

You can find the update in the downloads section of www.adobe.com, and it's available for both Macintosh and Windows.

If you're already using the update, you'll see a faint '1.0.1' in the lower right hand corner of the export dialog. You'll also see the option to embed fonts and a third panel in the dialog. If that '1.0.1' is missing, then you've not installed the update.