eBooks have become quite popular since the launch of first Kindle ereader in Nov'07. But children’s picture book publishers were left out of the eBook growth until recently; because the standard eBook format was not able preserve the layout of the picture books and most of the ereaders had black & white screens. Now Apple’s iBooks, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Kids support fixed-layout ePub format which not only leverages the benefits of an eBook [search, dictionary, Wikipedia & Google lookups, etc.] but also replicates the visual experience of reading a print picture book. Moreover, ebook stores provide make the discovery much easier with its categorization and other book store features unlike the book category within the app stores.
2010-11-19 00:00:00
Barnes & Noble releases Nook Color with Nook Kids
Barnes and Noble launched its first color ereader "Nook Color" with support for children's color picture ebooks. Nook Color was the first ereader/tablet that provided support for fixed-layout color eBooks [such as picture books, cook books and art books]
2010-12-15 00:00:00
Apple iBooks adds supports for illustrated books
Apple started supporting full page illustrated books [such as picture books, cook books, art books...] with the release of the iBooks v1.2
2011-06-07 00:00:00
Apple adds Read-aloud support to iBooks
Apple announces support for Read-aloud audio for its fixed-layout ePub format [for children's picture books].
2011-10-11 00:00:00
Barnes & Noble allows third-party supports for Nook Kids
Barnes and Noble launches its partner program for Nook Kids production.
2011-11-15 00:00:00
Amazon releases Kindle Fire with KF8 support
Amazon releases its first color ereader/tablet Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire includes support for new Amazon ePub format called KF8 which support color children's picture books and comic books
2012-02-01 00:00:00
Amazon opens up KF8 book submission
Amazon released specs for its KF8 ePub format that supports full page illustrated content such children's picture books, cook books and art books.
2012-03-15 00:00:00
IDPF releases EPUB 3.0 with fixed-layout support
On March 13, 2012 the IDPF Board of Directors unanimously approved elevation of EPUB 3 Fixed Layout Documents to be an IDPF Informational Document.