The provided source material details several initiatives and resources offering free downloads of EPUB 3 sample books. These publications are primarily designed for testing reading systems, showcasing features of the EPUB 3 specification, and providing educational or demonstration content. Unlike promotional free samples of consumer goods, these are technical and educational resources intended for developers, publishers, educators, and enthusiasts interested in digital publishing standards. The sources describe curated collections from authoritative bodies like the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) and the W3C's EPUB 3 Community Group, as well as specific sample books from Infogrid Pacific. Access is typically direct download without sign-up requirements, though some collections may be hosted on platforms like GitHub.
Official EPUB 3 Sample Collections
The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) has curated an open-source collection of validated EPUB 3 samples. These files are available for download and are intended to showcase different features of the EPUB standard. The samples can be previewed online using an experimental deployment of the Readium Cloud Reader configuration. The documentation recommends using a recent version of Safari or Chrome for the best experience, noting known issues with Firefox and Internet Explorer for this gallery.
The EPUB 3 Samples Project, maintained by the W3C's EPUB 3 Community Group, provides a more extensive collection of EPUB 3 publications. This project is specifically intended to showcase features of the specification and to provide testing materials for reading system developers. A table of samples is available that describes each publication and provides links to obtain the source. The samples are available in both expanded and packaged forms to simplify the review of markup patterns and facilitate testing in various reading systems. The expanded source is maintained in the project's GitHub repository under the "30" directory. Individual downloads are also available from the project's releases page.
A feature matrix has been developed for this collection, which charts which publications exhibit which specific features of EPUB 3. This can be particularly useful for developers looking to test particular functionalities. For publications focused on education, samples are maintained in a separate EDUPUB GitHub repository. It is important to note that this project provides samples for general testing of content, and for a more comprehensive set of publications, the EPUB test suite should be consulted. The test suite publications are used to generate results posted on http://www.epubtest.org.
The source for the EPUB 3 samples is available on GitHub. The repository contains the source for a variety of EPUB 3 sample documents, maintained by the W3C's EPUB 3 Community Group. All of the latest samples are available for download from the sample table on the project page. For users who need to create EPUB publications directly from the samples source, two sets of shell and batch scripts are available at the root of the repository. The pack-all script will build all of the samples, while the pack-single script is used to build individual samples, requiring the relative path to the sample as an argument. A batch script version is also available for Windows users.
For those interested in contributing to the project, options include reporting issues via the project's issue tracker if any conformant or best practice issues are spotted. To contribute new samples, potential contributors should contact the project owners, who may grant write access to the repository or arrange another means of inclusion.
Specific EPUB 3 Sample Books from Infogrid Pacific
Infogrid Pacific offers several specific EPUB 3 sample books for download, each designed to demonstrate different capabilities of the format. These books are available in EPUB 3 format and, in some cases, as PDFs. They are primarily demonstration or test materials.
Short Story Collections and Omnibus Editions
Infogrid Pacific has released a series of EPUB 3 books based on the short stories of Guy de Maupassant. These include 13 volumes of short stories, a remixed Sampler, a Selected Stories edition, and an Omnibus edition. The total collection contains 176 stories. All of these books feature the epub:type pagebreak property. The Omnibus edition, which is 1500 pages long, is noted as demonstrating this feature in AZARDI, which is described as the only reading system supporting pagebreaks at the time of the documentation. The Guy du Maupassant Short Story Sampler is available for download as a 3.00 MB EPUB 3 file, updated in April 2013. The main collection and the Omnibus edition can be downloaded from the Infogrid Pacific Guy du Maupassant download page.
Interactive Educational and Assessment Materials
A 50-question multiple-choice Q&A example is available as an interactive EPUB 3. This publication is designed for educational and self-test evaluation purposes, with an interactive test evaluation for the entire set of questions. It was produced using IGP:FoundationXHTML and IGP:Digital Publisher. From the same source, three PDF files were created: a Printable Question Sheet, a Printable Answer Sheet, and a Printable Marking Sheet. The documentation recommends using AZARDI for the best user experience.
Multi-Language Presentation and Language Support Testing
A demonstration EPUB 3 test book containing translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 28 languages is available. This book is designed to test and check language support in AZARDI and any EPUB 3 reader. The languages include those requiring Latin, scripted, logographic, right-to-left, and other writing systems. Users are advised to adjust AZARDI justification and hyphenation for the best presentation of each language.
Technical and Reference Works
A massive work titled "World History" is available as an EPUB 3. This book contains over 280 sections and is an ideal size performance test for any EPUB 3 reader. It contains comprehensive EPUB 3 Landmarks and highlights the convenience of AZARDI's easy-to-access side-navigation bar for quick browsing. The book is noted as a valuable reference resource in its own right.
Fixed Layout Publications
Infogrid Pacific has released several fixed-layout EPUB 3 demonstrations. These are designed to showcase how fixed layout can be used to create new content engagement experiences, breaking from paper metaphors.
- FLO EPUB3 (Famous Paintings): A small, beautiful demonstration fixed-layout book optimized for 16:9/16:10 aspect ratio monitors. It uses advanced multi-layer CSS and user-mixed audio. The audio will work on all EPUB 3 devices, though SFx mixing may not be available on devices that can only play one track at a time.
- FLO EPUB3 (General Demonstration): Another fixed-layout demonstration optimized for 16:9/16:10 monitors. It uses spine properties and page dimensions aggressively to demonstrate what is possible in terms of page layout and interactive navigation.
- FLO Grows Up: Designed as a fixed-layout exemplar that fully exploits EPUB 3 specifications. It is a designer-centric book intended to show what is possible with page layout and interactive navigation.
The documentation notes that while these fixed-layout books will work on all EPUB 3 readers, they may not display as intended on systems with partial or inflexible implementations of the fixed layout specification. For the best experience, particularly on AZARDI and iBooks, the scrolling mode is recommended.
Audiobook with SMIL Overlays
An EPUB 3 audiobook is available, featuring a dramatic reading sourced from LibriVox.org. The complete book has been processed with SMIL audio overlays, with different levels of highlighting: word highlighting in the introduction, sentence highlighting in Stave 1, paragraph highlighting in Staves 2, 3, and 4, and phrase-based highlighting in Stave 5. The Dramatis Personae page also has line highlighting as the audio is read. The file contains MP3 audio with an OGG audio fallback in the manifest.
Flashcards for Education
A demonstration showing normal text with flashcards in a single document is available. This EPUB 3 / HTML5 publication uses the dynamic viewport sizing capabilities of AZARDI. The flashcard tagging patterns are defined in IGP:FoundationXHTML, and production is done in IGP:Digital Publisher. This publication will only play on AZARDI 8 and later versions.
Conclusion
The available sources provide information on several distinct types of free EPUB 3 sample downloads. The most authoritative and comprehensive collections are from the IDPF and the W3C's EPUB 3 Community Group, which offer curated sets of validated samples for testing and development purposes. These are available via direct download and through GitHub repositories. In contrast, the samples from Infogrid Pacific are specific demonstration books, each designed to showcase a particular feature of EPUB 3, such as pagebreaks, interactivity, multi-language support, fixed layouts, or audio overlays. While these serve as practical examples, they are often optimised for the AZARDI reading system and may not function as intended on all EPUB 3 readers. For consumers seeking general reading material, these resources are technical or educational in nature rather than commercial publications. For those interested in the capabilities of digital books, these samples offer a direct way to explore and test the features of the EPUB 3 standard.