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Apple updates iBooks Author with wide color gamut support, easier Photos imports

Apple on Monday issued an update to iBooks Author, its tool for building interactive e-books viewable on Mac and iOS devices — its first such update since 2016.

Images can now make use of the wide color gamut found on recent Macs, iPhones, and iPads, Apple said in iTunes release notes. The company has also made it possible to import images and videos from Photos via the Media Browser or drag-and-drop.

The software also includes unspecified "performance and stability improvements." iBooks Author is a free download, and runs on Macs with OS X 10.11 or better.

The release coincides with the launch of macOS High Sierra, though it doesn't explicitly take advantage of new technology. High Sierra mainly adds support for standards like HEVC video, HEIF images, Metal 2 graphics rendering, and the Apple File System that originally debuted on iOS. It also includes improvements to apps like Safari and Photos, which might have warranted the iBooks Author changes.



6 Comments

bdkennedy1002 12 Years · 540 comments

This team can go **** themselves. I had a problem with transparent backgrounds and they treated me like ****

rfrmac 17 Years · 90 comments

The only reason they updated it at all was that a new operating system was  coming out and they needed to get the color right.  The programing group must consist of a couple a programers and an analyst.  This is really not much in 2 years.  We did get drag and drop.  Maybe they don't think it needs anything else.  As said in the article, it doesn't take advantage of the new features of the High Sierra.  They did just enough to make it run and be able to use the updated pictures in Photo.  Oh, I almost forgot. "Performance and stability improvements".  Boy, what an update.  No need for any Marketing resources for this product.

ireland 18 Years · 17436 comments

This team can go **** themselves. I had a problem with transparent backgrounds and they treated me like ****

Care to elaborate?

ireland 18 Years · 17436 comments

Apple I though missed the boat with iBook Author. It would be great if they pushed hard into education to get all text books converted over with iBooks Author so kids could leave those heavy books where they belong. There’s no reason why kids it 2017 should need to be breaking their backs.

pmurphyjam 7 Years · 3 comments

Apple on Monday issued an update to iBooks Author, its tool for building interactive e-books viewable on Mac and iOS devices -- its first such update since 2016.




Images can now make use of the wide color gamut found on recent Macs, iPhones, and iPads, Apple said in iTunes release notes. The company has also made it possible to import images and videos from Photos via the Media Browser or drag-and-drop.

The software also includes unspecified "performance and stability improvements." iBooks Author is a free download, and runs on Macs with OS X 10.11 or better.

The release coincides with the launch of macOS High Sierra, though it doesn't explicitly take advantage of new technology. High Sierra mainly adds support for standards like HEVC video, HEIF images, Metal 2 graphics rendering, and the Apple File System that originally debuted on iOS. It also includes improvements to apps like Safari and Photos, which might have warranted the iBooks Author changes.

I still think iBooks Author is the best book writing software there is, there is nothing like it anywhere else. Kindle pales in comparison to iBooks, it's mostly just a PDF viewer, in fact you can write your book in iBooks Author, export PDF and import it into Kindle. I really wish Apple would work with Amazon and visa versa and develop a common platform for books for both iBooks and Amazon's Kindle, and then you could put the same book on both Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iBooks. Then the books would look the same, and have the same 3D images which Kindle doesn't support. Apple should also do a PC version of iBooks Author and support the Windows platform. I know it will never happen, but if it did, it would transform the book industry overnight.