Press Releases

ACCESS Joins Readium Foundation, Open Source Consortium for Digital Publishing

Accelerating Commercial Adoption of EPUB 3

Tokyo, Japan, – March 27, 2013 – ACCESS CO., LTD., a global provider of advanced software technologies to the mobile, beyond-PC and digital TV markets, today announced it joined the Readium Foundation, a consortium of companies committed to establishing  electronic publishing standards which incorporates the Readium Project for EPUB® 3 applications. Overseen by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the initial Readium Project had been an open source initiative dedicated to accelerating adoption of EPUB® 3. A member since the project was launched in February 2012, ACCESS has contributed to EPUB® 3 development and standards formulation. Moving forward, ACCESS intends to support all efforts toward the commercial application of Readium as an EPUB 3 reference viewer.

Readium.org open source initiative today announces its evolution into a formal consortium of member companies fostering a community of open source projects, including a new Readium™ SDK project developing a commercial-grade rendering engine for EPUB® 3, optimized for native applications.

The Readium Foundation maintains licenses of Readium and develop and popularize the Readium SDK viewer platform and Readium Web EPUB viewer operating on browsers and plug-ins. ACCESS has contributed to Readium development by supplying its NetFrontTM BookReader EPUB Edition engine, developed in-house, to the Readium Project. As part of the Readium Foundation, ACCESS plans to enhance and redistribute Readium SDK technology.

NetFront™ BookReader EPUB Edition, which supports EPUB 3, is capable of faithfully reproducing a wide range of complex content specific to Japanese text, such as vertical text, readings alongside Kanji characters, and Japanese line breaks. By employing the industry-standard rendering engine WebKit, consumers will be able to enjoy next-generation HTML5 rich media content as well.

“ACCESS has contributed substantially to the development of Japanese writing expressions and multi-linguistic functions of UI for Readium. I believe ACCESS will continue to play a key role for the Readium Foundation,” said Bill McCoy, IDPF Executive Director.

“ACCESS is working vigorously to develop cutting-edge, open source-based software solutions combined with our proprietary technologies, to provide readers around the world with a comfortable, user-friendly e-book reading environment as quickly as possible. Building on our extensive experience with multiplatform e-book solutions, we will continue making every possible contribution to the widespread adoption of Readium,” says Kunihiro Ishiguro, Senior Executive Officer and CTO of ACCESS.

To learn more about the Readium Foundation, Readium Web and Readium SDK, please visit the official Readium Foundation website, http://readium.org/.

About NetFront BookReader EPUB Edition
NetFront BookReader EPUB Edition is a multi-platform reader incorporating the technological capabilities of Japanese characters and page layout and expertise of ACCESS mobile software. NetFront BookReader EPUB Edition, which supports EPUB 3 in addition to EPUB 2.0.1, reproduces complex page layouts and Japanese characters, including vertical layouts and logographic Kanji characters by incorporating furigana annotation. The reader is based on the WebKit browser engine and supports a wide range of HTML5 and JavaScript content. NetFront BookReader EPUB Edition enables users to enjoy rich eBook content embedded with video, audio and applications.

About ACCESS
ACCESS CO., LTD. is a global provider of advanced software solutions and services that enable operators, device manufacturers, content owners and consumers to make the most of today’s multi-screen, connected world. It provides software for mobiles, smartphones and tablets, connected TVs and set-top boxes in the connected home, automotive, digital publishing and networking markets. ACCESS solutions have shipped in over one billion devices around the world. Its product portfolio includes the NetFront™ Software Series and the ZebOS® network platform, providing customers faster time-to-market, flexibility and customizability; the ACCESSTM Digital Publishing Ecosystem for cloud-based, cross-platform digital publishing and the NetAd mobile advertising platform. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (Mothers’ Index, 4813) and operates subsidiaries and affiliates in Asia, Europe and the United States. Learn more about ACCESS at www.access-company.com.

© 2013 ACCESS CO., LTD. All rights reserved.
ACCESS, the ACCESS logo, and NetFront are registered trademarks or trademarks of ACCESS CO., LTD. in the United States, Japan and/or other countries. EPUB is a trademark of the IDPF. Java, all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks, logos and trade names mentioned in the document are the property of their respective owners.