Acronyms abound in the printing and publishing industry. Here we define some acronyms you may have heard, used, or planned for.

IDPF, which stands for International Digital Publishing Forum, is a trade and standards organization dedicated to the development and promotion of electronic publishing. IDPF promotes the development of electronic publishing applications and products that will benefit creators of content, makers of reading systems, and consumers.

ePUB is the file extension of an XML format for reflowable digital books and publications. It is composed of three open standards: the Open Publication Structure (OPS), Open Packaging Format (OPF) and Open Container Format (OCF). ePub offers consumers interoperability between software/hardware for unencrypted reflowable digital books and other publications.

OPS, the Open Publication Structure Specification, describes a standard for representing the content of electronic publications. Mainly, the specification is intended to give minimal and common guidelines that ensure fidelity, accuracy, accessibility, and adequate presentation of electronic content over various Reading Systems to content providers and publication tool providers.

OPF, or Open Packaging Format, defines the mechanism by which the various components of an OPS publication are tied together and provides additional structure and semantics to the electronic publication.

OCF, the OEBPS Container Format Specification, defines the standard mechanism by which all components of an electronic publication may be packaged together into a single archive for transmission, delivery, and archival purposes.