Mobile K-12 Textbook Image Processing

Introduction

There is little or no information available on image optimization for K-12 digital textbooks. This set of articles addresses this directly.

If you are creating digital content K-12 textbooks, well processed and size-optimized images and media:

• reduces the package size
• reduces bandwidth costs
• makes bulk package transfers faster
• uses less device storage space

It can also mean significantly less device memory is used which means better performance in lower-end devices.

Optimizing images is the digital equivalent to reducing the book weight in a back pack AND reducing the size of the back pack!

It doesn't matter whether the final digital textbook package is an website, an App, an ePub3, an Ebook Zero or any other delivery package. It also doesn't matter whether you are targeting AZARDI Reading Systems▶* on the desktop, in browsers or on devices such as Android and Apple IOS. The image processing optimization rules remain the same.

For K-12 textbooks with large counts of images and interactivity every effort has to be made to make files as small as possible while maintaining presentation quality. Most of the general discussion on this subject also applies to tertiary education textbooks and other content genres with large image counts and sizes.

And a little more...

A major consider when converting from a source print textbook that is predominantly black and white or duo-tone. Conversion of print-book images to digital images should include colouring the images.  There is no reason a K-12 digital textbook should be a monchrome replica of a print book. But we see that too many times.

The little extra work is worth the result. It has been observed to be very motivating for young learners moving from print to digital learning tools.

To Image or not to image...

With HTML5, CSS3, SVG and MathML the lines between images and other graphical presentation forms has significantly blurred. We have separate articles on getting the best from images, SVG and MathML and when to use these alternative image and graphic presentation methods. AZARDI Reading Systems can use all of these technologies.

Image Processing Article Links

This set of K-12 textbook image processing tutorial articles covers general information and discussion on treatment methods for various image formats and application in digital content K-12 textbooks. Of course the same techniques can be used for other content as well.

1. A lttle technical technical background about images ▶
2. Image size (dimensions) production considerations ▶
3. Processing Black and White Images ▶
4. Processing Grayscale Images ▶
5. Flat colour images, icons and logos ▶
6. Photographs and illustrations ▶

Check out the article Audio Compression for ePub3 Textbooks ▶   

IGP:Digital Publisher is the most comprehensive digital production platform available anywhere in the world today. It allows the simultaneous creation of print, eBooks, Websites and any other required package.

Posted by Richard Pipe