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Accessible Audiobook Production: Audiobook Formats

This quick resource discusses the differences between some popular audiobook formats: MP3/WAV; DAISY; Enhanced EPUB; and .LPF.

  • Subject(s):

    Audiobook Production

  • Resource Type(s):

    Standards and Best Practices

  • Audience:

    Technical

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Suggested Prerequisite

Before you read this, you might want to read:

Audiobook Formats

Unlike ebooks, where EPUB is the standard format, audiobooks don’t have a single standard for production and distribution. Many audiobooks are a simple compilation of audio files, like MP3, MP4, WAV. Some are in DAISY format, or “Enhanced EPUB”, which is an EPUB with media overlays. That is about to change with the World Wide Web Consortium’s audiobook recommendation (see “Links to More Information, below), which will be the gold standard for quality, accessible audiobooks. In the meantime, here is a breakdown of the different formats currently in distribution and the way we recommend they are used.

Audiobook Formats

FormatProsConsRecommendation
MP3• Playability across reading systems
• Commercial ‘standard’
• Can include multiple tags in core metadata		• Linear system doesn’t allow for navigation to supplemental content e.g. footnotes.
• No file naming or tagging standards Minimal navigability		Recommended for simple, straightforward texts like novels, memoirs, and other books that have little or no supplementary material.
DAISY• Navigable by sentence
• Non-linear navigability for supplemental information
• Affordable conversion through NNELS and other accessible service organizations		• Not commercially viable
• Only usable in ‘Daisy supported devices/applications’
• Need specific software to create the files		Recommended for Academic texts, scholarly texts, and other books that contain supplementary material.
Enhanced EPUB• Advanced user customization Inclusive of images, read-along text, screen-reader options, and human narration, making it user friendly for people with cognitive disabilities
• Playable across reading systems		Multi layered creation process can be labour intensiveRecommended for children’s picture books.
Audiobook (.LPF)• Streamlined Audiobook format
• Some accessibility features including the ability to include non-audio content (e.g. html, .doc etc.) for supplementary information		Playability has not been instigated in most reading systems (yet)Recommended for all types of books.

Next Steps

1

Making Filenames for Audiobooks

Accessible Audiobook Production: Files and Labeling

Files and labeling should be done in a systematic, logical way, with predictable filenames. This resource offers guidance on naming files in a way that is useful to both humans and machines!

Subject(s): Audiobook Production
Resource Type(s): Standards and Best Practices
Audience:
Technical
2

Deciding What Content to Record for an Audiobook

Accessible Audiobook Production: What to Record

This resource provides guidelines around what sections of a book should be recorded, and offers some discussion around approaches and options for footnotes/endnotes, and image descriptions.

Subject(s): Audiobook Production, Image Descriptions, Strategic Planning
Resource Type(s): Checklist, Standards and Best Practices
Audience:
Technical
3

Planning Out Audiobook Production & Post-production (some technical recommendations)

Accessible Audiobook Production: General Recording Notes

This resource discusses some general technical guidelines that can be used when planning out audiobook production and post-production.

Subject(s): Audiobook Production
Resource Type(s): Standards and Best Practices
Audience:
Technical
4

Guiding/Training Audiobook Narrators

Accessible Audiobook Production: Narration Guidelines

Good narration is a big part of creating a great audiobook. Make sure that narrators and/or your ebook producers know about these guidelines. They enhance both accessibility and overall quality!

Subject(s): Audiobook Production
Resource Type(s): Standards and Best Practices
Audience:
Non-technical
5

Making Audiobooks for Children

Accessible Audiobook Production: Children’s Books

Illustrated children’s books present a unique challenge when it comes to recording audio. This resource discusses a few approaches you may consider.

Subject(s): Audiobook Production, Image Descriptions, Strategic Planning
Resource Type(s): Foundations and Rationale
Audience:
Introduction

External Links to More Information

Audiobooks: W3C Recommendation

This specification from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) offers a format to mark up audiobooks, which primarily involves marking up the heading structure but does also allow for including related text content. As of this writing in late 2021 it does not have a great deal of support yet by reading systems.

Content Source Acknowledgement

Accessible Publishing.ca: Audiobook Recommendations for Publishers