Design Science welcomes 4AM Software into our International Reseller Program. 4AM serves the Asia Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand in the educational, government, and scientific communities. Their product line includes software products for math and chemistry, statistical and analytical software, and optimization and system utilities. MathType rounds out their product offering and exposes the many powerful benefits of MathType to these geographic regions.
For more information about 4AM Software or to find a local MathType reseller, visits our MathType International Reseller page.
Many educators are interested in distributing classroom materials in ebook form so their students can read them on the wide range of electronic reading devices that are now available, including Apple iPads, Android tablets, dedicated ebook readers, as well as laptop and desktop computers. They may also be interested in making a little extra money by offering their works in various educational ebook stores. For those whose work includes mathematics, there are some interesting new developments that I want to report.
EPUB is the de facto standard ebook format. The latest version, EPUB 3, specifies that mathematical notation should be represented as MathML, thereby making math notation a lot more functional than with the usual static equation images. Math can be zoomed for easy reading, made accessible to students with vision and learning impairments, and can be copied into other applications for calculation and exploration. And, of course, MathType can create MathML for use in ebook authoring systems.
Readium is a reference implementation of an EPUB 3 ebook reader created by IDPF, the organization that created the EPUB standard. And, thanks to recent efforts by the MathJax Consortium (a project in which Design Science plays a leading role), it now includes excellent MathML support.
Readium is not intended to be distributed to end-users. It is only a technology demonstration project. However, it proves that math support in ebooks is possible. We expect that makers of ebook readers, such as Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble's Nook, Apple iBooks, and so on, can model their own MathML support on this work. MathType users who are interested in publishing in ebook form should demand EPUB 3 support from the makers of both authoring tools and ebook readers, referring to the Readium project as proof of what is possible. If any of you discover good places to give them feedback, please share them with others in comments to this article.
We just announced a major release of MathFlow 2.0, our MathML toolkit for elearning, publishing, and enterprise. The technology at the heart of MathFlow is MathML, the XML standard for representing mathematical notation that is an integral part of many documentation and accessibility standards, including HTML 5, EPUB 3, DAISY, DITA, DocBook, NLM, etc.
MathFlow 2.0 adds many new features, including support for MathML 3's elementary math and line-breaking, the ability to customize its look and feel to match its host application, 64-bit Windows support, Plane 1 Unicode, STIX fonts, localization, enhancements for geometry, math-speech, accessibility and more.
You can read the press release in its entirety here, MathFlow 2.0 Released.
Apple just released a free Mac application called iBooks Author that allows you to create ebooks that can be viewed on iPad tablets. This is great news for educators looking to prepare classroom materials for classrooms that have iPad tablets. And, we are happy to tell you that if you have MathType installed, you can add equations to ebooks you create with iBooks Author. It works just like it does in the iWork ’09 apps, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. You can even make the math accessible to students with visual disabilities. Find out more about Adding math to books created with iBooks Author and how MathType works 600+ other apps and websites, in the Works With area of our website.
MathType users interested in making ebooks may also be interested in Scrivener. While it is not free, unlike Apple’s iBooks Author, it allows you to make ebooks that work on all kinds of computers, tablets, and ebook readers, not just iPads.
I am extremely sad to report that Robert Miner, Design Science's VP of Research & Development, passed away this morning from liver cancer. I have worked closely with Robert for about 15 years and considered him a close personal friend. Our condolences go out to his wife and son. We will all miss him greatly.