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Glossary

What is the EPUB manifest?

Updated:

The manifest is the list, inside the OPF package document, of every file that belongs to the publication, each with an id, a path and a media type. A file in the ZIP that is not in the manifest, or a manifest entry with no file, is an error.

Why it matters when you convert a PDF to EPUB

A PDF converter generates many files at once (one XHTML per chapter, extracted images, a stylesheet, the cover, the navigation document), and each one must appear in the manifest with the right media type. Missing or mislabelled entries are among the most common EPUBCheck errors in hand-made or edited EPUBs.

How EpubCC handles it: the manifest lists the navigation document (with the nav property), the stylesheet, one XHTML file per chapter and every extracted image with its media type. Nothing else is written into the archive, so every file in the ZIP has a manifest entry and every entry has a file.

Related terms

EPUBCheck messages about this

  • OPF-003 Item "…" exists in the EPUB, but is not declared in the OPF manifest.
  • RSC-008 Referenced resource "…" is not declared in the OPF manifest.
  • OPF-029 The file "…" does not appear to match the media type …, as specified in the OPF file.
  • PKG-022 Wrong file extension for image. The image is a "…" file but has the file extension "…".
  • RSC-001 File "…" could not be found.
  • RSC-002 Required META-INF/container.xml resource could not be found.
  • RSC-003 No rootfile tag with media type "application/oebps-package+xml" was found in the container.
  • RSC-004 File "…" is encrypted, its content will not be checked.
  • RSC-005 Error while parsing file: …
  • RSC-006 Remote resource reference is not allowed in this context; resource "…" must be located in the EPUB container.

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FAQ

What is the EPUB manifest?

The manifest is the list, inside the OPF package document, of every file that belongs to the publication, each with an id, a path and a media type. A file in the ZIP that is not in the manifest, or a manifest entry with no file, is an error.