EPUB 3 - Spine with linear="no" Back Matter
Three linear chapters followed by endnotes and a colophon marked linear="no": present in the package and linked from the text, but outside the page-through sequence. The single most misread spine attribute in EPUB.
- mimetype
- container.xml
- content.opf
- nav.xhtml
- style.css
- chapter1.xhtml
- chapter2.xhtml
- chapter3.xhtml
- notes.xhtml
- colophon.xhtml
Specifications
- Seed
- 20260807
- Epub Version
- 3.0
- Spine Items
- 5
- Linear No Items
- 2
- Reachable Via
- links in chapter one and the contents
Testing contract
Expected to pass- Scenario
- Page forward from chapter one to the end of the book, then follow the Endnotes link.
- Expected result
- Paging stops after chapter three and never lands on the notes or colophon; following the link opens the endnotes, and the reader returns to the sequence afterwards.
What is a .epub file?
EPUB is the open e-book standard, a ZIP archive containing XHTML content documents, CSS, images, and a package manifest describing reading order and metadata. It supports reflowable text that adapts to screen size and is supported by most e-readers except Kindle natively. It is the dominant format for distributable e-books.
How to use this file
Use an example EPUB to test e-book parsing, ZIP-package and manifest handling, reading-order and metadata extraction, and rendering in e-reader applications.
How to use this file for testing
“EPUB 3 - Spine with linear="no" Back Matter” is a deterministic Novus Examples fixture for Conversion testing. The same content exported across many formats and linked as a group, so you can convert one and diff against the expected twin.
Documented properties for this file: seed 20260807. Compare results against paired or grouped companions on this page when present (clean↔damaged, searchable↔scanned, or format twins) so scores stay reproducible across runs.
Download the file once, keep the path stable in CI or local scripts, and treat the spec table as the contract: dimensions, seeds, field lists, and roles are intentional. Corrupt or invalid samples are labelled as such — expect parsers to fail loudly rather than silently accept them.
E-book fixtures are structured archives documented down to their spine and manifest. Test readers and converters, and where a valid↔intentionally-invalid pair exists, assert graceful handling of the malformed container.
Code examples
ebook-convert linear-no-back-matter.epub out.pdf # Calibre
unzip -l linear-no-back-matter.epub # EPUB is a ZIPRelated files
- azw3AZW3 — Kindle KF8 E-bookThe valid EPUB converted to AZW3 (Kindle KF8) with Calibre — the modern Kindle format. For testing AZW3 readers and EPUB→AZW3 conversion.
- cbzCBZ — Comic Book ArchiveA CBZ comic archive — a ZIP of sequentially named JPEG pages, the standard container for digital comics. Built from generated pages; for testing comic readers and CBZ→PDF conversion.
- azwConvert v2 DRM-Free AZW E-bookDRM-free AZW/MOBI7 e-book source copied byte-for-byte from the catalog's valid reader fixture for legacy import testing. Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-legacy-azw.
- cbrConvert v2 Two-Page CBR ComicValid CBR comic container with two deterministic PNG pages in lexical reading order for legacy comic conversion. Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-legacy-cbr.
- epubEPUB — Intentionally Invalid (bad OCF mimetype)An intentionally invalid EPUB: identical to the valid twin except its OCF mimetype entry is compressed and mislabelled as application/zip — a real EPUB spec violation. For testing how readers and validators handle a malformed container. Clearly labelled; harmless content.
- epubEPUB — Volume 05 SAMPLEAdditional EPUB 3 SAMPLE volume 5 with landmarks for batch reader tests.
Generated by generation/ebooks_p7.py. Free for any use, no attribution required — license.