Checking an EPUB file for compatibility involves testing on different types of hardware and software. Although being 100% compliant with the EPUB standard means your EPUB works, it doesn't necessarily mean it will look perfectly on all types of screens and platforms. I've downloaded a few books from Epubbud.com and even Gutenberg.org that just didn't display properly on my Sony PRS-600 and iPod Touch. A few didn't display page numbers properly while another even showed XHTML markup at the end of each chapter. Another book, a collection of Japanese stories translated in English, failed to display kanji and kana properly despite my efforts to manually add fonts to my Sony reader.
It doesn't take much to check if your EPUB works, but if you want a professional electronic document, then invest in a few moments in testing the file in the following free applications:
1. Sigil - This Windows and Linux EPUB editor has an integrated utility for validating a finished EPUB. This works especially well for EPUBs written on the fly or from within SIGIL itself. EPUBs created in say Adobe InDesign, however, may not be entirely be clear of "errors" due to conflicting standards but it will point out details you may want to look into, such as missing metadata.
2. Calibre - Calibre is the perfect utility for all types of ereader formats and is the best application out there for EPUB conversion. Calibre works with different types of ereaders such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony PRS Series, so if your EPUB doesn't open properly here, there's a good chance you might need to do a bit of tweaking.
3. Epubchecker - The command line based and freeware versions of Epubchecker can be handy for EPUB documents you didn't code or produce yourself.
4. Adobe Digital Editions - Ok, so Adobe is more well-known for their Adobe Reader and for creating PDF than their efforts to support EPUB. Although Adobe Digital Editions isn't a popular free EPUB viewer, it's still a good idea to check your EPUB here anyway. The following screenshot below of an EPUB file opened in Digital Editions immediately tells you the table of contents were improperly encoded and the page numbers and running footers messed up the text of the story.
5. Aldiko Reader, Moon+, and Cool Reader are only a few of the most popular Android EPUB readers. If you're aiming for a readership that uses Android devices, then testing them on freeware EPUB viewers can only help.
6. iBooks - Arguably the most popular EPUB reader in the world.
7. Sidebooks, Stanza, Bookman, and Cloudreader are some of the most well-known freeware iOS apps that support EPUB. Each one displays EPUB differently and provides varying controls.
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