Executive summary: More than 1,000 interactive digital children's books produced in fixed-layout EPUB 3 for the Elefante Letrado platform, with synchronised audio and animation. An ongoing partnership of eight years, in Portuguese and English.
The challenge
Elefante Letrado is a digital reading platform for children who are learning to read, with a collection curated by reading level. Every book has to preserve the close relationship between text and illustration, which is essential to children's literature, while also offering interactive features such as synchronised audio and animation that hold a young reader's attention without compromising visual fidelity to the printed original.
Our approach
Production in fixed-layout EPUB 3 faithful to the original design, with read-aloud synchronised audio and word highlighting (SMIL plus Media Overlays), selective animation and interactive elements at specific points in the story. The pipeline handles bilingual editions in Portuguese and English, holding the same quality standard in both versions.
Result
More than 1,000 titles produced over eight years of continuous partnership, building a substantial bilingual collection. The editorial consistency across that period allowed the platform to establish itself as a reference for digital children's reading in Brazil.
Technical stack
- Fixed-layout EPUB 3 following the W3C EPUB 3.3 specification.
- Media Overlays (SMIL) for read-aloud synchronised audio.
- CSS and JavaScript animation inside the EPUB package itself.
- Validated with EPUBCheck 5.x.
- Rendering checked in Thorium Reader and in the platform's own reader.
Case study data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Client | Elefante Letrado |
| Format | Fixed-layout EPUB 3 |
| Volume | More than 1,000 books |
| Languages | Portuguese and English |
| Features | Synchronised audio, animation, interactivity |
| Length of partnership | 8 years |
Content updated in April 2026.