ScML

ScML, or Scribe Markup Language, is an XML format specifically designed to accommodate the publishing industry. Our DTD, begun in 1993, accommodates the technical requirements for XML as well as all of the permutations needed for print.

Most XML schema are built by technical people and are intended to help operate within an electronic environment. The common schemata (e.g., DocBook, TEI, or OSIS) do an excellent job of marking content. But they do not account for all of the needs within a printed work. For example, all DTDs have paragraph types. But in typesetting, there are various paragraphs (first, continued, those after heads, etc.). There are variations in lists, heads, poetry, block quotations, and other elements within publishing that are needed in order to accommodate the special treatment afforded to initial, medial, and final instances of elements. ScML addresses the reality of the publishing business, where the relationship between content types is important, while providing a solid basis from which conversions to other schema can be made.

ScML can be applied in a simplified form and automatically converted to the articulated form for typesetting. Using our programs, ScML can be condensed for efficient technical uses and fully articulated for typesetting needs. To move from the condensed to the articulated is a simple activity. A simple set of conversion tools have been built that allows a publisher to move between each type. When combined in a workflow based on a well-formed document, this means that editorial staff can work with the minimal tag sets (this can be done within Microsoft Word using Word’s styles). Computer technology can then be employed to articulate the styles so that text can be automatically flowed for typesetting (thus no need for the typesetter to add or manipulate styles). Following the typesetting, XML can be exported and converted into a variety of markup languages (other XML schema, HTML, ePub, etc.). Scribe’s Markup Language (ScML) is the only schema that accomplishes this and has been thoroughly deployed for a large number of publishers.