This document describes the , i.e., the RDFS [[RDF-SCHEMA]] vocabulary used by the EPUB Annotation, as a profile of the W3C Web Annotation vocabulary.

Alternate versions of the vocabulary definition exist in Turtle and JSON-LD.

Published:: 2025-12-17
Version Info:: 1.0
See Also: https://w3c.github.io/epub-specs/epub34/annotations/

Term definitions

Class definitions

The following are class definitions in the ea namespace.

`Annotation`

EPUB Annotation Object

See the formal definition of the term.

The Annotation object of EPUB Annotation; the list of acceptable properties are restricted compared to the Web Annotation version.

Subclass of:: oa:Annotation

Range of:: items
Domain of:: target, body, motivation

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`Creator`

Creator of an Annotation

See the formal definition of the term.

This class is the subclass of the union of schema:Person and schema:Organization

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`Target`

Target of an Annotation

See the formal definition of the term.

Range of:: target
Domain of:: source, meta

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`Body`

Body of an Annotation

See the formal definition of the term.

In EPUB, annotations are restricted to textual content.

Subclass of:: oa:TextualBody

Range of:: body
Domain of:: color, highlight, keyword

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`AnnotationSet`

Set of annotations

See the formal definition of the term.

Domain of:: about, generator, title, items

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`About`

Information about the publication

See the formal definition of the term.

Range of:: about

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`Generator`

Information about the tools generating the annotations

See the formal definition of the term.

Range of:: generator

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`Meta`

Meta

See the formal definition of the term.

this class is currently undefined...

Range of:: meta

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

Property definitions

The following are property definitions in the ea namespace.

`target`

The target of an annotation

See the formal definition of the term.

The context file "shadows" the target term in the Web Annotation context file, restricting its range.

Subproperty of:: oa:hasTarget

Range:: Target
Domain:: Annotation

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`body`

The body of an annotation

See the formal definition of the term.

The context file "shadows" the body term in the Web Annotation context file, restricting its range.

Subproperty of:: oa:hasBody

Range:: Body
Domain:: Annotation

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`motivation`

The motivation for an annotation

See the formal definition of the term.

The context file "shadows" the body term in the Web Annotation context file, restricting its range; see formal definition for the restrictions.

Subproperty of:: oa:motivatedBy

Range:: oa:Motivation
Domain:: Annotation

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`about`

Information on the publication

See the formal definition of the term.

Range:: About
Domain:: AnnotationSet

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`generator`

Generator

See the formal definition of the term.

The context file "shadows" the generator term in the Web Annotation context file, restricting its range; see formal definition for the restrictions.

Range:: Generator
Domain:: AnnotationSet

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`title`

Title of the Annotation Set

See the formal definition of the term.

Range:: xsd:string
Domain:: AnnotationSet

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`items`

The reference to the set of annotations

See the formal definition of the term.

Range:: List containing Annotation
In a JSON-LD representation, values to this property are supposed to be represented in the form of a JSON array, even if there is just a single value.
Domain:: AnnotationSet

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`source`

Source

See the formal definition of the term.

The context file "shadows" the source term in the Web Annotation context file, restricting its domain and controlling its alias name.

The property's value should be a URL, i.e., not a literal.

Subproperty of:: oa:hasSource

Domain:: Target

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`meta`

Meta

See the formal definition of the term.

Range:: Meta
Domain:: Target

Relevant @context:: https://wwww.w3.org/ns/epub/annotation/context

`hasSelector`

Assign selector(s) to a target

The Web Annotation context file includes a selector alias for this term.

This term is formally defined in another vocabulary (as oa:hasSelector), but is frequently used with this vocabulary and has been included to aid readability of this document.