Pressbooks

Spec sheet

What it does

Pressbooks is a WordPress Multisite based book content-management system for publishing webbooks and exporting books to digital, print and XML formats.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.org

Purpose

Pressbooks helps authors and educational institutions create, adapt, and share accessible digital books and learning materials.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Audience

Its platform serves individual creators, educational institutions, consortia, independent and university presses, and DIY creators.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Integrations

Pressbooks Enterprise LTI integration works with Canvas, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, and Blackboard.Read 7 Oct 2026 · guide.pressbooks.com

Security

Enterprise Networks are described as professionally hosted in a secure SaaS environment with data protection and single sign-on.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Support

Enterprise customers receive personalized onboarding, end-user training, troubleshooting, responsive service, and webinars.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Headquarters

Montreal, Quebec, CanadaRead 28 Sep 2026 · pressbooks.com

Founded

2011Read 28 Sep 2026 · pressbooks.com

Accessibility

Pressbooks says its platform helps creators meet accessibility standards and its paid plans can produce WCAG 2.2 compliant books.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

API schema

API schemas are self-describing through OPTIONS requests, and a full schema can be requested with context=help.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.org

Backup policy

Its platform terms say daily system backups are performed but do not guarantee that user data or ebooks will never be lost.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Company founding

LinkedIn lists Pressbooks as founded in 2011 and headquartered in Montreal, Quebec.Read 15 Oct 2026 · ca.linkedin.com

Company size

LinkedIn lists Pressbooks as a privately held book and periodical publishing company with 11–50 employees.Read 15 Oct 2026 · ca.linkedin.com

Content collaboration

The hosted product lets multiple authors collaborate on interactive digital content.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Developer documentation

Official developer guides cover local setup, PHPStorm, branching, coding standards, unit testing, theme development and REST API use.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.org

Discovery integrations

Published books can be listed in Pressbooks Directory and distributed to discovery services including EBSCO, Ex Libris and OER Commons.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Enterprise LMS integration

Enterprise networks connect to learning-management systems through Pressbooks Results and an IMS Global certified LTI integration.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Export formats

The software can produce web, EPUB, PDF and multiple XML outputs, with webbook and EPUB/PDF styling driven by HTML and CSS.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com

GitHub release

The public repository identifies stable tag 6.45.7 for the plugin.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com

Grade passback

Pressbooks Results sends student scores from interactive H5P activities to an LMS gradebook and requires an active LTI integration.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Interactive content

Pressbooks supports multimedia, YouTube videos, H5P quizzes and Hypothesis social annotation.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Limit: design customization

Top Ten Publishers reports that template customization is more limited than professional design software such as InDesign.Read 15 Oct 2026 · toptenpublishers.com

Limit: distribution

Top Ten Publishers notes that Pressbooks does not distribute books to retailers, so authors must upload exported files themselves.Read 15 Oct 2026 · toptenpublishers.com

Limit: importing content

An independent Pressbooks workshop reports that URL scraping can produce formatting errors and that some pasted images fail to transfer correctly.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.pub

Limit: linear structure

An independent review describes Pressbooks as strongly organized around parts and chapters, making immersive or free-form exhibit layouts difficult.Read 15 Oct 2026 · ocaduinclusivedesign.wordpress.com

Limit: subscription cost

Top Ten Publishers says subscription pricing can become expensive for authors publishing only one book.Read 15 Oct 2026 · toptenpublishers.com

Limit: Trustpilot complaint

The sole Trustpilot reviewer reported being unable to export after subscription expiration, export errors and inadequate support.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustpilot.com

Limits

Self-publisher media storage is limited to 100MB in the trial, 250MB on Single Author, and 1GB on Collaboration.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Open licensed books

If a book is openly licensed, Pressbooks says it will continue hosting it after the subscription ends, but further editing requires reactivating a subscription.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Open-source licence

The Pressbooks plugin is free software under GPL version 3.0 or later.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com

Platform ownership

The legal operator identified in the platform terms is Book Oven Inc., doing business as Pressbooks, incorporated in Quebec.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Praise: ease of use

Top Ten Publishers describes the web interface as easy to use for authors without advanced technical skills.Read 15 Oct 2026 · toptenpublishers.com

Praise: multi-format output

Top Ten Publishers highlights the ability to create EPUB, MOBI, PDF, XML and webbook files from one project.Read 15 Oct 2026 · toptenpublishers.com

Pressbooks Results

Pressbooks Results sends scores from H5P activities to an LMS gradebook and supports LTI-compatible systems such as Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard and D2L Brightspace.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Public API

The developer documentation describes a WordPress REST API supporting GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE and OPTIONS methods, with separate book and root-site endpoints.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.org

Publishing formats

Books can be exported in PDF, EPUB, HTML, XML, XHTML, and Common Cartridge formats.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Rating on Trustpilot

3.2 out of 5 from 1 review.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustpilot.com

Sales limitation

Pressbooks has no built-in monetization options, though authors may sell exported books elsewhere without Pressbooks royalties or a share of sales.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Security and privacy

The data-processing addendum states that Pressbooks applies technical and organizational safeguards and addresses GDPR, UK GDPR, Quebec privacy law, PIPEDA, CCPA and FERPA obligations.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Self-hosted export dependencies

Self-hosted installations need tools such as Ghostscript, ImageMagick, Poppler utilities, EPUBCheck and xmllint; PDF export can use commercial PrinceXML or DocRaptor.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.org

Self-hosting

Pressbooks can be installed on a self-managed server using a WordPress Multisite setup and the recommended Bedrock configuration.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.org

Self-publisher support

Self-publisher plans include self-service support resources, while premium support is an add-on for Single Author and Collaboration plans.Read 7 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

Support resources

Pressbooks provides a comprehensive user guide, webinars, videos, community forums and bug-reporting support.Read 15 Oct 2026 · pressbooks.com

System requirements

The current plugin requires PHP 8.3 and WordPress 7.1.3 or newer, and lower versions are unsupported.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com

Plans and prices

Every Pressbooks plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Book Layout Software#3 of 288.6
• Open Educational Resource Platforms#5 of 278.6