Jumsoft releases first collection of iBooks Author themes with ‘Book Palette 1.0′

Jumsoft has just released Book Palette 1.0 on the Mac App Store– a collection of templates and themes for Apple’s recently released iBooks Author platform. The first release of many to come includes 10 templates from business to cookbooks that all include customizable layouts, covers, chapter pages, tables of contents, glossary pages, and everything included in the iBooks author app. It looks like Apple isn’t going to have an issue with developers selling additional add-on content for iBooks Author through the Mac App Store.

Although Jumsoft has designed the templates to be ready to go with the default designs and layouts, they explained just how customizable they are:

Most objects in the templates can be easily reshaped, recolored, moved, or removed. Use a variety of pre-designed text styles or opt for fonts of your choice to format your text for the best effect. Add matching gallery, video, or other Multi-Touch widgets and also modify their look to your own liking. In fact, feel free to create a book that is entirely yours.

Book Palette 1.0 is available on the Mac App Store now for $2.99, and of course requires iBooks Author and Lion 10.7.2 or higher.  If you’re interested in trying out the new iBooks experience for yourself, you might not know the book Apple demoed at the iBooks Author unveiling includes a free sample chapter that is quite impressive. You can grab E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth here, and we also recommend another iBooks Author creation, the $2 iCloud for Beginners.

Today the Associated Press reported Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski are challenging educators and textbook companies to get digital textbooks in the hands of US students within five years. The government also plans on releasing a 67-page “playbook” that offers teachers and students guidance and “promotes the use of digital textbooks.”

You can grab the free iBooks Author if you’re interested in creating an iBook of your own and trying out Jumsoft’s new themes. A sampling of the themes included in Jumsoft’s 1.0 collection is below:

(via Mac Observer)