Take EBooks At Your Leisure: EBook Formats

There are a number of sectors for eBooks that would fascinate your interest: eBook Encryption (DRM), eBook Devices, eBook Publishing, eBook Formats and eBook Marketing are some of these.Here, let’s focus on eBook Formats.There are a couple of eBook formats out there. But the most useful ones are the flexible, portable and mobile ones.There is the mainstream eBook reader platform, which allows you to read eBooks on specified eBook readers like Kindle, Nook and Kobo. You can read them on smart phones, mobile devices, desktops and laptops.They allow you to customize your reading experience to the specific size and contrast you want. You can also sync your notes, bookmarks and highlights across all your user reader devices.The document formats in one device varies from the other.The software application on say an Apple iBook reader is not compatible with an Amazon MOBI reader. The software in each device interprets and displays the documents according to the rules of the format it has installed.For an eBook to have a worldwide acceptance, the rules, conventions and syntax that guide how the eBook is displayed and stored must be easily adaptable by all.There are over 40 hardware and software options for eBooks. We will explore about 4-5 of them here.

 

EPUB
EPUB is designed by the International Digital Publishing Forum. The EPUB’s Electronic Publication format is the ideal eBook for a universal audience. It provides support for reflowable and resizable texts, embedded messages, notes, tables, bookmarks, audios and Digital Rights Management (DRM). The internal format of EPUB uses XHTML, that is, Extensive Hypertext Markup Language.You can read eBooks created in EPUB format on popular readers under Windows PC and Macintosh such as: Adobe Digital Editions, AZARDI,FBReader, Lexcycle Stanza, UBook and Mozilla Firefoxadd-on EPUBReader.You can also read the EPUB format on many mobile phones and devices such as:Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod, Blackberry, Sony Reader, Kobo Reader, HTC/Andriod, Samsung tablet,Nokia, Barnes and Noble Nook, Bookeen Cybook, Aluratek Libre, Hanlin, COOL-ER and iLiad.The Amazon kindle does not support the EPUB format. But the calibre software can covert a non-DRM EPUB file into an unprotected Mobipocket format that Kindle can read.Amazon also offers KindleGen, a free program that converts not just the EPUB format, but several other formats too.

 

MOBI
MOBI is also called the AZW format. It is Amazon’s propriety Kindle eBook format. Amazon bought the Mobipocket in 2005 with Amazon’sDigital Rights Management components. The Mobi format is based on the Mobipocket standard. It allows text reflow, notes, tables, bookmarks, embedded images and DRM.Apart from the kindle reader, there are other kindle formats available through the kindle app, on Apple iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, HTC/Andriod, Windows Phone 7, and on Windows PC and Macintosh, of course.There are several generations of the Kindle file format released by Amazon already. The Kindle Fire reader was released in 2011. There is the Kindle format 8 too released for the next generation. It supports the HTML5 and CSS3.

 

PDF
PDF was developed in 1992 by Adobe to reproduce documents for prints just the way the sender sends it. Regardless of the computer or printer used, the goal is to have no alterations whatsoever to the original document. And the PDF format did this well. It works basically on most computers.However, the PDF format has evolved over the years. You can now protect your PDF documents from printing, unauthorized access and modifications.

You can include external content and multimedia messages. You can even use your PDFs to collect information or forms.In 2007/2008, Adobe released its PDF format to ISO, the International Organization for Standardization as an open standard. This gave other software holders the room to begin to create and read their documents in PDF format.But Adobe Reader and Acrobat Pro still remain the most widely used PDFs.You can view PDF documents with your Web browser. You can also create your PDF by “printing” any web content to a PDF “printer”.A drawback to viewing PDF documents on phones and other palm-sized devices is the re-flow to fit the small size and width of these devices.

Adobe has addressed this drawback by including a re-flow facility to its Acrobat Reader software. However, to benefit from this facility, you must have marked your document for re-flow while creating it or else you won’t be able to view your PDFs properly from small-sized screens. Another way to beat this is to tag and re-save your document if they weren’t marked for re-flow when created.PDF format supports notes, tables, bookmarks, embedded images and DRM.

The PDF is beautiful for its portability, that’s what it’s P stands for anyways. And its device independence. It works on all Windows,Macintosh and Unix computers, and on many portable operating systems and eBook readers such as:Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod, Blackberry, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Kobo Reader, HTC/Andriod, Samsung Tablet, Nokia, Barnes and Noble Nook, Bookeen Cybook, iRex iLiad and DR1000, Aluratek Libre, Hanlin, COOL-ER and iLiad, Foxit eSlick, PocketBook Reader.

 

PDB
The PDB eReader format was built to hold information in a database for palm operating systems and other operating systems.The data stored in this eBook’s database is the text of the book. It is also the command that controls the way it is displayed for reading.The PDB reader supports bookmarks, text re-flow, tables, embedded images, DRM and footnotes, it allows page mark with a bookmark or any part of the text with footnotes.And you can export your footnote later on as a memo document.

You can use PDB on all of the following devices:Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod, Blackberry, HTC/Andriod, Samsung, Palm OS but not WebOS, Sony Ericsson, Symbian, PocketPC the 2002 and earlier versions, Windows mobile phones and PocketPC that from 2003 and later, Nokia, Linux Ubuntu 9.0.4 and later versions and OQO.

The Stanza app for both iPhone and iPad touch can read encrypted and unencrypted eReader files. So this might be your best bet as against the iTunes eReader app.These are just a few of the eBook formats available out there but they are the top most useful ones to eReaders. I’m positive that this information gives you ample guide to which eReader format best suits your immediate and future eReading needs.