An e-mail is an electronic mail, whereas an e-book is an electronic book. It won’t electrocute you when you try to read it… an ebook is simply a file containing the text of a book, formatted so that it can be visible on electronic or digital devices like laptop screens, tablets, or dedicated ebook readers. You don’t need an ebook reader to enjoy an e-book, however. These books can be enjoyed in many ways.
This article will tell you what are eBooks, how to find the eBook reader that will help you enjoy the most, and what is the most popular ebook creator for publishers to offer their titles online. Read on to learn what are eBooks!
What is “ebook” supposed to mean?
E-books are just text files you can read on any digital device – but this doesn’t always imply that any book in digitized format is an e-book. An e-book is supposed to be blocked from edits: a manuscript of your novel on your computer is not an e-book yet! An ebook is read-only, you can change font size and take notes on the screen, but the format shouldn’t allow edits.
An E-book should also be able to fit your screen. Like a website, it should be optimized and adjust to the size of the electronic device you read this on. The paragraphs must stay together intact, and the chapter endings and images will resize. This isn’t hard to do – but the popular PDF file format does not allow it. Some people hesitate to call the digital files eBooks, but this format is nonetheless great for comic books or other graphics-heavy books like graphic novels, art books or tourist guidebooks making this digital book format superior to the typical ebook formats.
Of course, eBook doesn’t mean that it’s a version of a printed book already on the market. These days people create books on their computers and thanks to self-publishing few people bother to print them on paper.
What are popular e-book formats?
EPUB or MOBI
The most popular eBook format is probably EPUB – short for electronic publication. It can be read on most devices, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and most e-readers. EPUB e-books are compatible with Windows (you’ll need an app like Microsoft Edge to open these eBooks, however), Android, and iOS – but not with the popular Amazon Kindle. To use these files on your Kindle, you must convert the EPUB to the proprietary Kindle format, MOBI (or AZW) – luckily, there are plenty of converters available online or offline.
Amazon worked on its ebook reader before the publishers in the industry established that standard. As a result, while both of these formats are based on the HTML format (like the one used in website or page design) there are many differences – MOBI format lets you take bookmarks, annotations, or highlight the text. Usually, you can buy such e-books only from the Kindle digital bookstore. You can also download free MOBI eBooks or convert EPUB to MOBI. (The native format for Kindle is actually AZW, which is slightly different from Mobi but it doesn’t matter for an average e-books reader that much!)
Flipbook
If your device does not support the PDF eBook format, you can use the popular Flipbook format to convert your PDF and allow viewing it on any modern browser. Flipbooks are e-books that have been formatted to resemble actual books – it’s called that because of the effect of flipped pages that looks very memorable on any electronic device. They are a very convenient option for web-based material distributed in a browser, but they also look good on an iPad and smartphones.
Publuu’s ebook example
Unlike the ebooks which you have to scroll, flipbooks offer you the ability to customize their appearance. You can disable sound of the page-turning effect, set the background or add music – all to make the reading of your eBook a perfect experience for the reader.
Publuu offers an option to convert any PDF to the Flipbook format – creating an e-book that’s easily distributed online. You can send the link to your Publuu Flipbook and be sure that it will look good on any document and no formatting will be lost.
Publuu Flipbooks, unlike most other formats, allow you to track your ebooks – you can monitor who has opened your eBook which is especially valuable if you want to distribute PDFs for your co-workers or editors.
Is PDF essentially an ebook?
Not quite- let us explain. Created by Adobe, the PDF format allows you to save a file that looks the same on all electronic devices, regardless of whether they have installed the fonts, have the appropriate software, and so on. However, this format is designed to reproduce fixed-layout pages in the digital form – that is, a Letter/A4 page will stay the same regardless of the screen size. It means that they are harder to read on devices like smartphones or e-readers. You can’t change the font size, but you can usually zoom in on the book content.
However, many devices like Kindle or Nook still support this format, and there are many books and documents that use this type of formatting. PDF is very popular for delivering electronic books, especially ones that rely heavily on color.
Ebooks on the other hand, by using formats such as MOBI or EPUB, are much more adjustable and user-friendly in terms of reading experience, compared to PDF files. Files made with ebook formats can be adjusted to reader’s preference in regard of fonts, font’s size, line spacing and other features that make a book more readable and accessible for a broader audience.
Other formats
There are other formats out there – and it’s a good idea to choose an app or a device that can handle them. Comic books fans will appreciate comics that are often saved as CBR or CBZ. Until recently Microsoft software promoted their proprietary LIT file format, but ultimately that corporation did not create its own e-book reader device. Many ebook apps also let you open books saved as DOC or RTF formats, which is a nice feature, especially for business users.
