If you a person who doesn’t know anything about eBook formats, figuring out what eBook formats exist, what devices they’re compatible with, and if they even still in use can be confusing. A quick look at the ‘Comparison of e-book formats’ Wikipedia page will give you a brief glimpse at just how confusing an ordeal this is. There are over twenty listed formats. Some are obsolete. Some seem similar. Each has different uses, pros, cons, and usability. This post aims to erase some of the confusion by picking out the three most popular and most useful eBook formats, discussing a few others along the way.
The most common and most widely adopted eBook file format is the EPUB, à la the eBook equivalent of the MP3. Most all eReaders recognize the file format and even companies that had refrained from using it prior (1 such as Sony who had their own proprietary file format the BBeB which was designed for the Sony Librié) have adopted it and converted their own file formats to this more ‘mainstream’ variant. EPUB’s are reflowable and images float alongside the text. But there are issues with this format. First a foremost, publishers can wrap an EPUB file in DRM. Furthermore, though many devices can read EPUB’s, perhaps the most important device – the Kindle – cannot. This limited distribution has stopped EPUB’s from becoming the dominant file format.
Would it be that the eBook file format had been standardized. Alas, Amazon’s MOBI file format – the format used by all eBook in the Kindle store – prevented such an event. Any search for the ‘best eReader’ will return one answer only: Amazon Kindle devices are the one. Even when users aren’t using an Amazon eReader, they’re using the Amazon Kindle app: under a million on the Google Play store and over two million on the Apple App store. Amazon has sinced replaced the MOBI file format with its own AZW format which can store complex content such as bookmarks, annotations, and highlights. It’s a versatile file format and, were you to pick up an eBook today, it’d probably by the file format you’d purchase.
The last format I’d like to discuss is the PDF. It’s important to note that he PDF is not technically a true eBook format as it’s not reflowable however PDF’s are easy to use and can maintain complex designs and formats. Though they can’t be sold anywhere (making accessibility somewhat of an issues), virtually any eReader can handle a PDF, but they’re not ideal on a small screen.
Hopefully this post has given you somewhat of a taste for what’s out there in terms of popular eBook formats. With the Amazon Kindle’s continued dominance in the eReader and eBook markets, there probably won’t be a major shift away from the two main file formats for some time, but though both have the pros and cons, their competition with one another will surely prove valuable to users as the formats attempt to improve to one up the other.
- http://teleread.com/sony-planning-to-make-its-bbeb-format-an-open-standard/index.html