Electronic books (readers, readers) have long become familiar devices for a wide range of users. Their advantages: the availability of content (you can download the necessary book from the Internet in a matter of minutes), the E-ink screen that does not spoil your eyesight, the ability to have a collection of thousands of books in the reader, long work on a single charge, font type and size settings. Not so long ago, e-books with a backlit screen appeared - they allow you to read in complete darkness. In general, the advantages of readers can be listed for a very long time.
However, when getting acquainted with readers, users often have one problem. People who decide to purchase a reader for the first time, faced with the concept of "formats e-books", often do not understand what is at stake. The problem is especially relevant for beginners, to whom the abbreviations "FB2", "EPUB" or "MOBI" do not mean anything at all.
The so-called formats are different types electronic text files, which are supported (reproduced) by one or another . Internet digital libraries often offer a wide range of file types: FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, DOC, RTF, TXT and others. The choice is wide, and this poses certain problems for beginners. We will describe the main formats of e-books, tell you how they differ from each other, which readers are supported, and which format is better to choose if you have a multi-format reader that reads all formats.
Varieties of formats
1. FB2 (FictionBook)- an e-book format that was created by a group of Russian developers. Books in this file type have a structured look (that is, they contain a chapter breakdown, content, illustrations, cover). In addition, this standard stores information about the file (the so-called tags: author, title, genre), which is read by the reader and allows the user to conveniently sort files on the device. This type of file takes up a small amount, can be archived, and it also converts well to other formats. Of the features: in view of the fact that the format was originally developed for Cyrillic, texts in Russian in FB2 have word hyphenation.
The format was originally designed for Russian users, and it is practically not used abroad. That is why FB2 is not supported by the world's popular manufacturers of readers - Amazon and Barnes & Noble. But this is the main file format for readers popular in Russia from Pocketbook, Onyx and Wexler. In addition, Sony readers now support FB2 - after entering the Russian market, the company has developed an official firmware for the reader, which allows you to read books in FB2.
2. EPUB (Electronic Publication)- most popular in the world electronic format for readers. Barnes & Noble and Sony readers work with it. In terms of layout structure, this type of file resembles an archived web page containing text, graphics, embedded fonts, and illustrations.
In addition to Western brands, the EPUB format is supported by models of manufacturers focused on the Russian market (Pocketbook, Onyx, Wexler) due to the rapid growth in popularity in our country. Besides, this standard e-books use the iPhone and . Apple's proprietary iBooks reader supports exactly EPUB.
3. MOBI- format of e-book readers. It is gaining distribution in Russian online libraries as the Kindle becomes more and more popular in Russia. Other readers have support for this format "for show". MOBI is similar in properties to EPUB. Amazon recently introduced another e-text format, Kindle Format 8 or KF8 (which features richer formatting), with the clarification that new and old Amazon readers will not stop supporting MOBI.
4. TXT- the format of simple text documents. You can convert text from another format to TXT with a simple "copy-paste" action. Despite the fact that this type of file is supported by almost all readers and takes up very little memory space, we would not recommend reading books on readers in it. TXT lacks formatting, markup, hyphenation, alignment. It is suitable for short text notes, but not for full-fledged e-books.
5. PDF (Portable Document Format)- format electronic documents, created by Adobe Systems. Inconvenient for use on readers for a number of reasons. Firstly, the files in this format are very bulky, as they are designed for the power of a computer, and they open quite slowly on readers. Secondly, if the file is not specially designed for the screen of a 6-inch reader, which has a format similar to an A6 paper sheet, then it will be very difficult to read A4 PDF on it (and most PDF files are presented exactly in the size of a standard paper sheet). In PDF, you can only increase the scale, but not the font size, which means that only some part of the page will fit on the screen. You will have to read the pages in parts, and this is very inconvenient.
For PDF reader adapted, the screen size of which allows you to reproduce the page at a scale large enough for comfortable reading.
6. DJVU- a format developed for storing scanned documents - books, articles, manuscripts. A book in DJVU is actually a collection of scanned pages. In terms of reading comfort on 6-inch readers, everything is similar to the story with PDF. You will not increase the font size, only the scale. When zooming, the page will crawl out of the screen, and you will have to constantly move the area of enlarged text for reading - there is no need to talk about comfortable reading. To read DJVU, choose readers with a 9-inch screen. However, even on 9-inch readers, DJVU's convenient reading capabilities depend on how well the book presented in this format is scanned.
7. LRF- in the past, the proprietary format of Sony readers. On new models (starting with PRS-T1) it is no longer used, as it has given way to EPUB. Very badly converted to other file types. Despite the fact that it is still presented in some libraries, it is recommended to use it exclusively for owners of older Sony models.
8. RTF (Rich Text Format)- a format for storing text documents. Belongs to the category of "computer", not "book". It is not very convenient to read in RTF on readers - these are large files, and the speed of the reader is reduced by an order of magnitude.
9. DOC(as well as DOCX) - text documents Microsoft Office. These formats are supported by a lot of readers, but it is for reading documents, not books. Large files in this format can be large in size, and it is not easy to work with them on readers. Multipage books in DOC are best converted to FB2 or EPUB.
We have listed the main formats of e-books. We will not consider quite exotic types of files that are sometimes found on the Internet, but rather we will decide in which of the above formats it is most convenient to read books on electronic readers.
Which e-book format to choose
If you have a reader with support for all formats, then you can opt for a specific file type based on a number of factors. Let's say you're buying your first e-book and you don't have a pre-built collection of books, such as in FB2. In this case, choose the file format that is best played by your reader. Traditional "book" formats EPUB or FB2 for the reader (and for the user) are more preferable and convenient than "computer" PDF, TXT, DOC, DOCX and RTF.
In the case of 9-inch readers and the need to read DJVU and PDF, other things being equal, we advise you to prefer the latter, since PDF is a more modern format, and books in DJVU are often of poor quality.
From the point of view of ease of use, the advantages of "book" formats are obvious: EPUB, FB2 or MOBI visually look better in the menu of your reader (book covers are displayed), they are more convenient to sort (there are tags: author, title, genre), they take up much less memory places and the speed of the reader with such formats will be significantly higher.
Do you need support for all formats
In our opinion, it is not necessary to choose an all-format reader. Many users who have readers with support for all formats download books in one or two file types. All readers (including multi-format ones), one way or another, have a basic format, and in the end you will not exchange for others. For Pocketbook, Onyx and Wexler the main formats are FB2 or EPUB, for Barnes & Noble () and Sony - EPUB, for Kindle - MOBI.
In the case of Amazon and Barnes & Noble readers, if the desired book is in a format that these readers do not support, you can use a converter (for example, Caliber). This is a program that is installed on a computer and allows you to convert the same FB2 to MOBI or EPUB in a matter of minutes.
Reading books in the reader's native format is better than using additional programs installed on the reader. Our advice: take a few minutes to convert a book, for example, from RTF to EPUB using the Caliber converter. This is more convenient than reading it "in the original" with the help of an additional installed program(on Sony PRS-T1 or Kindle) or experience slower device operation (for example, on Pocketbook readers).
Remember that the main thing is the convenience of using an e-book, and not the number of formats declared in its parameters.
Enjoy reading!
2015-03-11 | UncategorizedA person who loves books tends to read everywhere and everywhere. That is why in recent years, reading from readers or mobile phones has become so hugely popular. Of course, we can talk as much as we want about the delights of the smell of a new paper book, about the pleasant moments in the bookstore, when choosing replenishments for your library, but the fact remains that in the daily hustle and bustle, reading e-books is easier than carrying the usual paper volumes with you. If you write and want your work to become convenient and accessible to readers, it’s not enough to post texts on open resources, it would also be nice to attach file versions to them so that people can download your creation and evaluate it at their leisure.
Whether you're a reader, a writer, or a 2-in-1, when downloading or sharing texts with files, you may find that your phone or reader does not support this format (or your readers complain that the files they do not read this format). To understand why this is happening, we have written a short explanation for you about what e-book formats are, how they differ, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.
Format types:
To begin with, it should be noted that the most common e-book formats are: FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, RTF, TXT, DOC / DOCX and DjVu. Naturally, when an uninitiated person is faced with such a variety, it is difficult to figure out what's what and what format to choose for reading or converting your files.
Microsoft Windows, but, unfortunately, DOC / DOCX are not supported by most readers, and they may not always open on mobile phones, and reading books in TXT is very, very inconvenient.
However, let's talk about everything in order:
FB2 (FictionBook)
Advantages: One of the most common formats in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. It is convenient to structure a large document, divide it into chapters, etc. FB2 files take up little space and are easily converted to other formats.
Disadvantages: FB2 is a format developed in Russia. It is not supported by most readers and is unknown worldwide. It opens only on devices with Russian firmware and is alien to branded readers that are leading all over the world: Sony, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. Yes, you can bet that it opens on Sony FB2, but official firmware, which allows you to open this format on Sony readers, was published only a couple of years ago and is not installed on all models. If we talk about selling your works on Amazon or Itunes, then the answer is unequivocal - FB2 is not suitable for international platforms.
PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) and DjVu (pronounced "deja vu") - we will not consider each separately and combine them in one paragraph.
Advantages: Both formats are used to store scanned books. In PDF, you can create very colorful files. DjVu is just pretty good at compressing files, making them smaller.
Flaws: PDF files become very cumbersome. If we are talking about scanning, then in any case, scanned books are inconvenient to read from the screen, since their quality leaves much to be desired, regardless of whether the scan is in PDF or in DjVu.
Advantages: TXT opens on any reader. DOC/DOCX formats known to all Microsoft Word.
Disadvantages: Reading books in TXT is terribly inconvenient, because it lacks text formatting (width alignment, paragraph wrapping, division into chapters, etc.). DOC/DOCX is supported by a very small number of readers.
RTF (Rich Text Format)
Advantages: Convenient and compact format for storing text files.
Disadvantages: Extremely rarely supported by readers and mobile phones, tablets, etc.
Advantages: LRF is Sony's special e-book format. MOBI book format for Amazon Kindle.
Cons: Sony currently supports the more popular e-book format, EPUB.
EPUB (Electronic PUBlishing)
Benefits: EPUB is the world's most widely used e-book format. Has no problems with recognition, allows you to create a well-structured text with illustrations. This format itself is already an archive, and therefore compact and does not require additional archivers.
As you can see, each of the formats mentioned above has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, by far the most "readable" format for e-books will be TXT, but reading books in this format is almost a mockery of your eyes. Such a text cannot be structured, it lacks paragraphs, chapters, it is impossible to insert illustrations into it, etc.
The most common and convenient format for reading e-books is EPUB. However, if we are talking about the form in which the author should post his work online, the most rational solution would be to upload it in several formats at once. For example: EPUB (readable everywhere except Amazon Kindle) + MOBI (readable only on Amazon Kindle) + DOC / DOCX (for those who are used to reading from computers and laptops). Of course, as a bonus, you can post the text in the FB2 format, to which the Russian-speaking audience is so accustomed, however, not all devices will open a file of this format.
And of course, at the end of this article and as an advertisement, we would like to inform you that recently a new Booqla Internet system has been launched in the CIS, designed for convenient and, attention, free conversion of manuscripts into EPUB and MOBI formats. The site offers users from all over the world the conversion of their manuscripts into electronic format and assists in the sale of e-books, but only free conversion of manuscripts will be available for the Russian-speaking audience.
You can evaluate the simplicity and convenience of the Booqla service yourself by registering on
Electronic book readers (so-called readers ) have long turned from something very exotic into the same familiar household device as a smartphone. Users very quickly realized what the beauty of readers is: they can download hundreds (if not thousands) of books in in electronic format, eyes do not deteriorate when reading (electronic ink does not glow), you can adjust any text parameters, including typeface and size, the book itself remembers the page you left on, and so on - list all sorts of conveniences compared to using paper books can be very long. However, users (especially beginners) have one problem at the same time: books walk around the Web in various formats, of which there are many: FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, RTF, TXT, and so on. It’s good when the site offers a choice of different formats - for example, on the site Litres.ru, where this choice is very wide.
Format types
However, for novice users, all these EPUB, FB2 and other DjVu are a dark forest, so let's figure out what they are, how they differ and in what devices they are used. So, the formats of electronic books (documents) .1. FB2 (FictionBook)- format (standard) developed by Dmitry Gribov and a group of enthusiasts. Great for creating structured books, takes up little space, perfectly archives, converts well to other formats. It is an XML file that is structurally similar to an e-mail. The main drawback is that since this is actually a Russian development, this format is completely unknown in the world and is almost not supported by any of the branded readers - Sony, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo. Litres says that FB2 is "supported by all Russian readers", but it's not entirely accurate. FB2 is supported by almost all Chinese readers with Ukrainian or Russian software. Also, FB2 can be supported by well-known western readers (for example, Sony), which have a special Russian firmware installed. (Well, recently for the latest Sony PRS-T1 reader, an official firmware was released that supports FB2.) 2. EPUB (Electronic PUBlishing)- the most common in the world (and already very common in Russia) format of electronic books. It is similar in structure to a website packaged in an archive, and if FB2 can be distributed both in expanded form and in ZIP archive(many readers can read FB2 in ZIP), then EPUB is, by definition, a book packed with an archiver. EPUB is supported by almost any reader - both Western and Chinese (Russian-Ukrainian). Therefore, this is the most preferred format. (With rare exceptions.) 3. MOBI- a specialized format created specifically for the Amazon Kindle reader and, accordingly, supported only by this reader. Moreover, Kindle does not support any other e-book formats (except PDF and TXT, but this is a special conversation). four. TXT- the usual format of a text document. Supported by all readers, but reading books in TXT is for complete masochists. No markup, no normal hyphenation, no format alignment, but there are line breaks and other delights. Into the fire! 5. PDF(Adobe Portable Document Format) - one of the most common formats for electronic documents (usually not books). PDF is not particularly convenient to read on readers, in addition, it is very cumbersome, therefore, in PDF for readers, as a rule, only documents with all sorts of formulas, illustrations, and so on are written. 6. LRF- a special format for e-books from Sony. However, it has almost been supplanted by the EPUB format that Sony supports. 7. DjVu(pronounced déjà vu) is a format for storing tightly compressed scanned documents such as old books. It is used very rarely in readers, because it is almost impossible to read scanned books on the reader due to poor display quality and small screen size. eight. RTF (Rich Text Format)- a universal format for storing text documents. In readers it is used very rarely - so, for compatibility. 9. DOC- Microsoft Office document format. Some readers support it, but usually few people need to read documents on the reader. That's not what they're made for. True, some books are still circulating in DOC on the Web, but it’s easier to convert them into the same EPUB. There are all sorts of other formats, but you don’t need to worry about these - they are unlikely to ever come in handy. For most users, with a few exceptions, the EPUB format is usually sufficient. It is supported by almost all readers (except Kindle), books in this format are small in size, have a good structure, allow you to include a table of contents, illustrations, and so on. Many online libraries store books in this format, and you can also find huge collections of EPUB books in torrents. What are the conclusions? EPUB is your choice, whether you have a western reader (Sony, Barnes&Noble, Kobo) or Chinese-Russian-Ukrainian. But for Kindle, you will need to look for books in MOBI format or, which is much easier, just convert the same EPUB or FB2 to this format. This procedure is done quickly and easily with special program. How this is done - we will consider in a separate article.
Often on the forums and in the e-mails I receive, the question "What is the EPUB format?" comes up. They also ask other questions about this format - how is it good, how is it different from FB2, MOBI and DOC, is it worth buying books in it or should I prefer another format. In this article, I will answer these and other questions, talk about the history of the creation and development of EPUB, its main features, as well as the prospects for EPUB and existing alternatives to this format.
Story
EPUB format (the name comes from the English phrase " e electronic pub lication) was developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). The original version appeared back in 1999 under the name OEB (Open eBook Publication), but the final version was released in September 2007. It was already actually EPUB.
EPUB very quickly gained popularity in the US and Europe, where the Mobipocket format was popular before (MOBI, PRC, AZW extensions). The largest foreign library Gutenberg.com has made epub its standard format for storing electronic books. The vast majority of online e-book (content) stores switched to EPUB in 2008-2010.
In 2009 the project
Sony has finally decided to get closer to the people - all the books in its store will be converted to the public ePub format. What the businessmen themselves want to achieve with this is both obvious and not particularly interesting for an ordinary person, especially one living in Russia. Even if Sony beats Amazon in the e-book market, we are neither warm nor cold.
From a practical point of view, two things are important to us. First, Sony Reader customers are no longer tied to their store. Understanding people will object that even before FB2 was easily converted to a format that their reader understood. But for some reason I am sure that everything is not so simple. Especially when it comes to a book with complex formatting. Yes, and the need to make an extra gesture is always a little annoying.
Secondly, the ePub format will become more popular. Still, Sony is a solid brand and, for sure, chain stores and libraries will want to somehow adapt to the policy of this company. And at the same time to please the owners of the Sony Reader, especially since there are not so few of them in our country.
Hence the questions that we must try to understand. Is the ePub format good enough to completely replace the existing FB2 and the promising FB3? How confident does the ePub format feel in the current Russian realities in terms of supply? Finally - how and on what to read ePub books? And are they much better than the usual FB2, not in theory, but in practice?
From a technological point of view, ePub is based on three open standards: Open Publication Structure (OPS), Open Packaging Format (OPF) and Open Container Format (OCF). It is an XML format for digital books and publications with a floating layout.
In form, ePub is a zip-archive into which all sorts of things are thrown - the texts themselves in html or pfd format, fonts, pictures and service files. You can view this wealth very simply - rename epub to zip (or open the archive forcibly). In addition to text and pictures, there are the following files.
First, container.xml (in the META-INF directory). In general, it looks like this:
Of course, there may be other files in the META-INF directory, and other entries in the container.xml file, but I don’t see much point in this. At least in practice, although very small, I did not see any other options.
Second, the mimetype file contains the application/epub+zip entry. It is obvious that this is a constant value and any initiative is unacceptable here.
Third, content.opf - XML file, which describes the structure of the book. It is relatively large, but arranged quite clearly. For example, dc:title is the title of the book, dc:language is the RFC 3066 language, creator is the main author, contributor is the co-authors, and so on. There is even a rights line for our beloved copyright. Links to all files used in the book (with the exception of, of course, those that should be in any case - container.xml , mimetype and content.opf) are in the item section. The reading order is specified in itemref . Finally, the cover and caption structure elements are specified in the guide .
Fourth, toc.ncx is the XML file that contains the content of the book. It is organized no more complicated than the previous one, so I will not focus the reader's attention on its internal structure.
At first glance, it's pretty stupid. At least, in my subjective opinion, manual layout of books in ePub will be easier than in FB2. Still less likely to get confused.
The reader is more interested in the catalog with fonts, which is included in the book. In essence, this means that the material will be presented the way the author wanted. For ordinary text, this is not particularly important (although there are exceptions here), but the display of formulas, especially complex ones, goes to a qualitatively higher level. This is where ePub certainly excels at FB2.
With FB3, it's a bit more complicated, because the concepts of the formats are similar. However, ePub is out there, and the concept of Dmitry Gribov is still at a stage far from mass application. Perhaps, over time, FB3 will be able to become an alternative to ePub, but we still have to live before that.
What to do with ePub at home? There are three options. For those who are really itching, an online FB2 to ePub converter is offered (sorotokin.com/fb2epub.html). But one should not expect miracles from him, since he will not add any new entities such as a list of fonts to the file - there is nowhere to take them from. A simple analogy - you can make "uncompressed" music from mp3, but its quality is unlikely to improve from this.
There is a multi-platform eCub utility (www.juliansmart.com/ecub). No WISIWYG, so only suitable for those who take the time to understand the internal structure of the format.
There is also a Sigil program (code.google.com/p/sigil/). Also, by the way, multiplatform. It seems to be simpler, since the result is visible immediately in the process of work.
I believe that this toolkit is enough to make books "for myself". Well, professional layout designers will figure out what they need and how to use it without me. After all, they get paid for it.
Now let's see what online stores and libraries offer to a potential ePub fan. Of course, it is not so much the quality of the format itself that is evaluated here, but the efforts of our business to promote it.
Alas, the picture is not particularly joyful. There are suggestions, of course. For example, the bookland.net.ua store distributes popular science literature in this format. And "Litres" sells PC Magazine/RE with might and main, which is especially pleasant for fans of "IT" reading matter. By the way, I never found a normal electronic version of "Linuxformat", which saddened me a lot.
However, where there is ePub, there is also FB2. Moreover, in all cases, the layout is such that the catalog with fonts in the ePub version is extremely poor - in fact, only LiberationSans, which is clearly not enough for a quality publication. I have a suspicion that we are dealing with a normal "our" business - no one specifically made a book in ePub and the publishers did not invest any money in it. Apparently, they are waiting for Sony to do it instead. Well, it's already as usual - we're used to it.
There is only one practical conclusion from this - it is pointless to arrange any comparative tests of ePub and BF2. Our business is not ready to provide raw materials for this. And there is no judgment.
So I'm going straight to the readers. On a desktop station or laptop, the regular FBReader (www.fbreader.org) is fine for this purpose. Format ePub this program clicks like nuts. Accordingly, the same solution is used on the Nokia N810 tablet.
With PocketBook, the situation is somewhat worse. The book opens but the table of contents doesn't work. Apparently, this format is still "non-native" for her. Let's wait for firmware updates.
I summarize. The ePub format is really rich. But it requires a special attitude to layout. Simply put, no one will lick a book to the level of "oh, how good" for nothing. And knowing our business, there is every reason to believe that Russia will not see any difference between FB2 and ePub for a long time. You can relax - we are not threatened with changes for the better.
