Ebooks formats

1. Formats Practical use

2. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.20162
Contents
1. Topic name
2. Contents
3. Modern ebook formats
4. .epub format
5. .fb2 format
6. .html format
7. .pdf format
8. .DjVu format
9. .Comic Book Archives
10. Comparison: features
11. Other ebook formats
12. Comparison: popularity
13. Comparison: proposals to use
14. Conclusion

3. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.20163
Modern Ebook formats
 There is 5 main formats
1. .epub
 Electronic Publication (ePub)
2. .fb2
 FictionBook
3. html
 Standard markup language
4. .pdf
 Portable Document Format
5. .DjVu
 eBook (compression) format
6. Rare format
 Comic Book Archives

4. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.20164
.epub format
 Format:
 open format
 plain old ASCII text
 Support:
 Android devices
 eReaders
 some portable music players
 browsers:
 EPUBReader extension for Chrome and FireFox
 Creation in .epub format:
 Apache’s OpenOffice, Libre Office
 one line command with Pandoc (converting)

5. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.20165
.fb2 format
 Format:
 XML format - >
 1 single file
 or/and any images - >
 NOT for scanned documents
 Support:
 Android devices
 eReaders:
 FBReader, Icecream Ebook Reader
 browsers:
 Firefox FB2 Reader add-on
 eBook reader extension for Chrome (many)
 Opera extension eBook Reader
 Creation in .fb2 format:
 text editor, ,fb2 editors

6. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.20166
.html format
 Format:
 web format (hypertext) - >
 file(s)
 any images - >
 some features (forms) -> not relevant to e-books
 Support:
 Android devices
 not all eReaders:
 FBReader, Icecream Ebook Reader
 browsers:
 any
 Creation in .html format:
 text editor
 ebook editors (Calibre)

7. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.20167
.pdf format
 Format:
 file format, used to present documents- >
 suggested as standard format for electronic documents
 may contain 1 file
 may contain several images - >
 preserves the print layout of a book
 Support:
 Android devices
 most eReaders
 browsers:
 any
 Creation in .pdf format:
 Adobe Acrobat Pro
 converters

8. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.20168
.DjVu format
 Format:
 electronic library (compression)
 old - >
 replacement for PDF
 designed primarily to store scanned documents
 Support:
 Android devices
 e-book readers:
 SumatraPDF
 free desktop viewers
 browsers:
 plugins
 Creation in .DjVu format:
 scanning documents - >
 converting into other formats (.pdf )

9. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.20169
 .cbz and .cbr format
 .zip or .rar folder = collection of images (scanned)
 replacement for PDF
 designed primarily to store scanned documents
 Support:
 Android devices
 eReaders:
 Calibre
 browsers:
 plugins
 Creation in .cbz and .cbr format:
 combining images into .zip file - >
 renaming .zip file into .cbz/ .cbr format
.Comic Book Archives format

10. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.201610
Comparison: features
5 main Ebook formats
Name Format Support Pro Contra
.epub plain text most e-book
readers
-most universal format
- free
- problem with
formatting
- cross-platform
support
.fb2 -mostly text-
based
- xml
some e-book
readers
DRM-free - problem with
images, tables,
CSS support
.html files not all e-readers - well-structured
- easy to convert
- compatibility
-security
- not book format
.pdf - text
- images
not all devices
display correctly for
reading
preserves layout - hard to convert
- creating mainly
via converters
.DjVu compressed
replacement
for PDF
some mobiles and
computers
limited support (Android) rarely built-in
feature on
mobiles and
computers

11. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.201611
Other ebook formats
 .rtf (Rich text)
 .txt (text editor)
 . docx (Word 2007 – 2013)
 CHM:
 Help files
 .mobi:
 MobiPocket Reader
 .odf:
 OpenDocument Format
 .lit:
 Microsoft Reader
 .azw
 Kindle

12. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.201612
Comparison: popularity
Ebook formats
 2016
.pdf
No2
.Epub
leader
.rtf
No4
.azw
Amazon
Kindle
leader
.txt
No3

13. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.201613
Comparison: proposals to use
.epub - one of the most popular (English market)
- complicated formatting
.fb2 - rich
- not popular with English market - >
 .fb3 – more advanced version
 not for scanned documents
.html - ideal by number of features
- file consuming
- not ebook format
.pdf - better to avoid
- hard to extract text from file
- more suitable for office use documents
.DjVu - limited support

14. M. Salitska - Ebooks: formats - 3.201614
Conclusion
 No single ebook perfect format exists, that completely satisfies
requirements for creating ebooks
 Most popular:
 .epub (UK)
 .fb2 (Europe)
 .azw (by sale: figures for Ereaders)
 Feature-rich:
 .html
 .pdf
 Easiest to work with:
 .doc, docx (UK) - >
 need only further conversion into required format
 Most popular by price:
 open source formats