Online Encyclopedia
Ebook
An ebook is an electronic (or digital) version of a book. The term is used ambiguously to refer to either an individual work in a digital format, or a device used to read books in digital format. Some users deprecate the second meaning in favour of the more precise "ebook device".
Though e-texts are available as digitally encoded books and the term is often used synonymously with the term ebook, that usage is deprecated. The term e-text is used for the more limited case of data in ASCII text format, while the more general e-book can be in a specialized (and, at times, proprietary) file format.
An ebook is commonly bundled by a publisher for distribution (as an ebook, an ezine, or a internet newspaper), whereas e-text is distributed in ASCII (or plain text). Metadata relating to the text is sometimes included with etext (though it appears more frequently with ebooks).
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Formats
The ebook community has available to it a substantial array of options when it comes to choosing a format for production. While the average end user might arguably simply want to read books, every format has its exponents and champions, and debates over "which format is best" can become intense. For the average end user to read a book, every format has its advantages and disadvantages. Formats available include, but are by no means limited to:
Plain text
Published as an ASCII text (or .txt), an e-text in the proper (strict) sense.
Computer-encoded text that consists only of human-readable characters from a given standard, with no other formatting or structural information. Plain text interchange is commonly used between computer systems that do not share higher-level protocols. ISO 8859 is a group of related ISO standards for 8-bit character encodings for use by computers. These standards are based on ASCII, the most widely used 7-bit character encoding.
Image files
An ebook can be distributed as a sequence of images, one for each page. In this way, any image format can be used as an ebook format.
Rich Text Format
Published as an .rtf
A standard formalized by Microsoft Corporation for specifying formatting of documents. RTF files are actually ASCII files with special commands to indicate formatting information, such as fonts and margins.
Standard Generalised Markup Language
Commonly known as sgml
Standardized metalanguage for the description of markup languages; a set of rules for using whatever markup vocabulary is adopted. This includes the TEI standard.
eXtensible Markup Language
Published as an .xml
A subset of SGML constituting a particular text markup metalanguage for defining markup languages for the interchange of structured data. The Unicode Standard is the reference character set for XML content. XML is a trademark of the World Wide Web Consortium.
Hypertext Markup Language
Published as an .html
The formatting language used for creating hypertext documents on the World Wide Web and controlling how Web pages appear.
Cascading Style Sheets Commonly known as .css
Some ebooks use this extension to standard HTML that allow designers to control multiple web page styles from a single file. Used to predefine page elements such as font size, color, and style; image placement; and background images, and have the same style applied to a series of web pages.
TeX
The TeX format is a popular academic format. TeX is a typesetting system written by Donald Knuth, especially for technical writing applications in the communities of mathematics, science, and computer science. TeX can typeset complex mathematical formulas, but is now also being used for many other typesetting tasks especially in template packages. LaTeX is a TeX document preparation system. LaTeX offers programmable features and facilities for automating aspects of typesetting and desktop publishing, especially numbering and cross-referencing, tables and figures, page layout, bibliographies. LaTeX was originally written in 1984 by Leslie Lamport and has become a leading method for using TeX; few people write in plain TeX any more. (current version: 2ε)
PostScript
Published as an .ps
PostScript is a page description language used primarily in the electronic and desktop publishing areas for describing the contents of a printed page in a higher level than the actual output bitmap.
Portable Document Format
Published as an .pdf
A file format created by Adobe Systems, initially to provide a standard form for storing and editing printed publishable documents. Because documents in .pdf format can easily be seen and printed by users on a variety of computer and platform types, they are very common on the World Wide Web.
PDF files are created mainly using Adobe Acrobat, but Acrobat Capture and other Adobe products also support their creation. Acrobat Reader (now simply called Adobe Reader) is used to view PDF files. PDF files are typically contain product manuals, brochures, magazine articles, or flyers as they can embed fonts, images, and other documents. A PDF file contains one or more page images, each of which you can zoom in on or out from. Acrobat PDF include interactive elements such as buttons for forms entry and for triggering sound and Quicktime or AVI movies. Acrobat PDF files are optimized for the Web by rendering text before graphic images and hypertext links. Adobe's PDF-like eBook format is incorporated into their reader.
Microsoft
Published as an .lit
The MS reader uses patented ClearType® display technology. Navigation works with a keyboard, mouse, stylus, or through electronic bookmarks. The Catalogue Library records reader books in a personalized "home page". A user can add annotations and notes to any page, create large-print eBooks with a single command, or create free-form drawings in the reader pages. A built-in dictionary allows the user to look up words.
eReader (formerly Palm Digital Media)
Published as a .pdb
eReader is a program for viewing Palm Digital Media electronic books. Versions are available for PalmOS, PocketPC, Windows, and Macintosh. The reader shows text one page at a time as paper books do. eReader supports embedded hyperlinks and images. Most eReader formatted books are encrypted, with the key being the purchaser's full name and credit card number.
Mobipocket
Published as an .prc
The Mobipocket Reader has a home page library. Users reading can add blank pages in any part of a book and add free-hand drawings. Annotations — highlights, bookmarks, notes, and drawings — can be applied, organized, and recalled from a single location. Mobipocket Reader has electronic bookmarks, appearing in the page margins. Dictionaries allow users to look up definitions through a built-in Lookup function.
The reader has a full screen mode for the reading experience and has Microsoft ClearType® support. On PalmOS, users can also have a sub-pixel rendering display, with the MobiType® font. The Mobipocket Reader is the only eBook Reader running on nearly all PDA types (Palm OS, Pocket PC and Windows CE, Tablet PC, Casio BE-300, Psion, Symbian OS Smartphones, Franklin eBookMan) and PCs.
The eBook format based on the Open eBook standard using XHTML can include JavaScript and frames, for a dynamic display, which makes this software the best for professional contents such as medical reference eBooks and dictionaries. It also support native SQL queries to be used with embedded databases.
Mobipocket encryption system is not a password-like system. Its DRM relies on the PDA hardware serial number.
Mobipocket also provides a free eNews service. One can subscribe to famous periodicals, or create custom channels. A software on the PC updates the subscriptions and sends them automatically on the PDA.
ExeBook
Published as an .exe
ExeBook is a compiler that produces an ebook file that, when executed, produces a simulated book onscreen, complete with page texture. The etext is encrypted as graphic images so that automatic text copying is very difficult. The fear of exe files picking up viruses, however, is hampering its acceptance.
DesktopAuthor
Published as an .exe and .dnl
DesktopAuthor is an electronic publishing suite that allows creation of digital web books with virtual turning pages. Digital web books of any epublication type can be written in this format, including ebrochures, ebooks, digital photo albums, ecards, digital diaries, online resumes, quizzes, exams, tests, forms and surveys. DesktopAuthor packages the ebook into a ".dnl" or ".exe" book. Each can be a single, plain stand-alone executable file which does not require any other programs to view it. DNL files can be viewed inside a web browser or stand-alone via the DNL Reader.
Comparison with printed books
Ebook advantages
- Text can be searched, except when represented in the form of images.
- Take up no space.
- Hundreds (or thousands) may be carried together on one device.
- Approximately 500 average ebooks can be stored on one CD (equivalent to a room-full of print books)
- Ebooks may be read in low light or even total darkness, with a back-lit device.
- Type size and type face may be adjusted. However, enlarging e.g. a PDF document magnifies the text but preserves the original layout and spacing; a practical limit on zooming follows from the requirement to keep a text column within the width of the screen (otherwise horizontal scrolling would be needed during and after reading each line, which would be very cumbersome). For more on zooming in, see Electronic maps.
- Uses with text-to-speech software possible.
- Readily reformatted for independent platforms.
- Instantly copied
- When a backup is kept in a remote place, can not be lost by fire, etc.
- Once distributed, elimination is hard to impossible.
- Distributed at low cost.
- Simultaneously share book (if networked).
- Errors may be easily corrected with downloadable erratas. (ed. This can also be an advantage for printed books, in different circumstances.)
Print book advantages
- If small, very portable.
- Usable in adverse environmental conditions.
- Robust
- Readable when severely damaged.
- Requires no power source.
- Errors are "forever" (ed. this sometimes adds to its value)
Distribution
Of these, the main contenders appear to be HTML, ASCII, PDF, and recently XML. The various distribution formats, HTML, ASCII, PDF and XML are widespread, but are usually used in low-level, non-critical, and non-commercial formats. Microsoft Reader 2.0, Mobipocket Reader, Palm eReader and Adobe Acrobat Reader are in widespread use. ExeBook and DesktopAuthor are making some inroads on the PC, but are not nearly as widespread. TeX is usually considered too complex for general use, but its advanced formatting abilities are very important in technical writing. The distribution choice of format, to some extent, depends on the aims of the publisher of the ebook.
Devices
Some devices are designed to read ebooks. Many Personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, such as Palm, have read ebooks since their inception. PDAs remain a popular sector for reading ebooks. Various attempts have been made, and continue to be made, to produce purpose-built devices for reading ebooks. One of the earliest, and probably the most successful of these was the Rocket eBook, and others include the Softbook, Hiebook, the Franklin eBookman and the Sony Librie EBR-1000EP.
The advantage of such devices lies in their portability and capacity for holding large numbers of books in memory. But consumer resistance remains strong against these purpose-built devices, with most readers still preferring the traditional paperback or reading their ebook on personal computers. One apparently insurmountable problem with such devices is cost: manufacturers have seemed unable to produce at a low enough price to make them attractive to large numbers of readers. Finally, such devices compare unfavourably to PDAs, which offer similar capacity and portability, while retaining other functionality (agenda, mp3 player, etc.).
Projects
Ebook projects generally fall into two camps (ed. though the creators and publishers are often unclear as to which camp they belong):
- New Creation: Publishing solely online editions, where exact reproduction of printed matter is unimportant.
- Reproduction: Accurate reproduction of existing paper editions, where it becomes important to preserve features of the original, such as pagination.
The Internet Public Library Online , the first public library of and for the Internet community, is an experiment trying to discover and promote the most effective roles and contributions of librarians to the Internet and vice versa.
There are many reproduction projects on the Internet. Project Gutenberg is a project to create an archive of ebooks, having started in 1971. Project Gutenberg may claim to be the earliest project to create an archive of ebooks. Many other projects have followed, mostly based on public domain texts (which themselves are often derived from Project Gutenberg). Some of these include:
- John Mark Ockerbloom's On-Line Books Page , hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania.
- The Oxford Text Archive , hosted by the Arts and Humanities Data Service.
- Making of America (MoA ), a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
While no single directory of available ebooks exists, see List of digital library projects for links to articles and external sites for many digital library projects.
Epublishing ventures
Publishers are producing ebooks and now in the 21st century some publishers are expanding the market. For commercial publication, some publishers belive that digital rights management is all important, and tends to override other considerations in the choice of format. Many publishers are reluctant to produce ebooks over fears of piracy and it wasn't until the 21st century that many publishers considered it a worthwhile forum. Recent history has seen players such as Microsoft, Adobe and Mobipocket enter the market with purpose built software which addresses the right management needs of commercial publishers.
Alternatively, other publishers have found that making ebooks available without digital rights management can expand the market penetration of their paper books. Notable in this movement is Baen Books and National Academies Press . Baen and NAP make all their new books available in non-DRM formats, and have made a profit from its e-publishing, and the Baen Free Library is an experiment with making the full text of books available free for download. To date, Baen authors claim that this has increased their sales. Similarly National Academies Press publishes all of its 2,500 books both in free online editions and in priced printed editions and claims that the free editions stimulate sales of the priced editions. (See National Academies Press info site for their rational.) Additionally MIT Press claims that freely downloadable copies of their textbooks have increased paper sales.
The 1988 ebook of William Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive is a classic in the world of epublishing, and, on March 14, 2000, Stephen King's Riding the Bullet was downloaded by half a million people (only the first part of the book was free, and King gave up when he couldn't get enough people to pay for the remaining parts). The popular ebookstore and e-tailer, Amazon.com, sells ebooks in the two most popular formats, Microsoft's Reader format and Adobe's eBook format. Fictionwise is also a popular online ebook store that sells ebooks in a variety of formats, including Mobipocket format. Citing profitability concerns, Barnes and Noble stopped selling ebooks in 2003.
The lack of legitimate ebooks has led to rapid growth of the number of unlicensed ebooks being produced, a growth which still continues - most significantly in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. This had resulted in the number of unlicensed ebooks to outweigh the licensed ebooks by several orders of magnitude.
Recent attempts to revive ebooks include ExeBook and DesktopAuthor, ebook compilers that produce a simulated book onscreen. These formats are not nearly as popular as others (notably PDF, PDB, MS Reader and Mobipocket) due to their PC-only nature not being available on other platforms (such as Macintosh, Linux, and Palm), fear of EXE files picking up viruses, and a general reluctance by publishers to move away from popularly accepted formats.
A press release issued by The Open eBook Forum (OeBF), early December 2003, reports more than 1-million ebooks sold over the first 3 quarters of 2003. [1] OeBF 2003 third quarter analysis, based on data from ebook publishers and retailers, shows strong double-digit growth over the same period in 2002, in three aspects:
- Number of units solds
- Revenue from sales
- Number of published titles
Attempts are underway to create a standard format for ebooks, notably by The Open eBook Forum (OeBF )], based on XML/XHTML.
See also
External links and references
Main
- The Open eBook Forum (OeBF)
- The On-Line Books Page
- The Internet Public Library Online Texts Collection
- TeleRead news on ebooks and digital libraries
Formats
- Microsoft's Reader
- Palm Digital Media's Palm Reader
- Mobipocket
- ExeBook
- DesktopAuthor
- OpenReader consortium
- Plucker eBook converter and Reader
Articles
- Doctorow, Cory (February 12, 2004). Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books, O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference
- Lynch, Clifford (May 28, 2001). The Battle to Define the Future of the Book in the Digital World, First Monday - Peer reviewed journal on the Internet