How ebooks work – Ebook formats

How ebooks work

As just mentioned, ebooks are not only distinguished by their content or their price, but also by the format of files with which they are distributed. Each file format, in fact, has different characteristics and a different degree of compatibility with software and reading devices. Below I propose a list with the main ebook formats currently available and their characteristics.

• ePub – this is the most widespread ebook format. It is an open standard and makes flexibility one of its main characteristics. EPub ebooks, in fact, have a dynamic paging and allow you to change “on the fly” the size of the text they contain, as well as their margins and their interline. You can read ebooks in ePub format with the vast majority of reading software and ebook readers, except Amazon Kindle. To overcome this problem, however, just turn ePub into PDF or other formats supported by the readers of Amazon.
• PDF – another popular file format, in fact I do not think it needs many presentations. It is supported by the vast majority of reading software and ebook readers (including Amazon Kindle) and differs from the ePub for its fixed pagination: this means that it does not allow to freely modify parameters such as font size or margins. Being designed primarily for printing and not allowing dynamic changes to the information they contain, PDF files are mainly used for distributing books that contain tables, charts and other content that require precise pagination.
• Mobi – is an open standard acquired by Amazon. It is primarily designed for small screens and is quite flexible. It supports annotations, highlights and much more. It is compatible with many reading software and ebook reader, primarily the Amazon Kindle.
• AZW – this is a proprietary ebook format developed by Amazon. It is based on the Mobi, but ensures better levels of compression and encryption than the latter. It is only supported by Kindle and reading software related to the Amazon ecosystem.
• TXT – all reading software and ebook readers are able to open files in TXT format, which are nothing more than simple text files (which can also contain entire books).
• HTML – the HTML format is used not only for web pages, but also for the distribution of some ebooks. Almost all reading software and ebook readers are able to read it.