Sometimes it seems that deciding on a format is quite difficult, there are so many of them and each has its own advantages. Many authors ask the question: “How to choose a format for an e-book?” We conducted our analysis of formats and found out which is the best format for ordinary books. We carefully studied many formats, and considered them both from the point of view of the convenience of the reader and from the point of view of the convenience of the author. Let's dive into the details a little and see what influenced our choice.
Why is ePub the best format?
During the development of our services, we studied some technical nuances that affect the appearance and operation of an e-book.
Let's start with the simplest thing - managing the display of the book. Those. the ability for the reader to change the font size and page orientation. EPUB adapts perfectly to changes in device screen size or font size. I would like to note that the specification states that in fact the format supports 2 layout modes - the first (reflowable), when you can change these parameters, and the second (fixed-layout), when you can clearly indicate what is where.
Let's look at the layout modes in a little more detail.
Reflowable markup
It can be translated into Russian as fluid, adaptive or floating. Allows you to fit the contents of the book to the device screen, change the color and font size. Ideal for regular books with simple text - novels, poems, technical literature. Those. anything where clear image linking or complex visual representation is not required.
This markup is not suitable for visual interactive books and children's books with many illustrations, that is, those that require spatial reference of graphics, various combinations of pictures and sidebars. The EPUB format itself allows you to create interactive books, but the adaptive design of such books is a real art.
This is what responsive markup looks like
Using this markup is ideal when you don't know exactly where and how your book will be reproduced. Due to the flexibility of the layout, the book will be displayed correctly on almost any device, from a computer to some kind of smart watch. Plus, this marking is perfect for people with disabilities.
Fixed layout - fixed-layout
This type of markup implies that all elements have a clearly defined position on the page with a clearly indicated size. This markup is in a format that most closely resembles a physical medium, such as the page of a regular paper book. Everything is in its place and there is no adaptation. On devices, adaptation most often takes the form of scaling with all the ensuing consequences. What looks acceptable on a computer screen is already too small on a tablet, and cannot be seen at all on a smartphone screen. Well, the game of zooming in and out turns into torture for the reader.
Example of displaying fixed layout
This format is suitable when you know for sure that your work will be read on a medium with a specific size for which your work will be laid out. Initially, it is assumed that this markup is designed for further printing of the work, so it indicates the size and format of the future media. We Not We recommend using this markup for e-books, as it limits the reading area of books to devices with a certain screen size.
The most common digital representative of this markup is the PDF format, but EPUB also supports it.
We decided to summarize popular formats in a table and show support for various markup inside them
We sorted out the layout. Now let's look at the most worrying moment for authors - copyright.
Support for copyright protection at the level of e-book formats
As a rule, authors insist on supporting DRM (Digital Rights Management) or technical means of copyright protection in e-books. This is one of the most unpleasant topics for both authors and readers, but it also affects the interests of publishers. And the main problem is that there is no reliable method of copy protection, because... The book is a source of predominantly textual information presented in graphic form. It is possible to create an extremely secure way to deliver content by encrypting the file to a special separate application or even a special separate book reader, but this will all be bypassed by a simple camera and subsequent OCR. So all the most complex and unpleasant procedures for everyone will be leveled out by the most primitive copying method, which is already more than two centuries old. Everything that the human eye sees, the camera will also see. And then it’s a matter of technology.
So, what is the situation with DRM support in various formats? We collected information and placed it in a table
The table shows that ePub, PDF and Mobipocket are formats that perfectly support copyright protection.
However, as we noted above, DRM no longer creates anything but inconvenience for the user. Many have been in a situation where they urgently need a book, but it is not in a format available for your device. As a rule, such a situation often takes a person by surprise or at the most inopportune moment. Usually people solve this in different ways, in most cases they simply look for another book on the same topic, but in an accessible format. As a result, the author loses readers and, of course, money.
The main problem of protecting the field of rights lies in the area of educating people and their attitude towards copyright protection. For example, it never occurs to anyone to steal directly from a store, although everything is there, just stretch out your hand. The same goes for digital content. There is simply an awareness that the work belongs to the author and is the result of his work, which must be paid. The more people realize this, the fewer books will be stolen.
Providing legal access to books is one of the missions of our library.
Summarizing the above, we again come to the conclusion that ePub is an excellent choice from the point of view of copyright protection.
What's wrong with the EXE format?
| Surely many have heard about this format. This format is called an application for the Windows operating system. That's right, this is not an e-book format, it is a regular program for Windows that needs to be installed and which only works on a very limited range of devices - computers and tablets with Windows. You won’t be able to open such a “book” on an iPad, Kindle, Nook, or Android tablet, not to mention other systems such as OS X or Linux. Moreover, because Since the format is an executable file, viruses very often attach to it, which makes it extremely unsafe. It’s that simple: I downloaded the book in exe and got a virus. Attackers often post viruses in the spirit of “All books by Dontsova.exe,” but instead of books, people receive a pack of viruses. |
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There is a similar format called JAVA that was popular on older smartphones for a while. The essence is the same - the program, but only for a smartphone. Similar virus camouflage for smartphones.
About the FictionBook format
Popular under the name FB2. It is popular mainly in Russia and the post-Soviet space, so we can safely call it a national format.
However, this format contains logical layout, the book is divided into sections, which can be poems or prose. However, the format itself is very limited, because Not only is there no support for complex layout and formulas, but also banal things like bulleted lists.
There is an idea for the FB3 format, an improved FB2, which, judging by the description, is a clone of the ePub format. It uses a similar zip archive and separates files into description, text and pictures. Dmitry Gribov is working intensively on a new format and we hope that it will delight authors with new opportunities.
This format is well suited for simple fiction written in Russian.
About the TXT format
About the MOBI format
The MOBI format has several varieties in the form of the AZW family of formats, characterized by a higher degree of data compression.
- AZW1 is another name for the "topaz" format (also called .tpz). This variety is designed for storing scanned documents and is similar to DJVU. TPZ format - used on the WhisperNet network. WhisperNet is a custom 3G cellular network created by Amazon to support Kindle books and sync books, bookmarks, etc.
- AZW3 is another name for KF8. This format first appeared on the Kindle Fire. It is a combined ePub format with a Palm database, Amazon DRM protection, practically copying all the features of the ePub format and ensuring compatibility with older Kindle readers.
- AZW4 is a special format for textbooks (similar to PDF).
- AZK is a special iOS version of the MOBI format for Kindle Reader and other Apple products.
- KFX is one of the relatively new formats from Amazon, which appeared simultaneously with the Kindle Paperwhite 3. It is the successor to AZK. Features such as playing sounds and videos, displaying tables on a separate screen, and adding a new font and JXR image format were added to it.
- AZW8 is an extension to KFX, which is another dedicated format currently on Kindle paperwhite 3, Kindle Oasis and Kindle Voyage. Currently this is the most advanced format and is used in modern devices from Amazon.
About the PDF format
About the DJVU format
DJVU is a Lizardtech format that is increasingly used for scientific publishing. The main purpose of this format is to store scanned images containing text and relatively simple graphics. Its main characteristics are that the compression ratio is approximately 10 times better than the .pdf format with the same quality. Nothing beats this nowadays for black and white text and images. Most likely you will find magazines such as Radio or Modelist-Konstruktor in it; their old versions are practically unavailable in other formats, because most of the old magazines are ordinary scanned images. In order for the search to work in it, a special invisible layer with text is added, obtained using text recognition systems (OCR). This format is completely unsuitable for e-books, since it cannot be adapted for devices with small screens, and many e-readers do not support it.
About the DOC, DOCX format
These are ordinary text documents created in the Word editor from Microsoft Office. They can be edited, fonts and design changed. This format is supported by a very narrow list of devices and programs due to the very high complexity and closedness of the format, plus very often it cannot be displayed correctly. The format is suitable as a draft for a book, but is not suitable for distribution.
About the EPUB format
The only e-book format officially recognized by the world community (International Digital Publishing Forum). Supports almost everything you can dream of: complex formatting, lists, tables, formulas, footnotes, raster and vector images, various layout modes and DRM copyright protection.
There are quite a few programs for creating e-books in the above formats, but we have developed a specialized solution specifically for authors.
Rare and outdated formats
We would also like to talk about some rare formats.
- ABW is the file format used by AbiWord. If the file is compressed, it will be in ZABW format.
- ACSM is a file format used to provide DRM protection in Adobe eBooks PDF and ePUB.
- AEH is the file format used by eBooksWriter.
- BBeB is Sony's own format. Stands for Broadband EBook, also known as LRF due to its file extension.
- CBR/CBZ - Compressed container for images. R means that the images are compressed using the RAR archiver, and Z means that they are compressed using ZIP. The internal format can be any of several image formats, and CBR/CBZ readers display them as multiple pages of a book. The name means comic book reader, but is used for any books where the content contains mainly photographs.
- CHM is compressed HTML often used for Windows Help files. It has become very popular for distributing texts and other support materials over the Internet.
- DNL is a digital web book format used by the Desktop author.
- DTB - Digital Talking Books - books for people who are blind, visually impaired, physically disabled, students with disabilities, or other print-disabled readers. DTBook sets the specifications for digital talking books (DTB) as part of DAISY.
- EBA is a proprietary e-book format. Chinese language eBook Readers are specifically supported.
- EBAML same as EBA 2.0 - Used on Dr. Yi Reader and other Chinese products.
- -ER.PDB - Palm database format for eReader. ER is used to differentiate this format.
- FUB is Franklin's e-book format.
- GPF - Ganaxa Publishing Format, allowing hot spots and embedded multimedia content.
- GPX is a Ganaxa secure document.
- IMP is an e-book format used by eBook Technologies ETI-1 (REB 1200 / Softbook Reader) or ETI-2 (EBookwise-1150 / Gemstar 1150). Some programs convert to it. It is considered a terminal format.
- -IS.PDB - Palm database format for the ISilo reader. IS is used to distinguish this format.
- KML - HieBook e-book format.
- LIT is Microsoft's own format for Microsoft Reader.
- LRC is a special accompanying format that should be a companion for audiobooks.
- LRF - also: BBeB book. Sony's own format. Supported by Sony Librie and Sony Reader.
- LRS - also: BBeB Xylog XML. Source code format for BBeB books, which is compiled into LRF for reading on the device.
- LRX is a BBeB protected document. Sony Librie and Sony Reader use formats that are incompatible with each other.
- MART is a proprietary format used only on the Martview website to distribute books consisting of images.
- NP format is a newspaper download format used by NewspaperDirect for their PressDisplay product.
- OEB - open book format. E-book format used by EBookwise-1150, MobiPocket and Microsoft Reader. This standard is an older version of ePUB.
- ODT is an open standard document format used in OpenOffice.org, Star Office and many other text editors.
- OSIS is an XML schema definition for the Bible and other biblical study texts.
- PKG is the format used in Apple Newton.
- PNPd - Format used by eReader. This is a popular format (also known as PML).
- PS - Postscript is supported in several readers, but is intended for sending information to a printer.
- RB - e-book format for Rocket eBook and Gemstar RCA REB 1100.
- RTF - Rich Text Format is a document interchange format supported by some e-book readers, as well as many Word processing applications, including MS Word and OpenOffice. This is the preferred format for many users who create their own content for Sony Reader.
- SGF is a native format for Sigil, a direct editor for ePUB. (No longer used)
- STK is STAReBOOK's own format.
- TCR - e-book for EPOC.
- TeBR is a custom tiny ebook format from Fictionwise.
- TR - Tome Raider format. Their latest format is called TR3. Tome Raider is an e-book format that supports very large books such as reference books, encyclopedias and dictionaries.
- VBK is a graphically-enabled e-book format from VitalSource. This format is commonly used in textbooks.
- XEB is a format used by Apbi e-books primarily in Chinese.
- XDXF is an XML-based dictionary exchange format.
- WOLF - Proprietary format used by HanLin eBook in its V2B, V3 and V8 e-books. The extension is usually .wol. Also used by JCNIP on their reader Dr.Yi.
- ZTXT is a format used by WeaselReader on Palm devices. Has the extension .pdb.
- ZNO is Zinio's proprietary subscription electronic journal format. These magazines include multimedia materials such as photographs and videos. There are rumors that the format is based on DJVU.
Perhaps we will end with exoticism at this point. Thank you for your attention!
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Often on forums and in emails I receive, I come across the question “What is the EPUB format?” They also ask other questions about this format - how is it good, how does it differ from FB2, MOBI and DOC, is it worth buying books in it or 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 published in September 2007. This was already an EPUB itself.
EPUB very quickly gained popularity in the USA and Europe, where the Mobipocket format (extensions MOBI, PRC, AZW) was previously popular. 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
reading view
Today's editor's blog post about eBook formatsPreviously, we wrote about how to choose a reader, a device for reading e-books, you can read this post. Today we'll talk about formats.
A person who loves books, strives to read everywhere. Carrying a paper book is not always convenient, but almost everyone has a smartphone. This is what allows e-books (books in electronic format) to become increasingly popular. Carrying e-books with you is easier than carrying paper volumes.
In the modern world, understanding formats is important not only for the reader, but also for the writer. If you write, then it is in your interests to make your work as convenient and accessible as possible for potential readers. Of course, you can simply post your works on the Internet, but ideally you need to attach file versions or a link to, for example, Yandex.Disk, so that people can download your creation and get acquainted with it without access to the Internet.
There is always a danger that a book in electronic format will not open on a reader or smartphone. To minimize this risk, we have written this post. Let's figure out what e-book formats are and how they differ.
Formats
The most common e-book formats are: FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, RTF, TXT, DOC/DOCX and DjVu. Books are written, as a rule, in Word and they are automatically assigned the DOC/DOCX format and in Notepad - TXT. You can post your works online directly in them, but, unfortunately, DOC/DOCX are not supported by all readers and smartphones, and reading books in TXT is very inconvenient. Therefore, if you decide to post a file online, take care of converting it. What format should you convert your masterpiece into? Read on and choose.
FB2 (FictionBook)
Pros. The most common formats in RuNet. It is convenient to structure a large document, divide it into chapters, add illustrations, etc. FB2 files take up little space and are convertible to other formats.
Minuses. FB2 is a format invented in Russia. Therefore, he cannot be called known to the whole world. Opens only on devices with Russian firmware. If you want to sell your texts on Amazon or iTunes, then FB2 is not suitable for this.
By the way, the creator of FB2 has long promised to release FB3, but... silence. Apparently, this format will not receive development.
PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format)
Pros. The format is used to store scanned books. You can also convert text from other formats into this format. You can create beautiful books in PDF. As a rule, every new computer already has a program for viewing PDF files installed. Any viewer will display the PDF file with exactly the fonts with which it was created. Even if these fonts are not installed on the device. After all, this is essentially a photograph. Now there are a large number of free programs that allow you to open a PDF document on a PC, as well as on mobile platforms.
Minuses. PDF files turn out to be “heavy”.
DjVu (“deja vu”)
Image compression technology developed specifically for storing scanned documents - books, magazines, manuscripts and other things, where the abundance of formulas, diagrams, drawings and handwritten symbols makes their full recognition labor-intensive.
Pros. Like PDF, DjVu is used for storing scans, but it compresses files better, making them weigh less. A DjVu file can contain a text (OCR) layer, which allows full-text search of the file. In addition, it can contain a built-in interactive table of contents and active areas - links, which allows you to implement navigation in DjVu books.
Minuses. Unlike PDF, reading this format requires the installation of additional software.
DOC/DOCX and TXT
These are text editor formats; you can not only read them, but also create and edit documents.
Pros. TXT opens on any reader, it even opens on game consoles. DOC/DOCX are well-known Microsoft Word formats.
Minuses. Reading books in TXT is very inconvenient; there is no text formatting (width alignment, division into chapters, etc.). Also, illustrations cannot be inserted into TXT. DOC/DOCX is supported by a small number of reading devices.
RTF (Rich Text Format)
Pros. Compact format for storing text files. It differs from DOC in that RTF files weigh less.
Minuses. Same as DOC.
MOBI (Mobipocket eBook)
Format for the Amazon Kindle family of readers.
Minuses. A large number of formatting restrictions, primarily regarding text indents, as well as images and tables inserted into the text.
LRF (Sony Portable Reader File)
Pros. LRF is a special book format from Sony. There will be no reading problems on devices from this manufacturer. It is possible to insert images and create a table of contents, and the text is conveniently formatted.
Minuses. Books in this format and viewers for it are rare.
EPUB (Electronic PUBlishing)
Pros. The most common e-book format in the world. Allows you to create structured text with illustrations. The format is compact and does not require additional archiving.
As you can see, each format has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, the most “readable” format for e-books would be TXT, but reading in this format is very inconvenient.
The most common and convenient format for reading e-books is EPUB and FB2. If you are wondering what format to upload your works in, don’t be lazy and make several files in different formats. For example: EPUB, DOC and FB2. Moreover, if a reader decides to read your work, and his device does not support these formats, he will be able to convert them to the one he needs.
That's all about formats.
June 4, 2015
Illustration for: E-book formats FB2, EPUB, MOBI and others
ePUB is one of the most popular e-book formats in the world. In fact, in the West, its only serious competition is MOBI (Amazon’s proprietary format, more on that next time). In Russia and other countries of the post-Soviet space, Fb2 is also popular (I’m talking about it). But even in the vast expanses of our former big homeland, the ePUB format is gaining more and more popularity, especially against the background of the lack of Fb2 updates and the strengthening of the fight against piracy. Therefore, here are some interesting and useful details about the ePUB format.
What is ePUB?
ePUB is a format for electronic versions of books. The name comes from the English phrase “ e electronic pub lication, and the correct Russian pronunciation is “ipab” (no “epub”!). An ePUB book is actually an archive containing several folders. In one there is the text of the book, in another there is a description (name of the author, title, publisher, language, identification number, etc.), in the third there are pictures, in the fourth there is service information... The reading program collects all this together and gives the reader the result in formatted text with illustrations, formulas, etc. The format is open - anyone can modify it. ePUB is a format with a "floating layout". This means that the reader can widely change display parameters such as font and spacing, and the text will automatically adjust to the desired screen size. Developed and maintained by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), primarily by Adobe.
History of the ePUB format
The predecessor of ePUB was OEB (Open eBook Publication), developed by the same organization back in 1999. On its basis, the modern ePUB was created in 2007. The format quickly gained popularity in the West. The reasons were both convenience for the end user and the ability to embed so-called DRM protection into files, which allows you to limit the range of devices on which the book can be read. Until 2010 ePUB format Most e-book stores have switched. It was made the standard for storing books by the largest library Gutenberg.com. Since the release of the iPad, ePUB has been the format that is supported by Apple's proprietary applications - iBooks, Pages, iAutor. Since 2009, there has been an extension for Firefox that allows you to read books of this format directly in the browser. A similar solution is available for Chrome. Since 2012, Sony has made ePUB the main format for its devices, abandoning the proprietary LRF. Since 2010, US government economic reports have been published in this format. In October 2011, the current version of the format was presented - 3.0, in which footnotes were finally implemented.
Advantages and disadvantages of the format
If we talk about the advantages and disadvantages, then it depends on what you compare with. If you use such “computer” formats as txt, rtf and doc, then you get continuous advantages. Neither txt nor rtf support tables of contents, and they have no or very limited formatting. Doc is a very “heavy” format for reader programs, created specifically for Microsoft Word. None of these formats support "metadata". If compared with PDF, then such a comparison is completely incorrect, since these are formats for different purposes. Despite the ability to embed pictures and formulas into the text, ePUB is not well suited for books rich in these elements - primarily textbooks and specialized literature. Translating such literature into ePUB is quite a difficult task. And this is where PDF comes to the rescue. On the other hand, PDF is a format with a fixed layout; it does not adapt to the screen size. Previously, reading PDF documents on screens smaller than 9" was completely problematic - only part of the page was displayed. Now there is a special format, the so-called PDF6, but it does not solve the problem either.
But the most relevant comparison will be with popular competitors - Fb2 and MOBI. There is practically no difference with the latter for the average reader. Compared to Fb2, ePUB is a more “advanced” format, it has more capabilities. For example, it supports formulas and some other formatting elements that are not available for Fb2. For publishers and e-book sellers, an important advantage of ePUB is the ability to build DRM protection into the file. But for reading an ordinary fiction book, it cannot be said that ePUB is something radically better compared to Fb2.
In any case, there are now a large number of converter programs that allow you to convert the book you need from one format to another. Therefore, the debate about whether ePUB is better or worse than any other format has largely lost its relevance.
Surprisingly, for such a fairly simple thing as an e-book, a huge number of different formats. Sometimes it seems that every manufacturer of devices for reading them considers it their duty to come up with something of their own here. How do they differ from each other, which readers understand what, and what to do if your “reader” is not able to open the required file - all this is discussed in the article.
WHAT ARE THE FORMATS?
AZW
Branded Amazon format, which it uses in its Kindle family of readers (AZW presumably stands for Amazon Word). It is based on the Mobipocket standard (the developer of which Amazon acquired in 2005) and almost completely repeats it, with the exception of nuances such as the lack of JavaScript support and the use of compression. Books in AZW can be either with or without DRM protection. The protection links the book to the account from which the purchase was made, so it can be read on all devices associated with it (one account can have up to six devices in total). The AZW format supports the use of additional files that store bookmarks, quotes, reading progress and some other metadata.
In addition, a new version of the format has recently appeared - AZW4, currently used only in software readers for Windows and Mac; in the future it will be added to readers on mobile platforms. At its core, it's a PDF, and Amazon calls it a "Print Replica," meaning it's an exact copy of the printed page. In addition to the usual functionality of the PDF format, AZW4 also supports unique Kindle features - annotations, synchronization of reading between different devices, etc.
BBeB(.lrf; .lrx)
Broadband eBooks, or BBeB – format, developed by Sony for its readers according to the Xylog XML format specifications. The LRF extension is intended for unprotected documents, LRX - respectively, for files with DRM protection. In the summer of 2010, Sony abandoned this format in its online store in favor of ePub, and the latest reader model, the PRS-T1, also does not support the BBeB format.
CHM
Full name: Microsoft Compiled HTML Help. Microsoft's proprietary HTML-based context-sensitive help format. Unlike the latter, it can contain a set of pages and graphic images in one file. In the context of e-books, it may be of interest mainly as a format used to store any documentation, since regular books are not distributed in it. A variation of CHM is the LIT format (short for literature), used in Microsoft Reader software (which, as well as the LIT format, will be discontinued in August 2012)
DjVu
The format is intended for storing scanned documents. Thanks to complex processing algorithms that separate text and graphics into different layers with different compression methods, it is possible to achieve an unprecedented degree of compression - with a quality comparable to PDF, the document in DjVu will be 10 times smaller. This makes DjVu the best option for storing large amounts of technical documentation with graphic illustrations. It is worth noting that if there is a text layer in such a file, the user will have access to a full search within the document. If only one graphic layer is used, this format variant is called IW44, and some readers separately indicate it in the list of supported ones - although in fact, any device capable of opening a DjVu document will not experience any problems with IW44 files.
ePub
The name is short for electronic publication. An open format developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum. ePub is based on XHTML and XML with the optional use of CSS style sheets. The format was developed for documents with a floating layout, which allows you to adapt the display of books to the screens of various devices. ePub replaced the previous standard of this organization - Open eBook. The ePub container is actually a Zip archive with the .epub extension - it contains texts in xHTML, HTML or PDF formats. The container can also contain files with graphics, including vector ones, and built-in fonts. The latest version 3.0 today is designed to eliminate the shortcomings for which ePub was previously criticized - the insufficient adaptability of the format for use in books with a fixed layout, the lack of support for MathML mathematical expressions, and a number of others.
At the moment, ePub is the most common format and is supported by almost all modern readers (with the possible exception of Amazon Kindle). The ePub standard allows DRM protection to be included in a file, and the specification does not limit the publisher in its choice.
FB2
FB2, or FictionBook version 2, is based on the XML format. According to the developer, the main tasks in its creation were to completely preserve the structure of the document with the possibility of easy (ideally automatic) conversion to other formats and accurate display on any device. The difference from other formats is the emphasis on preserving the structure, not the appearance - FB2 does not determine how the document will be displayed on various devices or printed; instead, special elements are used to indicate different parts of the book, such as quotes, epigraphs, poems, etc. A book in FB2 is stored in a single XML file - the images included in it are converted to Base64 and inserted into it using a special tag, which slightly increases the file size.
The format was developed in Russia, so it is not surprising that it has earned particular popularity in the Russian-speaking environment - it is supported by all readers of local brands, in addition, a number of online libraries and RuNet stores offer books on FB2.
At the end of 2008, the first information appeared about the development of the next version of the format, FictionBook 3.0, but it seems that the matter did not go beyond its description, although the possibilities looked quite promising (use of the Open Packaging Convention standard, a container in the form of a Zip archive with separate files for text, image and metadata, etc.).
KF8
A new e-book format developed by Amazon for its Kindle Fire tablet (the abbreviation simply stands for Kindle Format 8). KF8 is based on ePub, uses the Palm database (while the MOBI database is also present in the file to maintain backward compatibility) and proprietary DRM protection. The advantage of KF8 is its advanced functionality - for example, it supports HTML5 tags, CSS3 elements, embedded fonts (thanks to ePub), a pop-up text system and a number of other features. Amazon itself states that KF8 has replaced Mobi - this suggests that the transfer of traditional Kindle e-paper readers to this format is only a matter of time.
MOBI
Format used in the free MobiPocket Reader software (available for Windows, as well as on mobile platforms: BlackBerry, PalmOS, Symbian and Windows Mobile). The main “consumer” of books in the MOBI format is the Amazon Kindle family of readers, for which this is, in fact, the only non-native supported format. Books in MOBI can have .mobi and .prc extensions (the latter was introduced due to PalmOS restrictions on the extensions used). Initially, the MOBI format was based on the PalmDOC format, to which some HTML tags were added, and subsequently a new version appeared that uses a higher degree of data compression. Recently, when adding new features, the creator follows the Open eBook standard. At the same time, MOBI has a fairly large number of restrictions on formatting, primarily regarding text indents, as well as images and tables inserted into the text.
PDF
Developed by Adobe back in 1993, the Portable Document Format, or PDF for short, is perfect for modern book reading devices. The format was originally developed for printing, so it fully describes how the document should look - including paper size, types of fonts (which may be included in the document), etc. In addition to text, PDF can contain vector and raster graphics, as well as metadata. It is with the help of PDF that reader users can add functionality missing in their devices, such as alternative fonts, hyphenation in Russian text, etc.
The main problem with PDF files that are not optimized for devices with small screens is problems with reading pages that were usually created for the resolution of monitors (primarily this concerns PDF versions of magazines, as well as technical literature). In this case, the user has to continually switch from viewing the entire page to an enlarged section. Some readers support the reflow function, which allows you to change the layout depending on the screen size and zoom level, but it usually does not work the best way.
WHAT FORMATS ARE SUPPORTED BY DIFFERENT READERS
Support for formats in different models is carried out in different ways, but the main trend is this: as a rule, large brands, which also have their own digital book distribution service, are limited to a minimal gentleman’s set, including their main format plus the most popular documents - PDF, TXT. From their point of view, the user will still not need anything else, because he will buy all the books in the company store. If the manufacturer does not tie its reader to a specific service, it will most likely have much more extensive format support.
Some popular reader models and a list of formats they support:
| Amazon Kindle 4 | AZW, MOBI, PDF, PRC, TXT |
| Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch | EPUB, PDF |
| Ergo Book 0604R | CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, PDB, PDF, RTF, TXT |
| Impression ImBOOK 0311 | EPUB, FB2, HTML, LRC, MOBI, PDF, RTF, TXT, PDB |
| iRiver Story HD EB07 | DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, PDF, TXT |
| Kobo Touch eReader | EPUB, HTML, MOBI, PDF, RTF, TXT |
| lBook eReader V60 | CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, MOBI, PDB, PDF, PRC, RTF, TXT |
| PocketBook Pro 612 | CHM, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, HTML, IW44, IW4, MOBI, PDF, PRC, RTF, TCR, TXT |
| PocketBook 360 Plus | CHM, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, HTML, PDF, PRC (mobi), RTF, TCR, TXT |
| Prestigio PER5162 | |
| Qumo Libro II | CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, MOBI, PDB, PDF, RTF, TXT |
| Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1 | EPUB, PDF, TXT |
| Wexler Book E5001 | CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, PDF, RFT, TXT |
HOW TO CONVERT BOOKS
As you can see, there are many formats, as well as readers, and not all readers understand all or at least most of the formats. What should you do if you have a book in a format that your reader is unfamiliar with? Use a converter. There are also a sufficient number of them, but the undisputed leader is Caliber, (see) - although it is positioned by the developer as “the ultimate solution for all problems related to e-books,” first of all, it is still an excellent tool for converting books into various formats.