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Originally Posted by s1mp13m4n
Hello every one, I have a newbie question. Why are there so many different ebook formats?
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History and technology.
Electronic texts have been around a long time, witness Project Gutenberg. But the early works on Project Gutenberg were plain ASCII text files. They had the advantage of being readable on just about anything, but had the disadvantage of only supporting text. Formatting, illustrations, and links were all lost.
To address this, several different ebook formats and corresponding markup languages evolved. One early one was PML, developed by Peanut Press, an early ebook publisher targeting Palm handhelds. It was a text based format using embedded tags, and PML ebooks supported text attributes, color, embedded illustrations and links. Palm bought them and made them the Palm Digital Media division, then sold them to Motricity, which let them languish. Motricity sold the operation to Fictionwise, who were in turn acquired by Barnes and Noble. eReader viewers exist for a number of platforms, and there is a fair bit of content in eReader format out there.
Microsoft had an entry called Microsoft Reader, aimed at Windows PCs, with a corresponding .LIT format, which is essentially encapsulated HTML. MS Reader files also supported text attributes, color, images, and links. Many ereader users like LIT files as a storage format because it's trivial to strip the DRM and convert the file to the format they prefer.
At one time, the defacto standard format was MobiPocket, created by a French ebook publisher of the same name. Mobi files are also an encapsulated HTML subset, and versions of the reader software are available for a number of platforms. Amazon bought MobiPocket in 2006, and uses their format as the base for Kindle editions.
The current defacto standard is ePub, devised by the International Digital Publishing Forum, and used by the Sony Reader and B&N nook among others. ePub is a container, and what it contains doesn't have to be text and static images. An ePub file can include audio and video, and there are efforts at creating "enhanced" ebooks that make use of this capability.
An assortment of other less used formats exist, like FB2 (which appears to be the default standard for Russian ebooks), and the IMP format used by the old Rocket eBook and current eBookwise devices.
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Which ones are the most loved and preferred?
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At this point, the dominant formats are MobiPocket, used by the Amazon Kindle, ePub, used by the Sony Reader and B&N nook, and PDF.
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Why would you convert a PDF to a MOBI for example?
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To be
able to read it. Not all ereader devices support PDF files. The Kindle, for example, only handles PDF with the DX model.
In addition, most PDF files are not created with the tagging that allows the viewer to reflow the text to fit the device screen if the device does support PDF, and many PDFs are in forms you wouldn't
want to reflow, because they have things like multi-column layouts which reflow would make hash of.
In general, PDF is the last format you want for an ebook, unless it's only form available.
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Which file format is the most user friendly for an ereader newbie?
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It will depend on the device you use to read them. Dedicated readers tend to support a particular format, like the Kindle or Sony Reader/B&N nook, so your concern will be whether the content you want to read is available in that format, and whether you can get it in a different format and convert it if it isn't.
If you read on a multi-function device, the concern is what viewers are available for the device you use, and you are faced with the issue of recalling what content is in what format displayed by which viewer.
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Dennis