MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Future-proof buying choice-- which e-book format, e-bookstore?

Jellby · 06-21-2010, 06:21 AM

ePUB has the advantage of being:

1) An open standard
2) Based on well-known and well-defined formats (XHTML, CSS)
3) Capable of decent formatting, and storing metadata
4) Easy to convert from and relatively human-readable

So, even if at some point ePUB becomes obsolete, chances are you'll still be able to retrieve with minimal hassle all the text, formatting and metadata.

Of course, I bet PDF will also have a long life, but I wouldn't buy books in PDF format. PDF is good if you create it with your own preferences, for your own reader, from some source content, but as a source format itself (for future use or conversions) it has many drawbacks.

06-21-2010, 06:21 AM	#6
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,560 Karma: 20150435 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	ePUB has the advantage of being: 1) An open standard 2) Based on well-known and well-defined formats (XHTML, CSS) 3) Capable of decent formatting, and storing metadata 4) Easy to convert from and relatively human-readable So, even if at some point ePUB becomes obsolete, chances are you'll still be able to retrieve with minimal hassle all the text, formatting and metadata. Of course, I bet PDF will also have a long life, but I wouldn't buy books in PDF format. PDF is good if you create it with your own preferences, for your own reader, from some source content, but as a source format itself (for future use or conversions) it has many drawbacks.