Which eBook format for device independent sharing, including highlights and comments?

[Werkheimer]

Hi forum,

I am putting together a collection of eBooks that I first intend to read myself, adding some highlights and comments, and then give them to another person. Currently, I have all the books in Calibre, DRM-free.

In order to be able to read the books on different devices, it would be ideal to store them in the cloud, like on Dropbox or Google drive.

For sharing the books afterwards, ideally I want to give them to that other person on an USB stick (or as a shared cloud folder), and I want the person to be able to read those books (including my highlights and comments) as easy as possible.

Therefore, it should be possible for the other person to open the USB stick (or the shared cloud folder), see that list of books, double-click on any of the book's names, and then be presented with the book including all highlights and comments ready to read.

Which eBook format would be the best to use for that scenario, and what would be the best software to read and annotate those books on Android (potentially as well on Windows)?

Thanks heaps already for tips

Cheers
Werkheimer

[sydmalicious]

Originally Posted by Werkheimer

Hi forum,



I am putting together a collection of eBooks that I first intend to read myself, adding some highlights and comments, and then give them to another person. Currently, I have all the books in Calibre, DRM-free.



In order to be able to read the books on different devices, it would be ideal to store them in the cloud, like on Dropbox or Google drive.



For sharing the books afterwards, ideally I want to give them to that other person on an USB stick (or as a shared cloud folder), and I want the person to be able to read those books (including my highlights and comments) as easy as possible.



Therefore, it should be possible for the other person to open the USB stick (or the shared cloud folder), see that list of books, double-click on any of the book's names, and then be presented with the book including all highlights and comments ready to read.



Which eBook format would be the best to use for that scenario, and what would be the best software to read and annotate those books on Android (potentially as well on Windows)?



Thanks heaps already for tips



Cheers

Werkheimer

epub, as it is universal and not proprietary like azw3, mobi, or ibooks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Werkheimer]

Thanks -- does epub save highlights and comments together with the actual book file?

Which reader software could be recommended for the above workflow?

Werkheimer

[JSWolf]

There is no eBook format that will do everything you want. You cannot get the highlights stored with the eBook.

As to what format you use depends on what devices you both have. If it's a tablet, computer, or phone, use ePub. If it's a Reader, it depends on the Reader. If it's a Kindle, use KF8. If it's a Kobo or some other Reader that can handle ePub, use ePub.

[Werkheimer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There is no eBook format that will do everything you want. You cannot get the highlights stored with the eBook.

Is this true!?

There is no eBook format that can contain the highlights!?

What about Google Play Books, apparently you can at least have your highlights and comments synced via Google Drive.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Werkheimer

Is this true!?

There is no eBook format that can contain the highlights!?

What about Google Play Books, apparently you can at least have your highlights and comments synced via Google Drive.

Yes, it's true.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Werkheimer

...

What about Google Play Books, apparently you can at least have your highlights and comments synced via Google Drive.

It is a proprietary solution and doesn't have truly universal support.

For what you describe in your first post, the only current solution would be:

1. Convert the books to ePub
2. Read the ePub and make your comments
3. Manually edit the original ePub, or better yet a copy of it, and enter your comments as either in-line text or as end notes.
4. Convert the edited ePub to AZW and perhaps the older MOBI.

You now have distribution files. Kindles can't read ePub so you would need to have both ePub and AZW/Mobi available in order to have a truly universal "library".

[Werkheimer]

Come on, there is really no eBook solution yet for replacing the analog workflow "annotate and pass on" (other than PDF?) ⁉️⁉️

[jhowell]

Sharing your notes is fine, but beware of possible copyright infringement when sharing the actual books.

[Werkheimer]

Well I guess I should go for Google Play Books then? It supports epub, and can save (and sync) comments. So I could create a Google account for that person, put those books and comments there, and they could read everything on their Android device.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Sharing your notes is fine, but beware of possible copyright infringement when sharing the actual books.

Quite true. All of the above discussion should be considered only for public domain books or books that you, the person doing the distribution, holds the copyright.

Most Creative Commons books, though free to redistribute in their original form, would likely be illegal to redistribute after altering them to add comments. Even if redistribution in an altered form was permissible under the particular CC license in use, that redistribution would most likely have to be totally free; no distribution charge, no advertisement, ... .

[ATDrake]

If the other person is willing to do a little more than just point and click, Moon+ Reader (no desktop version) can export and import your notes and highlights. Their FAQ states that the built-in Backup & Restore functions (instructions in 3rd and last questions) can be applied to either the entire library, or any given single title.

Apparently there's also a way to transfer notes from FBReader, but that's a lot more technically involved (and the comments have a caveat about the transferability of Google Play Books' notes/highlights to Google Drive, which may or may not apply in your case).

ETA: Lucidor which is available as a Firefox plugin is mentioned on its Wikipedia page as specifically being able to export one's own notes and highlights to import to read with another person's copy of the book. It does not appear to exist in an Android version, though.

ETA 2: Here's a Tech Republic blog article which specifically details Lucidor's highlight export/import functionality and how it can be used for sharing notes.

[Werkheimer]

Argh, thanks. I'll go with the Google solution then

Does anyone know whether it is possible to use Google Play Books on Android with another than one's standard Google account (like it is possible with many other Google apps like Photos, Keep, Mail, Docs?

I can't seem to find an "Account" setting in the Google Play Books app.

Edit: ahh, found it. Google did it again

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Werkheimer

Come on, there is really no eBook solution yet for replacing the analog workflow "annotate and pass on" (other than PDF?) ⁉️⁉️

eBook formats are for publishing/distributing a uniform text. Intact. Unmodified.
Once you embed annotations it stops being the published book and becomes a personal document. At that point you are in electronic paper territory, not ebook territory. That is what pdf was created for.

All ebook solutions keep your content (annotations, etc) separate from the published original. The most you can hope for is the ability to share your annotation file within a given proprietary platform (Kindle, Google, etc).

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by Werkheimer

Hi forum,

I am putting together a collection of eBooks that I first intend to read myself, adding some highlights and comments, and then give them to another person. Currently, I have all the books in Calibre, DRM-free.

In order to be able to read the books on different devices, it would be ideal to store them in the cloud, like on Dropbox or Google drive.

For sharing the books afterwards, ideally I want to give them to that other person on an USB stick (or as a shared cloud folder), and I want the person to be able to read those books (including my highlights and comments) as easy as possible.

Therefore, it should be possible for the other person to open the USB stick (or the shared cloud folder), see that list of books, double-click on any of the book's names, and then be presented with the book including all highlights and comments ready to read.

Which eBook format would be the best to use for that scenario, and what would be the best software to read and annotate those books on Android (potentially as well on Windows)?

Thanks heaps already for tips

Cheers
Werkheimer

If one is interested in the answer of Werkheimer's question:
Which eBook format would be the best to use for that scenario, and what would be the best software to read and annotate those books on Android (potentially as well on Windows)?
but with "Android" replaced by "iOS", then I have a suggestion that I am personally practicing. And when I share my highlights and annotations, I can do it on a per-book basis. I can also see all annotations via a web browser too. The app's name is MapleRead. Too bad the app does not run on other platforms (yet?)

The Google Play solution should work for iOS too, but it sounds like an all-or-nothing sharing scheme, which is not what I want in the first place.