An EBook is an Electronic Book which is described as an electronic digital version of an already printed book. The concept of EBook is quite new and the technologies used for it are still being experimented with.
Evolution of EBooks
It is believed that Michael Hart is the founder of EBooks who had made significant contribution in giving EBooks a specific form marked with general acceptance. EBooks were first published in the 1990s by publishers such as Boson Books and Online Original. Today almost all the publishers deal with EBooks which is marked with great popularity. Both fictional and non fictional eBooks are available online, some of which are free for use while the others have to be paid for.
Benefits of EBooks
EBooks are easily accessible and also require less space to be stored. For example, in a single compact disc, almost hundreds of conventional books can be stored in their digital format. EBooks are also generally available at low price when compared to the market value of a printed book. Plus, an EBook being a computerized product, also enjoys the hands free attributes which mean they can be easily reformatted, copied, stored, preserved and even deleted. They are also easy to read when compared to the voluminous paper printed editions.
Different Formats of EBooks
It entirely depends on the writer or publisher to produce these books in the following formats:-
• Mobipocket format
• Open Electronic Book Package Format
• DNL or EXE format
• “doc” or “txt”
• “PDF” or “html”
• NISO Z39.86
• “rtf” format
• Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)
• OPF format
• Microsoft LIT
Due to the convenience of producing it, nowadays most of the publishers produce an EBook first and later transform it into a printed format.
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