What is an e-book?

E-books generally have two meanings, one is e-books, and the other is hand-held readers specialized in reading e-books.

Palm reader

E-book is a portable handheld electronic device, specially designed for reading books. It has a large-screen LCD, built-in Internet chip, and can easily buy and download digital books from the Internet. The large-capacity memory can store a large amount of digital information, and it can store about 30 traditional books at a time. Specially designed LCD technology can make people read books comfortably for a long time. E-books are portable, easy to use and large in capacity, which is very suitable for modern life. With the development of digital copyright trade and Internet technology, users of e-books can easily buy more books at lower prices, which lays the foundation for the popularization of e-books. Will e-books really bring new reading methods in the network age? Can it really replace the traditional way of reading? At present, there are abundant PDA products in China, which can be roughly divided into three types according to their functions: first, they focus on learning and have various English-Chinese translations and dictionaries, such as Easy Connect and Quick Connect; second, business games are the main functions, such as notepad, calendar, exchange rate, stock market, sending and receiving emails, games and so on. Such as business communication, managers, celebrities, etc. The third is PDA and WINDONS CE operating system with wireless Internet access. . . At present, the function of reading e-books has been added to PDA products, although it is still not perfect. After all, e-books are still in their infancy, and many of them are watching, waiting for the right time and ready to go. . . There are SOFTBOOK, ROCKET BOOK and MICROSOFT READER abroad, but there is no complete e-book product in China at present. Can it be developed? Is it compatible with PDA? Can it be developed with reading as its main function? . . Microsoft has launched a new Pocket IT PC, which is very cool! If you are interested, you can go to Microsoft's website to download its promotion title and enjoy it.

e-book

E-books, also known as e-books, are made into electronic versions and sold online at the price of traditional paper books 1/3 to 1/2. After paying by credit card or electronic money, the buyer can download and read offline on the computer with a special browser. E-books are different from free online reading on the Internet. They are the latest books released at the same time as paper making, so you have to pay a certain fee to read them. Unlike CD-ROM books, e-books are bought online. Functions of e-books: You can subscribe to many electronic periodicals, books and files, automatically download the latest news and periodicals subscribed from the Internet, display full-page text and graphics, and enhance the reading experience through search, comments and hyperlinks. The page turning system is adopted, which is similar to the page turning of paper books. You can download online e-books to the e-reader at any time, or you can store your own books and documents in the e-reader. E-books are electronic versions of traditional printed books, which can be read by personal computers or e-book readers. E-books are popular because they allow operations similar to paper books-readers can bookmark a page, take notes, reverse select a paragraph, and save the selected article. In addition, the e-book reader also includes a built-in dictionary, variable fonts and styles. The main formats of e-books are PDF EXE CHM UMD PDG JAR PDB TXT and so on. At present, many popular mobile devices support its reading format. At present, more books are downloaded online in PDF format, and now e-books on mobile phones are becoming more and more popular. For example, all kinds of e-books can be downloaded at present.

Storage form

Faced with numerous e-book content providers and reading devices, it is necessary for us to understand some common e-book file formats.

E-book formats commonly used on PC

1.EXE file format

This is a popular e-book file format favored by many people at present, and there are also the most tools to make this format. Its biggest feature is that it is easy to read and make, and the e-books made are quite beautiful. This format of e-books is embedded with reading software, which can be read without installing a special reader, and there is no high requirement for the running environment.

Before 2004, e-books in EXE format were mainly used to read text books, but this kind of e-books also had some shortcomings. For example, EXE files produced by most related production software did not support Flash, Java and common audio and video files, which required the support of IE browser.

However, since 2004, electronic magazines and digital newspapers have become popular, adopting EXE format without exception, and supporting FLASH, multimedia and even scripting languages. The content displayed is richer and the production is quite exquisite, which has become the most popular electronic magazine format at present. At present, digital newspapers, periodicals and books provided by Leap, XPLUS, ZCOM and other manufacturers under Founder Apabi all adopt this format.

Reading software: embedded reader, no need for additional reading software.

2.PDF file format (/)

PDF (Portable Document Format) file format is an electronic file format developed by Adobe Company. This file format has nothing to do with the operating system platform, that is, PDF files are common in Windows, Unix and Apple's Mac OS operating systems. This feature makes it an ideal document format for electronic document distribution and digital information dissemination on the Internet. More and more e-books, product descriptions, company announcements, online materials and e-mails begin to use PDF files. At present, PDF file has become the de facto industrial standard of digital information.

The purpose of designing PDF file format by Adobe Company is to support cross-platform and multimedia integrated information publishing, especially for network information publishing. In order to achieve this goal, PDF has many incomparable advantages over other electronic document formats. PDF file format can encapsulate text, font, format, color, graphics and images in one file independent of device and resolution. Format files can also contain electronic information such as hypertext links, sounds and dynamic images, and support super-long files with high integration, safety and reliability.

PDF files use industry standard compression algorithms, which are usually smaller than PostScript files and easier to transmit and store. It is also page independent. A PDF file contains one or more "pages", which can handle each page independently, especially suitable for multiprocessor systems. In addition, the PDF file also contains the PDF version used in the file and the positioning information of some important structures in the file. It is precisely because of its various advantages that PDF files have gradually become the new favorite of the publishing industry.

For ordinary readers, e-books made of PDF have the texture and reading effect of paper books, which can "realistically" show the original appearance of the original book, and the display size can be adjusted at will, providing readers with personalized reading methods. Because PDF files can be independent of the language, font and display device of the operating system, it is very convenient to read. These advantages enable readers to quickly adapt to electronic reading and online reading, which is undoubtedly conducive to the popularization of computers and networks in daily life. Adobe Company takes PDF file technology as the core, providing a complete set of electronic and network publishing solutions, including commercial software Acrobat for generating and reading PDF files and Illustrator for editing and making PDF files. Adobe also provides font packages for reading and printing Asian characters, namely Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters.

Reading software: Adobe Acrobat8. 1, Adobe Reader8. 1 or other third-party reading software.

3.CEB file format (/)

CEB Chinese e-book is a completely high-fidelity Chinese e-book format. The format used by Founder Appaby Reader, a brand-new e-book reading tool developed by Beijing Founder Appaby Technology Co., Ltd., can retain all the information of characters, fonts, layout and colors of the original document, including pictures, numerical formulas, chemical formulas, tables, chess and cards, music scores, etc. At the same time, the format compresses characters and images well, and the data volume of the file is small.

CEB format file technology is based on Founder's world-leading printing and publishing technology, and has always been at the international first-class level in the field of format file technology. Since its launch in 2000, Founder CEB file technology has been widely used in the field of e-books and electronic documents. At the same time, Founder CEB format file technology can be easily applied to Founder's products in the traditional printing and publishing field.

Advantages and technological progress of CEB: the display remains unchanged in different software and hardware environments and cannot be modified after generation; It integrates the main font representation technologies at present, including various coding systems and font technologies, and supports the conversion of minority languages (Mongolian, Uygur, Tibetan, Korean, etc.). ); Automatically download supplementary words to ensure that CEB files will not "open the skylight"; Provide comprehensive graphics processing technology (including a complete description of various line shapes); Provide comprehensive image and color processing support and compression (such as multi-color space and color reproduction including ICC, RLE, G3, G4, wavelet and other data compression); Support security mechanisms such as electronic signature and data encryption; Convenient conversion, almost all formats can be converted into CEB format, including XML, S2, PS, PDF, TIFF, DOC, WPS, etc. CEB file occupies a small space, which is only one tenth of the original DOC file in the case of complex typesetting; CEB combined with XML supports automatic layout generation, information extraction and flexible use. You can make directories, link jumps, add sounds, animations and videos on CEB.

Founder CEB format file, as the basis of electronic document integration and the reference standard recommended by the national electronic document format file, can display electronic documents in the original form and flavor, and ensure the integrity of the documents.

How to apply for CEB documents?

1, CEB file can be viewed directly through the free Apabi reader. And can be directly embedded in IE browser for use.

2. You can read PDA reader through mobile devices to realize mobile office.

3.CEB files can be printed directly into paper files.

4.CEB documents are directly sent to printing machines and digital printing machines, and paper documents are output.

5.CEB files generate XML document elements through indexing tools to realize file information exchange.

6.CEB files export TXT text files through CEB SDK to realize file retrieval and reuse.

Reading software: Apabi Reader3. 1, Apabi Inspire Reader2.0.

4 STK file format

STK file format is an e-book format developed by Yi Rui Company, which needs to be read by Starebook, a handheld reader of the company.

In 2006, Chengdu Yuetong Company developed eREAD6.0 reading software, which can read books in STK format on PC. The main contents of books include comics, novels, business, fashion life and religion. This reader is easy to operate, especially suitable for reading comic books.

EREAD reading software integrates the book making function, and users can make their own books by hand, which meets the needs of users to share books. Most free STK books on the Internet are made by readers themselves and spread on the Internet.

Reading software: eREAD6.0

5.PDG file format (/)

PDG (Digitization of Graphic Materials) format is an image storage format introduced by superstar company, which has the advantages of multi-layer TIFF format. Because of the unique wavelet transform algorithm, the image compression ratio is very high. Superstar takes PDG format as the proprietary format of its digital library browser.

Reading software: superstar reader SSReader4.0

6.ki.net/ CAJ file format

China Academic Journal (CAJ) is a file format of Tsinghua Tongfang Company. China Journal Network provides full-text download of journals in this file format, and CAJ files obtained through "full-text database" can be read and printed locally through CAJViewer.

Reading software: CAJViewer7.0

7.SEP format

SEP is a universal, excellent, safe and reliable document distribution and exchange format on the Chinese platform. Based on the international advanced technology construction of Shusheng Company, it developed into intelligent document technology through format technology and digital paper technology. SEP conforms to the characteristics of traditional paper and can be used for electronic application of paper-based applications. Each SEP file is equivalent to several pages of paper documents, and many digital functions and intelligent functions can be attached. SEP software can completely convert electronic documents generated by various applications, and can completely save text, images, graphics, document layout and so on. Scholar SEP file adopts advanced classification compression method and corresponding advanced compression algorithm for images, characters, graphics and images, which makes the sharing, exchange and archiving of electronic documents a relaxed and pleasant thing. The free use of scholar SEP reader and the extensive use of various SEP electronic documents with more than 6.5438+0 million copies ensure the ease of use and stability of this technology. Scholars' software products with SEP file format and SEP series file format provide reliable document solutions for government, enterprises and institutions' document integration and e-government construction.

Reading software: scholar reader SursenReader7.0, Sursen SepReader.

8.XPS format

XPS(XML paper specification) is an electronic file format introduced by Microsoft. Users can browse or print files without software production, which is Microsoft's sharp weapon against Adobe PDF format. The next version of Microsoft office software Office 12 will provide the file storage function of XPS portable file format, including files saved by applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Visio, OneNote and InfoPath.

XPS format is a file based on Zip compressed format. You can use Zip or RAR software to decompress it, and then you can see its internal structure. This compression scheme also ensures that the XPS file size is relatively small. But compression alone is not enough, and it needs to be optimized in some places, such as subset fonts.

Reading software: Xps viewer

9.WDL file format (/)

WDL is an electronic reading file format developed by Kang Hua Company. Its characteristic is that the original layout is well preserved. E-books can be read online or downloaded locally, but they need to be read through the company's special reader DynaDoc, which can be downloaded from the company's website for free.

Due to the restrictions on printing and reproduction, this format of e-books properly protects the interests of authors and publishers. Like PDF format, this format still does not support some of the above effects. But it supports image import. This format deals well with the balance between the text quality of file images and the final product size, and the compression rate of files using this format is usually high. It is a good choice for e-books.

Making e-books in this format requires the use of the company's software DynaDoc generator. At present, there is no shared version of the software, so readers can go to the company's website to find relevant information about the software.

10.NLC file format

E-book format of national library. It compresses the scanned book image into a very small NLC file according to JBIG standard. NLC file is a variant of JBIG format.

E-book formats commonly used in handheld readers

1.OEB file format

OEB is the abbreviation of open e-book, which is the industry standard of e-book formatting and packaging. Based on XML, OEB defines how to mark the text of electronic publications and all parts of e-books (cover, table of contents, text, description, index, etc.). ) It should be wrapped together. OEB is actually a complex, which can be said to be a subset of HTML 4.0, XML 1.0, Dublin Core and CSS 1.0, mainly to make editors and system suppliers spend the least effort to join the ranks of e-books, because the above languages are familiar to them. The version of OEB 1.0 still emphasizes the format, and the upcoming OEB 2.0 will completely focus on XML and strictly separate the format from the data content.

2.LIT file format

This format is a proprietary file format of Microsoft Reader, a software developed by Microsoft Corporation of the United States. This document format is a variant of HTML. At the same time, OEB document format is also supported. .

The biggest advantage of this format is that its reading method is very close to the paper books we usually read, so it is very friendly to read and supports full-screen reading. But its characteristic is that there is no scroll bar, and all pages are turned by clicking the page number, so it is more like reading a real paper book.

Because this format does not support Chinese, only this file format has been tried to make and publish e-books in China.

Reader: Microsoft reader. Pocket PC and smart phone support WinCE system.

3.xeb file format

The founder holds an e-book format. Chinese e-book format based on OEB(Opene Book) and xml (Extensible Markup Language) technology as the core.

It is suitable for mobile phones, special hand-held e-book readers, learning machines, MP3, MP4 and other terminal devices, and has the advantages of small code files and less resource occupation. Integrated format and streaming reading technology to automatically adapt to the terminal screen size; Support multilingual reading; Support tables, mathematical formulas, lists, etc. Support uncommon words, ancient books and other character sets; Support reading and downloading schemes of multiple protocols; Support communication interaction function; Support the conversion and reading of DOC, PDF, APABI and other formats.

Readers: Appaby XEB Reader, Zinko Hanlin Book, Founder Science and Technology Grand Hyatt World Reader, Hong Kong GSL, etc.

4.EBX file format

Electronic book exchange. A standard developed by the E-book Exchange Working Group (http://www.ebxwg.org/) for the secure transmission of e-book content among content creators, publishers and end users.

Reading software: XReader, PDA and smart phone supporting WinCE system.

5.Rb file format

"RB" is the abbreviation of "Rocket eBook", which is an e-book reader similar to a PDA.

Rockebook developed by NuvoMedia Company adopts a special document structure, which can integrate text, image and sound. The documents of rocket e-books are composed of two types: basic documents (*. Rb) and annotation documents (*. rh，*。 Rn and *. ra）。

6.PDB format

The file format adopted by PalmOS reading tools. Pdb is the abbreviation of Palm database, and the file extension used by Palm OS is. pdb。

You can open it with the handheld.