Formating
your Ebook

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Ebook Formats

22 July 2006

In order to produce your ebook you must first decide on a suitable format. There are many options and we will look at some of the main ones below.

• Want to keep things as simple as possible? Then just produce your ebook as a text file. There's little in the way of formatting or navigation and next to nothing in the way of security but maybe these things don't matter much to you. Your ebook will be simplicity itself to produce and should present no access problems to the reader. Better still, you shouldn't need to buy any new software or master any complicated code.
  
  
• The next logical step up from a text file might be to use a proprietory word processor to provide a more polished result but, of course, your readers will need to have the same word processor or something equally capable of reading your ebook file.
  
  
• An executable (.exe) file is another way to go. Here you will have a specialist program to help you to create your ebook and will be able to build in powerful extra features such as navigation and a certain level of security - probably including the ability to disable right click functions like copy and print. You should also expect a degree of protection against amendment of your text - although this could be limited. Your ebook can be readable without the need for separate reader software - the ability to read the ebook can be 'built in' to the ebook file itself. Programs to produce ebooks as 'exe' files vary in the facilities they provide and their ease of use - in some cases you might need to be able to produce your ebook as a set of html files (like a web site) first in order to get the appearance you want.
  
  
• PDF is, of course, in widespread use and might be regarded as a 'de facto' standard for electronic documents. PDF ebooks need a separate reader which is free and can be easily downloaded (if not preloaded) onto the user's machine. You can buy software at varying levels of complexity, expense and effectiveness to help you produce your own ebook as a pdf file.
  
  
• There are other, proprietory, formats. The main ones to note are Microsoft Reader and Mobipocket. Again, you will need special software to write and read these popular formats.
  
  

When choosing a format for your ebook you need to consider several factors. Some of the main ones are the levels of security and portability provided in each case. Different formats will run on different platforms, under different operating systems. Some formats, notably Mobipocket, will run on various types of mobile phone and PDA as well as on your desktop machine. Because of the ever changing nature of the technology involved it is beyond the scope of these pages to go into detail - careful research is required to choose from the formats available to find the one best applicable to your own particular requirements. There is also the question of cost and the time to be invested in learning to use the software on offer. It can be enlightening to experiment with some of the different options available and it is helpful to know that many suppliers offer free trials or even free (lite) versions of their products for trial purposes and for private use.

When we use the term 'ebook reader' we are usually refering to a piece of software. Of course, there is proprietory hardware to consider as well. So an ebook reader might be a piece of software which can run on particular platforms (like your desktop PC) or a hardware device - usually book-sized and capable of holding several individual ebook files or a whole library if enough memory is available.

In the future we might even see ebooks appearing as a form of 'electronic paper'. And how about audio books to listen to on an mp3 player?

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© Trevor Womack 2006