Fb2 or mobi which is better. What formats does the e-book support. RTF, TXT, DJVU and other extensions

Electronic book readers (so-called readers ) have long turned from something very exotic into the same familiar household device as a smartphone. Users very quickly realized what the beauty of readers is: they can download hundreds (if not thousands) of books in in electronic format, eyes do not deteriorate when reading (electronic ink does not glow), you can adjust any text parameters, including font type and size, the book itself remembers the page you left on, and so on - list all sorts of conveniences compared to using paper books can be very long. However, users (especially beginners) have one problem with this: books walk around the Web in various formats, of which there are many: FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, RTF, TXT, and so on. It’s good when the site offers a choice of different formats - for example, on the site Litres.ru, where this choice is very wide.

Format types

However, for novice users, all these EPUB, FB2 and other DjVu are a dark forest, so let's figure out what they are, how they differ and in what devices they are used. So, the formats of electronic books (documents) .1. FB2 (FictionBook)- format (standard) developed by Dmitry Gribov and a group of enthusiasts. Great for creating structured books, takes up little space, archives well, converts well to other formats. It is an XML file that is structurally similar to an e-mail. The main drawback is that since this is actually a Russian development, this format is completely unknown in the world and is almost not supported by any of the branded readers - Sony, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo. Litres says that FB2 is "supported by all Russian readers", but it's not entirely accurate. FB2 is supported by almost all Chinese readers with Ukrainian or Russian software. Also, FB2 can be supported by well-known western readers (for example, Sony), which have a special Russian firmware installed. (Well, recently for the latest Sony PRS-T1 reader, an official firmware was released that supports FB2.) 2. EPUB (Electronic PUBlishing)- the most common in the world (and already very common in Russia) format of electronic books. In structure, it is similar to a website packed in an archive, and if FB2 can be distributed both in open form and in a ZIP archive (many readers can read FB2 in ZIP), then EPUB is, by definition, a book packed by an archiver. EPUB is supported by almost any reader - both Western and Chinese (Russian-Ukrainian). Therefore, this is the most preferred format. (With rare exceptions.) 3. MOBI- a specialized format created specifically for the Amazon Kindle reader and, accordingly, supported only by this reader. Moreover, Kindle does not support any other e-book formats (except PDF and TXT, but this is a special conversation). four. TXT- the usual format of a text document. Supported by all readers, but reading books in TXT is for complete masochists. No markup, no normal hyphenation, no format alignment, but there are line breaks and other delights. Into the fire! 5. PDF(Adobe Portable Document Format) - one of the most common formats electronic documents(usually not books). PDF is not particularly convenient to read on readers, in addition, it is very cumbersome, therefore, in PDF for readers, as a rule, only documents with all sorts of formulas, illustrations, and so on are written. 6. LRF - special format for e-books from Sony. However, it has almost been supplanted by the EPUB format that Sony supports. 7. Djvu(pronounced déjà vu) is a format for storing tightly compressed scanned documents such as old books. It is used very rarely in readers, because it is almost impossible to read scanned books on the reader due to poor display quality and small screen size. eight. RTF (Rich Text Format)- a universal format for storing text documents. In readers it is used very rarely - so, for compatibility. 9. DOC- Microsoft Office document format. Some readers support it, but usually few people need to read documents on the reader. That's not what they're made for. True, some books are still circulating in DOC on the Web, but it’s easier to convert them into the same EPUB. There are all sorts of other formats, but you don’t need to worry about these - they are unlikely to ever come in handy. For most users, with a few exceptions, the EPUB format is usually sufficient. It is supported by almost all readers (except Kindle), books in this format are small in size, have a good structure, allow you to include a table of contents, illustrations, and so on. Many online libraries store books in this format, and you can also find huge collections of EPUB books in torrents. What are the conclusions? EPUB is your choice, whether you have a western reader (Sony, Barnes&Noble, Kobo) or Chinese-Russian-Ukrainian. But for Kindle, you will need to look for books in MOBI format or, which is much easier, just convert the same EPUB or FB2 to this format. This procedure is done easily and quickly with the help of a special program. How this is done - we will consider in a separate article.

Common e-book formats

TXT- the format of ordinary text documents. This format is supported by all e-books. The TXT format lacks any text formatting. Also, documents of this format cannot contain images and graphics.
It is not recommended to choose this format due to the lack of graphics and text formatting in it.

FB2- the format was developed for Russian users and "sharpened" for Cyrillic. Books in FB2 format support text formatting, chapter division, books can contain graphics and illustrations. Also, in this format, book parameters such as title, author, content, genre can be saved, which are read by electronic readers and allow the user to sort files on the device.
This format is recommended for devices sold in Russia. Devices brought from abroad most likely will not open files of this format.

EPUB- a modern format that is increasingly gaining popularity among users around the world. Also, like the FB2 format, it supports text formatting, chapter division, books can contain graphics and illustrations. This e-book format is used in Apple technology.
This format is also recommended for selection.

MOBI is an e-book format used in Kindle readers. It is gaining its popularity due to the increasing appearance of Kindle readers in Russia. The characteristics of the MOBI format are similar to those of FB2 and EPUB.

These e-book formats are the most common and are supported by almost all modern e-books.

Other e-book formats

RTF is an electronic document format originally developed for Windows. For reading on readers is not very convenient due to the large file size.

HTML or HTM- web document format. Sometimes used for e-books.
Books can be opened with a web browser on a computer.

LIT is an e-book format developed by Microsoft. It has a sufficient distribution, but it has some problems, since it is read mainly with the help of special software - Microsoft Reader. Somewhat similar to the PDF format, can be scaled, supports bookmarks and annotations.

LRF- an e-book format developed by Sony for its readers. The LRF format is used only in Sony readers. If necessary, you can use the converter to convert this format to any other. The popularity of the LRF format is declining.

MBR- an e-book format called MobiPocket. Developed by a French company with the same name. It is used in most cases for reading on communicators and PDAs.

AZW- commercial format of e-books with protection against copying and converting. Used only in readers from Amazon Kindle. Amazon monitors books on Kindle devices and, in case of copyright infringement, can massively remove books from devices over the Internet.

PDF is an electronic document format created by Adobe. It is inconvenient to use on the reader due to the fact that the files of this format are very bulky, as they are designed for the power of the computer. If the file is not specially designed for the screen of a 6-inch reader, which has a format similar to an A6 paper sheet, then reading A4 PDF on it (and most PDF files are presented exactly in the size of a standard paper sheet) will be very inconvenient. In PDF, you can only zoom in, but you cannot increase the font size, which means that on the reader's screen you will see either very small text, or even only a fragment of the page. Therefore, this format is not recommended for reading e-books.

DJVU- a format designed for storing scanned documents. A DJVU book is actually a set of scanned pages. Usually of low quality. Just like PDF, it is not recommended to choose to read e-books.

DOC or DOCX- Microsoft Office electronic document formats. These formats are supported by a lot of readers, but it is for reading documents, not books. Large files in this format can be large in size, and not all readers will be able to open such "heavy" files.

These e-book formats can be opened on a computer. But not all electronic readers will be able to recognize them.

What format to choose for reading e-books?

Let's decide which format is better to use for reading e-books!

If you have a modern reader, a modern device for reading electronic books, then most likely you will open all the formats listed above on it.

But from the point of view of convenience, we recommend that you opt for the FB2 or EPUB formats. The FB2 and EPUB formats, as well as MOBI, were originally created for e-books. They take up a small amount of memory and are supported by all e-book readers.

What other formats do you know? Write in the comments to the article, and also ask your questions.

FBReader is a free and open source application, so it only understands open formats. This means that if you have a book protected by DRM (in other words, encrypted by the manufacturer), then FBReader will not be able to open it.

• ePub. We consider ePub as one of the three main formats. (the other two are fb2 and mobile.) FBReader handles all the basic features of ePub except tables. CSS formatting is partially supported.
• ePub3. FBReader doesn't support almost any of the new ePub 3 features. We'll gradually add the most common ones, but the entire ePub 3 standard is too big and we don't plan to support it in its entirety for the foreseeable future.
• fb2. From a practical point of view, the 2.0 format is fully supported. Tables appeared in version 2.1, FBReader does not understand them. On the other hand, as far as we know, there are no real books in fb2 2.1.
• Mobi (Kindle books, azw3). FBReader opens unencrypted books *.mobi files. For encrypted books, you can search the web for information on how to turn them into plain text. We are not sure of the legality of such a transformation.
• PDF
  • Android: since version 2.0, FBReader opens PDF books with
  • PDF is not currently supported on other platforms.
• Djvu
  • Android: since version 2.1, FBReader opens books in DjVu format using an additional module (plugin). For rendering, a third-party library is used, so the appearance is somewhat different from appearance books opened by the main program.
  • DjVu is not currently supported on other platforms.
• HTML. Strictly speaking, this is not an e-book format. FBReader does not claim to be a web browser, but it does support a minimal subset of HTML that will allow you to read most of the books we've seen.
• Text files. Supported. There may be problems with breaking text into paragraphs.
• rtf, doc( Microsoft Word) . FBReader opens relatively simple *.rtf and *.doc files. This is usually enough for reading fiction books.
• Plucker
  • It is supported on other platforms, however plucker's formatting commands are designed for screens of certain resolutions, so the result does not always look good on modern devices.
• CHM
  • Android: Not currently supported.
  • Other platforms. A complete open description of this format does not exist, different open-source libraries support different sets of features. FBReader's chm support is written independently of standard libraries like chmlib, so the display can be quite different.
• .LIT. The format is not supported and will not be supported. Microsoft Reader no longer exists, so there will be no new .LIT books. We don't want to waste our energy supporting legacy formats. At the same time, the legality of reading such files third party programs remains in question, and we have no desire to discuss it with Microsoft lawyers. You can use the program

Literature lovers often encounter a problem when a downloaded file cannot be opened because its encoding is not supported by the device. To avoid this, let's figure out which format of books for Android will be suitable and most convenient in the process of reading.

What are the formats of books for Android

Consider what e-book formats each Android device supports. Here is a list of the most popular extensions:

• epub,
• tiff,
• djvu.

Each format actually has its own advantages and disadvantages, which we will touch on below.

This extension is based on XML technology and was developed by domestic programmers. The format is extremely popular in Russia and the CIS countries, but in fact, few have heard of it in more distant countries. Readers choose FB2 because of the following benefits:

• A text document of this type is easy to structure (add information about the author, content, annotation and content);

• Support for illustrations and images. Editions in FB2 format have a cover and pictures in the course of the story (if any);

• This book won't take up much space. At the same time, the only format that can compete with FB2 in this indicator is txt;
• Easy navigation and fast page navigation;
• There are preset design options.

Files with the FB2 extension are often distributed as ZIP archives. So they take up less space on the device. Most "readers" open books directly from the archived source, which is also an advantage of Friction Book.

Epub

The main competitor of Friction Book in the domestic market is EPUB. The functionality is slightly different from the format described above. There is also support for illustrations, text structuring, quick page transitions and other essential qualities of a good e-book. EPUB is rarely distributed in ZIP files, because the extension itself is an archive containing text with different markup. This significantly saves space in online storage and user devices.

In which of these two formats to download e-books for your Android device is entirely up to you. FB2 and EPUB are supported by any "reader", while you are unlikely to see the differences between them in the process of reading.

MOBI

The format was developed by the French company Mobipocket for Amazon. MOBI is used in all applications and software from Amazon, so its scope is very limited. Nevertheless, the format is not inferior to EPUВ and FВ2 in terms of functionality, therefore it is often offered as the only one available when downloading a book. Supported by almost all applications.

RTF, TXT, DJVU and other extensions

Such extensions are usually used for highly specialized literature or in cases where the use of other types of files is simply not possible. For example, DJVU is the scanned or photographed pages of a book, translated into an accessible form using this encoding. Before downloading files with such extensions, make sure that they are "too tough" for your program. Due to their specificity, books of this type are not always supported by "readers" on phones.

Book Reading Applications

After you figured out in what format you need to download e-books and text files on Android, it's time to choose a utility to run. Here is a list of the most popular e-readers:

• coolreader. Can boast of the most a wide range supported extensions (FB2, EPUB, txt, doc, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, prc, mobi, pml). The program is easy to manage, while being extremely convenient for reading any text documents;

• FBReader. Differs from CoolReader in design style and "lightweight" interface;

An e-book format is a file type that is able to correctly recognize and play an e-book reader - a reader or a reader. Today, about 10 types of files are offered for reading in online stores and online libraries. Uninitiated users often choose "at random", which does not always allow you to download a book to your reader in an optimal format for reading, and perhaps the file will not even open. On the other hand, when buying a reader, readers do not always know how to choose a reader based on the type of supported e-book formats.

For authors having information about which e-book formats are most popular is also important. For at present electronic devices for reading are quickly replacing paper editions. Also on release electronic version For your paper book, you need to be sure that the e-book will be accepted by all the most popular online stores and most readers will be able to read the book without errors in the proposed format.

Thus, it is important for the reader to know which reader to buy or what type of book to download to your reader. And it is important for the author to know in what format to release his e-book. Our article will help both the author and the reader who is not yet experienced in this matter make a choice.

What format should an author choose for their e-book

1. The first thing to note is that there are only two e-book formats for which there are professional programs, as well as developed strict standards and independent systems for checking their quality: PDF and EPUB.
2. The PDF format is used to receive a print-on-demand service - when one copy is printed to the person who ordered the book.
3. All other popular book formats in practice are created by converting from EPUB.
4. Some publishers and freelancers offer to make any format very cheap, by simply saving from the Word editor, but it should be understood that most online stores may reject this format and not all readers will be able to read comfortably. On some readers - in general, a hodgepodge of incomprehensible characters may be displayed.

When choosing a format for your e-book, the author can proceed from which platform his work will be distributed on:

• if you want to get into Litres and Ozon, you need PDF, EPUB and FB2 versions;
• to get into the iTunes store for Apple tablets and phones - iPhone and iPad - you need the EPUB type, it is this type that the iBooks reader supports on all Apple devices;
• EPUB is relevant for Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com stores - from it Amazon.com will automatically create MOBI and AZW for Kindle readers;
• for Google Play, you can use PDF or EPUB.

If you want to create a scientific work for readers that contains formulas, tables, graphs, then the best format is only PDF. You can also make EPUB, but the laboriousness of such work is quite large. In addition, when the page size increases, formulas and tables can take on a form that makes them difficult to read.

Main e-book formats

Modern bibliophiles, thanks to special devices for reading electronic books - readers or readers - have an excellent opportunity to carry thousands of works with them that can be read on the road, on vacation or at lunchtime.

We offer a brief overview of the main existing e-book formats.

FB2 (FictionBook)

The most common format in Russia.
Advantages:

• The content of the book on readers is structured (chapters, content, cover, etc.).
• The user can sort files by author, genre, title and other tags contained in the source file.
• The file is small and can be archived.
• The file can be easily converted to other formats.
• Russian text has word wraps.

Flaws:

• Not intended for books with illustrations: images inserted into the text cannot be seen on many readers.
• This format was created by Russian developers and is not intended for use abroad, as it is not supported by Apple, Google, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

EPUB (Electronic Publication)

Perhaps the most commonly used electronic file type, supported by readers of all well-known manufacturers: Barnes & Noble, Sony, Pocketbook, Kindle, Onyx, Wexler, iBooks application for Apple devices, iPhone and iPad.
The layout structure of such a document is similar to an archived HTML page with texts, graphics, embedded fonts, etc.

MOBI

Initially, it was supported only by Kindle readers, which are quite popular in Russia.

KF8 (Kindle Format 8)

The new format from Amazon is an improved version of MOBI.

PDF (Portable Document Format)

Peculiarities:

• files are heavy enough for inexpensive readers;
• in most cases, the page corresponds to A4, while ordinary readers are A5 in size;
• it is possible to change only the scale (but not the font);
• most likely the page on the reader can only be read in fragments, unless it is a version of the A6 page format or you do not have a reader with a 9-inch screen.

DJVU

Developed as a repository for scanned documents. Features of the functionality are completely similar to PDF.

LRF

LRF is an old format for Sony e-readers that converts very poorly to other types of files.

AZW

Applies to Amazon.com for Kindle readers only. This format is used for copy protection.

TXT

Advantages:

• makes it possible to copy text of any format from another source;
• supported by almost all readers;
• the file is very small.

Meanwhile, this format does not provide for the presence of formatting and alignment elements, which makes it not the best option for a full-fledged virtual book.

RTF (Rich Text Format)

Not the most convenient file type for the reader due to the bulkiness of the file, and hence the low speed of the reader.

DOC (DOCX)

Word editor format. Few readers provide comfortable reading a full-fledged e-book in this format.

Which e-book format should the author and reader choose

The traditional "book formats" supported by most readers are EPUB and FB2. When buying a reader, it is important for the reader to pay attention to this. Of course, the more formats the reader can read, the better. Be sure to buy a reader with backlight - you can comfortably read in rooms with insufficient lighting.

The author, when releasing his work, also needs to take into account precisely these EPUB and FB2 formats, in addition, of course, a PDF file is needed - without it it is impossible to properly print a book for paper readers.