electronic book (eBook)
E-books, or ebooks, are electronic books that mimic the characteristics of printed books but are available as digital files. They can consist of typographically designed pages with text, graphics, photos, charts and tables. Due to digital technology, e-books can be equipped with features that do not exist in printed books.
One function supported by e-books is the linking of the content page with the chapter pages, another are links that lead directly to the linked term or the corresponding chapter, comparable to the cross-references in printed books. Furthermore, e-books support full-text research, they enable quick retrieval of semantic connections and offer marking and note-taking options.
The file formats of e-books
There are several file formats for e-books, including: Adobe's Portable Document Format( PDF), the HTML format, the LIT format for the Microsoft reader, the MBP format for the Mobipocket and Palm readers, the Open EBook Format( OEB), the Amazon formatAZW, and last but not least, the Electronic Publication( EPUB), which is expected to replace the OEB format. Since e-books are offered in various file formats and certain e-book readers do not support these formats, conversion to the desired e-book format is often required. This conversion is only possible if the e-book does not contain digital rights management( DRM) for copyright protection. The listed PDF file format is often cited as the e-book format, but it does not support the functionality of e-book readers.
The e-books are stored in the e-book reader or in the devices used to display them, such as notebooks, netbooks, tablet PCs or other equipment, and are read via the readers.