What is epub and why won't it replace fb2. Basic formats of e-books. Desktop Text Formats on Mobile Disorders

I all like the Cool Reader smartphone reader, but lately it has become boring to re-set the parameters that are important to me when resetting the device. And another accidental pressing switches the paging mode to the scroll mode.

On a smartphone, easy navigation plays a big role. Rewinding, selection, selection of text - all this should be done in a convenient way. I don't have a big hand, but 5.5» smartphone in some readers it is very difficult to get to the right place with your finger. And I read a lot, fortunately, they have very decent batteries, which can be read for almost weeks.


Of course, for me Cool Reader is the best reader, but I wanted something simpler and more convenient "out of the box". I want to present you with an overview - a comparison of e-book readers in fb2, epub and others formats. Go.

Comparison of the universal book reader Cool Reader with eBoox, ReadEra, FBReader, Moon + Reader

I chose several readers for testing:

I assume that all readers support .txt, .epub, .fb2 formats. I will evaluate programs for reading e-books according to the following parameters:

  1. First impression and how easy it is to figure out how to operate.
  2. Brightness control, navigation
  3. Quick access to functionality
  4. Fast selection
  5. Setting the visibility of books in case they are in different folders. For example, in the Books folder and the Downloads folder.

So, I will say that I installed it right away and I do not like everything in any application. As in the status of girls - everything is complicated. Let's see where it is difficult, and where it is even more difficult.

Cool Reader- a monster among readers. Can do everything and even more. The downside of this monster is that an accidentally knocked down setting turns into a quest to find a solution. If we take this application as a reference, then the following are all simpler.

The reader has libraries, a split screen for assigning gesture control with a long and short press, reading in a voice offline (pretty decent). The day / night mode is present and everything you need is present and even more. It is not very convenient to search for books, through folders, but you can automatically hide directories without books.

The interface of the application is ancient and now it is already annoying, but the application is the best set of functionality, for which I love it.

My rating: 5- for a little confusing settings, complexity with the selection mode (you must first configure or go through the menu) and an old-fashioned interface.

Reader eBoox new has a nice interface. Almost everything is intuitively clear. The toolkit is minimal - several online book catalogs, your own libraries on the device, synchronization with your Google Books account, and that's it.

You can add books, folders with books by clicking the plus sign. The application does not scour the smartphone on its own in search of books.

Management is minimal. There are enough settings. Access to most via the menu. Minus called small rewind control and the lack of transition to a specific page. The app settings are sufficient and intuitive. Calling up the settings - by tapping (pressing) in the center of the screen. It is convenient to select and share a piece of text. The brightness is controlled through the menu, not by gesture on the screen. In addition to bookmarks, you can store quotes, which is very convenient. You can sync with other devices through your Google account.

My rating: 4+ for thoughtfulness, healthy minimalism. You cannot add cloud storage, alas.

- similar to eBoox new book reader.

The application can scan directories, allows you to control the brightness gesture, all important functions are two clicks away from any page. Scrolling as in the previous application: left side of the screen - back, right - forward, center - settings.

My rating: 4 ++ for thoughtfulness, healthy minimalism. You cannot add cloud storage, alas. But there is scanning.

One of the most famous apps FBReader boasts settings that are comparable in number to those of the Cool Readera.

Briefly about the main thing
If you want to get an adequate idea of ​​the epub, imagine that you saved some (for example, this) web page to disk along with the graphics and styles used on it. For all modern browsers this is a standard function, for example, in FireFox, this is done through the menu "File → Save As → Full Web Page". You can save not one but several pages side by side. Then you put two service XML files next to your pages. One is simply a label "this is epub" (container.xml), the second contains a list of all files - .html, .css, .jpg, etc (usually the content.opf file).
It remains to put all this in a zip-archive and change its extension from .zip to .epub.
Everything.
The book is ready, and you already know what an epub is. This is not a joke or an exaggeration - the epub is just zipped html. No more, no less.

About the format in detail
Placing content in an epub archive
As we already found out, epub is a zip archive with several files. When you zip files with a ZIP archiver and zip the container.xml XML file into the archive, you say in prose you create a file in the "Open Container" format. Despite the devastatingly pretentious name of this event (IDPF should have known that there is an OPC ISO standard and not reinvented the wheel), it is quite possible to put IDPF “cool” behind the “Open Container Format” (OCF) (why - we will find out below).
In addition to the container.xml file (must be in META-INF), the epub necessarily contains one more service file, which lists all other files located in the archive and indicates their type, usually called content.opf.
The whole construction for a knowledgeable person strongly resembles java packages in general and OpenDocument in particular. Indeed, IDPF is looking for ways to integrate with OpenDocument. It is not very clear what prevented starting with the OD clone, because OpenDocument is two years older than OCF, but, apparently, bicycles are the inevitable lot of amateurs, they did not bother to read the docks in time. So xpointer IDPF also, by all judging, firmly intends to re-invent within EPUB3. Versions to the 5th will guess to use the standardized w3c format for links and will also look for merging paths.

What data is stored in epub
epub usually contains the following information:

  • Meta data: title, language, authors, etc.
  • Navigation tools: paging order for xhtml files and "sitemap content"
  • The actual text in the form of several xhtml files that can use css styles, pictures in jpg, gif and png, as well as svg vector graphics and fonts. The latest epub version declares support for MathML.
  • In addition, the epub can include a number of additional highly specialized markup files, a PDF version of the book for printing, etc. exotic things that are not really used, not supported by readers and not interesting to the average reader.
Meta information in epub
The minimum meta information for an epub includes title, document ID, and language. In addition, you can specify the authors, translators and other contributors to the creation of the book, the date of publication / writing, the topic of the book (in free form), plain-text description and information about the publisher.
Key meta information is stored in the standard Doublin Core schema, slightly extended. Descriptions of authors, subject matter and all other fields (with the exception of dates and language) are given in free text form, which, in fact, excludes effective automatic cataloging of epub from different sources.

Navigation aids
epub, as we recall, can include many html files. And there will be many files. Not because IDPF requires it, but because epub readers fall from large files and everyone does a lot of small ones. And in order for the "scrolling" familiar to the reader to work, the creator of the epub specifies the order in which the files should be presented. “When opening, we show 3.html, when the reader scrolls through it to the end, open 1.html, then 8.html. And the file footnotes.html is unreachable when scrolling directly, the reader will get there by footnotes ”, something like that. It is usually contained in the content.opf file.
Another means of navigating within a book is content. If present, it is usually stored in toc.ncx. Technically, this is more analogous to the "sitemap" function than the usual "content". The content in a paper book (or electronic document) repeats the structure of the text, and .ncx is not related to the general order of text fragments and may directly contradict them. However, in reality, the file is usually used as content and is drawn up "normally", repeating the order specified for paging.
In general, repeated storage and rewriting in different ways of the same data - company logo epub. Meta data is stored in four places: in the OPF description of the container.xml container, in the epub package description content.opf, in the toc.ncx content file, and in html files (in the meta tags). The content is described three times - the "book map" from toc.ncx argues with the listing of fragments in content.opf which of them is more important, and the h1-h6 headings in html look at all this, and think about revenge.

Book text
Of course, the epub also contains the actual html files with the text of the book. The archive also stores the elements used in the text - graphics, styles, scripts, fonts.
No significant "add-ons" or "restrictions" in relation to html, css, etc. epub does not set. We take modern Web content, which has become not even “dynamic”, but “fluid” (the epub declares support for html5, which looks more like an OS than a markup language, and browsers still support it to a limited extent), save it to disk, archive it - and voila, the e-book is ready.
"Honey, I saved the Internet to disk, what next?"

History of the issue
To better understand the core strength and core weakness of the epub, let's go back 12 years. In 2000, when your humble servant had just joined electronic reading (to be precise, he was insidiously hooked on it by the notorious the-ebook), the network already existed Moshkov's Library, Aldebaran, Litportal and God knows how many more small libraries. Quite a lot of texts were, in principle, available. Mostly in the form of HTML.
HTML even then gave the broadest possibilities for design. Thanks to this, the people who prepared the texts sometimes created genuine masterpieces of typesetting. Suffice it to recall that the paragraphs in Moshkov's library were (and now Moshkov burns in the same way, in my opinion) decorated with a mix of tags

and 
However, existing readers (iSilo, Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, REB devices, etc.) understood only a limited dialect of HTML and an even more limited subset of CSS.  Of course, each reader built "extensions" over the format, but no one made up for a specific reader. 
In the end, after combining the creative breakthroughs of the creators of texts, inspired by the power of HTML + CSS and unlimited in flight of their imagination, with real readers, on the user's screen, as a rule, nonsense was obtained.  At best, the book was unsightly, but readable.  At worst, the text generally turned into a mess. 
My first response to this was ClearTXT, which removes creativity from text.  However, it quickly became clear that no heuristic analysis could keep up with the imagination of the creators of html books.  In the end, I still had to work with my hands, more or less.
Dialect problems weren't the only ones.  Reading programs had not only individual "expressive means" and "language preferences".  None of them read HTML directly (in this regard, little has changed, by the way, I suggest thinking about why).  Each program used its own, usually closed, method of preparing and packaging data.  lit, rb, lrf, chm - every creator of the reader and device developer considered it his duty to “invent” a new closed “format” and his own personal DRM solution.  Conversion tools to this proprietary format were often either unavailable or released as platform-specific applications and / or libraries, with limited or no documentation.
Two problems in 2000, one problem in 2012
So, in 2000, two things prevented us from taking arbitrary html and feeding it to the reader:
  1. The need to use cumbersome third-party tools for packaging HTML in a format that the reader can understand
  2. Incompatibility of the reader with the used markup and styles
    3. 

 epub offers solutions for both problems: 
  1. The packaging tools are standardized and technologically advanced - you can even manually, in 20 minutes, assemble a very complex book using OCF, notepad and a zip archiver.
  2. As we've seen, epub is compatible with all dialects, styles, and markup methods.  Save from the web, archive and read.
    3. 

 It would seem that everything is fine. 
And regarding the packaging to the epub, there are no complaints besides aesthetic.  A solution is used, albeit a non-standard and not the most successful, but adequate solution to the task, moreover, simple as a stick. 
But regarding the display of text in readers, bad news awaits us.  The "format" itself is compatible with all and sundry HTML, yes.  How easy it was to write in the standard “see  html specification ".  The temptation was great and the IDPF could not resist.  But here we open our "whatever" HTML in "whatever reader" and ... 
And we find that we have not moved one iota relative to the year 2000.  As at the end of the last century, each specific reader understands only its own, limited, html + css dialect.  As in the last century, the dialect is usually undocumented.  As before, in each reader, to solve even such standard problems as footnotes, their own extensions are introduced that are not compatible with anything (search for epub footnotes on google, methods of creation, in addition to turning footnotes into links, vary from completely acidic CSS to javascript)  ...  The simplest things are almost impossible to do, complex things either do not work, or they drop the readers. 
Here's your homework: without peeking at the epub from Liters, make an epub with a blank line between two paragraphs (text, blank line, again text, as before this paragraph), displayed in the same way in iBooks, ADE, Sony and Nook.  Let's leave the Chinese miracle reading rooms and other exotic things aside so that the task remains doable.  And we won't even ask for justification and hyphenation with footnotes.  Just an empty string, tag in fb2.  Time has passed.
Epub verdict

The obvious advantages of the format are the simplicity and manufacturability of the zip-package, openness. 
As well as a plus, a single DRM solution can be considered.  IDPF bashfully pretends that the DRM in the epub type is open and anyone can make their own.  All types believe.  And they clearly understand that epub is 99% in existence due to the fact that Adobe maintains a DRM infrastructure for it.  DRM is evil, but one DRM at all is less evil than DRM per store. 
Yes, it's silly when archived HTML with DRM cracked in one minute is presented as an innovation.  But zip and other standardization is nothing but progress. 
With regards to the pros, that's all.
But in the field of creating complex markup, epub is completely useless and there will be only disadvantages.  The format does not give the creator of the book any guarantees as to what the end reader will see on the screen, nor reliable controls that will allow to cut off at least deliberately "non-working" options, nor ready-made solutions for standard tasks.  My first epub, just validated, dropped two of the three readers on which I tested it (too large html - 2MB, and too many links, as I later installed).  Document creators are forced to either ignore the "features" of individual epub readers, or offer several epubs so that the reader can take a file that is compatible with his device.  For the sake of such a finale and a garden was not worth fussing - what's the point of coding html5 knowing that it will be read in IE3?
What can we expect from epub in the future
The most favorable scenario for epub is the displacement of small developers from the niche of reading programs by several large players.  Making a full-featured html5 parser with pagination is at least no easier than making a modern browser, and the return is incomparably less, and there will be no random people here.  However, neither google, nor Microsoft, nor Opera are currently running to make new engines for epub readers so that Adobe can properly raise the dough on its miracle DRM.  And Adobe itself quite clearly showed its potential for the development of readers - ADE still has no support for footnotes, nor normal typography, nor hyphenation. 
So it is much more likely that in five years around the epub a kind of "unwritten IDPF" informal set of layout rules, working design solutions, tested on the leading readers of "hacks" and "tricks", will be formed.  The online community is already shaping a "true" epub standard on top of the forgiving "html5 + css3 + everything_want_more".  Describes real solutions for real problems in real readers.  Then these "tricks", being the de facto standard, will become mandatory for the developers of new readers.  Those who have been in IT for a long time to have time to swallow the smoke of browser wars and work with IE4, NN4 and Opera 3 have a great idea of ​​what exactly awaits us - the network community has already walked along these rakes and hiccuped this walk to this day.  Therefore, when I see "this epub is optimized for iBooks" I experience not just de-ja-vu, but an acute gag reflex.
And for the fact that they are trying to push us "back to the 90s" I put epub in failure.  We do not need hacks that become inoperable in the new version of the software.  We do not need unwritten rules, bit by bit, caught by the poke method.  Legalized bugs are not needed.  There is no need for "validation by testing" for all readers - "show or not show".  We went through all this. 
We need reliable and user-friendly technology, a clear standard and working quality controls.  And the epub could not give us this, unfortunately.
What is useless to wait from epub
Among the shortcomings of epub, there is one more that we have not yet touched on - fundamental incompatibility with other formats.  epub is born to be a monopolist.  Extracting data from epub and converting to another format, even for simple html, is not an easy task.  When the epub matures, gets overgrown with hacks for devices and intricate solutions, such as CSS sub-page footnotes, extracting something from it will be an almost insoluble task.  Whatever format Adobe develops, it turns out PDF - the input is a ruble, and the output is five. 
But we still need support for different (including old) readers and devices.  We need full support for alternative formats that have already gained weight (mobipocket on Kindle) and will still appear on the market.
In addition, we need a means of cataloging, exchanging quotes and notes, and so on and so forth, which epub, even at a declarative level, does not yet promise.  In other words, we need fb3, which will be the subject of the next article.



 
E-books (readers, readers) have long become familiar devices for a wide range of users.  Their advantages: the availability of content (you can download the necessary book from the Internet in a matter of minutes), the E-ink screen that does not spoil your eyesight, the ability to have a collection of thousands of books in the reader, long work on one charge, setting the type and size of the font.  Not so long ago, e-books with a backlit screen appeared - they allow you to read in complete darkness.  In general, the advantages of readers can be enumerated for a very long time.


However, when getting to know readers, users often have one problem.  People who decide to purchase a reader for the first time when faced with the concept of "e-book formats" often do not understand what is at stake.  The problem is especially true for beginners, who don't know anything at all from the abbreviations "FB2", "EPUB" or "MOBI".

 
The so-called formats are different types of electronic text files that are supported (played) by one or the other.  V electronic libraries the Internet often offers a large set of file types: FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, DOC, RTF, TXT and others.  The choice is wide, and this poses certain problems for beginners.  We will describe the main formats of e-books, talk about how they differ from each other, which readers are supported, and which format is better to opt for if you have a multi-format reader that reads all formats.

 
Varieties of formats

 

 
1. FB2 (FictionBook) is an e-book format that was created by a group of Russian developers.  Books in this file type are structured (that is, they contain chapter breakdowns, content, illustrations, cover).  In addition, this standard stores information about the file (so-called tags: author, title, genre), which is read by the reader and allows the user to conveniently sort the files on the device.  This file type is small, it can be archived, and it also converts well to other formats.  Of the peculiarities: in view of the fact that the format was originally developed for the Cyrillic alphabet, texts in Russian in FB2 have word hyphenations.

 
The format was originally designed for Russian users, and it is practically not used abroad.  That is why FB2 is not supported by the world's popular e-readers - Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  But this is the main file format for readers popular in Russia from Pocketbook, Onyx and Wexler.  In addition, Sony readers now support FB2 - after entering the Russian market, the company developed an official firmware for the reader, which allows you to read books in FB2.

 
2. EPUB (Electronic PUBlication)- the most popular in the world electronic format for readers.  Readers Barnes & Noble and Sony work with him.  In terms of layout structure, this type of file resembles a zipped web page containing text, graphics, embedded fonts, illustrations.

 
Besides Western brands, EPUB format is supported by producer models targeting Russian market(Pocketbook, Onyx, Wexler) due to the rapid growth in popularity in our country.  In addition, this standard for e-books is used by the iPhone and.  Apple's proprietary iBooks reader supports EPUB.

 
3. MOBI- format of e-book readers.  Gaining distribution in Russian online libraries as the Kindle becomes more popular in Russia.  Other readers have support for this format "for show".  MOBI is similar in properties to EPUB.  Amazon recently introduced another electronic text format, Kindle Format 8 or KF8 (with richer formatting), with the clarification that new and old Amazon readers will not stop supporting MOBI.

 
4. TXT- the format of simple text documents.  You can convert text from another format to TXT with the simplest copy-paste action.  Despite the fact that this type of file is supported by almost all readers and takes up very little memory space, we would not recommend reading books in it on readers.  TXT lacks formatting, markup, hyphenation, alignment.  It is suitable for short text notes, but not for full-fledged e-books.

 
5. PDF (Portable Document Format)- an electronic document format created by Adobe Systems.  It is inconvenient for use on readers for a number of reasons.  Firstly, files in this format are very cumbersome, since they are designed for the power of a computer, and they open quite slowly on readers.  Secondly, if the file is not specially designed for the screen of a 6-inch reader, which has a format similar to an A6-sized paper sheet, then it will be very difficult to read A4-format PDFs on it (and most PDF-files are presented exactly in the size of a standard paper sheet).  In PDF, you can only increase the scale, but not the font size, which means that only some part of the page can be placed on the screen.  You will have to read the pages in parts, which is very inconvenient.

 
For reading PDFs, they are adapted, the screen size of which allows you to reproduce the page at a scale large enough for comfortable reading.

 
6. DJVU- a format designed for storing scanned documents - books, articles, manuscripts.  A DJVU book is actually a collection of scanned pages.  In terms of reading comfort on 6-inch readers, everything is similar to the story with PDF.  You will not increase the font size, only the scale.  When zooming in, the page will crawl out of the screen, and you will have to constantly move the area of ​​the enlarged text for reading - there is no need to talk about comfortable reading.  For DJVU reading, choose 9-inch readers.  However, even on 9-inch readers, DJVU's comfortable reading capabilities depend on the quality of the scanned book presented in this format.

 
7. LRF- formerly a proprietary format for Sony readers.  On new models (starting with PRS-T1) it is no longer used, since EPUB has given way.  Converts very poorly to other file types.  Despite the fact that it is still presented here and there in the libraries, it is recommended to use it exclusively for owners of old Sony models.

 
8. RTF (Rich Text Format)- format for storing text documents.  Belongs to the category of "computer", not "book".  It is not very convenient to read in RTF on readers - these are large files, and the speed of the reader is reduced by an order of magnitude.

 
9. DOC(and DOCX) - Microsoft Office text documents.  Many readers support these formats, but for reading documents, not books.  Large files in this format can be large in size, and it is not easy to work with them on readers.  It is better to convert multi-page books to DOC to FB2 or EPUB.

 
We have listed the main formats of e-books.  We will not consider completely exotic types of files that are sometimes found on the Internet, but rather decide in which of the above formats it is most convenient to read books on electronic readers.

 
Which e-book format to choose

 
If you have a reader with support for all formats, then you can opt for a certain file type based on a number of factors.  Let's say you buy your first e-book and you don't have a pre-built collection of books like FB2.  In this case, choose the file format that is best reproduced by your reader.  Traditional "book" formats EPUB or FB2 for the reader (and for the user) are more preferable and convenient than "computer" PDF, TXT, DOC, DOCX and RTF.

 
In the case of 9-inch readers and the need to read DJVU and PDF, all other things being equal, we advise you to give preference to the latter, since PDF is a more modern format, and books in DJVU are often of poor quality.

 
From the point of view of ease of use, the advantages of "book" formats are obvious: EPUB, FB2 or MOBI visually look better in the menu of your reader (book covers are displayed), it is more convenient to sort them (there are tags: author, title, genre), they take up much less memory  space and speed of the reader with such formats will be significantly higher.

 
Do I need support for all formats

 
In our opinion, it is not at all necessary to choose an all-format reader.  Many users who have readers with support for all formats download books in one or two types of files.  All readers (including multi-format ones), one way or another, have a basic format, and you will not end up exchanging them for others.  For Pocketbook, Onyx and Wexler, the main formats are FB2 or EPUB, for Barnes & Noble () and Sony - EPUB, for Kindle - MOBI.

 
In the case of Amazon and Barnes & Noble readers, if the desired book is in a format that these readers do not support, you can use a converter (for example, Caliber).  This is a program installed on a computer and allows you to convert the same FB2 to MOBI or EPUB in a matter of minutes.

 
Reading books in the reader's native format is better than using those installed on the reader additional programs...  Our tip: take a few minutes to convert a book, for example, from RTF to EPUB using the Caliber converter.  This is more convenient than reading it "in the original" using an additionally installed program (on a Sony PRS-T1 or Kindle) or running into a slower device (for example, on Pocketbook readers).

 
Remember that the main thing is the convenience of using the e-book, and not the number of formats declared in its parameters.

 
Enjoy reading!


It is the most popular in the world.  It is installed on about 85% of all mobile devices and about 60% of tablets.  Its openness allows many portable electronics developers to use it.  But the lack of uniform standardization has led to the fact that each manufacturer can release a slightly modified firmware based on Android.  More advanced models are equipped with a large number of codecs, respectively, they support more standards.  That is why it is not always clear what documents a particular gadget can work with and what video format Android supports.  We bring to your attention a hint.


Modern Android tablets work with most video and book formats


Video formats


Most people buy devices for surfing the World Wide Web and watching movies.  But sometimes the system gives an error "This video cannot be played on the device."  Even on the most budgetary tablets with an ancient version of Android, you can use the following formats:


  • 263 - 3GPP, MPEG-4, extensions 3gp, mp4.
    • 

  • 264 AVC - 3GPP, MPEG-TS, MPEG-4, extensions 3gp, mp4.
    • 

  • MPEG-4 SP - 3GPP, extension - 3gp.
    • 

Agree, this is quite a bit.  If mp4 is a modern format in which you can find enough films, then 3gp is hopelessly outdated.  But do not be alarmed, modern gadgets are able to play much more formats.  Popular tablet compositors guarantee support for the following video formats:


  • Samsung - H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, WMV, AVI, 3GP, ASF, WebM, MKV, FLV.
    • 

  • Nexus - H.264, MP4, H.263.
    • 

  • HTC - AVI, MPEG4, Xvid, WMV, 3GP, 3G2 H.263, H.264.
    • 

In most cases, this is sufficient.  If you see that your device does not support the downloaded movie, use a free one like Freemake Video Converter or Free MP4 Video Converter to convert the movie to a compatible Android video format.  Just select the Android conversion profile, resolution and quality of the file in the program menu, and then transfer the finished file to your tablet.


You can always convert videos to the format you want


But it is much more convenient to install the player to watch videos in any format.  There are enough of them, almost all of them are free.  The most popular and best are:


  • MX Player.
    • 

  • VLC for Android.
    • 

  • BSPlayer.
    • 

  • KMPlayer.
    • 




All of them use hardware and multi-core decoding, which allows you to use the full power of multi-core processors;  support work with subtitles, both embedded and external, in a variety of video and audio formats;  allow you to play network streams.  You can also easily control the video using gestures, change orientation, aspect ratio, scale, volume.  That is, there will be absolutely no problems with watching films.


Books


In the vast majority of cases, gadgets are not fully equipped.  Reading on a tablet is undoubtedly very convenient, thanks to the rather large screen and the light weight of the device.  But then in what format to download books on Android?  Most of today's book content is in PDF and EPUB formats.  Sometimes, especially in the Russian-speaking segment global network, there are formats FB2, TXT, RTF, DJVU.  Let's consider them in more detail.


  • PDF is perhaps the most popular book format for Android.  Allows you to colorfully design a book, has a built-in table of contents, you can make notes, highlight text in different colors.  The main drawback is that it is impossible to adjust the size of the text and fit it to the screen size.  In addition, the files are quite large.
    • 

  • EPUB is an increasingly popular book format.  It is, by and large, an archive with content.  The structure of the document resembles a web page.  Used in documents where the text is the main one.  But at the same time, you can embed photo, video, sound.  Has a table of contents and internal links to the text.  A huge advantage is the ability to change the font, its size, hyphenation, page margins, thus adapting the view to any screen size.
    • 

  • FB2 is a somewhat outdated, but still famous format on the Runet.  Supports table of contents, you can change the font size to fit any screen.
    • 

  • TXT is a plain text document.  Supports neither tables of contents nor text changes.  But it has the smallest file size.
    • 

  • RTF is a text document, somewhat reminiscent of a Microsoft Word text document.
    • 

  • DJVU - scanned image files.  Allows you to convey all the authenticity of historical documents.  Like PDF, it doesn't allow fonts to fit on screen.
    • 

Android supports all the most popular text formats


What text formats does Android support besides the listed ones?  There can be an incredible number of them, for example, UMD, CHM, MOBI, PDB, TCR.  They are very rare, but they can sometimes occur.  How to read them?  You can convert them to EPUB or PDF, but there is a chance to install a normal reader and not rack your brains with the conversion.  Consider popular e-book readers.


  • Books - a book store built into Android 4 and older.  Allows you to download and buy books in the Play Store, add your own through the phone's file manager.  You cannot change the font size, the width of the margins, the brightness of the screen, you cannot even manually turn on the night mode.
    • 

  • Moon + Reader.  Can read epub, pdf fb2, chm, mobi, umd, cbr, cbz, html, txt, rar, zip files.
    • 

  • Cool Reader.  Supports fb2, epub, mobi, html, txt, rtf, doc, tcr, prc, chm, pdb, pml.
    • 

  • FB Reader.  Reading books in fb2, fbzip, epub, azw, txt, rtf, html formats.  Allowed to install PDF and Djvu modules.
    • 




The last three readers are able to change the size, width of the fields, have deep settings for the appearance.  There is also a manual activation of the night mode.  Choose the one that you like the most.


Conclusion


Now you know what video standards and what book format Android supports.  The system is open, there are many free programs in Play Market.  We advise you to install a universal player and reader.  Also in the comments we are waiting for your tips on applications not mentioned in the article.

Today, you can download books in a huge number of formats, but you need to know in what format to download books on android better? 
Features of downloading books to android in any format

Users who download books on Android often have a problem with the ease of reading.  Today there are a huge number of popular formats for downloading e-books, namely: doc, djvu, djvu, txt, fb2, epub, rtf and others.  It is quite difficult to understand all their diversity, especially in the absence of a significant visible difference in formats.  Many users prefer to use fb2 because this format is best suited for reading books.  In addition, pictures are perfectly visible in it, the text is well-formatted and easy to leaf through.  In the absence of this format, it is better to download books in doc or txt formats, since some programs for reading books cannot support files of this type.
You can install several readers on your mobile device that support different formats (convenience of choice). 
When downloading texts, some problems may arise, for example, they either do not open, or are almost invisible.
Most devices with android have small screens, therefore, it is more rational to choose a format taking into account its scalability.  Number of file formats per mobile phone not very large (in comparison with specialized devices).
The most common formats for downloading books on Android

So in what format is it most convenient to download books on Android?  There are some common types of files that are available for offline reading and are not subject to the worldwide web: epub and pdf.
The advantage of the epub format is that it automatically adjusts the text for different screen sizes.  Epub files are up to several megabytes in size. 
But for individual books on Play Google, only the popular pdf format may be available.  Such files are usually larger than the rest, they can reach one hundred megabytes (depending on the size and content of the e-book).  Disadvantages of the format: the text cannot be adjusted to the device on which the book is read accordingly.  The text of such a file is difficult to read on a small screen.
However, in practice, everything is much simpler and, using special applications, other formats can also be read on android.  All of them are united by the fact that the formats are not suitable for reading on small screens.  In addition, to read books, you need to install a special application.


MP4 is by far the most popular format played on mobile devices.  MP4 came to replace 3GP and got its distribution thanks to the improved video compression ratio, the MP3 track used, the ability to store various metadata.  If you're going to upload videos to the Internet, MP4 can be most easily streamed over an Internet connection and is supported by most video storage services.  The format is also supported by most popular players, and codecs for playback are included in the base package of any operating system and firmware.
The MP4 video file can be played on the computer immediately after reinstalling the operating system.  The format can be played on portable players, car video recorders, televisions and any other electronics designed to reproduce images.  However, it is worth noting that the video saved in the MP4 format may be of slightly poorer quality than some other formats, but for mobile devices this fact is an advantage, since, due to their small size, the files can fit even on small removable media.  ...
AVI is one of the most popular video compression formats.  It is supported by any operating system and has gained its popularity due to the high quality of the resulting image.  Despite the fact that the average AVI file is quite large, the format is still supported by most players on mobile devices and platforms.  The disadvantage of the format is the impossibility of launching it in the absence of codecs preinstalled in the system.  However, this problem can be easily solved both on computers and on phones, tablets, players and other portable electronics.
MKV differs from other compression methods in its structure.  The format is structurally a container that can store almost any information, various tracks with subtitles, audio tracks, chapters, interactive menus, bookmarks, etc.  At the same time, the MKV video file is open source and, if desired, can be easily opened and converted in various editors.  MKV is a good choice for professionals who often work with video files on both computers and modern mobile devices.  The format is capable of storing video and audio with virtually no loss in quality.  However, due to the low compression ratio of the video track, the size of the final MKV file is on average higher than that of other formats, and additional codecs must be installed to play this type of video.  Nevertheless, there are a number of mobile and computer players that allow video playback.




Literature lovers often face a problem when the downloaded file does not open, because its encoding is not supported by the device.  To avoid this, let's figure out which book format for Android will be suitable and most convenient for reading.


What are the book formats for Android


Let's consider what formats of e-books 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 people have heard of it in more distant foreign countries.  Readers choose FB2 due to the following advantages:


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

  • Support for illustrations and images.  FB2 editions have a cover and pictures along the way (if any);
    • 



  • Such a book will not 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.  This way they take up less space on the device.  Most "readers" open books directly from the archived source, which is also the advantage of Friction Book.


Epub


The main competitor of Friction Book in the domestic market is EPUB.  The functionality is not much different from the format described above.  There is also support for illustrations, text structuring, quick page navigation 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 Internet storages and users' devices.




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


MOBI


The format was developed by the French firm Mobipocket for Amazon.  MOBI is used in all applications and software from Amazon, so its range of use is very limited.  Nevertheless, the format is not inferior to EPUB and FB2 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 files of a different type is simply impossible.  For example, DJVU are 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 "tough" for your program.  Due to their specificity, books of this type are not always supported by phone readers.


Book reading apps


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 reading programs:


  • CoolReader.  It boasts the widest range of supported extensions (FB2, EPUB, txt, doc, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, prc, mobi, pml).  The program is easy to operate, while it is extremely convenient for reading any text documents;
    • 



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




  • Moon + Reader.  Presented on Google Play by paid and free versions.  Wide format support, an easy-to-use interface and a search system - these are the distinctive features of the program.
    • 




Less popular, but not lagging behind the "flagships" in functionality are the programs Aldiko, ZXReader, Bookmate and others.


The format of books that Android supports (tablet, smartphone, etc.) is determined by the applications installed on the device with this operating system.  However, there are the most common formats electronic publications, which, in fact, are the focus of application developers.
In this article we will consider which book format is supported by "Android 4" and other versions of this OS, what characterizes these formats and in which of them it is preferable to download literary works to the device.
FB2
FB stands for FictionBook.  It is one of the most popular e-book formats.  In honor of him, a reader for "Android" - FBReader - which, in addition to the above, opens other files, is even named.
Fb2 text is formatted using XML markup, that is, it is described with tags.  This is what ensures the compatibility of the format with various devices, and also assumes the ease of creating, transferring and storing books.  Unsurprisingly, it is so popular with users.
In addition to the specified reader ,.fb2 also opens Cool Reader, Monn + Reader, ALReader without any problems.
EPUB

The Electronic Publication format is actively promoted by Adobe, and very successfully.  It is a zipped file of edition data generated from XML markup of the text of the book itself (HTML tags or PDF).  All additional materials such as illustrations, formulas and tables are also stored in separate files.  In this way, similar publications are provided on completely different devices.  "Android" is, of course, among them.
Interestingly, EPUB has copyright protection.  On the Android system, it can be opened with the already mentioned CoolReader, the well-known FBReader and the Aldiko Book Reader.
TXT
The TXT format is a simple text file (even the name itself is decoded accordingly).  On the Windows operating system, you can create one in Notepad, a standard application.  This provides the main advantage of the format - it can be opened by almost everyone.  But for e-books in the TXT format there is also a major drawback: the formatting of the publication is lost, since a text file is just a sequence of characters.
But TXT is an absolute answer to the question of which book format Android supports (without installing additional applications) Most likely, by default, such a book will open in the browser.  But readers like FBReader can do it too.
HTM
This format is based on HTML markup.  In fact, the book in this extension is hypertext.  Unlike TXT, there are more options for including illustrations and insertion of various objects.  By the way, this is another format that does not require additional applications (although readers are happy to open it).  HTML is common when creating web pages, so the * htm book will open in Google Chrome, a standard browser, or any other downloaded web surfing program.
RTF

The meaning of this format can be literally translated as "rich text".  On Windows, it opens with WordPad and regular office Word.  The same analogs of programs can be used on Android.  However, prudent developers take rtf into account when creating programs, allowing them to open it.
RTF is the next rung after TXT, using simple meta tagging.  Most support import into it.
On Android, this format opens with CoolReader (users note that the application does not do it quite correctly), Foliant, NOOK for Android.
Finally
As you can see, in essence, the question of what format of books supports "Android" can be safely answered "any widespread".  There are countless readers for this operating system, a certain number are released from time to time, and proven products have support for updates to open more and more diverse formats.


It is not very convenient to read books in electronic form on a computer.  To make this process comfortable, special programs (readers) are created with different capabilities and features that minimize discomfort and eye strain.  This is important for those users who do not have a tablet or e-books (special small devices for reading like a tablet).  Today we will take a look at the well-known and most frequently downloaded programs for Windows 10.


Windows 10 book reading tools: picking the best
The choice of programs for reading literature on Windows 10 PCs is quite wide, despite the fact that many utilities have headed for the mobile operating systems Android and iOS.  Today we will choose best options that offer maximum possibilities, free use and a clear interface.
ICE Book Reader Professional: powerful modern book reader with library
The ICE Book Reader Professional service does not have very many competitors in terms of the number of functions.  This free Russian language reader with many fine tuning, which set it apart from the general background of similar programs, allows:
The program window can be easily customized for yourself: select the background color, the text itself, general theme design, put automatic spacing and much more.  The software can also read books for you and run files with a wide variety of extensions, including lit, chm, epub and others.
 
 ICE Book Reader Professional service offers a convenient mechanism for searching books in your library 
It is better to download the utility installer from.
Video: what is ICE Book Reader Professional software
 
Caliber: a functional reader for almost all book formats
The Caliber utility is a very handy tool for reading fiction, textbooks, documents, magazines and more.  The reader not only launches files with a wide variety of extensions (for example, epub, fb2, doc, pdf and others) on your screen, but also converts them, that is, converts one format to another.  Book management is as convenient as in ICE Book Reader Professional.  It also allows you to customize the interface for yourself.
What other advantages does this software have:

The program has two drawbacks: the lack of the ability to automatically place soft hyphens after conversion, and the conversion itself is rather slow.
Video: Caliber - convert and sync books between computer and e-book
 
AlReader: a simple reader that does not need to be installed on a PC
Unfortunately, a Russian-language tool called AlReader cannot boast of wide functionality.  Nevertheless, it has everything you need for reading: support for fb2, rtf, epub, odt and others formats, as well as customizing the interface (background color, graphic themes, text style and brightness, hyphenation, indentation, etc.).  In the books opened with this program, the user can make as many bookmarks as he wants.  The utility also remembers the page on which you finished reading the last time.
In the software window you can also:

A huge plus of this reader is that it does not need to be installed on a computer.  You just download the file from the official site, and then launch it - the program will be immediately ready to use.
EPUBReader: comfortable reading of epub files
The name of the program speaks for itself: it is intended only for reading files in epub format.  The advantage of this format is that it takes up little space on the medium, but is capable of displaying tables, fancy fonts, and vector graphics.  The EPUBReader tool also changes the format of the books (converts) the epub to pdf, html or txt.  The utility was developed by FreeSmart.  The program can be installed not only on Windows 10, but also on Android smartphones and Apple devices.
 
 It is convenient to navigate through the sections of the book in the EPUBReader window 
In EPUBReader, you can quickly jump from section to section thanks to easy navigation in the left column of the window, as well as adjust the font and text scale.  The functionality of the program is not as wide as that of ICE Book Reader Professional or Caliber, but this is compensated by a convenient and intuitive interface.  If you only need to open epub files, this reader is a great option for you.
The reading tool must be downloaded from.
FBReader: a handy tool with access to network libraries
If you want a versatile yet simple tool for reading books of various formats, take a closer look at FBReader.  This tool opens epub, mobi, fb2, html, rtf, plucker, chm and more files.
The utility has access to network libraries.  In some of them, you can download books of various topics and genres for free.  There are also paid libraries - the FBReader tool allows you to buy books there, that is, you will not need to go to the seller's website separately.
All added books are distributed to the shelves automatically according to the genre and the author's name.  FBReader has a clear and user-friendly interface that even a beginner who knows nothing can understand.  In the window, you can customize the background color, font, page-flipping method, etc.
This tool also has a drawback: it does not provide a two-page mode.
 
 Books can be added to FBReader from online libraries 
You can download this handy reader from the official website.
Video: How to Use FBReader
 
LightLib: reading books from Librusek
The LightLib utility is both a librarian and a reader, as stated on the official resource of this program, from which you can download the installer.
The main features of this tool:
  1. Opens literature in formats such as fb2, epub, rtf and txt.  It can also run zip archives.
  2. Converts fb2 files.
  3. Shows the contents of folders on drives.
  4. Has access to the Librusek and Flibusta collections.
  5. Allows you to view all the images of the book with the ability to go to the page of the book on which the picture is located.
    6. 

In addition, as in any other reader, in LightLib you can configure appearance windows, as well as preview the book and add files to the Favorites folder.
 
 LightLib is both a library and a reader 
Cool Reader: functional tool with the option to unpack files from the archive
Cool Reader is one of the most user-friendly e-readers.  She takes care of your eyes with the following options:
  • smoothing and changing fonts;
  • setting up a textured background;
  • smooth scrolling.
    • 

In addition to reading most book formats (txt, doc, fb2, rtf, epub and others), the utility can also:

You can download the program on Windows 10 from.
Video: how to install Cool Reader
 
Adobe Reader: classic pdf reader
It's hard to find a user who hasn't heard the Adobe Reader utility as it is the most popular tool for reading and viewing pdf files.  It is suitable not only for documents, but also for reading fiction, textbooks and magazines.
The following options are available in the program:

Download the utility installer from the official site.
DjVuViewer: simple djvu reader tool
The DjVuViewer utility is one of the standard tools for opening djvu files.  This format is better than pdf in that it saves space in the PC memory due to better file compression.  The program has the following advantages:

The file tool can be downloaded from its official page.
Foxit Reader: Alternative to Adobe Reader
Like Adobe Reader, Foxit is designed to view and read pdf documents and books.  Its advantage is that the installation requires much less hard disk space.  In addition to reading, here you can also:

The program is available for download on the official website.
Video: where to download Foxit Reader and how to install it
 
ICE Book Reader Professional, Caliber and Cool Reader are considered one of the most functional readers today.  They not only allow you to read text in a comfortable environment and minimize the risk of impairing your eyesight, but also convert files into the formats you need, provide access to extensive databases.  Simpler, but no less good, are LightLib, FBReader and AlReader.  In addition, there are readers for one format, for example, EPUBReader or Adobe Reader.  Choose a tool based on the file formats you download for reading.



    
 

    
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