About ebooks
Ebooks are 'electronic books'. They can exist in several digital file formats and the most common one is the PDF format. As well as text, they often include pictures and can also include audio and video (usually an internet connection is needed with audio and video).
Other formats include EPUB and EXE format which are briefly explained here alsoPDF stands for Portable Document Format and has a .pdf file extension. Computer software programs can interpret and display .pdf files to the computer screen where the contents (words and images) can be seen and in some cases edited and usually a printed paper copy can be made if required.
Ebooks are produced using computer software. The content is normally produced and saved using wordprocessing software (eg MS Office or OpenOffice software programs) and then can be converted to PDF format by PDF printing software. The PDF document can generally be used on many types of computer (ie PC Mac and other) that can use different Operating systems (Windows, Apple Mac & Linux distros).
A very popular and free PDF Reader program is Adobe Reader. Many computers and internet browsers have this included as a standard program. It is available as a free program from www.adobe.com (click the hyperlink to go to the Adobe wesite) and follow the link to download & install the free Acrobat Reader.
There are other PDF viewer programs available, another one being 'Foxit' PDF reader available from www.foxitsoftware.com
Again follow the download link there for the free Foxit PDF reader.This is a picture to show how an ebook displays on the computer screen in PDF format using Adobe Acrobat reader:
This shows as a 2 page display view.
Adobe also have a free Digital Edition PDF software program.There is another format ebooks can be used with and that is as a standalone ebook program often called an ebook 'exe'.
The other format to mention here is the EPUB format. The .epub is a standard for eBooks created by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
Again there are several software programs that EPUB ebooks can be viewed with eg Adobe Digital Editions and Sony Readers
Yet another format is DjVu (explained on the DjVu website as 'DjVu (pronounced "déjà vu") is a digital document format with advanced compression technology and high performance value').
One of the latest ebook readers is the Amazon Kindle