An e-book (short for electronic book, also written eBook or ebook), also known as a digital book, is an e-text that forms the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book, sometimes restricted with a digital rights management system. E-books are usually read on dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices.
Some personal computers and cell phones can also be used, especially to read documents in pdf format. Download ebooks free from our website today!
Comparison of e-books with printed books
Advantages
- An e-book can be purchased, downloaded and used immediately, whereas when one buys a book one has to go to a bookshop, or wait for a delivery.
- There are over 2 million free books available for download as of August 2009.
- Educational text books (e-textbooks) can be distributed at a lower cost than print versions per student.
- Second generation e-books (and color e-readers) have motion capability.
- e-Books can be printed for less than the price of traditional new books using new on demand book printers.
- Text can be searched automatically and cross-referenced using hyperlinks.
- A single e-reader containing several books is easier to carry around (less weight and volume) than the same books (or sometimes even a single book) in printed form. Even hundreds or thousands of books may be stored on the same device. Using removable media even more can be carried around easily.
- Also at a fixed place such as at home it can be an advantage that an e-book collection requires very little space.
- Mobile availability of e-books may be provided for users with a mobile data connection, so that these e-books need not be carried around.
- E-books can allow non-permanent highlighting and annotation.
- Font size and font face can be adjusted.
- E-books may allow animated images or multimedia clips to be embedded.
- Depending on the device an e-book may be readable in low light or even total darkness. For devices for which this applies, energy consumption for reading without daylight is less than that of a lamp needed for reading a printed book.
- An e-book can automatically open at the last read page.
- Text-to-speech software can be used to read the text. However, the voice will be auto-generated, thus the quality worse than audiobooks.
- An e-book can be offered indefinitely, without ever going "out of print".
- Depending on possible digital rights management, it may be easy and cheap to produce a back-up for the case that the e-book is lost or damaged, and/or it may be possible to get a free new copy if that happens.
- It is easier for authors to self-publish e-books.
- cal-align: middle;">A free e-book can stimulate the sales of the printed version.
- The production of e-books does not consume paper, ink, etc. Printed books use 3 times more raw materials and 78 times more water to produce
Drawbacks
- Reading e-books requires an electronic device and software. Even in the case of reading it on a personal computer one already has, it may require additional software.
- A small paperback is easier to carry around than a typical e-book reader.
- E-book readers require electrical power; in the case of mobile use, the battery can get exhausted.
- E-book readers are more susceptible to drop damage.
- E-book readers can malfunction and e-books can be damaged due to faults in hardware or software.
- E-book readers are more likely to be stolen than paper books.
- Depending on the device an e-book may be difficult to read in bright sunlight.
- Most publishers don't produce the e-book equivalent of their printed books. In other cases the product quality is lower or it is released later.
- E-books can be easily hacked through the use of hardware or software modifications and widely disseminated on the Internet and/or other e-book readers, without approval from the author or publisher. This ease of piracy is a significant drawback for publishers.
- If an e-book device is stolen, lost, or broken beyond repair, all e-books stored on the device may be lost (Although this may be avoided by backups either on another device or by the e-book provider).
- There is a loss of tactility and aesthetics of book-bindings. Also lost is the ability to very quickly riffle through the pages to search for a particular section or to get a sense of the book merely by sight.
- Screen resolution of reading devices is currently lower than actual paper.
- Due to the digital rights management, customers cannot resell or loan their e-books to other readers.
- Some books available as e-book cannot be read on some e-book readers because they are not supplied in a format those readers allow.
- While printed books remain readable for ages, changing technologies and less durable electronic storage media require e-books to be copied to a new carrier after some years.
- E-book readers require various substances to produce, and are an environmental hazard as they're non-biodegradable.
- Physical discomfort for some users, including eye strain.
- More expensive, compared to used books.
- One will never read thousands of books really well or over a short period of time, so the high amount held on an ebook reader becomes irrelevant (Though it might be useful if the ebook is used as a reference library).
- Some E-book formats cannot be easily backed up. If a book is accidentally lost or deleted, you must repurchase the book.
- A book is safe from electromagnetic pulses and overloads.