What are the formats of e-books? E-book formats: what is it and what format to choose

Digitization or conversion of analog, paper and other media into digital form, available for recording on electronic media, is becoming an increasingly popular and affordable operation.

Thanks to the latest computer technology, it is possible to digitize almost any media - photographs, video cassettes, old vinyl records, and of course books.

Agree, how convenient it is - there is no need for additional storage space for books, their pages never turn yellow, they cannot be accidentally stained, digital books will not be torn by naughty kids, and most importantly, they are so small that several thousand literary works can be stored on flash card the size of a thumbnail.
You can easily take such a library with you wherever you go, to work, to visit or on vacation, all you need is a laptop, mobile phone or a special device for reading e-books, which can be purchased without any problems at any computer store. technology.
Creating such an e-book or as they say ebook is very simple. To do this, you need a quality scanner and OCR software.

The next step is to recognize the digital image of the page, and the resulting text can be saved in both more familiar formats and special ones, such as .fb2, .lit or .prc.

Converting a graphic image of text into an editable format is usually done using programs such as Nuance OmniPage Professional, ABBYY FineReader, or similar.

To date, the most common e-book formats are the familiar .pdf, .djvu, .rtf or doc. Other, but also quite well-known to the mass user formats are a little less common. These can be attributed .txt, .docx, .chm, .exe, .odt, .dot, .dotx. As a rule, most users do not have problems with opening these formats, and therefore let's move on to the consideration of e-book formats, which are used much less often. And let's start with the most famous of them. fb2.

FB2

(FictionBook) - A fairly simple, open and convenient format based on XML, created by Russian developers. Books in this format are easily converted, can contain images, and are lightweight.

You can open this format using AllReader, AlReader2, ICE Book Reader or Cool Reader. And besides, you can create a book in this format yourself using the htmlDocs2fb2 program. Unfortunately, this program only successfully processes html or xml files, so you will need to convert the desired file into a web page first.

LIT

Closed format from Microsoft. You can open it with a special program MS Reader. To convert to a more convenient format, you can use the Convert LIT program or visit the specialized website www.online-convert.com, where you can convert to any readable format.

R.B.

Quite rare and currently almost unused format. It was designed to read Rocket Book e-books.

ePub

Open digital book format. In fact, it is an archive containing xHTML, HTML, PDF, XML texts, as well as graphic images. You can open this marvel with Cool Reader, AlReader, and if you wish, convert it to another format that suits you.

BBeB

Format developed by Sony for Sony Librie and Sony Reader devices. Occurs as .LRF, .LRS, .LRX. Opened with Sony Reader Library, Caliber, Book Designer or converted. But as a rule, these formats are very rare.

PRC, TCR

- Also quite rare formats, specially designed for communicators "Palm" and "Psion". On a computer, files of this format can be successfully viewed with ICE Book Reader Professional.

PDB (PalmDOC, AportisDoc)

Format developed for Palm OS. Essentially, a PDB is a simple database file. Most often it can be found on smartphones running the Symbian 9 operating system. To view it on a phone, use the DC Co iSilo program, but on a PC, you can try to open it using ICE Book Reader Professional or DjVuReader, although in this case there may be problems with encoding .

TR (ToRaTRPW)

Another rare format. A distinctive feature of the .TR format is the ability to index text, which is why the TR format is sometimes used in compiling catalogs of digital books. Files of this format are opened by the program Tome Raider.

iSilo

e-book format used on handheld computers. By the way, the program with which you can read files with this extension is called iSilo, although it only works on PDAs.

MOBI

Mobipocket e-book files. To view .MOBI files, use Mobipocket Reader, Book Designer, Amazon Kindle for PC.

All of the listed formats are quite rare, and by the way, this is by no means a complete list. Most of these formats are used when creating e-books for mobile devices: phones, smartphones and other "handhelds", as well as for special portable "readers".

Such devices (readers), unlike conventional PCs and laptops, are more convenient and practical; . electronic ink, so reading from such a screen does not tire the eyes.

It is simply impossible not to appreciate the advantages of e-books in our digital age. But even despite such wonderful opportunities, let's not forget about the paper editions we are used to, it will still be sad if someday they disappear from store shelves and turn into another piece of antiques.

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 it to be used by many developers of portable electronics. But the lack of a unified standardization has led to the fact that each manufacturer can release slightly modified firmware based on Android. More advanced models are equipped with a large number of codecs, respectively, 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 you 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 budget tablets with an ancient version of Android, you can use the following formats:

  • 263 - 3GPP, MPEG-4, 3gp, mp4 extensions.
  • 264 AVC - 3GPP, MPEG-TS, MPEG-4, 3gp, mp4 extensions.
  • MPEG-4 SP - 3GPP, extension - 3gp.

Agree, this is quite a bit. If mp4 is a modern format in which you can find enough movies, then 3gp is hopelessly outdated. But do not be afraid, modern gadgets can play much more formats. Popular tablet builders 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 file quality in the program menu, then transfer the finished file to the tablet.

You can always convert the video to the desired format

But it is much more convenient to install a player to watch videos in any format. There are plenty 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 working with subtitles, both built-in and external, in a variety of video and audio formats; allow playback of network streams. You can also easily control the video with gestures, change the orientation, aspect ratio, zoom, volume. That is, there will be absolutely no problems with watching movies.

Books

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

  • PDF is perhaps the most popular book format for Android. It 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 disadvantage is that it is impossible to adjust the text size 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 text is primary. But at the same time, you can embed photos, videos, sound. It has a table of contents and internal links to the text. A huge advantage is the ability to change the font, its size, hyphenation, the width of the page margins, thus adapting the view to any screen size.
  • FB2 is a somewhat outdated, but still famous format in Runet. Supports a table of contents, you can change the font size to fit any screen.
  • TXT is a plain text document. Does not support any table of contents or 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 the entire authenticity of historical documents. Like PDF, it does not allow fonts to fit the screen size.

Android supports all the most popular text formats

What text formats does Android support other than those listed? There can be an incredible number of them, for example, UMD, CHM, MOBI, PDB, TCR. They are very rare, but can sometimes be found. 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 Market, add your own through the phone's file manager. You can not change the font size, field width, screen brightness, you can not 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. Support for 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. It is allowed to install modules PDF and Djvu.


The last three readers are able to change the size, width of the fields, have deep appearance settings. It also has a manual night mode. Choose from them the one that you like the most.

Conclusion

Now you know which video standards and which book format Android supports. The system is open, there are many free programs in the Play Market. We advise you to install a universal player and reader. Also in the comments we are waiting for your advice about 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 it is better?

Features of downloading books on Android in any format

Users downloading books on Android often have a problem in the convenience of reading it. 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 it is convenient to flip 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 Android devices have small screen sizes, therefore, it is more rational to choose a format taking into account its scalability. The number of file formats on a mobile phone is not very large (compared to specialized devices).

The most common formats for downloading books on Android

So in what format is it most convenient to download books for android? There are some common types of files that are available for offline reading and are not subject to the World Wide Web: epub and pdf.

The advantage of the epub format is the automatic text adjustment for different screen sizes. Epub files are up to several megabytes in size.
But for individual books on Google Play, 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 volume and contents 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 are read on Android. What they all have in common is 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 gained popularity due to the improved degree of video compression, the MP3 track used, and the ability to store various meta-data. If you're going to upload a video to the internet, MP4 can be most easily streamed over an internet connection and is supported by most video storage services. Also, the format is supported by most popular players, and codecs for playback are included in the basic package of any operating system and firmware.

An MP4 video file can be played on a computer immediately after reinstalling the operating system. The format can be played on portable players, car VCRs, TVs and any other electronics designed for displaying images. However, it is worth noting that videos saved in MP4 format may be of slightly lower quality than some other formats, but for mobile devices this fact is an advantage, because due to their small size, 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. Although 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 pre-installed codecs in the system. However, this problem is 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, an interactive menu, 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 both on computers and on 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 larger than that of other formats, and additional codecs must be installed to play this type of video. However, there are a number of mobile and computer players that allow video playback.

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 files of a different type 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. 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 manage, while being extremely convenient for reading any text documents;

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


  • Moon+Reader. Presented in Google Play paid and free version. Wide format support, easy-to-use interface and search system are the distinguishing features of the program.


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

The format of books supported by Android (tablet, smartphone, etc.) is determined by the applications installed on the device with this operating system. Nevertheless, there are the most common formats of electronic publications, which, in fact, application developers are guided by.

In this article, we will look at which book format Android 4 and other versions of this OS support, how these formats are characterized, and in which one it is preferable to download literary works to a device.

FB2

FB stands for FictionBook. It is one of the most popular e-book formats. In honor of him, even the reader for "Android" - FBReader - is named, which, in addition to the above, opens other files.

Text with the .fb2 extension is formatted using XML markup, that is, it is described by tags. This is what ensures the compatibility of the format with various devices, and also implies the ease of creating, transferring and storing books. No wonder it is so popular among users.

In addition to the specified .fb2 reader, it 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 an archived edition data file created from XML markup, 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. This ensures similar publications on completely different devices. "Android", of course, is among them.

Interestingly, EPUB has copyright protections in place. On the Android system, it can be opened with the already mentioned CoolReader, the well-known FBReader and Aldiko Book Reader.

TXT

The TXT format is a simple text file (even the name itself is decrypted accordingly). On the Windows operating system, this can be created 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 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 what book format Android supports (without installing additional applications). Most likely, by default, such a book will also open in the browser. But readers like FBReader can do it too.

HTM

This format is based on HTML markup. In fact, a book in such an extension is hypertext. Unlike TXT, it provides more opportunities 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 in the creation of web pages, so an *htm book will open in Google Chrome, a standard browser, or any other downloaded web surfing program.

RTF


Literally, you can translate the value of this format as "enriched text". In Windows, it opens with WordPad and regular office Word. The same analogues 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 step after TXT, using simple meta tag markup. Most support importing into it.

On Android, this format is opened by CoolReader (users note that the application does not do this quite correctly), Foliant, NOOK for Android.

Finally

As you can see, in essence, to the question of what format of books Android supports, you can safely answer "any common". Readers for this operating system are countless, a nth number are released from time to time, and proven products have update support to open more and more diverse formats.

Almost all the people who ask me for advice on choosing one or another reading device ask questions about e-book formats - which is better and why. In this article, I will answer these questions in great detail; I will consider both formats for reading fiction, and formats for reading technical, scientific and educational literature.

Fiction

There are the following formats in which you can find fiction on the Internet: TXT, RTF, FB2, EPUB, MOBI, DOC, PDF, DJVU. I must say right away that it is better to buy / download books in EPUB, FB2 or MOBI. It is these formats that are most suitable for reading fiction.

PDF and DJVU formats are too heavy and inconvenient; often the text in them is actually a picture, that is, only the entire page can be scaled, but not the font size itself. On reading devices (readers), books in PDF and DJVU are sometimes not displayed very well: letters can be very small; text is hard to read.

The TXT and RTF formats are devoid of such shortcomings, but they have other disadvantages: the text in TXT cannot be formatted at all, that is, headings, epigraphs, quotes will not stand out in any way; moreover, covers, pictures and tables are not supported in TXT. This is a very poor, simple format. In RTF, of course, formatting options are richer, but even here there are shortcomings: automatically collected tables of contents and footnotes are not supported. In addition, RTF files are usually quite large, and some readers do not always display them correctly.

The DOC format (and its variant DOCX) is great for complex documents, but it is not suitable for fiction: it is too cumbersome, complicated; DOC documents often display differently on different devices.

It's quite another thing - a trio of specialized formats, sharpened specifically for fiction: EPUB, MOBI, FB2 (and its variant FB2.ZIP). These formats are based on the so-called "floating layout", which allows you to change the size, typeface, line spacing and margin width. At the same time, these formats support pictures, tables, an auto-assembled table of contents, footnotes, and many other things. Reading books in FB2/FB2.ZIP, EPUB, MOBI is really pleasant and comfortable.

Of course, there are certain differences between these formats, but for beginners they are not significant. Although it is worth noting that on the Russian-language Internet there are most books in FB2, in EPUB - already less, and in MOBI - even less.

The final choice of format also depends on your reader: with some format it may work better, with some worse. This is where you need to experiment. In addition, there are devices that support only one of the three formats. For example, the Amazon Kindle only reads MOBI, and the B&N Nook only reads EPUB.

You can read more about the FB2 format, about EPUB -, about MOBI -.

Scientific, technical and educational literature

Everything is more complicated here: this kind of literature is usually distributed in PDF, DJVU, DOC (DOCX) formats, each of which, as I noted earlier, has certain drawbacks. Sometimes it is still complicated by the fact that some books are available in only one format, and sometimes only in one version.

The DOC format, in principle, is not so bad - in comparison with PDF / DJVU. Reading books on a computer is more or less comfortable. Things are worse with reading devices: some readers display it almost like bare text, excluding a number of illustrations, tables, formulas, and so on. Others display more like a picture: design elements are shown, but you cannot change the font size and typeface, which sometimes turns into a disaster on a small screen.

PDF. There are three variants of this format: text, graphic ("picture") and graphic ("picture") with an OCR layer. The first option is the most preferred: it can contain all formatting elements, and the text remains scalable. In the case of an image PDF, the text is just a picture that can only be enlarged in its entirety; font size cannot be changed. Graphical PDFs are therefore very difficult to read on devices with small screens.

Sometimes an OCR layer is overlaid on the pages of image PDFs using text recognition software. In a PDF book with an OCR layer, you can search, use a dictionary. This is a good option. But, again, not all reading devices “see” this OCR layer. And it does not allow you to increase the font size. Therefore, the OCR layer is often useless.

The DJVU format generally resembles a graphical PDF: it's usually just a collection of scans or photos from a paper book. The quality of these scans/photos can be just terrible, or it can be quite decent. Sometimes an OCR layer is superimposed on scans / photos using a text recognition program. In a DJVU book with an OCR layer, you can search, use a dictionary. This is a good option. But, again, not all reading devices “see” this OCR layer, and it will not allow increasing the font size. Therefore, often the OCR layer is practically useless.

To summarize: the most preferred format for reading scientific / technical / educational literature is text PDF, I would put DOC in second place, graphic PDF and DJVU with an OCR layer in third. The last place is occupied by image PDFs and DJVUs without an OCR layer.

Documents, spreadsheets and presentations

Most of the documents, spreadsheets and presentations are distributed in MS Office formats: DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX. These formats are very functional, but, unfortunately, rather "cumbersome" and very "closed" (in other words, it is rather difficult for third-party developers to create a program for reading files in these formats). Therefore, some devices do not support them. You have to convert documents to PDF.

Converting a document / table / presentation to PDF is very easy: any decent text / spreadsheet editor can do it. In addition, you can use some kind of converter: you can find a list of them.

If the document is simple, and the main thing in it is text, then it is better to convert it not to PDF, but to FB2 - so it will be read on the reader with great comfort. See the list of relevant converters.

Enjoy reading!

I all like the reader for smartphones-tablets Cool Reader, but recently it has become annoying to re-install important parameters for me when resetting the device. And another accidental press switches the paging mode to the scroll mode.

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

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

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

For testing, I chose several readers:

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

  1. The first impression and how easy it is to figure out how to manage.
  2. Brightness control, navigation
  3. Quick access to functionality
  4. Quick 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’ll say that I installed it right away and I like everything not 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. Knows everything and even more. The disadvantage 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 ones are easier.

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

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

My rating: 5- for slightly confusing settings, difficulty with selection mode (needs to be configured or accessed through the menu first) and old-fashioned interface.

reader eBoox new has a nice interface. Almost everything is intuitive. 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 button. The application does not roam the smartphone on its own in search of books.

Management is minimal. The settings are enough. Access to most through the menu. The minus was the fine control of rewind and the lack of transition to a specific page. The app settings are sufficient and intuitive. Calling up the settings is by tapping (pressing) in the center of the screen. It is convenient to select and share a piece of text. Brightness is controlled through a menu rather than a 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 can not add cloud storage, alas.

- similar to eBoox new reader for books.

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

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

One of the most famous applications boasts settings comparable in number to those of Cool Readera.

An interesting feature that other applications do not have is sending a book to a friend. Your book in the form of an .epub file or another is sent with one click in a messenger or in a social network dialog.

My rating: 4+ for the lack of scanning and bookshelf (available in the paid version).

Another famous application is Moon + Reader.

The app is reminiscent of eBoox: fb2 epub book reader and ReadEra is a book reader. There is a bookshelf, but a lot of advertising. The menu is organized from several blocks, which is not very convenient. Broad functionality in this case is just a hindrance.

Based on the results of my acquaintance with the applications, I decided to keep ReadEra for myself and will use it instead of Cool Readera. Let's see what happens.


(3 ratings, average: 5,00 out of 5)
Anton Tretiak Anton Tretiak [email protected] Administrator site - reviews, instructions, life hacks

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 files of a different type 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. 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 manage, while being extremely convenient for reading any text documents;

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