An ebook is a short form for an electronic book, also termed as a digital book. It is the digital equivalent of a conventional book printed on paper. The ebook could be an electronic version of an already printed book or a fresh book created digitally. The ebook should be readable on a personal computer or other hand-held electronic devices designed specifically for such reading purposes. The first ebooks appeared in 1971.
The ebooks are released in the Internet in various types of formats, with no uniformity or set standards. The major ebook reading devices such as Kindle of Amazon, PRS-500 of Sony, Cybook Gen3 of Bookeen etc. also follow different formats, thus fragmenting the ebook market further. In January 2010, Apple launched a special ebook reading device called iPad. The company reached agreements with 5 out of the 6 largest book publishers for distributing the books in ebook format. However, some of the renowned authors, such as J.K. Rowling, who had written the Harry Potter series of books, had refused to provide ebook versions of their books.
In spite of these problems and technical hitches, the popularity of ebooks had been steadily growing. Ebook online library systems had been steadily increasing. According to available data, in 2009, more than 2 million ebooks were available on the Internet for download. There are several advantages in ebooks over conventional printed books.
• Ebooks could be offered to readers on an indefinite manner, unlike conventional books that need to be printed again, when all the printed editions are sold out.
• It would be impossible to carry more than a few books when we are on the move due to their sheer weight. On the other hand, the ebook reading devices and hand-held devices could hold even thousands of ebooks, limited only by the available storage memory capacity. Hence, ebooks take very little space and are nearly weightless.
• Ebooks could be translated into several languages with the help of online language translation tools, thus providing expanded markets.
• Many of the ebook reading devices allow reading in low light or complete darkness also. The fonts and display modes could be expanded or reduced to allow even people with poor vision to read them without difficulty. The font size of printed books is fixed and could pose problems for many book lovers.
• Many ebooks are provided in audio version also by the use of special software that enables text-to-speech conversion. Hence, ebooks need not always be read with our eyes but could be listened. The listening speed could also be adjusted in most devices.
• It is quite easy to search the ebook for key terms or go to any page instantly, without much effort. This is a big advantage when we wish to search for a particular section in the ebook or quote from that section.
• The portable ebook reading device might be costlier but most of the ebooks are much cheaper than printed books due to the ease of selling them several times from one master copy. Most of the ebook online library systems provide free samples of portions of the ebooks to induce the interests of the readers.
It is quite easy to search Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. to search for any ebook and find out the website selling it. Hence, you need not spend too much time or effort to find out where to buy ebook. As such, purchasing an ebook and reading it had gained immense popularity in recent times.
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