12 Chapter 12 – eBook Formats
eBooks are electronic documents designed to be read on a tablet, laptop, or desktop computers. What distinguishes eBooks from other books is their ability to include media, like videos and animations, and their user-adjustable text size and reflowable format, which both facilitate reading.
Since they are easy to create, edit, and distribute, eBooks lend themselves to “professor publishing,” the writing of customized course packets for students. Students might also find them to be advantageous since they easily accessible, low cost, and portable (e.g., being able to carry multiple e-books on a tablet without the added weight).
The main disadvantage of eBooks is that the generic formats were developed for text-heavy documents like novels and business or psychology books that do not contain a lot of illustrations. These formats are not good for placement of multiple, related illustrations (e.g., a photo and accompanying diagram or graph) that need to be grouped together to illustrate a point or concept. Some grouping of photos is possible, however, this type of document could best be output as a PDF.
Interactive PDF
Interactive PDF is an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file that’s intended for on-screen viewing. This type of PDF can have interactive features, including buttons, videos, music, animation, and links (Figure 12-1).
Navigation buttons, for example, can be programmed to enable the reader to move from one page to the next and back, as well as the first and last pages, the table of contents page, and so on. If a table of contents is included, it can be interactive so that when the reader clicks on a section, the page will jump to that section.
The document could also include links to web pages that will load in a browser if the computer or tablet is connected to the Internet.
Among electronic or eBook documents, PDF is best suited to documents where the layout is most important, especially groups of related photos and/or diagrams with captions. For reading on tablets where text legibility is paramount, the eBook formats, ePub or iBook, may be a better choice.
What’s Different about Interactive PDF? When designing an interactive PDF document, the designer should keep in mind what interactive features will be included and allow space for them. E.g., if navigation buttons are to be included, leave space at the bottom, top, or sides of the pages for the buttons. Placing the buttons on a master page enables them to be duplicated and positioned with accuracy on all dependent pages.
Pro tip: if you want to include an interactive table of contents, be sure to set up the contents using the Table of Contents feature and check “Create PDF Bookmarks” in the dialog box so the table of contents will work properly.
ePub
ePub (variously known as EPUB, ePub, .epub, and other abbreviations for “electronic publication”), ePub is a generic and open-source eBook format standardized by the International Digital Publishing Forum