The Differences between E-books and books designed for prints

WHY CAN'T I USE A PDF? – THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EBOOKS AND BOOKS DESIGNED FOR PRINT

What exactly is an eBook? What does it look like? And why do PDFs need to be converted? If you've found yourself asking these questions, you're not alone – Publish Green can help clear up some of the mystery for you.

WHAT ARE EBOOK FORMATS AND WHY DOES MY PDF NEED TO BE CONVERTED?

If you have a PDF, this means that you already have an electronic version of your book. It seems like this should be all you need, right? Unfortunately, it’s not. A PDF is actually very, very different from an eBook. A PDF is the file used to design your book for print; an eBook's main purpose, on the other hand, is to be read on an eReader. eBooks have a very different internal structure, and are meant to be manipulated. In fact, that's one of the biggest draws for people who use eReaders. Users can choose their own font, change the size of the words, increase line spacing, margins and more. Unlike a PDF or a print book, the two major eBook formats, MOBI and EPUB, are designed to allow this level of flexibility. For your eBook to take full advantage of an eReader's capabilities (and for it to be sold through the major eBook retailers) it must be available in one or both of these formats.

WHAT MAKES AN EBOOK DIFFERENT FROM A PRINT BOOK OR PDF?

Unlike a printed book, an eBook is “flexible,” meaning that it can be manipulated in many ways. Print books and PDFs, on the other hand, are essentially immovable. We like to use the comparison of a rock and a piece of clay.

The rock – in this case, the print book or the PDF – cannot be altered in any way unless it is physically damaged. The contour of the rock will always be the same, no matter how hard you try to change it. Similarly, the layout of a print book or a PDF will always be the same. You cannot move the pages around. If chapter 4 starts on page 16 in the print book, it will start on page 16 in the PDF, and there’s nothing you can do to change it. If chapter 8 in the print book uses a special font for a section of a chapter – perhaps a handwritten note by one of the characters in the book – then chapter 8 of the PDF will display the same “handwritten” styled font. It is not so in an eBook.

An eBook, or the clay in this analogy, is much more malleable. Font size and style can be changed by the reader, as well as line spacing and "page" margin. Adjustments to these settings will affect how the words flow and break onto the next "page." Screen size affects how many words appear on the screen at a time, as well. An eBook displayed on the Kindle may contain more individual screens of text than one displayed on the iPad, since the screen size is so much smaller. Because of this "flowing" nature of the text in an eBook, each screen or "page" of text will never have a set page number, though some eReaders may automatically assign "page numbers" to each screen. These numbers will not match up with your print book, nor will they be the same from one device to another. They may even change on a single device if you adjust your settings. Like clay, your eBook will change and "re-shape" itself with every adjustment the reader makes.