eBook Formats

Re: B&N eBook Format

‎08-01-2010 10:55 AM - edited ‎08-01-2010 10:56 AM

ArCar wrote:

Can someone explain these formats to me? I am researching a nook purchase and I read on facebook from one nook user that he did NOT choose kindle because of the proprietary nature of file format...

REPLY

The important consideration is formats with DRM (Digital Rights Management, or copy protection). All of the e-books from all of the big publishers come with DRM, and DRM limits what you can do with your e-books. In the US, it's illegal to remove or circumvent the DRM, so you're stuck with whatever DRM your e-book comes with.

For e-books without DRM, like the free e-books from sites like Project Gutenberg or from some of the smaller publishers, you can convert them into many different formats using a tool like Calibre. Which format your device uses is not particularly important.

So, back to DRM. There are four main DRMed formats in widespread use today:

Kindle

B&N

Apple

Adobe EPUB

There are some other DRMed formats in limited use, such as Secure eReader, MobiPocket, and Adobe Secure PDF. I'm not going to discuss those here.

The Kindle format is only readable on Kindles or on Kindle apps (for computers, phones, iPad, etc.).

The B&N format is readable on NOOKs and on B&N reader apps (for computers, phones, iPad, etc.). It's also readable on some newer e-readers, although most of those sank out of sight after the price wars began a couple of months ago. About the only one left at the moment is the Pandigital Novel. We can hope that there will be more in the future. Also, Adobe has said that sometime this year they'll make Adobe Digital Editions able to read B&N e-books, but I don't think there's a platform that runs ADE that can't run the B&N reader app.

The Apple format is only readable on iPad and iPhone.

The Adobe EPUB (ADE) format (which is called a dozen different things) is readable on almost every dedicated e-reader device except the Kindle and some of the cheapies. This is the format that library e-books usually come in, and it's the format that most e-book stores other than Amazon, B&N, and Apple sell in.

So the big knock against Kindle here is that it won't handle Adobe EPUB format. If you want to read a DRMed e-book, which is just about any major title, you must buy it from Amazon. You can't buy it anywhere else, and you can't check it out of the library.

Furthermore, once you buy a DRMed Kindle e-book you can only read it on a Kindle or a Kindle app. Every DRMed Kindle e-book that you buy locks you more and more into the Kindle world. If you ever want to change to a different e-reader, you'll have to walk away from that library of e-books. Not such a problem if you're planning on going to a tablet like an iPad, because there'll almost certainly be a Kindle app available.