.KEYWORD ebook0702
.FLYINGHEAD THE EBOOK EXPERIENCE
.TITLE The mechanics of an ebook
.OTHER
.SUMMARY In this article in his series on ebooks, Sam Kleinman discusses the programs, formats, and other nuts and bolts that you should know before you start reading an ebook.
.AUTHOR Sam Kleinman
We started this series on ebooks with a guide of ebook distributors and moved on to why reading ebooks is better than reading print books. Now, we’re going to discuss exactly how to go about reading ebooks. Unlike print books, it’s hard to just open to the first page and start reading. There are programs, formats, and other nuts and bolts that you should probably know before you can start reading an ebook.
.H1 File format
There are a number of different ways text can be stored on a Palm computer. Unless you start reading ebooks in some proprietary format, you’ll only have to deal with two major formats and a few variants. Before we outline these formats, we should probably gain a basic understanding of how ebook files work on a Palm handheld.
For starters, you must realize that there are no files on the Palm OS. Everything is stored in some form of database or another. The difference between the "file" formats is in the structure and capabilities of the database format. Most of the ebooks you’ll read with your Palm handheld will be in the Palm DOC format. This format exists to overcome the Memo Pad’s 4KB limit. It does this by creating a string of 4KB database records that combine to make one "file." The Palm DOC format is open source, and it’s only capable of encoding ASCII characters, so there aren’t any bold, italic, or underlined characters in a Palm DOC file.
A number of ebook sellers and distributors have customized the open source Palm DOC format to include more features; most noticeably, text styles and Digital Rights Management (copy protection). These souped up versions of Palm DOC in most cases have a specific and proprietary reading program. While no one strain of Palm DOC is all that much better than another, they do tend to be incompatible, and a choice to use one over the other usually is the result of available reading materials rather than an actual feature comparison.
There are at least two other major formats that you’ll probably run across at some point. They are iSilo (at http://www.isilo.com) and TomeRaider (at http://www.tomeraider.com). iSilo was created in response to Palm DOC’s lack of rich text styles and poor compression. iSilo can store nearly all of the formatting of an HTML file and the compression allows large documents to be stored. TomeRaider is notable because of its ability to compress very large documents into files that can fit on a handheld computing device.
There are a number of other formats that you’ll run across, but these will work for most of the ebook reading you do. Even though there are only three major formats, there are far more than three major reading programs. Rather than give an overview of each of the many available readers (which you can find at http://www.memoware.com/mw-helpf.htm), I’m simply provide an overview and my personal favorites.
.H1 Ebook reading software
An almost surprising number of readers exist for the Palm OS platform. Some have a fairly small memory footprint and only allow for ebook reading, while others are much larger and include other features. These extra capabilities provided by some of the more powerful programs include: document editing and creation, book-marking, extra-fonts, and the ability to read and access more than one format. The truth is that all of these readers are, in my experience, roughly equivalent to each other. You’ll probably try a number of these readers out, and you may end up using a few simultaneously in order to access the greatest possible number of books.
My favorite ebook readers are iSilo and CSpotRun (at http://www.32768.com/bill/palmos/cspotrun/index.html). I like to use iSilo because of the rich formatting options, the compression, and the ease of conversion. On the other hand, CSpotRun is one of the simplest, most functional, and most stable readers available. What makes it even better is that it’s freeware, and often distributed in .ZIP archives with ebooks to make reading easier. It’s all a matter of preference, so don’t be afraid to try out a new reading program.
.H1 Conversion
You already know that the Palm OS doesn’t have a real file system. You also know that all the data on a Palm handheld is stored in databases. You’re probably also aware that the ASCII and HTML files aren’t Palm OS compatible databases. Thus, logic would dictate that in order to read any kind of document on your Palm handheld it needs to be converted in some way. If you download a file with a .pdb or .prc extension, then it’s already in a format readable by the Palm OS, so as long as you have a compatible reader, no further conversion is necessary. If you have a file that has an .htm, .html, .txt, .doc, .rft, .pdf, .xml, or .oeb, extension, then you need to use a conversion program or script to get your file in the right format. Every one of these programs works differently, and like the reading software, choice is purely a matter of personal preference.
When preparing ebooks for use with my Palm handheld, I like to use Install Buddy by Blue Nomad Software (at http://www.bluenomad.com/ib/prod_installbuddy_details.html) for static texts like ebooks, stories, and reference documents. I use a program like iSiloX from the makers of the iSilo Reader (at http://www.isilo.com) or SiteScooper (at http://www.sitescooper.orh) to convert more dynamic content from the Internet or my collection.
.H1 DRM (Digital Rights Management)
I’ve referred to DRM (Digital Rights Management) numerous times in this series of articles. It’s basically digital copyright protection. Most commercially available ebooks have some form of DRM in place to protect the work from abuse and theft. In theory this sounds like a good thing, and in a lot of cases it’s a very welcome protection. However, for various reasons, publishers have become almost paranoid about releasing material in ebook format. As a result of this fear, the publishers have twisted the idea of DRM and used it in ways that end up discouraging purchase of the ebook edition.
If you have any desire to purchase ebooks commercially, you’ll encounter DRM in some form. It may be unnoticeable, or it could be a major pain. This choice rests on the hands of the publisher or distributor. There are different levels of DRM, some as simple as file encoding that prohibits alteration of the contents, while others could place numerous restrictions such as number of times opened, or length opened, and it can also limit the number of different computers that can open the file. At some later point in this series on ebooks we’ll examine digital rights management is more depth. It’s a large subject that’s quite interesting.
Now that we have provided a proper introduction to reading ebooks, we can move on to other ebook-related topics. Next time we’ll look into the other side of the coin–writing ebooks and writing with your Palm OS device.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on iSilo, visit http://www.isilo.com.
For more information on TomeRaider, visit http://www.tomeraider.com.
For more information on available readers, visit http://www.memoware.com/mw-helpf.htm.
For more information on CspotRun, visit http://www.32768.com/bill/palmos/cspotrun/index.html.
For more information on Install Buddy by Blue Nomad Software, visit http://www.bluenomad.com/ib/prod_installbuddy_details.html.
For more information on iSiloX, visit http://www.isilo.com.
For more information on SiteScooper, visit http://www.sitescooper.orh.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
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