《What is an ebook》 【本字幕由ACELY 整理&转码】 I think the first thing that we need to do is get our terms clear in our heads.
【如果喜欢该教程，请购买正版！】 What is an eBook for the purposes of this title, because eBook itself is a pretty generic
【----ACELY STUDIO----】 【作品只能交流学习，不得用于任何盈利用途！】 term, any kind of book that can be read electronically, really.
But in this video title we are specifically talking about EPUBs and MOBI files, which are
Kindle files, and we're going to be spending a majority of our time talking about the EPUB
format specifically, because to create the Kindle file we're going to start with a healthy
EPUB and then convert it to Kindle.
And I find that people who are not used to working with EPUBs or creating their own eBooks
are confused on the concept.
So what I have done here is I have put up three versions of the same title, Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland, in three different formats, and I have an extra eBook as a PDF that we'll look at as well.
But first let's look at Alice in Wonderland as a PDF.
I would say that most people who are familiar with InDesign are familiar with PDFs, right.
We know that what we're looking at when we look at a PDF is essentially exactly what
we designed in InDesign.
If I change the View to fit in window, Zoom to Page Level is what they call it in Reader and Acrobat land.
What happens is the page gets smaller, the text gets smaller.
If I press Command+Plus or Ctrl+Plus or Minus to zoom in and out, the text gets larger or
the text gets smaller. But the text never rewraps itself.
There's no control here for me to change the size of the type, right.
It never actually reflows within the document, it's essentially a page-based eBook.
Now let's look at the same book only as in EPUB, that's this one right here.
I open it up, and it opens up huge because I think there's something wrong with actually
with how the image was set up for the cover.
But we are using an EPUB reader called Adobe Digital Editions that is a free utility for
looking at EPUBs that you can download from the Adobe website if you don't already have it.
And on the left I have opened up the Table of Contents, so we can click, and then we can
move through the document page by page.
So I am looking for page that has just text and a graphic.
Let's just try it just this one with text, and we can see that we're having some problems
with some special characters, and that will be something we'll be talking about in this title.
But what I want you to see is that I can change the size of the type here.
And what happens is the type rewraps.
If I go back to Medium it goes back to a two-page spread.
If I resize the document, watch the line endings.
See the text is flowing, and that is the hallmark of an EPUB is that it is a flowable document.
The text flows, and it's like I am the person who is governing how wide the river is.
What that means is that I can create one EPUB and people can view that EPUB on their iPhone,
on their Android Reader, on their iPad, on their Mac or PC and the text will always remain
the same size, they will just see more or less of it depending on how big their monitor is.
A MOBI file, that's the extension that's used by Amazon Kindle devices if you have ever purchased
a Kindle edition of an eBook, it may end with something different like AZW or something like that.
But essentially they are MOBI inside and AZW is what Amazon wraps it in.
I am going to open up this MOBI file in Kindle Previewer, which I have already gotten queued up over here.
Kindle Previewer is a free utility that you can download from the Amazon website, and
I'll show you where later on in this title.
What's cool about it is that it lets you preview what a MOBI file would look like on various Kindle versions.
So the new Kindle Fire, for example, has color, right, so we can see it in color.
But if we go back to Kindle that means the traditional Kindle 1, 2 and 3, the E Ink devices
that are completely in grayscale.
So let me go ahead and fast forward through a few pages here.
And here it is in a generic Kindle, but if I say let me see this in Kindle for iPhone,
then it shows us the approximate size of a screen for an iPhone, but the type is actually
just about the same, and we just see less of it.
So again and MOBI file is also a reflowable book.
That's the essential difference between EPUB and PDF and between MOBI and PDF.
Now there is not to say that you can't create a book as a PDF, I mean we do on InDesign
Secrets, the blog and podcasts that I run with David Blatner who is an author here at
lynda.com on a lot of InDesign titles.
So this is an eBook and in fact it's a very good eBook.
If I go to one of the pages here you can see we have some interactivity, Next and Previous
and so on and then there are some videos and other things built into this eBook, and we
sell it on our website.
But we can't sell it where EPUBs and MOBIs are sold.
That's the crucial thing why everybody is trying to figure out how to create EPUBs and MOBI files.
Because though everybody knows how to create a PDF, everybody who uses InDesign, and many
of those people can also create interactive PDFs, with just a little interactivity like
I am doing here and can sell it.
The thing is that we don't have the distribution of Amazon.com or Apple's iBookstore and neither
one of those places will sell PDFs, they only sell EPUBs or MOBI files.
You might be able to open and read a PDF in iBooks on the iPad or on your Kindle, but
you won't be able to purchase one.
And if you're in the business of publishing you really like the kind of books that your customers purchase.
Okay, so in this title I am going to be talking about how to create EPUBs and then in later
chapters how to create MOBI files from those EPUBs.
So your task if you are a beginner in this field is to locate EPUBs and start reading them.
You already have a few EPUBs in the exercise files, they came with this video, or you probably
have already encountered a few EPUBs on your own.
What are people using to read them?
Is the only place that you can read them on a Kindle device or in an iPad or iPhone using iBooks?
No, there are lots of different software programs that you can use to read EPUBs.
The one that I'm using in this video is Adobe Digital Editions.
This is free for Macs and PCs.
And if you double-click an EPUB on your Desktop, and it opens up in a program other than Adobe
Digital Editions, then you need to associate using your operating systems, however you
do it for Windows or for the Macintosh, you need to associate EPUBs with this program.
But Adobe Digital Editions is not the final answer by any means.
There are many more ways to read EPUBs.
Unfortunately there are not that many ways to read them on the Desktop, there are lots
of apps and utilities that you can use for your Android and iOS devices.
But for the Desktop you can do something like, you can go to the Barnes & Noble website and
download a Nook app that lets you read not only Barnes & Noble eBooks and access the
store really fast, but also any kind of EPUB.
You can also get one for Kobo readers and for the Sony eReaders.
If you have an Android device, this program which I actually don't know how to pronounce,
I think it's Aldiko or Aldiko is the program that most of the people that I have spoken with
say that it is the best one for reading EPUBs on an Android device.
Now if you're on an iOS device, you might be interested in a reader like the Bluefire
Reader, which not only is a wonderful EPUB reader for a mobile device but also if you
want to brand your own EPUB reader and then sell it as part of your own bookstore, you
want to become the next Amazon, you can contract with the Bluefire people, they are pretty cool.
Another one that people use a lot is Stanza from Lexcycle.
So Stanza used to be available as a desktop reader app, but when Amazon bought them a
couple of years ago they stopped all development.
Now it's only available for your iOS devices.
Another option if you want to read something on actually any mobile device or on your computer
is to use an online EPUB reader.
For example, Ibis Reader is a wonderful standards compliance free service, ibisreader.com where
you can read all of your EPUBs, and you can choose to turn off the Chrome as well, meaning
turning off all of the controls and panels and so on, so you can concentrate on the actual eBook.
The only problem with Ibis Reader is that you have to upload your EPUBs first before
it can read them, so you can't just say open up something on your desktop.
But once you do upload it then it's in your library, so you can access this EPUB reader
and your library from any device, from any computer.
Another one that I like only runs in Firefox, it's called EPUBReader, it's a free extension,
and I started using this way back in version 4 of Firefox that was about eight months ago,
and now we're up to version 12.
Anyway, I am happy to say that it's still updated.
And with this, once you install EPUBReader in Firefox, I can just choose Open File and
navigate to my hard drive where I might have an EPUB, and it opens up right in Firefox
with the Table of Contents here on the left, and I can move page to page pretty nice.
There's lots of controls and things on the bottom as well, and it keeps track of which
EPUBs you have read in its own EPUB library that you can click on.
So like iTunes it copies the EPUB to a special folder on your hard drive whenever you open it up.
Now if you want to read your Kindle books, and of course you could read it on the Kindle
itself, but there is also software that Amazon provides for free.
If you just go to the Free Kindle Apps page and again you're going to get this URL in
PDF, then you can download any of their reading apps for Smartphones, Computers, and Tablets,
but also you can read them in the Cloud.
So like ibis reader they have their own eReader that's based on a browser.
Let's say that you want to actually read it on your Mac, if you just click Kindle for
Mac then you can download it right here, and I can open up that app right here and last
time I was using this I was reading Alice in Wonderland, so there it is.
If you go to the Library, and you have logged in with your Kindle account, which I haven't
yet, then it will sync to all the eBooks that you have purchased at the Amazon Kindle store.
Just like your Kindle will sync, these three books, Treasure Island, Aesop's Fables, and
Pride & Prejudice are currently being given away for free whenever you install the software,
which is pretty nice. Just a couple more apps I want to show you.
First of all, this could not be a video on what can read EPUBs if I didn't show you Calibre.
Calibre, and that's the correct pronunciation, not Calibre, by the way, I asked the developer.
Calibre is kind of like a Swiss army knife of EPUB readers.
Not only is it a way for you to read EPUBs, so I can just double-click Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland, and it opens up in a separate eReader window, and I can read this, and I
can go to full screen, if I want I can search and make bookmarks and all sorts of stuff,
but it also organizes your collection of EPUBs.
It can convert EPUBs to Kindle, it can convert HTML files to EPUBs, it can do all sorts of
fun stuff over here.
But I personally don't use Calibre that often, I started out using it, what I have found
personally is that some services that I'm trying to upload my EPUBs and MOBI files to
sell don't accept it and they specifically mention Calibre could be the issue.
And second I really don't use Calibre for doing any kind of converting, I actually go
in there and edit it myself, and that's what I'm going to be showing you in this video.
But Calibre is free, although of course Kovid the wonderful developer does accept donations
on the website, and there's nothing stopping you from going ahead and downloading it and trying it out.
And I want to mention that, of course, Calibre is one of your options.
There is some development happening for EPUB readers for the desktop, one of the more recent
ones is a program called Bookle, which I don't think I have running right now, let me start it up.
This is from Adam Engst, who is well-known in the Macintosh community.
This is a Mac only, a very basic EPUB reader that he sells.
And it's at version 1.0, and it does the job so that's one.
And then there's another one called AZARDI that is going to be an EPUB 3 reader.
And right now it's a little clunky and buggy in my testing, so it's not quite ready.
But it's something to keep an eye on.
So now I think we are all very clear on what I'm talking about when I mention an eBook
in this title, I am referring to EPUBs or MOBI files.
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