So you've down loaded an EPUB?

As I have launched Spare Parts Press I thought a simple primer on reading epubs would be helpful


How To Read Your Ebook

  1. Apple Books for iOS and OS X. This is free in the Apple App Store.
  2. Google Play Books for Android. This is a free app in the Google Play store.
  3. Readium for Chrome. This is a Chrome browser extension, available free in the Chrome Market.
  4. Readium now suggests Thorium reader for both Windows and Mac

What is an epub file?

EPUB is the standard eBook format for the publishing industry and is the format used by the majority of online booksellers. It is an open non-propriety format that is primarily based on HTML and CSS. In 2011 Fixed Layout epubs were introduced, and have become the standard for visual books such as  comics and picture books where the design of the page is critical and should not change in appearance like a regular epub file does.

Why Not Just Use Pdf?*

It is very easy to create and read PDFs. However, PDFs are a proprietary format and lack many of the features of properly designed EPUBs. Online bookstores also do not accept PDFs. PDFs may be a perfectly usable format, however, I have prefer to use the open and industry-standard of EPUB format.

Why not use .cbz or .cbr?

These formats are popular in the torrenting crowd and are simple in their makeup. The file extensions stand for Comic Book Zip or comic Book Rar, and can be made extremely easily by zipping a collecting of images, I.E, comic pages. However, like PDFs, they lack many of the features of properly designed EPUBs. They also require special software and apps to read that aren't native to tablet devices. I'd love it if one of these formats could be made official, as it would simplify making comic ebooks a great deal.

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