- The best free PDF reader 2018; The best free PDF reader 2018. Icecream's great ebook reader is also a good choice for PDFs. As this is an ebook reader, you-re encouraged to organize all of.
- The EPUB format is an open digital book (eBook) standard from the International Digital Publishing Forum.With Pages, you can export your documents in the EPUB format so they can be read using the Books app on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or with third-party EPUB readers.
The iPad is a terrific reading device because it supports a wide range of popular e-book and audiobook formats. Sure, it's great for movies and games and the internet, too, but for book lovers, the iPad's versatility as a mobile library is its chief appeal.
Apple's tablet comes with the company's iBooks app preinstalled. The app works seamlessly with the company's iBooks Store, but the iPad also supports many other types of digital book formats. You only need to download the appropriate app.
2.If the EPUB books purchased from Apple store, of course you can read it with iBooks for Mac. But if the ePub files were purchased from Kobo, Sony, Google and other ebook stores, you should remove the Adobe DRM because they are protected by Adobe DRM restrictions.
There are dozens of e-book formats that you can access on your iPad, but these are the most common ones:
iBooks
The books purchased through the iBooks Store are in the ePub format, but they are modified to include Digital Rights Management to prevent unauthorized sharing or copying. Any ePub digital book can be opened in the iBooks app or in other downloadable apps.
ePub
The ePub open format is one of the most commonly used e-book file types. Apps like iBooks and Nook can read ePub files purchased from their respective online stores or downloaded from the web. There are a number of programs for Mac and Windows that convert other kinds of e-books to ePub format.
Barnes & Noble Nook
Barnes & Noble sells e-books on its website and through its Nook app. Access these books using the free Nook app available at the iPad App Store. Nook e-books are a renamed version of the common ePub file type.
Kindle
Amazon's Kindle isn't just an e-reader that competes with the iPad, it's also an app for the iPad. You can read Kindle books on the iPad using the Amazon Kindle app. Kindle e-books are a modified version of the Mobipocket file format and use the .AZW file extension.
PDF is probably the most popular downloadable document format on the web, so you're sure to find e-books in this format in a lot of places. There are tons of PDF-compatible apps for the iPad, including Adobe Acrobat Reader, GoodReader, and iBooks.
CBR and CBZ
CBR and CBZ formats are related types of digital book formats that are used to present comic books and graphic novels. To read them on the iPad, you need an app such as the free Manga Storm CBR app or the paid app Comic Zeal.
comiXology
Amazon's comiXology is the leading online comics and graphic novel store. You buy comics on the website and then use the comiXology app on your iPad to download and read your purchased comics, which come in file types that include PDF, CBZ, and the company's proprietary CMX-HD format.
KF8
Kindle Format 8 is the next-generation version of the Kindle e-book file. It adds support for HTML and CSS to the existing Kindle format and uses the .AZW3 extension. The Kindle app on the iPad supports the KF8 format.
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word creates .doc files. Some e-books, usually those sold as direct downloads by self-publishers, come in this format. While there are a number of iPad apps that can read DOC files, Microsoft Word for iPad is free.
Mobi
Amazon's use of a modified version of Mobi for the Kindle makes this file format one of the most widely used for e-books. Outside of the Kindle, though, you likely won't encounter it too often. The best way to read Mobi files on your iPad, which does not support the Mobi format, is to use a program like Calibre E-Book Management Software to convert the Mobi files to ePub format. Then you can read them in iBooks or another ePub compatible reader app.
Plain Text
Plain text files, which have the .TXT file extension, pop up from time to time, especially on sites that offer free, public domain books, such as Project Gutenberg. A large number of apps support plain text files, including the paid app GoodReader, and iBooks.
iPad Audiobooks Support
The iPad can also be of use if you prefer to get your books in audio form rather than text. Some of the most common audiobook types supported by the iPad include:
- Audible -Audible.com uses its proprietary formats (.AAaa, .AAX, and .AAX+) and is probably the most popular and widely used audiobook service on the internet. With the free Audible.com app for the iPad, you can enjoy any book from that site on your tablet.
- MP3 - Other audiobooks are often delivered as standard MP3 audio files. Since that's the same format as many music files, you can download an MP3 and then sync it to your iPad to listen to it using the built-in Music app.
Because nearly every ebook reader on the iPhone has its own store (and the ones that don't have the problem of not having their own store), what's best is very subjective. That said, we feel Kindle is your best option at the moment because it doesn't tie you to a specific platform, has a wide selection of books, and will let you read some other file formats.
Kindle
Platform: iPhone (and practically everything else)
Price: Free
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Features
- Free, hybrid app that works on all iDevices
- Easily buy a book or send a sample directly to your iPhone from Amazon's online store
- Only store the books you want
- Convert documents over email for viewing with Kindle
- Make notes in books or documents
- Bookmark locations for viewing later
- Simple, straightforward interface
- Very large selection of ebook content through Amazon.com
- Only keep the books on your device that you want and archive the rest, available for download at any later date
- Adjust font size
- Easily jump to different locations in a book or document
Where It Excels
Kindle was the first major ebook platform so it has had a good amount of time to mature and do things well. It's certainly not perfect, but buying an ebook and managing your content is ridiculously simple. Kindle can also support a few other document types (such as Microsoft Word docs, text files, and PDFs) through email conversion. While that may seem tedious, it's often a lot faster than plugging in your device and transferring the files manually. Whatever you choose to read, Kindle provides a pretty good experience. You can select text size, change the background and text colors for better reading under certain lighting conditions, jump around to different chapters or sections of a book, and search for content. It's easy to use, has a nice and focused feature set, and plenty of content that's easy to access.
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Ebook Reader For Pc
Where It Falls Short
As mentioned at the very beginning of this post, no ebook reader is really all that great. Like most other options, Kindle's store is filled with DRM-protected content and that comes with a variety of restrictions. For example, only very recently did Amazon offer the ability to copy selections of text from some books, and that's still not possible on the iPhone version (at the time of this writing). When you buy content from Amazon, you're stuck with Amazon. We think this is easier to accept because Amazon has developed ways for you to read Kindle content on virtually any computer or mobile device. You can even read in your web browser if you've managed to find a platform Kindle doesn't directly support. But you're still locked down to Amazon nonetheless. In my experience with Kindle, it also tends to have a few hiccups here and there when transferring media. These issues have always been easy enough to resolve, but they do happen with more frequency than I experienced with other ebook apps on iOS and other platforms.
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The Competition
Kobo (Free) is a very nicely designed ebook app for reading free books. It boasts the availability of one million free and affordable books. It also has support for Instapaper and makes it really easy to both share content and get content on your device.
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iBooks (Free) is the ereader you'd expect from Apple. It sports a great interface, is simple to use, and lets you easily by books directly from the app. As far as the user interface is concerned, most will consider it better than Kindle. (I don't like it, personally, but I seem to be in the minority here.) It can also read PDFs without the need to email them (although that's not to say it's any less tedious to get them into the app). With all of that said, the iBooks store tends to have higher prices than you'll find at Amazon and if you buy from iBooks, your content is forever stuck on the Apple mobile platform. You can't even read them on your Mac, which may not be the ideal experience for some but is helpful with reference books and for the small minority who does like reading on a computer screen. The content lockdown is really the primary reason why iBooks isn't the top choice. We don't like the DRM any of the stores provide, but at least Amazon offers a means to port the content to practically any device.
eBookMobi ($2) is a hybrid app (meaning it works on all iDevices natively) that supports multiple languages and reads comic books as well as ebooks. The multi-language support will let you read foreign language content and translate it into your primary language if you're struggling to understand a word. It supports non-DRM Palm OS ebooks, non-DRM ePub ebooks, PDF files, RTF files, Word documents, CHM files, and a variety of comic/manga formats. If you need a very versatile app and don't care about a bookstore, eBookMobi is $2 well spent.
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Nook (Free) is what you get if you've already purchased ebook content from Barnes and Noble's ebook store and want to be able to view it on your iPhone. There aren't many other reasons why you'd use this app.
Got another ebook reader you love that wasn't mentioned here? Share it in the comments!
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Good Ebook Reader For Mac
Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
Free Ebook Reader For Laptop
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