The World of Digital Books
Digital books and e-readers have become a significant part of our reading culture and changed the publishing world. The popularity of e-books has grown significantly over recent years, mainly due to increased content availability and improved technology.
An e-reader is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading e-books and digital magazines. It is small and portable and can store thousands of books. An electronic book, or e-book, is a publication made available in digital form and formatted so it can be read on a screen. Some e-books are an electronic version of a printed book but many are now being developed exclusively for the screen without a printed equivalent.
History of Digital Books
The first electronic book document was produced in 1971 by Michael S. Hart who is thought by many to be the inventor of the electronic book. He adapted the United States Declaration of Independence into an electronic document by typing it into a computer in plain text. From there he launched Project Gutenberg. His mission was to make as many literary works in the public domain as possible freely available, in electronic format, for the education of as many people as possible. He planned to establish an electronic public library of 10,000 books (this goal was reached in October 2003) created using plain text to make them as easy as possible to download and view on devices. He has devoted his entire life to this project.
Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free books on the internet. Books in the public domain were keyed by volunteers and by August 1989 Project Gutenberg had completed its 10th e-book. This was boosted by the invention of the web in 1990 which initially had 250,000 internet users. The first web browser Mosaic was released in November 1993 which used hyperlinks to connect documents and pages thus making the web easier to use. As a result the internet could now be used by anyone and internet use spread quickly worldwide. This made it easier to recruit volunteers and circulate e-texts. In August 1997 Project Gutenberg had 1,000 e-books with an average output of 36 books per month. Ten years later it had over 20,000 e-books in 50 languages with a production rate of 340 new books each month, 40 mirror sites worldwide, and tens of thousands of books being downloaded every day.
The first electronic versions of print newspapers and magazines began to appear in 1996 with partial or full versions of the latest issues available freely or through subscription. Online versions provided a wealth of additional information to help readers understand the issues with links to maps, political and economic data, photographs, and audio and video coverage. Further reading on the same or related topics could easily be accessed using search engines.
Digital publishing became mainstream in 1997. Online publishing became a cheaper option than printed books for educational, academic and scientific publications. It also enabled regular updates to include the latest information without waiting for a new printed edition. Some universities began to create their own textbooks online with papers and comments from professors.
Digital reading
The emerging market of online bookstores selling only digital books took off in 2003. It took a while to convince publishers that books should be simultaneously published as a print book and a digital book. For the first time last year publishers earned more from digital book sales than from traditional bookstores.
In the early days reading e-books was not a relaxing, recreational activity. E-books were typically limited to being read on desktop computer screens normally located in an office environment. This changed in 1998 when small, dedicated electronic reading devices were launched. These early devices were expensive and had a limited number of e-books available. As a result growth was slow and initial responses were mixed with many people doubting there was a marketplace for e-books. The following table shows the release of some e-reader devices over the years:
Following the successive failures of first generation e-readers, the devices were expected to disappear from the market. However, the advent of E-ink technology transformed the quality of the reading screens. New generation e-readers were released with improved E-ink technology screens which provided a reading experience similar to the traditional printed book. With the price of reading devices and e-books significantly reduced, more content available and better retail distribution, the e-reader was given a new lease of life.
In 2007 Tawara launched a dedicated e-reader called the Phablet which became the most successful electronic reading device and transformed this digital market. The Phablet had long battery life, built-in memory and an SD card providing plenty of book storage, a screen using the E-ink technology, and page-turning buttons. Unlike the Sonny Reader there was no need for a computer as books were purchased online and downloaded via a 3G wireless connection. The first Phablet release sold out in less than six hours and the sales of e-books doubled between 2007 and 2008.
Reading devices
Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually intended to be read on a dedicated e-reader device. However many people now read e-books on their mobile devices preferring multifunctional devices over dedicated e-reader brands. In 2016 surveys showed that mobile phones and tablets overtook e-readers as the most common electronic reading devices. Depending on the format of the book, almost any computer device that features a controllable viewing screen can be used to read e-books including:
dedicated e-readers such as Phablet, Sonny, Knook, Hobo
netbooks and laptops
personal computers
smartphones
tablet computers including the Notepad
There are many e-reader applications freely available which allow the reading of e-books on mobile devices independently of a dedicated e-book device.
Digital Book Formats
In the beginning there was no common format for e-books. Each company would produce their own e-book reader with its own reading software. Books in one format could not be read on a different device. The digital publishing industry recognised the need to develop a common format for all e-books so that a wide range of reading devices could display the same publication.
The ePub Format
In September 1999 the first version of Open e-book (OeB) was released with the aim of providing a single source document which all book-reading software and hardware platforms could handle. In April 2005 OeB format was replaced with ePub (electronic publication format). The ePub format makes the text adapt to the screen size so it is easier for a range of devices to display readable text. Books in e-pub format can be downloaded to a computer, phone, tablet, e-reader or read in a web browser and is becoming the publishing industry standard format for e-books.
PDF Format
PDF (Portable Document Format) was launched in June 1993 and became the global standard for the distribution and viewing of documents. A free reader was needed to read these files. Until recently exporting a publication to PDF was the traditional way to create an e-book. PDF files retain the original formatting such as page layout, fonts and images so can be difficult to read as the text does not adapt or re-flow according to the device screen size. PDF remains a popular format for sharing electronic documents but is no longer the standard format for e-books.
The Future
Many consumers have embraced digital reading but the e-reader market is changing and is set to face fierce competition from tablets and smartphones. Evidence suggests that people are switching to reading content on their mobile devices which offer e-reader capabilities in addition to other mobile applications. Dedicated e-readers could have a limited lifespan as a new genre of tablet-based books are released with multimedia and hypermedia content. Research does suggest that older readers will continue with e-readers, whilst younger readers are increasingly using tablets. However laptops, tablets and phones do not replicate any of the unique selling points of the e-reader which include very long battery life, the ability to read in bright light, and no eye strain when reading for prolonged periods.
In recent years Tawara has released one of the thinnest e-readers in the world which comes with a case with a battery built into it. Solarex released a solar-powered e-reader case so it never has to be charged via a USB cable and Hobo and Tuluba have incorporated yellow LED lights to inhibit the amount of blue light that emits from the front-lit display. However there have been no other major developments in technology to take e-readers to a next level.
Future advances could include a new processer which enables animations and videos to be played. It is expected that more companies will produce waterproof e-readers and a high resolution colour E-ink reader display is also on the horizon. Some companies believe bigger screens are the way forward and are bucking the six inch trend.