1 Sunday, 06 December 2020

The World of Digital Books

Report by: Siss Thwae Oo
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 Digital publishing became mainstream in 1997.

Online publishing became a cheaper option than
The first electronic book document was produced printed books for educational, academic and
in 1971 by Michael S. Hart who is thought by many scientific publications. It also enabled regular
to be the inventor of the electronic book. He updates to include the latest information without
adapted the United States Declaration of waiting for a new printed edition. Some universities
Independence into an electronic document by began to create their own textbooks online with
typing it into a computer in plain text. From there papers and comments from professors.
he launched Project Gutenberg. His mission was to
make as many literary works in the public domain DIGITAL READING
as possible freely available, in electronic format, for
The emerging market of online bookstores selling
the education of as many people as possible. He
only digital books took off in 2003. It took a while to
planned to establish an electronic public library of
convince publishers that books should be
10,000 books (this goal was reached in October
simultaneously published as a print book and a
2003) created using plain text to make them as
digital book. For the first time last year publishers
easy as possible to download and view on devices.
earned more from digital book sales than from
He has devoted his entire life to this project.
traditional bookstores.
Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free
In the early days reading e-books was not a
books on the internet. Books in the public domain
relaxing, recreational activity. E-books were
were keyed by volunteers and by August 1989
typically limited to being read on desktop computer
Project Gutenberg had completed its 10th e-book.
screens normally located in an office environment.
This was boosted by the invention of the web in
This changed in 1998 when small, dedicated
1990 which initially had 250,000 internet users.
electronic reading devices were launched. These
The first web browser Mosaic was released in
early devices were expensive and had a limited
November 1993 which used hyperlinks to connect
number of e-books available. As a result growth
documents and pages thus making the web easier
was slow and initial responses were mixed with
to use. As a result the internet could now be used
many people doubting there was a marketplace for
by anyone and internet use spread quickly
e-books. The following table shows the release of
worldwide. This made it easier to recruit volunteers
some e-reader devices over the years:
and circulate e-texts. In August 1997 Project
Gutenberg had 1,000 e-books with an average e-Readers
output of 36 books per month. Ten years later it
Reader Company Year
had over 20,000 e-books in 50 languages with a
production rate of 340 new books each month, 40 RockICT e-book DecoMedia 1998
mirror sites worldwide, and tens of thousands of CloseBook CloseBook 1999
books being downloaded every day. Pearlstar e-book Pearlstar 2000
The first electronic versions of print newspapers Litre 1500-EP Sonny 2004
and magazines began to appear in 1996 with Sonny Reader Sonny 2006
partial or full versions of the latest issues available
Tawara Phablet Digital Tawara 2007
freely or through subscription. Online versions
provided a wealth of additional information to help Knook Bambi Publishing 2009
readers understand the issues with links to maps, Cabbage Notepad Cabbage 2010
political and economic data, photographs, and Hobo e-reader Rasputen Hobo 2010
audio and video coverage. Further reading on the
same or related topics could easily be accessed Following the successive failures of first generation
using search engines. e-readers, the devices were expected to disappear
from the market.

Siss Thwae Oo BU001, 1975

2 Sunday, 06 December 2020
However, the advent of E-ink technology THE EPUB FORMAT
transformed the quality of the reading In September 1999 the first version of Open e-
screens. New generation e-readers were book (OeB) was released with the aim of providing
released with improved E-ink technology a single source document which all book-reading
software and hardware platforms could handle.
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.

Siss Thwae Oo BU001, 1975

3 Sunday, 06 December 2020
In April 2005 OeB format was replaced companies believe bigger screens are the way
forward and are bucking the six inch trend.
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

Siss Thwae Oo BU001, 1975