The Complete Guide To ePub File Format For eBooks
ePub? Don’t tell me that you aren’t aware of ePub! To be frank even I wasn’t till some time back
ePub stands for electronic publication and is written in many ways like ePub, epub, EPub, and even EPUB! It is an open source format for eBooks that is acceptable by most of the eBook readers like that of BeBook, Sony Reader, IREX Reader, and iPhone etc.
EPub is actually a compressed file that contains XHTML files (which represents the structure and text of the document), CSS files (which provides formating and layout), and XML files (which is used to create the ePub metadata, table of contents, and the document manifest). As per usage this compressed file is unzipped in the required section so that you can use the widely accepted format to read eBooks in any eBook reader.
Where To Get eBooks In ePub Format?
Though most of the eBook providers like Sony Store, Shortcovers, O’Reilly provide eBooks in ePub format yet if you want to search for most of them as per your ease then you can use Google Books. Remember to opt for the ‘public domain only’ option and you will surely get some book that fits your needs. As these are free so you can enjoy reading most of them without any restrictions. FeedBooks and Project Gutenberg are some more famous sources that have eBooks available in ePub format.
You can even download the ePub eBooks directly from your desktop if you use the perfect desktop application being offered by Sony. You won’t even have to owe Sony Reader to use this application. It has been very well customized to use Google Books to download eBooks in the format you want and directly save them on your desktop.
How To Create My Own ePub eBooks?
The most convienient option to create your own ePub files is to use Microsoft Word. Now how on earth can we use MS Word to create an open source file format? Well, use MS Word and save your document as RTF file. Later on you can use Amazon’s Stanza so as to covert the document into an ePub eBook. You can also use Adobe’s Buzzword to create your own eBooks in ePub format. Calibre is another exciting free tool to convert any kind of file into a ePub format. It is available for every platform like linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Lastly, Sigil is the perfect tool to edit ePub files. It is a WYSIWYG tool worth trying and is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Do remember to check the ePubCheck tool so as to confirm that your ePub file has been created without any unexpected errors corrupting the file.
Lastly, you can check out our article on ePub eBooks inside FireFox.









