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DIY E-book: creating e-books

Hope Balovsiak

Electronic documents and books have become an integral part of our lives. Today, e-libraries offer such books in both paid and free access, and users download them, being sure that e-books look exactly like that. But, unfortunately, what can be downloaded from the Internet can very rarely be called a real e-book.

Books posted on the Web are almost always not designed at least approximately the way paper books are designed, they lack illustrations, there is no division into sections. Alas, today a well-prepared book is the exception rather than the rule. Sometimes there are books in the Ms Word text editor format, in the form of html documents or plain text (txt), less often in the form of pdf files. But in recent times, especially in online e-book stores, texts are presented in completely different formats.

First, let's find out what formats of e-books exist.

Despite the prevalence of electronic texts, there is still no standard among e-book formats.

There are too many formats for e-books, and after visiting the Web, it seems that the standard is a classic ascii file with a .txt extension. Adobe tried to enter the e-book market with its product Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader, so with some stretch we will refer to "book" formats and PDF. The ancestor of the book format is also Microsoft Corporation. The proprietary .LIT format she created is only readable by its native MS Reader program, so it has little demand on the e-book market.

In addition to these, there are a number of other book formats:

FB2 is an open XML-based Haali Reader format. Unicode support completely solves the problem of correct perception of texts in different languages, graphics are supported.

TR (ToRaTRPW) - the format of the Tome Raider program, it is one of the most high degrees compression. And the possibility of indexing allows you to use books of this format when compiling catalogs of e-books.

FBR is a secure data format that is readable by the Franklin Reader.

In addition to these formats available for reading on computers, there are a number of others created specifically for handheld devices - iSilo.PDB, PalmDOC, zTXT.

With a certain stretch, exe-format can be attributed to e-book formats: it is in this form that electronic texts are often sold. But the inconvenience of this format (it does not support the ability to insert bookmarks, it is difficult to search in it) hinders its distribution.

In some cases, e-books are distributed in djvu format. To read such books, you need to use the special DjVuWebBrowserPlugin plugin, which is built into Internet Explorer and FireFox browsers. You can download the plugin from the site http://www.lizardtech.com/download/dl_options.php?page=doc .

After installing the plugin, when opening a djvu file in the browser, an additional toolbar will be displayed, and the contents of the djvu file will be displayed in the browser window.

To create DjVu format files, a special DjVuSolo utility is used (http://www.djvu-inf.narod.ru/DjVuSolo3.1-noncom.exe). It is especially convenient to use when you need to turn the scanned text into an e-book. After installing the program, you can turn ready-made files in other formats into DjVu files. The program allows conversion to DjVu format of files saved in the main graphic formats - tiff, gif, jpeg, bmp. Some features of DjVuSolo allow you to turn a file in DjVu format into a real e-book. In addition, the DjVu reader allows you to assign a hyperlink to a selected fragment of a djvu file page - both to a web page and to a djvu document page.

Very often the composition, structure, design, as well as functionality Working with a book depends on its format, as well as on the tool with which the book was created. Therefore, before creating a book, first of all, you need to choose a tool, that is, a program for creating an e-book.

The program for creating electronic books should be able to format the contents of the book, highlighting its various elements (titles and headings), it is desirable to support the ability to insert bookmarks. Given the popularity of txt, html, doc formats for storing electronic texts, an e-book authoring program should be able to remove traces of the use of these formats, for example, find and remove HTML tags, empty lines and line breaks.

A universal program for creating e-books, along with other features, should understand the maximum number of different e-book formats. The technology for creating an e-book is very simple: it consists in the correct formatting of its text and the selection of additional elements - sections and subsections.

Fast EBook Compiler

Developer: Arch Ltd./Web Space Station
Developer site:
http://www.fastebook.com/download.html
Distribution size: 2 MB

This tool differs from the usual programs designed for creating e-books, first of all, by the result of its work: by creating a book using the Fast EBook Compiler, you will receive an executable file for Windows. As a result of running this file, the Fast EBook Compiler environment and the text of the book will be displayed. You can view a book in this format on any computer, even on one that does not have Fast EBook Compiler installed, which is an indisputable advantage of the program. Another plus is the ability to turn many text and image files into a single executable file for Windows.

The source materials on the basis of which the book will be created can be contained in files of various types - MS Word documents, HTML and graphic files. To create an e-book, it is enough to collect all the files in one directory and specify all the necessary parameters, including the name of the directory in the step-by-step "wizard" when creating a new project. At the same time, you can set the interface elements that will be displayed in the book text viewing window - configure the presence of buttons and toolbars.

A book created with the EBook Compiler is easy to read, the font size can be changed using the viewing tools, search tools are available, and a piece of text can be copied via the clipboard to another program. Well, the disadvantages of such an e-book created using the EBook Compiler include inconvenient navigation tools - reading a book is only possible sequentially, one chapter after another. Another disadvantage of the program is the lack of the ability to edit the finished book.

Natata eBook Compiler

Developer: NATATA Software
Developer site:
http://www.natata.com/
Distribution size: 1.23 MB
Distribution terms: freeware

Creating a book using Natata eBook Compiler is carried out using a wizard, during which all the necessary parameters of the future book are specified, including the files from which the program will form the book. The result of the work of this program, like the previous one, is an exe-file, when opened, the text of the book is displayed, and some tools for navigation and search are also provided. Saving bookmarks, as well as navigation within a single file, as well as editing finished project, are not available. The advantage of this e-book authoring tool is also the ability to insert pictures into an e-book.

SunRav BookOffice

Developer: SunRav Software
Developer site: Sunrav.ru
Distribution size: 4.46 MB
Distribution terms: shareware

SunRav BookOffice is a set of tools for creating and editing a book. It includes the SunRav BookEditor book authoring module and the SunRav BookReader reader tool. With this program, you can create a complete book, which will consist of several sections, it may include a table of contents and an index. And the reading tool provides easy navigation between sections of the book content. When creating a book, you can insert various additional elements- tables, figures, hyperlinks, import of html, doc, txt files is available.

The only drawback of the program is that the books created with this program are saved only in the internal format of the program and are not available for editing. But the export tools allow you to turn this file into a book in pdf format, a chm help file, rtf, html documents or an exe file.

Book Designer

Developer: Valery Voitsekhovich
Developer site:
http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/content.php?article.63
Distribution size: 8.68 MB
Status: Freeware

Book Designer is one of best tools for creating e-books. The main features of Book Designer are related to the conversion of input files of e-books, as well as editing and formatting their content. In addition, Book Designer can be used as a tool for reading books on a computer.

The simplest purpose of Book Designer is to convert books from one format to another. Using the program, you can get books in lit, prc, pdb, rb, kml, fb2, Franklin EbookMan, Psion, Ms Word (*.doc), txt, rtf, html formats. The operation of the program is controlled using the toolbar. To convert, you must click the button corresponding to the desired format and specify additional options that are unique for each format. The completion of the format conversion is accompanied by a beep.

When formatting the input file, the program can independently determine the structure of the book and highlight its main elements. In this case, standard formats are used, if necessary, user-defined formats can be used. If the Book Designer was not able to create the structure of the book on its own, the user can do it himself by manually selecting and formatting the necessary elements.

After opening an e-book file in the Book Designer window, its text will immediately be formatted - while different styles, colors, font types will be applied to different parts. The book displayed in the Book Designer window may consist of the following blocks: author, book title, section title, paragraph title, epigraph, author's text, abstract. When opening an e-book file, the program will automatically detect these blocks and format the book fragment in accordance with them. But if some fragment is not defined or defined incorrectly, these settings can be changed.

The Book Corrector tool allows you to convert selected text into standard book elements - various kinds of heading names, epigraph, book title, author, etc. Other features provided by the Book Corrector module are the ability to move the selected block, insert a missing line or a blank page at the specified location. There are also special buttons designed to swap individual elements of the book with each other, for example, the title and author of the book, to increase the font. You can add content to the text of the book - it will be automatically generated based on the titles of sections and subsections.

Using the special Element Browser toolbar, you can conveniently navigate between different elements of the e-book.

The program allows you to create a specially formatted file with quotes, the so-called quote book. When creating a quote book, a separate window will open where the user can copy fragments using the clipboard.

Book Designer is not only a tool for creating e-books. This program is a whole set of tools for working with electronic texts, and the Book Designer module, which is just designed for creating and formatting electronic books, is just one of them. In addition to this main program, which is part of the software package, it includes several more modules. Book Browser is an ordinary Internet browser that has been added with a number of features that make it easier to find books in global network. This module is able to search the Internet on sites digital libraries. The list of libraries available for searching books using the Book Browser has more than 30 titles, and this list can be supplemented with your own titles. Book Browser can be launched as a standalone application or from the Book Designer window. The Book Browser also includes a special module for downloading Book Downloader e-books.

Another module - File Convertor - is intended exclusively for converting ready-made e-book texts. The program can convert e-book texts in different encodings (koi-8, mac, iso) to win-1251 encoding. It should be noted that Book Designer is the only program that can edit finished books.

Using the tools described in this article, you can not only get any format of electronic text that exists today, but also create an e-book yourself, which will not differ much from paper books in design, but will be much more convenient to use.

Program for creating e-books - I give a list of such programs, I hope you choose something suitable for yourself.

The genre of computer literacy requires clarification about the term "electronic book". There are physical devices for reading books (you can also say "gadgets"), which are called electronic books, I wrote about them.

And then there are files for reading, which are also called e-books.

As an example of such a file, I will cite about the Internet.

So, below we will talk about e-books, which are just files, not devices. You can read files such as e-books on a computer, tablet, e-reader, smartphone, etc.

The e-book as a format for disseminating information is gradually replacing traditional “paper” options from the market - and this is understandable. Diversity makes learning necessary materials accessible, regardless of the place and time of their reading, and the volumes of electronic teaching aids and useful books in electronic format is disproportionately smaller.

But in addition to the practical side of the matter, there is also a material one. Namely, the audience, the volume of which in the web space is practically unlimited, and the willingness of this audience to pay for high-quality and useful information. Agree, there is a difference between a long search for the right book in a traditional store (which you still need to get to) and almost instantaneous receipt of what you want in electronic format - just pay for the purchase and download the selected book.

E-book: from applied to fiction

Almost all e-books found on the web can be divided into two categories:

• works of art;

• applied literature.

That is, there are books that are very difficult to sell without having a certain reputation in the literary world. These are works of art in any genre - from detective novels to science fiction.

And there are books that are not published in millions of copies, but are sold quite successfully, being themselves at the same time an object of advertising for their author. This is applied literature, which makes it possible to obtain practical advice and recommendations in a particular area of ​​knowledge/skills.

The very concept of “electronic book”, in general, does not provide for any restrictions on the volume of the work - a book can be two or three pages and hundreds of pages with illustrations. It all depends on what exactly the goals pursued by its creator. For example, you can attract an interested audience to the pages by creating a thematic e-book of ten to twenty pages and choosing the option of its free distribution.

If the material presented in the book is truly original and unique, then you can think about commercial distribution. Of course, both the volume and the content of such a book must correspond to the highest level of expectations of the audience for which it is intended.

E-book: technical side

Creating an e-book is a process that requires certain skills. After all, most of these books are created in .pdf, .txt, .exe, .epub, etc., and not at all in .doc / .docx, in which most editors work.

In fact, there is no big trouble that the draft version of the book will be created in any convenient format. You can also write it in a standard Word editor, using the available formats for working with text. And then reformat (or else they say “convert”) the file into a “book” version using one of the available programs. By the way, the Microsoft Word editor itself has a function that converts the .docx format to the .pdf format.

How to create a pdf eBook with Word 2007

Below in the screenshot (Fig. 1), the numbers indicate the step-by-step sequence of steps for obtaining a pdf document in the Microsoft Word 2007 editor:

Rice. 1 In Word, create a file in .pdf format

• Number 1 in fig. 1 - click on the "Acrobat" tab.

• Number 2 in fig. 1 - click on the "Create PDF" option.

• Number 3 in fig. 1 - pay attention to the folder where the .pdf file will be saved.

• Number 4 in fig. 1 - if necessary, select another folder on your PC by clicking on the small triangle to search for the folder.

• Number 5 in fig. 1 - enter the file name.

• Number 6 in fig. 1 - the file type must be .pdf only. If you have a different type in this column, click on the small triangle opposite the number 6 and select the "PDF files" option.

• Number 7 in fig. 1 - click on the "Parameters" button, and, if necessary, set the necessary parameters for the PDF file.

• Number 8 in fig. 1 - the final chord - click on the "Save" button.

Since in fig. 1 there is a checkmark in front of the "View result" button, then after clicking on the "Save" button, we will see our file just in the .PDF format.

Paid Word alternative is LibreOffice Writer

Microsoft program Word, described above, is paid. There is an alternative - this is a free licensed LibreOffice package, which includes the LibreOffice Writer text editor.

The official website of the program is http://ru.libreoffice.org/. LibreOffice Writer's File menu has an Export to .pdf option, which contains a very large set of options for formatting and file security.

Programs - virtual printers for converting to PDF

A virtual printer is an imaginary printer, more precisely, this is the name of a program that is very similar to a printer, but in fact this program does not control any device. It works with files, in particular, it converts (converts, formats - these are the same in this context) a file opened in this program into .PDF format.

PDF Factory Pro

PDF Factory Pro is a simple and convenient program that allows you to convert Word files to pdf format (via the menu File / Print / Printer / Program name and Run), after which the file will be converted and appear in the window of the program itself already in a pdf version.

After conversion, you can configure various document (e-book) settings, including book protection. So, you can password-protect access to view, prohibit copying an e-book or making changes to it. In the process of making and saving changes, the program will display a ticker showing the current settings. After the line stops, the document can be saved in the selected folder by giving it a name.

doPDF Program

doPDF - this program is installed on a computer, and it is installed as a virtual printer. It is a file converter that allows you to translate Word formats into .pdf.

Online PDF Converter – end24

In addition to programs for creating e-books, online services for converting files to .pdf have recently become very popular. The online service means that the translation of the file into pdf will take place in real time (before your astonished eyes).

Consider one of these online services. The proposed service is in English, so it is better to open it in the Google Chrome browser, which has a built-in translator. The translator is not perfect, but allows you to catch the meaning.

Step-by-step instruction for an online service for converting a .doc/.docx file to a .pdf format

1) We go in the Google Chrome browser.

Rice. 2 Online service for converting files to .pdf format

3) Number 1 in fig. 2 - Click the mouse in the window with the inscription "Select file". "Open" will open, in which you need to find a document (more precisely, a file for converting to .PDF format) on your PC's hard drive. On fig. 2 you can see that I have selected a file named Polls.docx.

4) Number 2 in fig. 2 - Enter your email address without errors. This is necessary in order to receive a file to the specified address, which will be converted by the online service to PDF format.

5) Number 3 in fig. 2 - Click on the button with the inscription "Recalculate and send" (the English phrase "Convert and send" is not accurately translated - Convert and send ... by e-mail).

6) While the file is being converted online, go to your email. There we find a letter from the en.pdf24.org service with the following content (by the way, check the Spam or Junk mail folder, because I found the letter there):

Thank you for using the 100% virus-free and secure PDF conversion service. That none other can abuse this service to send you SPAM messages and that we have the confirmation to send you emails and attachments to your email address, please click on the following link to activate your email address and to get your converted document.

Activate email address now and get PDF

This intermediate step is required only once. In the future you will get your converted documents directly a few seconds after the conversion.

Sincerely
www.pdf24.org

8) Repeat steps 3 to 5 again. We see in Fig. 3, that the conversion of our file to PDF has finally begun (as the cat Matroskin said, “it worked!”):

Rice. 3 Message from the online service pdf24.org about the end of the conversion process.

9) We go back to our mail, we find a letter (now I had it in the Inbox, and not in Spam, Fig. 4)

Rice. 4 Message from the pdf24 service to an e-mail containing a file converted to pdf

10) Right-click on the file attached to the letter. A window will open in which we click on "Save As", save it to your PC.

By the way, the benefit of converting a file to pdf format is that it will practically be impossible to make changes to such a file for those people who are the recipients of these files.

For this reason, many accountants send accounting documents to their customers in pdf format so that cunning customers do not make their own changes to these documents.

3 more programs for creating e-books

1. SBookBuilder- converts .txt files to .exe format and has a lot of other features. A handy program focused on self-creation of e-books.

2. Natata eBook Compiler- Another useful program for those who want to create an e-book. Converting files to various formats is available, but the functionality is significantly reduced in the free version.

3. Macromedia Dreamweaver- allows you to create e-books in html format. To obtain the desired result, you will need a finished file in Word format (book). After that, a new html document is created in the program. It must be saved (it will be displayed as a blank page without entries).

The number of documents must equal the number of pages in the book being created. It is better to save pages (for convenience) in one folder, giving them names with numbering corresponding to the subsequent location in the book. Next, for each page, you will need to set the markup (by selecting the icon in the form of a table in the graphical menu of the program). For example, rows, columns, text layout, etc., and then insert text and images.

Also in the menu there is an opportunity to configure other parameters - from the color of the pages to the addition of frames and other elements. Upon completion of the work, you can put everything together using any convenient exe file compiler.

Computer literacy exercise:

1 If you have a .doc/.docx file, find it on your PC.

2 Use the online service described in the article (heading "Online PDF Converter") and convert the file to .pdf format.

3 If everything worked out, do not forget the main thing: to praise yourself for this small success: “I'm smart! I got the conversion of the file, it turns out it's easy!

4 If it didn’t work, then you don’t have a .doc/.docx file on your PC, or write in the comments in detail what you did and what came of it (step by step). Together we understand and find a solution.

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Print media and self-publishing in our time are unlikely to serve just one or two markets when it comes to distributing their titles. In addition to print and audio books, they should also release electronic versions of books, which will guarantee protection against the loss of a certain part of the audience.

Since e-books are released in certain formats, sometimes not all devices can support them. If you want your publication to reach a larger number of readers, then you should take care of many formats in which the book will be released.

Our article today will tell you about several interesting and useful tools that will help you get into the process of creating and compiling e-books for distribution on the web and for reading through Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, iPad, iPhone, iPod, smartphones based on Android and many other devices.

Tool for creating books in EPUB and MobiPocket formats. The EPUB format is based on open technologies and can be used by anyone. Numerous devices easily support the EPUB format, including Android, Barnes & Noble Nook, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Sony Reader and many more.

eCub allows you to easily compose simple EPUB books using text files or XHTML files. The app also helps you create simple covers and even convert text to audio file. eCub also supports the creation of books in the MobiPocket format, which is accepted by many devices, personal computers, as well as the Amazon Kindle. The eCub does not include a WYSIWYG editor or text highlighting, which limits the ability to compose complex e-books. But for novels with simple formatting, eCub will be the best option. Plus, the app is completely free and you can download versions for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, and even Solaris.

If you are using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) service, HTML is the preferred formatting language. Most of the HTML tags work, so you can easily format your book with the HTML editor. In most cases, however, WYSIWYG editors will provide you with all the necessary tags to help you convert your publication to Kindle format.

Although many people prefer to edit HTML code, a WYSIWYG editor developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) team. Amaya is a free and open source application available for Windows as well as operating systems such as Unix and Linux, including also Mac OS X. Check out for more detailed information about the Kindle.

Treesaver is great for creating book formats that are easily readable by any device connected to the Internet. This application is a user-friendly and easy-to-use HTML magazine/e-book authoring script. If your plan is to have your own domain and organize a high-quality representation of your brand on the web, this application will come in handy!

Unlike other e-book authoring tools on the web, this application does not require Flash, Java or any other plugins. It works in almost all browsers and adapts to any display size (depending on the device). Those. iPhone owners who use their reading gadget will see the app in much the same way as PC users. The app also supports swiping via keyboard arrows, mouse scrolling, finger swipe (for touch screens), and the old-fashioned click function. Moreover, books created with Treesaver can be decorated with images, videos and links, as the application is designed for compiling e-books (which is currently rare in books).

Treesaver is completely free and open source. You can download the javascript file and read the tutorial for publishing content on the official website of the project.

In addition to e-book formats and standard web formats, many devices can also support PDF books. If you need something that can be distributed or sold online, then the PDF format is ideal for this purpose. Many text editors, such as OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice, have a built-in function to export documents to PSD format. There are also online PDF converters like Neevia Document Converter. It's free, but there are some limitations.

It's also important to keep in mind that you shouldn't over-complicate your design so that it works great on all devices. Many readers prefer solid text with various diagrams and graphs (unless we are talking about a children's book, of course). Readers are interested in the text itself, not in your fine art skills.

It is very convenient and easy to provide your book to a large number of readers without resorting to paid software. The above tools are just a small part of the huge list of eBook authoring apps available. Select the best option for yourself and enjoy the easy gravity process.

How to learn how to create e-books, in what formats, and with what programs.

The eternal storehouse of the wisdom of mankind. Since ancient times, people, having barely created writing, began to create books in order to leave at least some news about themselves to their descendants.

How many evolutions the book has gone through... Clay tablets, birch bark, papyrus, parchment and, in the end, paper - all this was used to transmit written speech by our ancestors (and even by contemporaries).

In our time, the book is going through another round of development and transformation. It is related to the latest information technology, which have recently been gaining and gaining momentum in development.

Today it is not necessary to be a Gutenberg and have a huge printing press. It is enough to have at hand just a computer, a scanner (although not necessary) and the appropriate software. That's just about the latter and will be discussed.

First, we need to decide whether we want to make an electronic copy of an existing book or create our own from scratch. To create a copy, we cannot do without an auxiliary device (scanner or powerful digital camera).

The first stage - direct text scanning

What are the options here? And by and large, there are two options: with or without text recognition. If we do not plan to recognize the text, then we scan all the pages of the book as pictures (JPG format).

However, in this case, you lose the ability to edit the resulting text (unless with Photoshop :)). Therefore, I propose to use the option with recognition.

Today it is not necessary to shell out big money to purchase such a software package as Fine Reader, because there is its free analogue (and Open Source) - CuneiForm.

We scan the source text using this program, and at the end of the scanning process, we start recognition. We save the result in one of the text formats (best of all, DOC or RTF, but TXT is also possible if there are no images).

The second stage is processing the text and preparing it for turning into a book.

At this stage, the most difficult thing is to decide on the choice of the format of the e-book (and there are two of them? :)). In fact, there are a great many of them, and it depends on which one you choose for yourself, what we will do next. For greater clarity, let's look at the table of the most popular book formats.

Format	Purpose	Cross-platform	How to create a book	disadvantages
PDF	format suitable for creating books, booklets, etc. with high image quality	Yes	virtual printer	too big size
DJVU	the open format is suitable for storing press and book scans where high image quality is not required or where text is difficult to recognize	yes, with special software	converter	not always high quality results
DOC	suitable for both creating text from scratch, and for placing ready-made information (graphic or text)	No. Windows only. Unix and JAVA (with software (converter))	MS Word text editor	large size, not very comfortable viewing
RTF	displays marked-up text and graphic information (up to 256 colors)	Yes	text editor (Word, OpenOffice…)	not very high quality graphics
HTML	hypertext markup language that is suitable for displaying any text and graphics	Yes	text editor or HTML editor	need work skills, little formatting options
FB2	based on XML, used to display any text or graphics, easily created from DJVU and HTML format	yes, with software		not always correct display of some symbols and tables
EXE	compiled from HTML and allows you to create books with a wide variety of content	no, only Windows	special compiler application
CHM	most commonly used to create help files for a program, compiled from HTML	yes, for Windows, the rest - with special software	special application or converter	format support only by the Windows family
JAVA	used for reading books mobile phones, PDA, etc. devices	No	converter	not always correct display of some symbols and images

As you can see, one way or another, all the work revolves around two main tools: a text editor and a converter. This is the minimum software, which we need to create a book. At the second stage, we usually create a text document and put all the pages of our future book into it.

Then we make some adjustments if necessary (we create a cover, check for errors, compose a table of contents, or format the document in HTML) and convert the finished document into a book.

This is a general scheme of actions for creating a book, and now specifically for each of the formats. So…

PDF

This format is famous for its cross-platform, that is, readability on all (or almost all) platforms (Windows, UNIX, Mac, PDA, etc.). Therefore, many people prefer to create e-books in PDF.

In order to make a book in this format, we need a scanner (if we are going to make a copy of an existing book) and a text editor (MS Word 2007 or OpenOffice 2 and above).

All modern editors support the function of converting a document to PDF, so you should not resort to using additional tools. All you need is to arrange the pages in a text document in order and click the appropriate button.

If you are using an older version of a text editor (for example, MS Word 2003), then you need another tool - a virtual printer. This is a special program after installing which, you will have another printer in your system, by printing a document on which you will receive a book in PDF format.

You can use the DoPDF program as a virtual printer.

DJVU

Due to the large PDF size, books are often packaged in this format. DJVU allows, with a slight loss of quality, to significantly reduce the file size, which is convenient when downloading a book from the Internet.

To create a DJVU book, we need a special converter. I bring to your attention a small program DjVu Small. Despite its small size, it has a very significant set of functions. In addition to creating a DJVU book, it can also reverse decode a DJVU file.

The program, although in English, is intuitive. Its only drawback is that it does not support converting text formats (only raster ones), but it is possible to create a book from a TIFF scan file directly.

All you have to do is scan the book to TIFF and put all of its pages into one folder. Then we start DjVu Small and, by clicking "Open folder", select the desired folder. When all pages appear, press the "Convert" button - you're done!

DOC and RTF

These are the two most common types of text books. With only a text editor at hand, you can create pretty good books in these formats. In fact, this is the same text document, with the only difference that it is designed in the form of a book (there is a cover, content, it is possible to script pages to it).

If you want to create a book from scratch, then this might be the perfect option for you. Moreover, such a book can easily be turned into books in other formats (PDF, HTML ...).

HTML

As you know, this format is used to create Internet sites. However, there are quite a few books written in this language or its modifications. As in the previous version, HTML is suitable for creating your own e-books, and not for scanning ready-made ones (although you can post separately scanned sheets as pictures).

To create a book in this format, you need to have at least a basic knowledge of the hypertext markup language. However, today it is possible to convert the same DOC or RTF file into HTML using a text editor. Let's go to the menu "File" - "Save as ..." and set the output format to HTML.

It is worth noting that in HTML format you can create not only ordinary books, but also interactive game books with plot forks. This is quite easy to do in a special editor AXMA Story Maker.

This program allows you to add to the book not only plot forks, but also videos and even mini-games.

FB2

Quite a new and promising format. It is also most suitable for creating your own books (or reworking existing books in other formats).

To create books in this format, you will need a converter and a special editor. We use the Any2FB program as a converter.

It allows you to turn any text or HTML file into an FB2 book (the latter is preferable). After you have converted the text, you can leave it as it is, or you can edit it a little using the FB Editor program.

EXE

One of the most interesting e-book formats. You are creating not just a book, but a full-fledged Windows application.

To create, we need a special compiler program and prepared HTML pages of the future book. As a compiler, you can use the SbookBuilder program.

In just a minute you can become the owner of an EXE-book. It is enough just to point the program to a folder with HTML pages, enter the name of the book and, if necessary, a password if you want to restrict access to it or use the book for sale.

CHM

This format is also somewhat similar to the previous one. If you use Windows, then you have come across it more than once when viewing help for using programs.

You can create a CHM book with a compiler converter at hand. Like an EXE book, CHM help is generated from HTML pages. To compile CHM, you can use the development of our compatriots Chm4You.

It can easily assemble and parse CHM files. All you need to do is specify the page to be converted (for the whole site - the index.html page).

JAVA

Everyone wants to have more features while spending less cash :). Recently, e-books have begun to appear, ported for reading on mobile phones with JAVA support. A JAVA midlet is compiled from the book in text format and installed on the phone.

To create such JAVA applications, there is a Shasoft eBook converter program.

Shasoft eBook allows you to create a JAVA version of a text file of your choice in a few clicks, and some tools are available for editing it, as well as displaying graphics.

findings

So in short, I hope I have introduced you to the basics of creating e-books and their types. In the future, I will dwell on each of the programs for their creation in more detail. In the meantime, it remains only to wish you success in your work. And let it bring you only joy and satisfaction (and maybe money :)).

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

The role of a modern computer in the workflow process can hardly be overestimated. Moreover, the digital format of data presentation saves not only hectares of forests, but also the time, nerves and strength of ordinary office workers. Therefore, let's understand in more detail how to create an e-book for storing documents:

What is an e-book

An interesting fact about the appearance of the electronic version of the book is that it was the US Declaration of Independence. It was created back in 1971 by an American inventor Michael Stern Hart. It was he who became the founder of the Gutenberg project, which involves the digitization and preservation of world literature in in electronic format, as well as providing free access to books:

In the modern concept of an e-book - this electronic version paper original, made in digital form. An e-book can be created in one of the generally accepted formats. Often an e-book is referred to as an e-book or e-text.

An e-book is also understood as any educational publication in any discipline, made in one of the digital formats and supplied with notes or exercises. As well as explanatory illustrations in the form of bitmap images.

The term e-book is used both for digital versions of books and for portable devices designed specifically for reading them.

An e-book can be made in various digital formats. We will try to highlight their main types:

• Plain text - this refers to the txt format, which can be created (read) using a regular text editor ( Notepad);
• In the form of raster graphics - these include DjVu, TIFF, JPEG and others;
• Multimedia formats of e-books - these can be files with the extension exe, SWF. As well as various audiobook formats (MP3, Vorbis);
• Java books are applications designed specifically for mobile devices, based on Java .

I would like to dwell in more detail on several main formats currently used to create e-books.

Basic e-book formats

Nowadays, e-books are most often presented in several of the most popular formats.

These include:

• HTML - Created using Hypertext Markup Language. Books are combined html pages. Hyperlinks are used to navigate between sections. You can open such a book using a regular browser or through a special interface;
• Electronic Publication (ePub) - Open international standard, created specifically for e-books. The format allows the book to be recorded and distributed in a single file. At the same time, the source itself is a ZIP archive, in which data is stored in HTML, XML, PDF standards;
• DjVu is an implementation of low-loss image compression technology. It was designed specifically for saving scanned texts illustrated with various drawings, graphs and diagrams. The technology is optimally adapted for transferring DjVu files over the network. This allows you to start reading the book while it is downloading:

• PDF (Portable Document Format) is a cross-platform standard for storing and creating electronic documents from Adobe. Its implementation uses a number of features of the PostScript language. The format is oriented specifically for displaying various printed publications in electronic form. It supports the use of vector and raster graphics in the text and the introduction of the necessary fonts (line by line). We will talk about how to make a book in pdf a little later. To read documents in this format, the free application Adobe Acrobat is most often used:

• fb2 (FictionBook) – the structure of the format is described in the XML language. That is, each element of the book is located in its own tag. This ensures that the standard is cross-platform and data is ready for change ( editing, creating) and readable on any device.

But all this information is for reference, and does not explain the practical side of the issue. For example, how to create an electronic textbook. Therefore, we will leave the theoretical component and get into practice.

Create an HTML based tutorial

Consider the process of creating an HTML-based e-book using the eBook Maestro program. The weight of the installation package of the program is small and is only 2.7 MB. After installing and launching the application, you are greeted with a dialog box informing you that you are using free version this software product. Which, in turn, somewhat "infringes" on the capabilities of the program:

For novice users, the help for the application suggests downloading a template for the html page for the book on the official website. This should greatly simplify the whole process:

In fact, the template turned out to be just a collection of simple web pages, the code of which is not complex. But to add content and images to them, you need a special editor with html support:

After inserting the page names and their content into the html, we saved all the files again:

Now let's go back to our application. On the General tab, enter the title of the book and the contact information of its author:

On the "Files" tab, we tell the program about the location of the book's files. That is, we set the path where we saved the web pages of the standard template that we edited. You can also specify the path to the icon for the book here, and in the " EXE book output» - the place to save the finished sample:

In the tab " Interface»Set up the user interface: set the size, color and layout of the main elements of the book:

This is what we got as a result of creating a sample e-textbook in html . Of course, some adjustments could be made, but for demonstrating the whole process, it is quite suitable:

A few more similar programs:

• HTML Help Workshop;
• eBooksWriter LITE.

Create PDF Books

We used the SunRav BookOffice program to create the PDF book. On the official website you can find a lot of information about the application. Particularly pleased with the presence of an extensive section of technical documentation:

The application supports the creation of not only PDF documents, but also the creation of books based on other standards:

We have chosen the easiest way. Therefore, in the menu shown above, Word articles were selected as the source.