eBooks Glossary 1.0

List and definitions of commonly used acronyms and words relating the ebooks industry

The glossary page is filled with info and definitions on a wide range of eBook-related terms and acronyms. If you think we've omitted a term, or need to update one, please let the Planet eBook editor know about it.


Adobe Acrobat & Acrobat Reader : Acrobat is Adobe's software for viewing Portable Document Format (PDF) files -- PDF has become one of the most commonly used ebook formats. The popularity of Acrobat has grown through PDF's growing maturity, and its universal portability -- PDF files can be shared reliably between almost all operating systems. Currently there are versions of Acrobat available for Windows, Mac, Unix and Linux.

Acrobat comes in three flavors Acrobat 4.05 (the full version), Acrobat Business Tools 4.0 (a cheaper, slimmed-down version) and the free Acrobat Reader. Acrobat has the largest user base of all ebook readers -- software or reading devices. Adobe's last estimate was 160 million users, however the amount of users with the latest version (4.05), which comes with the DRM plug-in (WebBuy), is much lower.

DOI (Digital Object Identifier): The Digital Object Identifier (DOI ) is an identification system for intellectual property in the digital environment. Developed by the International DOI Foundation on behalf of the publishing industry, its goals are to provide a framework for managing intellectual content, link customers with publishers, facilitate electronic commerce, and enable automated copyright management.

DRM (Digital Rights Management): Digital Rights Management (DRM) covers the description, identification, trading, protection, monitoring and tracking of all forms of rights usages over both tangible and intangible assets including management of rights holders.

eBook : ebooks (eBooks, e-books, Ebooks...) can be anything from the digital version of a paper book, to more interactive content that includes hyperlinks and multimedia. It can even be the electronic reading device such as a Rocket eBook or Pocket PC.

eBookman: Is a handheld device developed by Franklin. Designed for reading ebooks and listening to audio books (among other things) this PDA has a larger screen size than Palm and Pocket PC. The eBookman has not been released yet but will be later this year, and will eventually come with Microsoft Reader installed.

Electronic Book: See 'ebook.'

EBX (Electronic Book Exchange) : The EBX Working group was developed to create a standard (EBX) for protecting copyright in electronic books and for distributing electronic books among publishers, distributors, retailers, libraries, and consumers.

Encryption: A method used to translate digital information into a code that cannot be accessed without the necessary secret password or key that unencrypts it.

Electronic Paper: Is a relatively new concept that is being investigated commercially by Eink and Xerox's Gryicon. The basic idea behind electronic paper is that it is a reusable display device, allowing the storage of visual content on a 'page' of plastic paper. This technology is at it's very early stages, but Eink has expressed the desire to create the technology to allow the development of electronic devices that work like paper books -- plastic, reusable pages bound together to form a book-like device.

ePublisher: An epublisher is much the same as a traditional publisher, except that epublishers. Like most publishers, the epublisher would usually pay the author royalties, as well as edit the work.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The authoring language used to create documents on the Web. HTML uses a set of markup 'tags' to form the page layout.

Glassbook: Glassbook is a company that has developed a free ebook reader (Glassbook Reader) for reading PDF-based ebooks and has an estimated 600,000 users. Glassbook, who started the EBX (Electronic Book Exchange), was recently acquired by Adobe.

ISBN (International Standard Book Number): A 10-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally. More...

LCD (liquid crystal display): A type of display used in most PDAs (like Palm, Windows CE & Pocket PCs), ebook devices (like Rocket eBook and SoftBook) and notepads. Desktop machines typically use CRT (cathode-ray tube) screens. LCD displays work by passing an electric current through the liquid causing the crystals to align, allowing light to pass through or to be blocked from getting through. ClearType by Microsoft (see Sub-pixel font rendering) utilizes the sub-pixels commonly found in color LCD screens to enhance the reading experience by making fonts clearer.

LIT: Short for 'Literature', LIT is Microsoft's new ebook format for its Microsoft Reader software. LIT is based on the XML-based OEB Publication Standard developed by the Open eBook Forum.

Microsoft Reader: Microsoft Reader is Microsoft's free software for reading ebooks. The software is available for computers running Microsoft's operating systems, and handheld devices that run Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system. The soon to be released eBookman by Franklin is to come with Microsoft Reader. The Reader works with .LIT files and supports ClearType (a technology designed for improving readability on LCD screens).

MP3 (Moving Picture Experts Group Layer 3) : What has become the standard file format for the compression of music. Because MP3s significantly compress songs, it is a perfect candidate for distributing on the internet. It is clearly a standard online format and has resulted in the creation of dozens of software tools (like Napster and Gnutella) that encourage MP3 sharing/copying via the web.

OEB (Open eBook): OEB usually refers to the Open eBook Publication Structure specification. OEB 1.0 is the first specification developed by the OEBF. This specification for eBook file and format structure is based on HTML and XML, the languages used to create information for Web sites. Being XML-based, the aim of OEB is for the format to allow a publisher to publish an ebook once, which can be viewed on a wide variety of devices, such as PDAs, dedicated ebook devices, notepads and PCs.

OEBF (Electronic Book Forum): The OEBF was formed to create and maintain standards and promote the successful adoption of electronic books. The group is made up of most of the major players in the ebooks world, including software and hardware makers, and publishers. The group's major achievement so far has been the creation of the Open eBook Publication Structure specification (OEB 1.0).

PDF - Portable Document Format: Adobe Systems developed PDF. The intention behind the format is for it to represent a document in a way that is independent of the software, hardware and OS used to create it. PDF has been around since the early 90s and so is a mature, robust and extremely popular format. Adobe Acrobat, Glassbook and Primer are some of the software readers available for viewing PDFs.

PDF documents can be created on a multitude of platforms and can be easily viewed on most platforms as well. And most importantly: they will look the same on whatever platform you view them or from whatever platform you print them. In basic terms, when you convert a document into a Portable Document Format (PDF), you end up with a document that looks identical to a printout of your original document -- PDFs are create by printing an electronic version of a document. You can find out more at Planet PDF

Pocket PC: Microsoft's latest operating system for handheld or PDA devices. There are currently several hardware manufacturers selling devices that come with Pocket PC: Compaq (iPaq), HP (Jornada 545 & 548) and Casio (Cassiopeia E115). Pocket PCs come with Microsoft Reader pre-installed. For more see Pocket PC eBooks Watch - ceBooks.blogspot.com.

POD (Print on demand): : Print on demand is seen by many to have a promising future as traditional printing methods become unprofitable when doing small print runs (less than a thousand or two books) -- printing books as they are required, instead of printing and then hoping the demand is there. Theoretically this could mean that books never go out of print, because tools exist to simply print more in a very automated fashion (be it one copy or one thousand). POD is supposed to make it faster, easier and cheaper to print books than traditional methods.

Reader: What else? A person who reads ebooks.

Reading device: A reading device is the hardware a user uses to read an ebook. Devices currently available include the dedicated ebook devices, the Rocket eBook and SoftBook, as well as multi-purpose devices like Palm and Pocket PCs. Many other devices have been touted for release over the coming years, including goReader, Cybook, Korea ebook, Qubit, WebPAD and so on.

RB: File format (.RB) for Rocket eBook devices

REB1100 & REB1200: The REB1100 and REB1200 dedicated ebook devices were developed through the licensing of technologies developed by Gemstar-TV Guide International's subsidiaries Nuvomedia (Rocket eBook developer) and SoftBook Press. Much of the technology for the REB1100 comes from the developers of the Rocket eBook, the subsidiary of Gemstar, Nuvomedia. Consider the REB1100 and REB1200 as the new and improved Rocket eBook and SoftBook Reader respectively.

Reflow: Reflow is a commonly used term to describe the way the content of a page can resize (or reflow) to fit the size of the screen displaying the content. What this means for the ebook devices and software that supports reflowing is that the reader is able to alter the size of the text on the screen to suit their preferences -- the text of the page resizes meaning more or less will be displayed on the screen. Reflow only works for markup-based formats like LIT, HTM and RB, which all use HTML and/or XML to display the content. Reflowing improves the chance of an ebook being able to work on any device, regardless of the screen size. Display formats like PDF do not support reflowing, but formats like XML, HTML, RB, LIT and OEB do.

Rocket eBook: Developed by Nuvomedia (now a subsidiary of Gemstar), Rocket eBook is currently the most popular dedicated ebook device. The Rocket eBook weighs 22 ounces and has a 4 1/2" x 3" (11.43 cm x 7.62 cm) screen with a resolution of approximately 106 dots per inch. RCA's REB1100 ebook device is the next generation Rocket eBook (to be released later this year).

SoftBook Reader: Developed by SoftBook Press (now a subsidiary of Gemstar). The device comes with a built-in modem, weighs 2.9 pounds and has a 6" width x 8" height, grayscale, touch-sensitive LCD screen. RCA's REB1200 ebook device is the next generation SoftBook Reader (to be released later this year).

Sub-pixel font rendering: Sub-pixel font rendering is a technology designed to improved readability on LCD screens. The technology is based on the fact that each pixel on LCD screens is comprised of three sub-pixels: one red, one green, and one blue. In very simple terms, these sub-pixels allow finer, clearer font detail to be generated (through the use of software like ClearType), and thereby making fonts appear clearer and crisper. Microsoft Reader comes with this technology, which Microsoft calls 'ClearType.' Adobe has announced it will be releasing it's own sub-pixel font rendering technology (called 'CoolType') for Acrobat. To find out more visit this page http://grc.com/cleartype.htm

Windows CE: An older version of Microsoft's handheld operating system, now called Pocket PC.