Technology Reviews

ePub stands for Electronic Publishing. It is a standard set up for ebooks. According to Wikipedia ,

EPUB (electronic publication) (also sometimes ePub, EPub, or epub) is a free and open e-book standard, by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Files have the extension .epub. EPUB is designed for “reflowable” content, meaning that the text display can be optimized for the particular display device. The format is meant to function as a single format that publishers and conversion houses can use in-house, as well as for distribution and sale. It supersedes the Open eBook standard.

There are number of ePub readers doing the rounds but not all similar in features and ease of use. The ePub readers are available for different platforms ranging from online ePub readers to ones for Windows as well as Linux and Mac. Also there are numerous ePub reader  pluggins for browsers.

1. Online ePub reader service  - BOOKWORM

Every one is  probably aware of O’Reilly Media. This site is a part of the group and is leaping towards becoming the leading online free platform for reading ebooks online. Obviously online service is gaining popularity day by day as one of the major advantages of an online service is that it is accessible at any time from anywhere from any device capable of supporting internet.

Just 3 steps needed to read a ebook.

Register an account  -> Upload an ebook -> Start reading

Some technical details of the service are  ;

• Faithfully renders all levels of HTML
• Automatically-generated TOC based on document metadata
• Supports all levels of the CSS specification available to your browser
• Inline image support: PNG, JPG, GIF
• SVG image support

2. Stanza

It is one of the most popular software for reading ebooks offline on desktop. It s simple ,easy to use and fast.Apart from a epub reader it also acts as a converter. It is used to convert .epub formats to numerous different formats including .doc and .pdf.

another of its great features is the ability to share the ebooks with iphone, ipod touch and Kindle. Stanza Desktop features built-in support for HTML, PDF, Microsoft Word, and Rich Text Format reading, as well as all the major eBook standards: unprotected Amazon Kindle and Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, Palm doc, and the International Digital Publishing Forum’s new epub Open eBook standard. In addition to supporting a plethora of formats, Stanza Desktop features an open API that allows developers to implement support for their own document formats.

Moreover, Stanza is now available for i-phone too.

3. MobiPocketReader ( Windows )

Mobipocketreader is one of the most popular an widely used epub reader. It excels in the features required in a epub reader. Along with the reader it is one of the most advanced professional book organiser. You can import books in PDF, ePub, or Office formats and organize them quickly. Also it is easy and pretty quick. One can read a file by just double clicking on the file.

Some of the useful features of the software are  :

• All your Digital Text
• Manage & Organize
• Sync and Go
• Annotate & Review
• Onscreen Reading
• Office & PDF conversion
• RSS feeds
• Dictionary search

4. EPUB Reader Firefox Addon

It is the easiest of the options and one with silghtest hassles.  Qith this addon one can easily open any epub format book quickly using just the browser with no additional software to be installed. It is  faster and quicker than desktop software and shows the graphics far better than bookworm service.  EPUBReader downloads the file, makes some processing and displays the ePub file ready to read! If you have got already downloaded ePub-files, you can read them by using the Firefox “File/File open” dialog.