Thoughts on Linux and EPUB

EPUB (Electronic Publication) was adopted  as an open standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) in September 2007. Most eBook readers support the standard, even the iPhone and iPad have readers that support EPUB. Yet, Linux lags behind in both publishing tools and readers. There are alternatives for the Linux user.

As a replacement to the Open eBook standard, the EPUB standard uses modified versions of XHTML and CSS to deliver a document is independent of the display device. Consequently, you can read the same document on an Android phone, a dedicated eReader, or on a desktop machine.

Most readers offer the ability to adjust the font size as a standard set of icons. For this feature alone, ePubs should be considered as an alternative to presenting documents in Microsoft Word or PDF formats. In addition, eSpeak provides a mechanism for reading the EPUB document. Since eReader take advantage of the reflowable content, documents requiring strict layout or advanced formating are not good candidates for EPUB.

While “Adobe Digital Editions” is the most popular eBook reader, it lacks a Linux version. For Linux, the choices are:

• FBReader is a standalone reader for books in a number of format, including .ebub. As of the writing of this article, the Debian/Ubuntu repositories still have the older version. You can get a new version from the openSUSE Build Service. The openSUSE Build Service offers package for a large number of distros, not just openSUSE. I am not really impressed with its navigation tools. Plus, it lacks a means to quickly adjust the font size.
• Calibre is a library management tool with a lot of extras:
  • eBook conversion between different formats
  • Syncing to eBook reader devices
  • Downloading of news from the Web and converting into EPUB format
  • A good eBook viewer that does allow font resizing and navigation tools that make sense
  • A Web server (default port is 8080) to provide a central library
• The EPUBReader extension to Firefox is not only a good reader, but it maintains a catalog of the books you have read (just click Tools -> ePub-Catalog). Combined with Calibre’s Web server, it makes a greater reader for books stored on a local server.

Some of the eBook Web sites have their own viewers:

• Bookworm Online ePub eBook Reader
• BookGlutton

Some of the sources for eBooks are:

• Feedbooks
• epubBooks
• Book Glutton
• Baen Free Library
• MemoWare (You will need Calibre for format conversion)
• Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog (if EPUB format is not available, select the HTML format and have Calibre convert it)
• ManyBooks.net

A lot of books. A life time of reading. For those of you who are looking for a way to publish documents for the visually impaired, I recommend that you consider the EPUB format.