Electronic Book

What Does Electronic Book Mean?

An electronic book (e-book) is a digital publication that can consist of text, images or a combination of both. An electronic book can be read on a proprietary digital device (an e-reader) or on a computer, which requires special software.

Techopedia Explains Electronic Book

E-books originated mostly as technical product manuals, but today, the format covers most publishing formats. Some authors rejected by traditional publishers may electronically self-publish their work, due to low production costs. Major publishing companies also offer e-books as an alternative to hard copy publications.

Some e-books use a proprietary format, such as those designed for Amazon’s Kindle tablet. The alternative is an open format, like Adobe’s PDF, which is compatible with most e-readers.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ??a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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