What is the best e-book format for a smartphone? What is the best e-book format.

It is the most popular in the world. It is installed on about 85% of all mobile devices and about 60% of tablets. Its openness allows many portable electronics developers to use it. But the lack of unified standardization has led to the fact that each manufacturer can release slightly modified firmware based on Android. More advanced models are equipped with a large number of codecs, respectively, support more standards. That is why it is not always clear what documents a particular gadget can work with and what video format Android supports. We bring to your attention a hint.

Modern Android tablets work with most video and book formats

Video formats

Most people buy devices for surfing the world wide web and watching movies. But sometimes the system gives an error "This video cannot be played on the device." Even on the most budgetary tablets with an ancient version of Android, you can use the following formats:

  • 263 - 3GPP, MPEG-4, 3gp, mp4 extensions.
  • 264 AVC - 3GPP, MPEG-TS, MPEG-4, extensions 3gp, mp4.
  • MPEG-4 SP - 3GPP, extension - 3gp.

Agree, this is quite a bit. If mp4 is a modern format in which you can find enough films, then 3gp is hopelessly outdated. But do not be alarmed, modern gadgets can play much more formats. Popular tablet compositors guarantee support for the following video formats:

  • Samsung - H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, WMV, AVI, 3GP, ASF, WebM, MKV, FLV.
  • Nexus - H.264, MP4, H.263.
  • HTC - AVI, MPEG4, Xvid, WMV, 3GP, 3G2 H.263, H.264.

In most cases, this is sufficient. If you see that your device does not support the downloaded movie, use a free one like Freemake Video Converter or Free MP4 Video Converter to convert the movie to a compatible Android video format. Just select the Android conversion profile, resolution and quality of the file in the program menu, and then transfer the finished file to your tablet.


You can always convert videos to the desired format

But it is much more convenient to install the player to watch videos in any format. There are enough of them in the Play Market, almost all of them are free. The most popular and best are:

  • MX Player.
  • VLC for Android.
  • BSPlayer.
  • KMPlayer.


All of them use hardware and multi-core decoding, which allows you to use the full power of multi-core processors; support work with subtitles, both embedded and external, in a variety of video and audio formats; allow you to play network streams. You can also easily control the video using gestures, change orientation, aspect ratio, scale, volume. That is, there will be absolutely no problems with watching films.

Books

In the vast majority of cases, gadgets are not fully equipped. Reading on a tablet is undoubtedly very convenient, thanks to the rather large screen and the light weight of the device. But then in what format to download books on Android? Most modern book content is in PDF and EPUB formats. Sometimes, especially in the Russian-speaking segment of the global network, there are FB2, TXT, RTF, DJVU formats. Let's consider them in more detail.

  • PDF is perhaps the most popular book format for Android. Allows you to colorfully design a book, has a built-in table of contents, you can make notes, highlight text in different colors. The main disadvantage is that it is impossible to adjust the text size and fit it to the screen size. In addition, the files are quite large.
  • EPUB is an increasingly popular book format. It is, by and large, an archive with content. The structure of the document resembles a web page. Used in documents where the text is the main one. But at the same time, you can embed photos, videos, sound. Has a table of contents and internal links to the text. A huge advantage is the ability to change the font, its size, hyphenation, page margin width, thus adapting the view to any screen size.
  • FB2 is a somewhat outdated, but still famous format on the Runet. Supports table of contents, font size can be changed to fit any screen.
  • TXT - normal text Document... Doesn't support table of contents or text changes. But it has the smallest file size.
  • RTF - a text document, somewhat similar to a text document microsoft document Word.
  • DJVU - scanned image files. Allows you to convey all the authenticity of historical documents. Like PDF, it doesn't allow fonts to fit on screen.

Android supports all the most popular text formats

What text formats does Android support besides the listed ones? There can be an incredible number of them, for example, UMD, CHM, MOBI, PDB, TCR. They are very rare, but they can sometimes occur. How to read them? You can convert them to EPUB or PDF, but there is a chance to install a normal reader and not rack your brains with the conversion. Consider popular reading programs e-books.

  • Google play Books - a book store built into Android 4 and older. Allows you to download and buy books in the Play Store, add your own through the phone's file manager. You cannot change the font size, margin width, screen brightness, you cannot even manually turn on night mode.
  • Moon + Reader. Can read epub, pdf fb2, chm, mobi, umd, cbr, cbz, html, txt, rar, zip files.
  • Cool Reader. Supports fb2, epub, mobi, html, txt, rtf, doc, tcr, prc, chm, pdb, pml.
  • FB Reader. Reading books in fb2, fbzip, epub, azw, txt, rtf, html formats. Allowed to install PDF and Djvu modules.


The last three readers can change the size, width of fields, have deep settings appearance... There is also a manual activation of the night mode. Choose the one you like the most.

Conclusion

Now you know what video standards and what book format Android supports. The system is open, there are many free software... We recommend installing a universal player and reader. Also in the comments we are waiting for your tips about applications not mentioned in the article.

Today, you can download books in a huge number of formats, but you need to know in what format to download books on android it's better?

Features of downloading books to android in any format

Users who download books on Android often have a problem with the ease of reading. Today there are a huge number of popular formats for downloading e-books, namely: doc, djvu, djvu, txt, fb2, epub, rtf and others. It is quite difficult to understand all their diversity, especially in the absence of a significant visible difference in formats. Many users prefer to use fb2 because this format is best suited for reading books. In addition, pictures are perfectly visible in it, the text is well-formatted and easy to leaf through. In the absence of this format, it is better to download books in doc or txt formats, since some programs for reading books cannot support files of this type.

You can install several readers on your mobile device that support different formats (ease of choice).
When downloading texts, some problems may arise, for example, they either do not open or are almost invisible.

Most devices with android have small screens, therefore, it is more rational to choose a format taking into account its scalability. The number of file formats on a mobile phone is not very large (in comparison with specialized devices).

The most common formats for downloading books on Android

So in what format is it most convenient to download books on Android? There are some common types of files that are available for offline reading and are not subject to the worldwide web: epub and pdf.

The advantage of the epub format is that it automatically adjusts the text for different screen sizes. Epub files are up to several megabytes in size.
But for individual books on Play Google, only the popular pdf format may be available. Such files usually exceed the size of the rest, they can reach one hundred megabytes (depending on the size and content of the e-book). Disadvantages of the format: the text cannot be adjusted to the device on which the book is read accordingly. The text of such a file is difficult to read on a small screen.

However, in practice, everything is much simpler and, using special applications, other formats are read on android. All of them are united by the fact that the formats are not suitable for reading on small screens. In addition, to read books, you need to install a special application.

MP4 is by far the most popular format played on mobile devices... MP4 came on cell phones instead of 3GP and got its distribution due to the improved video compression ratio, the MP3 track used, the ability to store various metadata. If you're going to upload videos to the Internet, MP4 can be most easily streamed over an Internet connection and is supported by most video storage services. The format is also supported by most popular players, and codecs for playback are included in the basic package of any operating system and firmware.

The MP4 video file can be played on the computer immediately after reinstalling the operating system. The format can be played on portable players, car video recorders, televisions and any other electronics designed to reproduce images. However, it is worth noting that the video saved in the MP4 format may be of slightly poorer quality than some other formats, but for mobile devices this fact is an advantage, since, due to their small size, the files can fit even on small removable media. ...

AVI is one of the most popular video compression formats. It is supported by any operating system and gained its popularity thanks to high quality the resulting image. Despite the fact that the average AVI file is quite large, the format is still supported by most players on mobile devices and platforms. The disadvantage of the format is the impossibility of launching it in the absence of codecs preinstalled in the system. However, this problem can be easily solved both on computers and on phones, tablets, players and other portable electronics.

MKV differs from other compression methods in its structure. The format is structurally a container that can store almost any information, various tracks with subtitles, audio tracks, chapters, interactive menus, bookmarks, etc. At the same time, the MKV video file is open source and, if desired, can be easily opened and converted in various editors. MKV will become good choice for professionals who often work with video files both on computers and on modern mobile devices. The format is capable of storing video and audio with virtually no loss in quality. However, due to the low compression ratio of the video track, the size of the final MKV file is on average higher than that of other formats, and additional codecs must be installed to play this type of video. However, there are a number of mobile and computer players that allow video playback.

Literature lovers often face a problem when the downloaded file does not open because its encoding is not supported by the device. To avoid this, let's figure out which book format for Android will be suitable and most convenient for reading.

What are the book formats for Android

Let's consider what formats of e-books each Android device supports. Here is a list of the most popular extensions:

  • epub,
  • tiff,
  • djvu.

Each format actually has its own advantages and disadvantages, which we will touch on below.

This extension is based on XML technology and was developed by domestic programmers. The format is extremely popular in Russia and the CIS countries, however, in fact, few people have heard about it in more distant foreign countries. Readers choose FB2 for the following benefits:

  • A text document of this type is easy to structure (add information about the author, content, annotation and content);
  • Support for illustrations and images. Editions in the FB2 format have a cover and pictures along the way (if any);

  • Such a book will not take up much space. At the same time, the only format that can compete with FB2 in terms of this indicator is txt;
  • Easy navigation and quick page navigation;
  • There are preset design options.

Files with the FB2 extension are often distributed as ZIP archives. This way they take up less space on the device. Most readers open books directly from an archived source, which is also the advantage of Friction Book.

Epub

The main competitor of Friction Book in the domestic market is EPUB. The functionality is not much different from the format described above. There is also support for illustrations, text structuring, quick page navigation and other essential qualities of a good e-book. EPUB is rarely distributed in ZIP files because the extension itself is an archive containing text with different markup. This significantly saves space on Internet storages and users' devices.

In which of these two formats to download e-books for your Android device is solely your choice. FB2 and EPUB are supported by any "reader", and you are unlikely to see the differences between them in the process of reading.

MOBI

The format was developed by the French firm Mobipocket for Amazon. MOBI is used in all applications and software from Amazon, so its range of use is very limited. Nevertheless, the format is not inferior to EPUB and FB2 in terms of functionality, therefore it is often offered as the only one available when downloading a book. Supported by almost all applications.

RTF, TXT, DJVU and other extensions

Such extensions are usually used for highly specialized literature or in cases where the use of files of a different type is simply impossible. For example, DJVU are scanned or photographed pages of a book translated into an accessible form using this encoding. Before downloading files with such extensions, make sure that they are "tough" for your program. Due to their specificity, books of this type are not always supported by "readers" on phones.

Book reading apps

After you figured out in what format you need to download e-books and text files on Android, it's time to choose a utility to run. Here is a list of the most popular reading programs:

  • CoolReader. It boasts the widest range of supported extensions (FB2, EPUB, txt, doc, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, prc, mobi, pml). The program is easy to operate, while it is extremely convenient for reading any text documents;

  • FBReader. Differs from CoolReader in design style and "lightweight" interface;


  • Moon + Reader. Presented on Google Play by paid and free versions. Wide format support, an easy-to-use interface and a search system - these are the distinctive features of the program.


Less popular, but not lagging behind the "flagships" in functionality are the programs Aldiko, ZXReader, Bookmate and others.

The format of books that Android supports (tablet, smartphone, etc.) is determined by the applications installed on the device with this operating system. Nevertheless, there are the most common formats of electronic editions, which, in fact, are the focus of application developers.

In this article we will consider which book format is supported by "Android 4" and other versions of this OS, what characterizes these formats and which of them is preferable to download literary works on the device.

FB2

FB stands for FictionBook. It is one of the most popular e-book formats. In honor of him, a reader for "Android" - FBReader - which, in addition to the above, opens other files, is even named.

Fb2 text is formatted using XML markup, that is, it is described with tags. This is what ensures the compatibility of the format with various devices, and also assumes the ease of creating, transferring and storing books. Unsurprisingly, it is so popular with users.

In addition to the specified reader.fb2 also without special problems opens Cool Reader, Monn + Reader, ALReader.

EPUB


The Electronic Publication format is actively promoted by Adobe, and very successfully. It is a zip file of edition data generated from XML markup of the text of the book itself (HTML tags or PDF). All additional materials such as illustrations, formulas and tables are also stored in separate files. Thus, similar publications are provided on a completely different devices... "Android" is, of course, among them.

Interestingly, EPUB has copyright protection. On the Android system, it can be opened with the already mentioned CoolReader, the well-known FBReader and the Aldiko Book Reader.

TXT

TXT format is the simplest text file (even the name itself is deciphered accordingly). On the Windows operating system, you can create one in Notepad, a standard application. This provides the main advantage of the format - it can be opened by almost everyone. But for e-books in the TXT format there is also a major drawback: the formatting of the publication is lost, since a text file is just a sequence of characters.

But TXT is an absolute answer to the question of what book format Android supports (without installing additional applications). Most likely, by default, such a book will open in the browser. But readers like FBReader can do it too.

HTM

This format is based on HTML markup. In fact, the book in this expansion is hypertext. Unlike TXT, there are more options for including illustrations and insertion of various objects. By the way, this is another format that does not require additional applications (although readers are happy to open it). HTML is common when creating web pages, so the * htm book will open in Google Chrome, a standard browser, or any other downloaded web surfing program.

RTF


The meaning of this format can be literally translated as "rich text". On Windows, it opens with WordPad and regular office Word. The same analogs of programs can be used on Android. However, prudent developers take rtf into account when creating programs, allowing them to open it.

RTF is the next rung after TXT and uses simple meta-tagging. Most support import into it.

On "Android" this format opens with CoolReader (users note that the application does not do it quite correctly), Foliant, NOOK for Android.

Finally

As you can see, in essence, the question of what format of books supports "Android" can be safely answered "any widespread". There are countless readers for this operating system, a certain number are released from time to time, and the tested products have support for updates to open more and more different formats.



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