September 1999

Adobe and eBooks

Turning a new page in publishing
Until now, buying books electronically meant going to an Internet bookseller’s Web site, finding the title
you want, paying with a credit card, and having the book shipped from a warehouse to your home or office.
While there’s no question that this e-commerce model increases buyer convenience and streamlines distribu-
tion, it does not represent a significant advance over the real-world experience of buying a book in a brick-
and-mortar store. The buying process incorporates rapidly evolving technologies, but the content remains
decidedly low-tech: paper, ink, and glue. A more visionary scenario comes from futurists and science fiction
writers who have long imagined the advent of electronic books (eBooks). These handheld devices would
display the content found in traditional books on the miniature screens of portable devices, eliminating
the need for physical books as we know them.

We’re a long way from abandoning traditional books, but the first eBooks have arrived. Presenting the con-
tent of traditional books in digital form, today’s eBooks can be read via a variety of hardware devices: desk-
top computers, dedicated eBook readers, and other personal electronic devices. Purchasers of eBooks
typically download the electronic content directly from Web sites to one of these devices. As the number of
eBook devices and download methods grows, so does the need for software standards that ensure a secure,
consistent, and visually pleasing reading experience.

Adobe brings to the eBook experience the same software standard that has revolutionized the traditional
publishing industry: Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF). When you read an eBook in Adobe PDF,
you view electronic pages that precisely capture the look and feel of an actual printed page, with all the
fonts, illustrations, and layout intact. eBooks published in Adobe PDF can be instantly searched, electroni-
cally annotated with a variety of mark-up tools, and scaled to fit the viewing area of many popular reading
devices. And the support for protected content provided by Adobe PDF makes the process of purchasing
eBooks fast, easy, and secure.

eBooks: The best-seller and beyond

While most eBooks presently available from commercial Web sites represent the kinds of best-selling materi-
als commonly found in traditional bookstores (novels, biographies, business books, and so forth), this new
publishing category is flexible enough to encompass printed information of all kinds. Other content that
might appear in eBook format includes newspapers and other periodicals; reference works; technical manu-
als; journals; long, structured business documents; and rare or out-of-print books that have been electroni-
cally preserved in Adobe PDF. Available platforms for downloading and viewing these materials are diverse:
from commonplace desktop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to less common TV-top Web
browsers and dedicated eBook readers, a virtual bookshelf of options is available to tech-savvy readers.

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Of the many available devices, dedicated eBook readers are the most visually intriguing. Sleek, compact, and
made of high-impact materials, many of these devices are about a third of the size of most laptop computers
and fit in the hand much like a paperback book. They display electronic pages (usually one at a time) on a
high-resolution, flat-panel display; you “flip” the pages by clicking forward and reverse buttons with your
thumb. Some models allow you to view two facing pages at a time; other prototypes incorporate several
flexible plastic display screens that can be “paged through” manually. Dedicated eBook readers currently cost
between $299 and $1,600; compatible, commercially published fiction and nonfiction eBooks can be down-
loaded for less than $20.

The advantages of eBooks over paper-bound content are many. First, the speed of delivery—immediate—is
unmatched by any traditional or electronic channel of distribution. Although you can find and order physical
books in seconds using a commercial book-selling Web site, you have to make sure it’s in stock and then wait
for shipping, which happens overnight at the fastest—and at a premium price. If it’s not in stock, you have to
wait much longer. The second notable advantage of eBooks is their portability. Even large eBooks take up
very little memory in most reading devices and are barely noticeable in desktop computers; collections of
multiple “volumes” can be transferred back and forth quickly and carried anywhere. By contrast, physical
books are often heavy, inconveniently sized, and expensive to transport in large quantities. The ability to
quickly and comprehensively search eBooks for specific content is another unparalleled advantage. Flipping
back and forth through an index seems unbearably primitive compared with allowing the computer or dedi-
cated eBook reader to scan through content for words or concepts. Finally, the ability to follow links through
eBook content brings Web-like interactivity to the reading experience. Clicking directly on the electronic
page allows you to look up the meanings of unfamiliar words, explore cross-referenced passages in the same
book or related works, or even activate multimedia elements such as sound, video, and animation.

A world of user-specific solutions

There are as many potential users of eBooks as there are different kinds of readers. In addition to the many
benefits already mentioned, eBooks have the potential to provide innovative, up-to-date content-delivery
solutions to specific types of readers:
• General readers could easily assemble personal libraries of fiction, nonfiction, and reference books, as well as
download book samplers that match their personal taste.
• Students could receive customized textbooks from teachers and professors that include course syllabi, lecture
outlines, book excerpts, journal articles, and graphically rich quantitative data.
• Travelers could create electronic compilations of guidebooks, phrase books, maps, and currency converters
that take up a fraction of the space and weight of paper-based travel aids.
• Business people could compile eBooks containing research reports, stock reports, competitive information,
industry analyses, and credit reports, as well as confidential corporate documents such as sales projections.
When traveling, business professionals could instantly access needed information from a laptop computer
or dedicated eBook reader.
• Medical professionals and scientists could assemble robust reference eBooks, bringing together excerpts from
medical texts, journals, and pharmaceutical information into easily accessible, topical compilations.
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• Attorneys could gather case-specific electronic volumes of court records, deposition transcripts, e-mail messages,
and other evidentiary materials; using dedicated eBook readers, such volumes could be transported from the
office to the courtroom and consulted during proceedings.
• Technical personnel could easily carry suites of complex technical manuals and access only the portions they
need to resolve a specific service issue. Dedicated eBook readers would also allow technicians access to such
material when they’re in a constrained physical space, such as under an aircraft or in a crawl space.
These examples compose just a sampling of the user-specific scenarios where eBooks promise to add tremen-
dous value. Delivering previously hard-to-manage information in a remarkably consistent, compact, and
portable format, eBooks can literally change the way we view all kinds of electronic content.

Adobe PDF makes eBooks e-mazing

The proliferation of electronic content and devices such as dedicated eBook readers, coupled with the irre-
versible rush toward e-commerce and distribution via the Internet, prove that eBooks are here to stay. Still,
there are several barriers to widespread adoption that must be addressed. Some obstacles, including the high
cost of dedicated readers and the relative paucity of consumer titles, are a function of supply and demand,
and will become less daunting as more consumers embrace the technology. A more serious problem is the
lack of agreed-upon open standards that will make electronic content universally viewable, easily shared, and
securely obtained. Today most content is tied to proprietary, hardware-based standards that force consumers
to view certain eBooks on certain devices. Visual fidelity differs widely among competing reading devices, and
pricing structures for downloading content are confusing. Taking a cue from the music industry, which faced
a similar dilemma with downloadable music, the publishing industry is facing the challenge of finding an
open standard that delivers a consistent eBook experience to every potential user.

Adobe Systems offers a solution that robustly fulfills the need for such a standard: Portable Document For-
mat. A widely accepted, open industry standard in the field of professional print publishing since its intro-
duction in 1994, Adobe PDF is at the heart of Adobe ePaper® Solutions and delivers a comprehensive set of
benefits for eBook readers, authors, and publishers:
• Absolute visual fidelity. Electronic pages captured in PDF preserve the exact look of a printed page, with all
the fonts, graphic elements, and layout intact. Any book in any format—including any rare or out-of-print
book—appears in Adobe PDF just as it would on paper.
• Visual richness. Because text and graphic elements appear at the highest resolution possible, PDF is ideal for
visually rich electronic content: full-color photographs, technical illustrations, and fine print. This richness
also makes the format especially well suited for art, design, and literary works in which layout and typogra-
phy are inextricably linked to the creator’s intent.
• Page familiarity. In Adobe PDF, eBook content maintains the concept of traditional book pages, making
reading and browsing more intuitive. Page numbers and tables of contents—which some eBook formats
do not provide—are also preserved, providing a familiar reading experience.
• Compact file size. Adobe PDF produces extremely compact files that can be downloaded quickly from com-
mercial sites and transferred between reading devices with no loss of quality. The small file size also means
you can download more eBooks into a single viewing device for the creation of extensive personal libraries.
• Mark-up and annotations. eBooks delivered in PDF can be marked up and annotated with Adobe Acrobat®
software. Depending on the viewing device and supported features, you can highlight or strike through pas-
sages, attach electronic sticky notes, and even add audio annotations.
• Cross-platform viewing. Because Adobe PDF can be viewed on all major computing platforms, you can read
eBooks on desktop computers and other devices as well as transfer them between different devices. And the
format’s open specification provides an easily accessible point of integration for manufacturers of dedicated
eBook readers.
• Support for secure transactions. With Web-enabled capabilities specifically tailored for e-commerce applica-
tions, Adobe PDF makes the process of buying and downloading eBooks easy and secure while protecting
the copyrights of authors and publishers.
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Looking to the future: Pixels and pulp

It may be some time before we’ve traded our paperbacks, newspapers, and magazines for dedicated eBook
readers. And it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see the final demise of the book as we now know it. In fact, for all the
talk of computers sparking a “paperless revolution,” we’re actually using more paper than ever before. Much
electronic content—including that found in eBooks—is eventually printed, and the volume of printed mate-
rials generated by computer users is growing exponentially. However, as the benefits of eBooks become more
widely accepted, there’s no doubt that an increasing volume of content will be distributed electronically,
forming a natural complement to traditional, paper-bound books.

Supporting a publishing environment where pixels and pulp live side by side is part of what Adobe ePaper
Solutions are all about. Adobe ePaper Solutions comprise a set of industry-standard Adobe software tech-
nologies that together form an intelligent bridge between digital- and paper-based information. From elec-
tronic content distributed via eBooks to valuable corporate information stored in diverse formats and
locations, Adobe ePaper makes all kinds of traditionally paper-based information more accessible, portable,
and valuable. Combining Adobe PDF with Adobe Acrobat software and related Acrobat technologies, Adobe
ePaper helps deliver powerful, effective solutions to consumers and enterprises alike. For more information
on how Adobe is working to make the eBook experience less science fiction and more reality, as well as infor-
mation on other Adobe ePaper Solutions, please visit our Web site at www.adobe.com.

Adobe Systems Incorporated Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, and ePaper are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704 ©1999 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.
www.adobe.com
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