E-books are published in a variety of formats, many of which are tied to specific e-readers. The MCC Libraries collect books in the .epub format (SONY PRS_600) and .azw (Kindle) formats.
.epub is an open standard for e-books created by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Currently, the format can be read by the Kobo eReader, Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader, BeBook, Bookeen Cybook Gen3 (with firmware v. 2 and up), COOL-ER, Adobe Digital Editions, Lexcycle Stanza, BookGlutton, AZARDI, Aldiko and WordPlayer on Android and the Mozilla Firefox add-on EPUBReader.
.azw is a proprietary format created by amazon.com based on the Mobipocket standard on its own DRM (digital rights management) format. Since ebooks bought on a Kindle are transferred on its own system (Whispernet), users do not see the azw files.
.pdf is a file format created by Adobe for creating and storing printed documents. A number of e-readers support .pdf books, including Mobipocket, Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle (1, 2, International & DX), Barnes & Noble Nook, the iPad, PocketBook Reader, and the Kobo eReader.
