Pocketbook what formats does it support. Formats for e-books: what are there? Strengths of the PocketBook Touch reader

A few days ago, one of the latest models of PocketBook readers, PocketBook Touch, fell into my hands. This model has already been described on Habré, but in this review I will tell about my personal experience interaction with this reader, as well as about the tasks that this device helps to solve.

There are a lot of images under the cut, as well as a slideshow in GIF format. Those with limited or very expensive traffic should enter with caution.

Previously, I did not describe reader devices, so before starting my review, I decided to briefly familiarize myself with readers from different manufacturers. First of all, I was interested in the list of book formats that devices support, I looked only at devices that work using E-Ink technology (it doesn’t matter the old generation or the new E-Ink Pearl, the main thing is not TFT, in the case of color screens, the load on the eyes is similar to the monitor , so if you take it, then it's already a full-fledged tablet).
Analyzed 12 readers from different manufacturers. Most devices support EPUB formats - 9 devices out of 12, Fb2 - 8 out of 12 and MOBI - 7 out of 12 (this is except for the TXT format, which is supported by almost all readers). The EPUB, Fb2 and MOBI formats are based on textual information, thanks to which, in most readers, working with these formats, you have the opportunity to adjust the font size, choosing a comfortable one for the eyes. Another reason why I will describe the capabilities of PocketBook Touch when working with these formats is the availability of fiction books in all three formats on such large online libraries as Flibusta and Librusek, and, in addition to this, having my favorite book in all three formats (EPUB , Fb2 and MOBI), you can read it on almost any reader (not only on omnivorous devices from Pocketbook and Impression, but also on devices for reading books from other manufacturers).

If you have a book in a format that does not fit your reader, you can of course convert it using a program similar to Caliber, or put an additional program on your reader that can open the format you are interested in (for example, Cool Reader), but this review is not about that.
In PocketBook, format support is not a problem, the device supports most popular book formats out of the box and, in addition to this, it can also work with images (supported formats: JPEG, PNG, TIFF and BMP), play MP3 music, work with RSS feeds via WiFi, translate unfamiliar words from English-language books using the built-in translator from Lingvo. The list of PocketBook features that I have given above is far from complete, I will try to describe the most interesting of them below.

Appearance of the device

The PocketBook reader is quite compact, the dimensions of the device are 175 x 114.5 x 9.5 mm. Below are some photos so that you can visually estimate the dimensions of the device.

PocketBook Touch next to a regular school notebook:

The thickness of the reader (for comparison, next to a matchbox):

PocketBook Touch - back view:

PocketBook Touch and Lbook V3+ (the reader from Lbook, alas, is discontinued):

The case material of the device - plastic, the paging mechanism is made so thoughtfully that books can be read holding the device with one hand or two. The symmetrical arrangement of the touch buttons for scrolling forward and backward makes it possible to read comfortably, both left-handed and right-handed:

Holding the reader with both hands, you can flip the book back and forth with the thumbs of your left and right hands. Personally, turning the pages of a book opened in the PocketBook Touch reader with two hands reminded me of the old Soviet toy “Just you wait” (I played this game with pleasure as a child, turned the pages of the book that I read during the test of this device with the same pleasure).

When gripping with one hand, it is inconvenient to turn pages using touch buttons, it is better to use mechanical buttons Back and Forward. Also, PocketBook Touch provides a way to turn pages using two special gestures (sliding a finger across the screen from left to right or right to left), but I personally find it inconvenient to turn pages with gestures.

Device Specifications

• Body material: Plastic, Soft Touch coating
• Display: 6" E Ink Pearl, glass screen, capacitive multi-touch screen
• Processor / RAM / Flash memory: 800MHz, 128MB, 2GB
• Battery: Li-Ion, 3.7 V, 1100 mAh, 8000 pages (with Wi-Fi disabled)
• Computer connection / Additional memory: Micro USB, Micro SD up to 32 GB
• Book formats: EPUB DRM, EPUB, PDF DRM, PDF, FB2, FB2.ZIP, TXT, DJVU, HTM, HTML, DOC, DOCX, RTF, CHM, TCR, PRC (MOBI)
• Image Formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
• Sound: 3.5mm audio output, MP3 support
• Additional functions: Text-to-Speech, Dictionaries, Browser, RSS Reader, Audio Player, Calendar, Calculator, Games, Handwritten Notes, Library

For more detailed information about technical specifications device you can find in .

Interface software PocketBook Touch

The PocketBook Touch device came to me with firmware version 3.2 on board. At first I experimented with reading books of different formats on this version: I almost finished reading one interesting book in Fb2 format, experimented with books in EPUB and MOBI formats, tried to read books in PDF format (including large books, 70Mb and 100Mb in size) and DjVu, everything is on the level !

At the same time, I read what has already been written about this device (starting from Habr and continuing with links in the comments to reviews of this and other reader models). In search of useful information, I got to the device support page, from where I downloaded the latest version of firmware 4.0, to which I successfully updated manually, according to the instructions posted there. Regarding the instructions for updating the firmware in the device, I note that everything is described in detail, clearly and understandably, I will only add one thing, in paragraph 9, instead of the inscription “Please connect power cable”, after which you need to connect the device to the computer, I had a picture in which shows a reader connected to a computer.

Below I will try to describe the most interesting things related to the capabilities of the PocketBook Touch reader working with firmware version 4.0. I took pictures of the interface programmatically (in the reader itself, and not with a camera), so the screen shade will be a little whiter than it actually is. But the interface elements will be in the right places for them.

When you turn on the reader, you will see below - toolbar, above - list of recent events. By clicking in the upper right corner of the events, you can customize the displayed events as you like.

From the list of recent events, it is convenient to open the latest books that you read in PocketBook Touch.
The developers have added as events interaction with the social feature of book lovers - ReadRate . The idea is interesting there, but at this stage it’s more convenient for me to interact with the Internet through a bunch of FireFox + RSS Brief reader, I clearly lack the Internet capabilities within the E-Ink reader (I mean the browser for accessing the Internet and the PocketNews RSS feed reader - applications Pocket Book Touch). I will not describe the capabilities of the PocketBook Touch related to the Internet in this review, I will only say that turning on WiFi drains the battery quite well (much more noticeable than normal reading from the device).

The most important thing in the reader is, of course, the section Library. The developers have provided convenient ways to group and sort books. Everything is clear and understandable, experimenting, you can choose for yourself exactly the display mode that suits you. See the available sorting options below:

A useful feature of the library is the search. You can use a word or phrase to find the right book, the exact location of which on a flash drive or in the built-in memory you forgot.

In the fourth firmware version for PocketBook Touch, developers have added a graphical menu in addition to the text reading menu. The arrangement of tools in the case of a graphical menu seems to me more convenient, in addition, a search has appeared in the graphical menu, which makes it possible to find the necessary information in books or articles in text format (TXT, Fb2, EPUB, MOBI). You can select the appropriate view mode as follows: Settings -) Appearance -) Reading menu. For clarity, I give the difference between interfaces below:

I'll tell you a little about the features of how PocketBook Touch works with different e-book formats.
I'll start with text Fb2, MOBI and EPUB.

Fb2 and MOBI

In this PocketBook model, Fb2 and MOBI formats are opened in the FBReader program. The available book display settings are the same and look like this:

In PocketBook Touch for books in Fb2 and MOBI formats, you can select any of the available fonts, set the font size, set the line spacing, select the margin size, and set up some other display settings.

By touching the touch button Font, you will be able to select font options from the following options:

And the page of the book for different types of fonts will look like this (set the font size to 22, Normal):

EPUB

This PocketBook Touch format with 4th firmware opens by default with the Adobe Viewer application. There are fewer settings here than for the Fb2 and MOBI formats, but the most important thing can still be customized for yourself:

I noticed that with the same parameters Font / Font Size selected for the book in Fb2 format (opens FBReader) and for the book in EPUB format (Opens Adobe Viewer) do not match (in my case, the 16th DejaVu Sans font size in Adobe Viewer is much larger in size, than the 22nd DejaVu Sans font size in FBReader).

Working with PDF and DjVu, book rotation, scaling

Experimenting with books in PDF and DjVu formats (including small print), for me personally, a good option for solving the problem of fitting a book to a reader (so that the font is large and easy to flip through) is the following:

Other useful features of PocketBook Touch

Adding a note on an arbitrary book page (does not work for books in DjVu format):

Key customization:
Settings -) Key Assignment

Turning off the light indication (during all operations, except for charging the device via USB, the light will not light):
Settings -) Appearance -) LED indication

This is where I will end my review of the PocketBook Touch device.
Summarizing, I will note the strong and weak sides devices.

Strengths of the PocketBook Touch reader:

• support a large number e-book formats;
• thoughtful navigation system (flipping through the pages of the book is really very convenient);
• E-Ink Pearl ;
• high speed of work;
• a good set of fonts for displaying books in text formats (Fb2, MOBI, EPUB);
• flexible custom library;
• integrated dictionaries from Lingvo.

Weaknesses of the PocketBook Touch reader:

• the charger is not included in the standard package;
• Text-to-speech voice modules need to be improved;
• there is no way to open images from an arbitrary folder of the built-in memory or memory card (but I would like to).

This concludes my short review of the PocketBook Touch reader, I hope that the information provided here will be useful to someone. I really liked the device, convenient and practical, to save the resource of the eyes, that's it!
This is my first review on near-computer hardware, before that I described only software. Thank you all for your attention and patience. Good luck choosing useful devices!

It can be considered that electronic books firmly entered our lives. Still, because these devices have huge amount advantages, thanks to which they are convenient to use and are good helpers for readers. In a small size compact technique you can download hundreds of books. When reading, the eyes do not get tired, since the electronic ink does not glow and the effect of a printed sheet is created. If you read a lot of books on a computer, then there are special ones so that they are not so tired.

In addition, some models of e-books are equipped with additional features. However, those who have just purchased or have had such a device for a long time know that you can download a book on the Internet in various formats, of which there are a lot. What are the differences between them, and which one is better to choose, we will try to figure it out. Besides, in in electronic format you can read books on your computer, for this you just need to install .

FB2 - format for e-books

There are gadgets that support various types of formats. But there are models for which it is desirable to choose a particular one. For example, if you are interested in what formats the Pocketbook e-book supports, then FB2 is usually recommended for these devices. The full name sounds like FictionBook, it was invented by a group of Russian developers.

FB2 supports text selection in various fonts. This format is used to create structured documents. By the way, books created in FictionBook, if necessary, are perfectly reformatted, archived and have a small volume. Among the shortcomings of the format is that it is not widely used in Western countries. In this regard, it is not a fact that devices from some popular brands, such as Sony, Amazon, etc., will support it. But if you are looking for an answer to the question: “What formats does the Texet, Onyx or Wexler e-book support?”, Then FB2 is for you fit.

EPUB

EPUB is a floating layout format. It is one of the most popular e-reader software used all over the world. This type of file is similar in structure to an archived web page. It contains fonts, text, illustrations and graphics.

Among the shortcomings of EPUB, one can only note that it is not so widespread in Russia. Therefore, many files have to be converted from other formats to this one. But many devices from popular European manufacturers are focused on working with EPUB. In addition, the iBooks reader installed on iPhone and iPad also supports this format. In addition to this program, you will find out what other differences a smartphone has and an iPhone.

TXT

Speaking of which formats are supported by Wexler, Onyx or a device from other manufacturers, TXT should be noted. Such files are supported by almost all devices and take up very little space. However, most users note that reading documents in this format is not very convenient.

Among the shortcomings of TXT is the lack of formatting. In addition, there is no alignment, hyphenation, markup. This format is suitable for small notes. For a full-fledged book in an electronic version, it is not the best option.

Which format to choose

Of course, we stopped only on the most popular formats that are most often encountered. In addition to them, DJVU, PDF, DOC, MOBI and others can be noted. All of them have their pros and cons. You should decide on a particular format based on which format your e-book supports best. If you downloaded a work in a certain format that does not suit you, then you can convert it to another using special converter programs.

The best option is to read books in the format that is “native” for the device. Otherwise, you may experience slower operation of the reader or other inconveniences. If you liked a certain format or you cannot find a work in a different version, then you can easily install a program on the e-book that allows you to view it or convert a document.

E-books have gone through a lot of changes over the past few years. And it was quite predictable, because technological progress does not stand still. Here is the company PocketBook, one of the leading manufacturers of e-readers, keeps pace with the times and constantly updates its range of devices. One of the latest products presented by this company is an e-book. PocketBook 624. Its main feature is a capacitive multi-touch E-Ink screen with technology film touch. According to the manufacturer, this technology consists in using the thinnest plastic film, the thickness of which is only 0.2 mm. Due to the use of this technology, the weight of the book has significantly decreased. In addition, this film has a minimal effect on the optical properties of the screen, and therefore practically does not change its contrast and whiteness. It is also worth noting that by analyzing the lineup books PocketBook, we can logically conclude that this model of the book (624) has replaced the popular model Touch because they are very similar in functionality.

Specifications :

• Display: 6" E-Ink Pearl, 800x600, 166 dpi, touch (Film Touch)
• Screen material: glass + plastic
• Number of grayscale: 16
• Processor: 1000 MHz
• RAM: 256 MB
• Built-in memory: 4 GB
• Battery: Li-Ion, 1300 mAh, up to a month without recharging
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Interface: microUSB
• Memory card slot: microSD up to 32 GB
• Book formats: EPUB DRM, EPUB, PDF DRM, PDF, FB2, FB2.ZIP, TXT, DJVU, HTM, HTML, DOC, DOCX, RTF, CHM, TCR, PRC (MOBI)
• Image formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
• Body material: plastic
• Dimensions: 174.4x114.6x8.3 mm
• Weight: 191g

Packaging and equipment

The book comes in a package that has already become familiar to PocketBook devices, which is a thin compact cardboard box with a large image of the device on the front side. Also here is a rather important note that the screen of the book is made using E-Ink technology and, accordingly, is safe for the eyes. All necessary Technical information is located reverse side boxes, and as always, it is presented in many languages.

The delivery set, again, is extremely modest, which is typical for books from this manufacturer. In addition to the e-book itself, we found a USB cable for charging and syncing with a PC, as well as a quick start guide. The kit lacks a cover, because many competitors complete their readers with fairly high-quality covers and this does not affect their final cost at all, but PocketBook, apparently, considers this an excess.

Design and management

The design of PocketBook 624 is quite traditional for modern e-books, most of the front side is occupied by the screen, mechanical control buttons are located under it. The frames around the screen are quite wide, the corners are very rounded. We received a book with a front surface made in white, and there is also a variant with a dark gray front panel for sale. The material of the front side is matte plastic, which is very resistant to various kinds of pollution, the back of the book is completely made of black smooth plastic, the manufacturer claims that this is Soft Touch, but it is rather peculiar and does not look like the Soft Touch that we have seen before. By the way, the buttons on the front side are also made of the same plastic. In general, PocketBook 624 almost completely repeats the design of its predecessors PocketBook Touch and Touch 2.

The dimensions of the book are 174.4x114.6x8.3 mm, which is an average among modern readers; the book cannot be called either particularly compact or large. In a medium-sized hand, the reader "lies" perfectly, after all, no matter what they say, but 6 inches is the ideal diagonal for an e-book. The weight of the book is quite small, it is only 191 grams, so the hand does not get tired at all even with prolonged reading. The material of the back cover, although not very similar to a full-fledged Soft Touch plastic, is also practically non-slip.

The advantage is the thickness of the book, due to the use new technology Film Touch, the manufacturer managed to reduce it to 8.3 mm. At the same time, the thickness of the book is uneven, and towards the upper edge it decreases significantly and is about 5-6 mm.

Size comparison Kindle 4 and PocketBook 624.

Size comparison of PocketBook Color Lux and PocketBook 624.

The book is controlled using the touch screen and small set mechanical buttons. The main keys are located directly below the screen, from left to right there are: return to the main menu, scroll forward button, scroll back button and the context menu button. Another button is located on the bottom of the book, it is responsible for turning the device on and off.

Consider the book from the sides. The left and right ends are completely devoid of any elements. From the photo, you can clearly see that the thickness of the book is uneven. At the bottom, the book has the greatest thickness, which is most likely due to the location in this part of the case of the main technical elements (processor, random access memory etc.)

At the top there is nothing but two small notches for attaching the cover.

At the bottom is the previously mentioned power button, a microSD memory card slot and a microUSB port for charging and connecting to a PC.

Screen

PocketBook 624 has a 6-inch E-Ink Pearl screen with a resolution of 800x600 pixels and multi-touch support. The main "chip" of this screen is an ultra-thin touch film, which minimally affects the image quality and dimensions of the book. The screen is really contrasting and not dark, with sufficient lighting it is pleasant and comfortable to read. Recall that the book is devoid of built-in lighting. When compared with the screen of our reference Kindle, the PocketBook 624 screen seemed a little darker, the background is more gray, but this cannot be attributed to special shortcomings.

Performance and Memory

PocketBook 624 has a fast processor "on board" with clock frequency 1000 MHz. The amount of RAM is 256 MB. Recall that the previous models of PocketBook books (Touch and Touch2) were equipped with less efficient processors with a frequency of 800 MHz and RAM modules half the size (128 MB). Indeed, these innovations have a positive impact on the performance of the device. Books are loaded, albeit not instantly, but quite quickly, opening an fb2 book with a size of 1-3 Mb takes no more than 5 seconds, opening a PDF magazine with a size of more than 70 Mb took 12 seconds, given result can be considered quite good. Turning pages also does not raise any questions, the speed is enough. The amount of built-in memory is 4 GB, with a little more than 3 GB available for use, this will be more than enough to store a large library. There is also support for microSD memory cards up to 32 GB, but, in general, there is no need for them.

A sore point for PocketBook Touch2 was working with the browser, here the developers managed to remove this problem, sites load quickly, the browser works without problems, it is quite possible to read news or various articles on the Internet with using Wi-Fi connections.

Menu and interface

When you turn on the e-book for the first time, the main desktop appears in front of us, which displays all the latest events. Using a small pop-up menu, you can customize the information displayed on the desktop, make visible only the last added books, or the books currently being read. Also, here you can configure the display of events from a kind social network for book lovers ReadRate. This service is already built into PocketBook books and allows you to share and rate books with friends. At the bottom of the desktop are all the main sections of the book depicted as small icons.

The library is made in a very convenient form and provides the user with quite extensive settings. Books can be displayed in various types, be it a list, a list with small icons, or even large cover images. Books can be sorted by a variety of parameters, they can also be grouped by genres, authors, formats and, last but not least, by folders. If you are going to store an extensive list of references in the memory of the book, then grouping and displaying books in folders will be very practical and convenient.

An online bookstore is installed in the book, so if you have a Wi-Fi network, you can easily purchase the book you are interested in. For some, while reading books, the Notes function may also come in handy.

With a large library, you can select a few of your favorite books and place them in the "Favorites" section.

PocketBook 624 comes preloaded with some very useful dictionaries, and now when reading a book in English or other languages, you can quickly refer to the dictionary when you encounter an unknown word.

The book has a pretty useful set of pre-installed applications. A novelty is the Dropbox PocketBook application, which allows you to synchronize the book with your Dropbox account, while the book will offer to create a separate folder in which you can save books, and then at any time, if there is a Wi-Fi network, transfer the book data to the reader.

The Scribble app allows you to draw on the screen of a book, and with the help of a browser you can “surf” the Internet.

For many, a fairly convenient calendar with time display may seem useful. Also, the book can work with graphic formats, but this is unlikely to be of particular use to anyone.

It is worth noting one more feature of this reader, you can easily reassign the mechanical buttons to your liking, and the buttons perform two functions each, a normal press and a press and hold, the solution is quite useful, not every manufacturer offers this.

Reading

Reading is what an e-book is made for, and it is simply unacceptable for any manufacturer to implement this function poorly. And PocketBook here, as always, did a pretty good job. The number of supported formats will satisfy almost any user, the book can really be called multi-format. EPUB DRM, EPUB, PDF DRM, PDF, FB2, FB2.ZIP, TXT, DJVU, HTM, HTML, DOC, DOCX, RTF, CHM, TCR, PRC (MOBI) are supported out of the box. Books are opened using the built-in FBReader, and it has a large set of settings. Although the set of fonts is small, the fonts are quite nice, the font size varies very widely, line spacing, margins, hyphenation, full refresh rate, and so on are also adjusted. As we said earlier, the screen of the book supports multiple simultaneous touches, and it even came in handy in real use, the font can be enlarged or reduced by “pinch” with two fingers, a very convenient feature, although it only works in ePub, Doc and FB2 formats.

Offline work

A lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 1300 mAh is responsible for the autonomous operation of the reader, according to the manufacturer, it will last for a month with moderate use of the book. But these promises, of course, are approximate, because someone reads for an hour a day, and someone for 5-6 hours a day. The real numbers look like this: when reading 1-2 hours a day and very rarely turning on Wi-Fi, the book will live without problems for 3 weeks without recharging, if you read 4 hours a day and use the wireless network often, then a full charge can easily evaporate in one to one and a half weeks.

Eventually

This novelty from PocketBook can be called a very balanced product. The average price of the book, at the time of this writing, is 4990 rubles, for this money we get a good quality screen made using advanced technology, excellent assembly and quality of materials, "omnivorous" in terms of supporting text formats, flexible settings and nice design. The only downside, perhaps, is the lack of built-in backlighting, because some competitors have offers with backlighting for the same money, but they have their own aspects in which they are significantly inferior to PocketBook 624, for example, in the number of supported formats.

Positive traitsPocketBook 624:

• Build quality and materials
• Many supported formats
• Built-in dictionaries
• Flexible settings
• Good performance

Negative qualitiesPocketBook 624:

• No built-in backlight
• Modest package

According to the editors of i2HARD, the PocketBook 624 e-book deserves a silver award!

Until recently, almost all "readers" of electronic books based on "electronic paper" were built on identical 6-inch screens, which did not suit all readers.

Screen 5" e-ink Vizplex, 600×800 dots (200 dpi)

CPU Samsung S3C2440 (400 MHz)

OS linux

Battery Li-Pol (1000 mAh)

Memory (operational) 64 MB

Memory (permanent) 512 MB

Communications mini USB

Memory slot microSD(HC)

Book formats FB2, TXT, PDF, DJVU, RTF, HTML, PRC, CHM, EPUB, DOC, TCR, FB2.ZIP

Image formats JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF

Built-in gyro sensor Yes

Dimensions (without lid/with lid) 118×140×10/118×140×12 mm

Weight (without cover/with cover) 155/190 g

Color black, ivory

Product Provided by PocketBook

Minimum dimensions and weight; Advanced settings; automatic text orientation using a position sensor; two body designs

High price; too youthful design; unintuitive control in some applications

Compact and lightweight 5" e-ink reader, ideal for everyday reading. Too expensive

Verdict

On the bottom of the reader is a mini-USB connector, which is used to charge the battery and exchange data with a PC - the "default" mode can be set in advance or selected during each connection

For each of the two design options, a set of accessories of the corresponding color is provided.

The upper edge contains the power button (the indicator of its activity is placed on the front panel) and a slot for microSD memory cards, with which you can quickly and easily replenish your “bookshelf”

Using the "Key Assignment" settings item, the user can flexibly customize the reader's control scheme for themselves by assigning any available operation to each of the keys

Openwork curls on the top cover of the ivory color variant are undoubtedly intended for a female audience, while strict geometric rhombuses and classic black color are expected to be preferred by the stronger sex.

In such a situation, as is usually the case with a compromise form factor, there will always be those for whom the screen of the reader will seem either too small or, conversely, too large.

The former include consumers of publications with a complex layout (technical literature, magazines, books with illustrations, etc.), which lose the lion's share of their charm and / or readability when translated into text form. Accordingly, PDF / DjVu formats are used for such content, which are comfortable to read only on screens that fit a standard page at an acceptable scale, which, unfortunately, cannot be said about 6-inch diagonals. The second group of dissatisfied readers are accustomed to while away the time in traffic jams or long trips, where the minimum dimensions and weight are often more important than how much "clean" text will fit on the screen.

Fortunately, the current year was marked by the expansion of the form factors of e-ink readers "in both directions" - the first group of sufferers received a 10-inch Amazon Kindle DX, and the second - a whole bunch of compact 5-inch readers, one of which became the hero of this material.

Design

Unlike most "strictly rectangular" readers, which evoke direct associations with book volumes, PocketBook 360 is made in a more free style. Its compact asymmetrical body with sloping surfaces, silver edging on the side faces and a control unit placed under the right hand looks very modern, and so much so that it can scare away the most conservative users.

A notable design detail is a removable cover with the company logo and patterns that protects the screen from damage in the "stowed" position. It is gratifying that the user does not have to puzzle over where to hide it while reading - the lid is easily attached to the back of the case, increasing the rigidity of the structure.

We add that PocketBook 360 will be available in two design options, which differ not only in the color of the case, but also in the type of pattern on the protective cover.

Screen

The reader uses a 5-inch display with a resolution of 600 by 800 pixels, made using e-ink technology ("electronic paper"). Recall that the main advantages of the latter are the visual similarity with plain paper and minimal power consumption, and the disadvantages are low contrast, noticeable inertia and the absence of built-in backlight.

By reducing the diagonal at the same resolution, the image on the PocketBook 360 screen looks smoother than that of 6-inch readers. Using the latest generation of paper, Vizplex has also managed to improve the contrast a little, but otherwise the image performance is not different from that of the competition.

Ergonomics

The main achievement of the PocketBook 360 developers is the minimum weight and size of the device. Yes, the bezel of the 5-inch screen is not as small as one would like (especially on the right, in the place of a standard hand hold), but the minimum thickness and weight make it possible to completely forget about the fatigue of the brush while reading.

The reader is controlled by a four-position navigation key with an inscribed confirmation button and two “paging keys”. The large size and high side of the first one are very convenient, which, unfortunately, cannot be said about the paging zones made in the form of slots in the front panel. The control scheme in reading mode is quite well thought out, but the lack of prompts and the unintuitive interface in additional applications sometimes confuse even experienced users.

Functionality

The highlight of the reader, which directly influenced its name, is the built-in position sensor, which allows you to automatically change the screen orientation when changing the grip. This function works quite correctly, although in some cases it requires a more precise rotation of the device in a vertical plane to operate.

Traditionally for domestic readers, the list of supported book formats covers 90% of the requests of a typical user (to save memory, there is even support for compressed FB2 books), although reading PDF and DjVu documents on a 5-inch screen is meaningless. The reader can also display photos and RSS feeds (by synchronizing with a PC client) and is equipped with a number of "office" applications (calendar, clock, calculator, dictionary) and games (chess, solitaire, sudoku). And whether such a set of features is worth three hundred dollars is up to the end user to decide.

Electronic books (readers, readers) have long become familiar devices for a wide range of users. Their advantages: the availability of content (you can download the necessary book from the Internet in a matter of minutes), the E-ink screen that does not spoil your eyesight, the ability to have a collection of thousands of books in the reader, long work on a single charge, font type and size settings. Not so long ago, e-books with a backlit screen appeared - they allow you to read in complete darkness. In general, the advantages of readers can be listed for a very long time.

However, when getting acquainted with readers, users often have one problem. People who decide to purchase a reader for the first time, when faced with the concept of "e-book formats", often do not understand what it is about. The problem is especially relevant for beginners, to whom the abbreviations "FB2", "EPUB" or "MOBI" mean absolutely nothing.

So-called formats are various types of electronic text files that are supported (played) by one or another. AT electronic libraries The Internet often offers a wide range of file types: FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, DOC, RTF, TXT and others. The choice is wide, and this poses certain problems for beginners. We will describe the main formats of e-books, tell you how they differ from each other, which readers are supported, and which format is better to choose if you have a multi-format reader that reads all formats.

Varieties of formats

1. FB2 (FictionBook)- an e-book format that was created by a group of Russian developers. Books in this file type have a structured look (that is, they contain a chapter breakdown, content, illustrations, cover). In addition, this standard stores information about the file (the so-called tags: author, title, genre), which is read by the reader and allows the user to conveniently sort files on the device. This type of file takes up a small amount, can be archived, and it also converts well to other formats. Of the features: in view of the fact that the format was originally developed for Cyrillic, texts in Russian in FB2 have word hyphenation.

The format was originally designed for Russian users, and it is practically not used abroad. That is why FB2 is not supported by the world's popular manufacturers of readers - Amazon and Barnes & Noble. But this is the main file format for readers popular in Russia from Pocketbook, Onyx and Wexler. In addition, Sony readers now support FB2 - after entering the Russian market, the company has developed an official firmware for the reader, which allows you to read books in FB2.

2. EPUB (Electronic Publication)- the world's most popular electronic format for readers. Barnes & Noble and Sony readers work with it. In terms of layout structure, this type of file resembles an archived web page containing text, graphics, embedded fonts, and illustrations.

In addition to Western brands, the EPUB format is supported by models of manufacturers focused on the Russian market (Pocketbook, Onyx, Wexler) due to the rapid growth in popularity in our country. In addition, this e-book standard is used by the iPhone and. Apple's proprietary iBooks reader supports exactly EPUB.

3. MOBI- format of e-book readers. It is gaining distribution in Russian online libraries as the Kindle becomes more and more popular in Russia. Other readers have support for this format "for show". MOBI is similar in properties to EPUB. Amazon recently introduced another e-text format, Kindle Format 8, or KF8 (which features richer formatting), with the clarification that new and old Amazon readers will not stop supporting MOBI.

4. TXT- the format of simple text documents. You can convert text from another format to TXT with a simple "copy-paste" action. Despite the fact that this type of file is supported by almost all readers and takes up very little memory space, we would not recommend reading books on readers in it. TXT lacks formatting, markup, hyphenation, alignment. It is suitable for short text notes, but not for full-fledged e-books.

5. PDF (Portable Document Format) is an electronic document format created by Adobe Systems. Inconvenient for use on readers for a number of reasons. Firstly, the files in this format are very bulky, as they are designed for the power of a computer, and they open quite slowly on readers. Secondly, if the file is not specially designed for the screen of a 6-inch reader, which has a format similar to an A6 paper sheet, then it will be very difficult to read A4 PDF on it (and most PDF files are presented exactly in the size of a standard paper sheet). In PDF, you can only increase the scale, but not the font size, which means that only some part of the page will fit on the screen. You will have to read the pages in parts, and this is very inconvenient.

Suitable for reading PDF, the screen size of which allows you to reproduce the page on a scale large enough for comfortable reading.

6. DJVU- a format developed for storing scanned documents - books, articles, manuscripts. A book in DJVU is actually a collection of scanned pages. In terms of reading comfort on 6-inch readers, everything is similar to the story with PDF. You will not increase the font size, only the scale. When zooming, the page will crawl out of the screen, and you will have to constantly move the area of ​​​​enlarged text to read - there is no need to talk about comfortable reading. To read DJVU, choose readers with a 9-inch screen. However, even on 9-inch readers, DJVU's convenient reading capabilities depend on how well the book presented in this format is scanned.

7. LRF- in the past, the proprietary format of Sony readers. On new models (starting with PRS-T1) it is no longer used, as it has given way to EPUB. Very badly converted to other file types. Despite the fact that it is still presented in some libraries, it is recommended to use it exclusively for owners of older Sony models.

8. RTF (Rich Text Format)- a format for storing text documents. Belongs to the category of "computer", not "book". It is not very convenient to read in RTF on readers - these are large files, and the speed of the reader is reduced by an order of magnitude.

9. DOC(as well as DOCX) - text Microsoft documents office. These formats are supported by a lot of readers, but it is for reading documents, not books. Large files in this format can be large in size, and it is not easy to work with them on readers. Multipage books in DOC are best converted to FB2 or EPUB.

We have listed the main formats of e-books. We will not consider quite exotic types of files that are sometimes found on the Internet, but rather we will decide in which of the above formats it is most convenient to read books on electronic readers.

Which e-book format to choose

If you have a reader with support for all formats, then you can opt for a specific file type based on a number of factors. Let's say you're buying your first e-book and you don't have a pre-built collection of books, such as in FB2. In this case, choose the file format that is best played by your reader. Traditional "book" formats EPUB or FB2 for the reader (and for the user) are more preferable and convenient than "computer" PDF, TXT, DOC, DOCX and RTF.

In the case of 9-inch readers and the need to read DJVU and PDF, other things being equal, we advise you to give preference to the latter, since PDF is more modern format, and the books in DJVU are often of poor quality.

From the point of view of ease of use, the advantages of "book" formats are obvious: EPUB, FB2 or MOBI visually look better in the menu of your reader (book covers are displayed), they are more convenient to sort (there are tags: author, title, genre), they take up much less memory places and the speed of the reader with such formats will be significantly higher.

Do you need support for all formats

In our opinion, it is not necessary to choose an all-format reader. Many users who have readers with support for all formats download books in one or two file types. All readers (including multi-format ones), one way or another, have a basic format, and in the end you will not exchange for others. For Pocketbook, Onyx and Wexler the main formats are FB2 or EPUB, for Barnes & Noble () and Sony - EPUB, for Kindle - MOBI.

In the case of Amazon and Barnes & Noble readers, if the desired book is in a format that these readers do not support, you can use a converter (for example, Caliber). This is a program that is installed on a computer and allows you to convert the same FB2 to MOBI or EPUB in a matter of minutes.

Reading books in the reader's native format is better than using those installed on the reader additional programs. Our advice: take a few minutes to convert a book, for example, from RTF to EPUB using the Caliber converter. This is more convenient than reading it "in the original" using an additionally installed program (on Sony PRS-T1 or Kindle) or encountering slower device operation (for example, on Pocketbook readers).

Remember that the main thing is the convenience of using an e-book, and not the number of formats declared in its parameters.

Enjoy reading!