E-book impact on printing industry

The shocking fiction master Stephen King published his latest novel in an e-book format. The response was very enthusiastic. His popularity was no less than that of his previously printed version of the novel; the cultural communication and commercial press in Hong Kong are also about to separate. With the introduction of e-books, at what stage is e-book development now? What will be the impact of its development on the printing and publishing industry? This article will explore one by one.

Receipt system technology ready

For many websites, due to free browsing, it would be difficult to obtain profits without going public. In fact, it is not the intention of the creators of the website not to charge viewers. Instead, they do not know how they should be charged. Moreover, the viewers are not interested in some of the paid websites.
However, readers are not afraid of charging for some electronic forms of books. In addition, the existing transaction technology in this area is also in place. That is, the technology for publishing e-books has been developed to ensure that readers' fees are collected before they are "delivered." As a result, big companies such as SoftbookPress, Barnes & Noble, and NuvoMedia have also been scratching their heads to develop the e-book market.

Diversification of e-books

At present, the form of e-books can be divided into three types: a small-scaled reader as a carrier, a personal computer as a carrier, and a webpage format (a payment must be made before login to the server to fetch content).

(1) Using small hardware as a carrier, ie, the reader must first buy a piece of hardware, and different publishers have different hardware, such as EB Dedicated Reader, Softbook Reader, Rockete Book, Glassbook, etc., and the reader will download the book content with these hardwares. And read on the hardware.
And these hardware's volume will not be too big generally, and the weight will be lighter than the general notebook type computer, about 2-3 pounds, more convenient to carry.

(2) In the case of a personal computer as a carrier, the difference from the above forms is that the personal computer downloads the content without purchasing the small hardware separately, and after downloading the content to the computer, it does not look like a web page, but Expose the effect of e-books.

(3) The third form is that the publisher puts the content of the e-book on a server. The reader must pay a certain fee before login to the server, select the books he likes to read, and only this type of copyright management. Not so mature, readers can download the content (although the download method is quite complicated) and then publish it on other websites.

Save different formats as limits

As mentioned earlier, the "reader" of e-books has been a lot of styles and specifications. Even Microsoft has recently introduced the Microsoft Reader format. With its technical background and abundant resources, it is actually a very powerful participant. However, the format of different "readers" cannot be exchanged. That is, the e-books written to the RocketeBook cannot be downloaded in the Glassbook. In other words, if the readers buy the RocketeBook, they can only read the e-books published by the reader. limited.

Although there are organizations that have developed an open format for OEB (Open Book), anyone can use it for free, users can put different media such as Quick Time Movie and PDF files into OEB software, but can it become electronic The common format of the book depends on how many actual supporters there are.

Copyright management strict anti-piracy

Stephen Jing’s novels published in e-books have been cracked by hackers for piracy because of the low level of encryption software. Therefore, copyright issues related to e-books must be addressed squarely.

Undoubtedly, the most important way of operating an e-book is to charge it and prevent it from being copied. When readers download the book, they cannot copy it to other carriers or computers. This copyright management technology is a breakthrough in password encryption technology. The previous encryption technology was limited by the export in the United States, and the level of technology at the time was also low. At present, the technology can already make it impossible for readers to obtain content without paying, or let the reader read the first chapter or a chapter of the book before deciding whether to buy it or not, and letting readers look at it like a printed book before they buy it. It is fairer to readers and more flexible.

Support format to enhance interaction

At present, Adobe's PDF (Portable Document Format) universal software format is well-developed in terms of version management, confidentiality, and format. If publishers put books on the Internet in PDF format, this is currently the easiest method. Therefore, it is believed that most publishers who are interested in developing e-books will first test the market reaction in this way without worrying about "reader". Unsatisfactory sales affect the sales of e-books. Moreover, using the PDF format as a standard format, the content of e-books will be more interactive, and it will also be more convenient to read e-book features such as magnifying glass, browsing and search tools.

Wait for the reader to adapt

It is undeniable that the reading habits of the current generation of readers are not easy to change. Reading books on the screen is very easy to make the eyes tired. Therefore, e-books are not likely to become mainstream for the time being; but for the next generation, they may be changed because of the current situation. Most children have been accustomed to focusing on playing video games on the screen with their eyes for a long time. When they grow up or have been completely read on the screen, the continuous improvement in technology makes it difficult to make eyes on the screen look tired. The mainstream is not difficult either.
The hot sale of e-book novels from Stephen Jing only proved that the works of some famous authors or e-books on some hot topics have now been accepted.

Impact on printing and publishing

The emergence of e-books can bring about business opportunities for publishers, but it also brings some impact.

Because publishers have always played a role as the organizer of publishing projects, they must organize the authors, producers, printing, distribution, storage and other items. However, the emergence of e-books can eliminate the printing of this item; The technical tools of the book are more and more convenient and easy to use. It can be said that as long as one computer is ready for production, the distribution may be replaced by some large-scale software developers. Moreover, there is no problem with e-books being deposited. So slowly, some authors may become independent publishers, and publishers that are not competitive may be eliminated.

Of course, on the other hand, e-books can reduce the risk of investment. Publishers are willing to publish e-books for non-mainstream authors, so that more authors will have the opportunity to publicize their works and readers will have more choices.

For the printing industry, there may undoubtedly be fewer orders, but since e-books are still not mainstream, most people still choose traditional printed books. Even if publishers publish e-books, they can also publish print versions. Some high-quality books, such as books, still need printing services.

Mastering technology to broaden your horizons

Under such circumstances, how should the printing and publishing industry meet the changes? It is very simple to learn and master these production techniques and strengthen their own production capabilities. In fact, printing itself is an information processing and copying industry. The printers need to master more information processing and copying technologies in order to broaden their horizons and broaden their business areas. Just as some printers have learned to understand the production of CDs, they have to meet the needs of the market. As for publishers, it goes without saying that we must step up our pace.

Display technology must be improved

With the development of e-books, it is necessary to improve the quality and lightness of screens for displaying content before they can develop a larger market. All in all, e-books have only become a temporary boom, or they continue to be a trend that threatens traditional printed books.

Portable e-book reader supplier

The rocket format ebook is very popular recently. This is the ebook bookstore for rocket format. There are more PC version readers available for download.


Rock's main rival, the PC version of the reader is also available for download.


Microsoft (Microsoft) recently launched the Microsoft Reader format ebook, and the company's technology and market position is a participant that cannot be ignored.


Qubit's ebook readers are as large as magazines, so their displays are larger, offering readers another choice.

Ebook portal site

Ebook portal site


One website that supports the organization of the ebook format (openebookformat) has a detailed description of the common ebook format standard.


To know more about the ePDF publishing process and the copyright management of PDF, this site is a must. Adobe is definitely an important participant in the electronic publishing market.