Getting an ebook download to read is becoming the method of choice to read a book for some people. Having an ebook is just like having a conventional book to read where the text is printed on to paper, except that for the ebook - the print is electronic and you read the ebook from your computer screen or a special ebook device. For some ebooks you might need special ebook reader software.
You can be offered different options for how to accomplish an ebook download. ebooks can be formatted in a variety of ways according to whether the device you intend to read the ebook on is a dedicated ebook device or an ordinary computer. Free ebooks are quite often used as marketing tools; so anyone going for a free ebook download needs to be able to read it on any device. Subsequently many free ebooks downloaded are simply a ‘pdf’ file that anyone with Adobe Acrobat Reader can read. Another common option for free ebooks is to use either MS Word ‘doc’ files or generic ‘txt’ files. Free ebooks rarely require the recipient to already have specialized ebook reader software.
The size of an ebook download can vary tremendously. So, depending on the format of the ebook it might be possible to send an ebook download in the file format that it was written in - as an uncompressed file. However, in order to speed up the ebook download time, many ebooks are downloaded as ‘zip’ or compressed files; which the recipient then has to open. This option is often used for free ebooks, on the assumption that anyone downloading a free ebook will most probably be familiar with ‘zip’ software. To open a ‘zip’ file you’ll need to have ‘unzip’ software installed on your computer. Many ebook publishers make it easier for their customers by sending the ‘zip’ file ebook download as a ‘self-extracting’ one. Which removes the need for the recipient to have ‘unzip’ software to access their ebook download.