What Software Opens Epub Files

[Clidia Panahon]

Digitalformats of learning materials have gained immense popularity over time. Many top academic publishers have been delivering electronic versions of books (popularly known as eBooks) for decades. While eBooks are available in multiple formats like PDF ePub MOBI and more, the ePub design stands out remarkably.

Short for electronic publication, an ePub is the most widely used open-source eBook file format. The format is a technical standard developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPP).

Another reason why ePub is so important in education is its responsive interface. A majority of learners are usually fairly young (even those who continue studying as they work). This audience has grown up with technology. In order for educational material to appeal to these learners, it has to be visually appealing and behave as any other app would do.

ePub files allow for both reflowable and fixed layouts. Reflowable files ensure the text is responsive to the screen it is being viewed on. While fixed layout files give the content creator the option of not letting the layout change in any way. This is especially useful for content that includes complex graphics.

Windows 11 offers multiple options to open ePub files, such as using third-party apps, using an application from the Microsoft Store, or using a browser. The most convenient of these methods is to utilize the Chrome or Edge browser using a plugin called EPUBReader.

Google Play Books is an excellent general-purpose reading application that can also be used for comics and audiobooks. Normally, when an ePub file is selected, it automatically opens in Play Books.

Digital Editions is a free eBook reader software available for both macOS and Windows. The software can also transfer ePub files (even the DRM-protected ones) to almost any eReading app that supports them.

Calibre is a free eBook management software that opens, views, and manages ePub and other eBook formats on Mac or PC. After installation and setup of the Calibre app, add the ePub files to the Calibre library.

To keep learners engaged, educational publishers are constantly working at creating intuitive and interesting online interactions without compromising on quality. The ePub format is regularly updated to allow all learning content to be exchanged reliably across platforms and devices.

With over a decade of experience in educational publishing, KITABOO caters to various publishing needs be it academic institutions or that of corporate organizations. The platform can be used to create, enhance, publish and deliver exceptional eBook experiences.

Scott Hanson is the AVP of Business Development at KITABOO. He is an experienced Business Development & Publishing Technology professional with expertise in dealing with Societies & Non-Profits.More posts by Scott Hanson

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Also known as Portable Document Format, PDF is an open standard. You can use it to make and edit documents containing links, form fields, audio and video. You can also sign PDFs electronically, making them useful as official documents.

One of the most popular document files in existence, DOCX files are created via Microsoft Word, but you can export them into other word processing programmes too. DOCX is widely used in home, academic and business environments.

There are many ways to open .EPUB files on Android devices. Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) is free to download and use on the Google Play store. With ADE you can read the .EPUB format online and off-line, borrow eBooks from public libraries and transfer from your computer to an Android device.

There are a few reasons why you might be struggling to open .EPUB files. Although the format uses XHTML and can closely resemble a web page, the .EPUB format is somewhat different and some browsers lack the capability to open them. It could also be that your EPUB file has DRM implemented, which means the security settings are preventing you from opening it.

The PDF and .EPUB formats have many similarities. Both are very popular, have multi-platform access and security features. PDFs have been around longer, are easier to edit and can be signed. This makes them the natural choice for business documentation, for example. This makes them the natural choice for business documentation, for example.

Hi. Your current process with PDFs just relies on the fact that an Evernote attachment can be opened by any suitable editor, and the amended version saved back to the note. No special 'integration' required. If you can find some specialist epub software with an editor that allows you to highlight text and save back to an epub file, that should be enough. Some web searching and research required though, I think - please let us know if you find a good epub editor.

You could also look into whether highlights transfer when an edited PDF file is converted to an epub file. Calibre is certainly capable of converting the epub file to PDF and back. It also has some epub editing features. Calibre has an inbuilt library folder, but it also edits epubs. It could be useful to try it out.

It would be (IMHO) highly unlikely for Evernote to want to be directly involved in any of this unless there are a lot of users desperate for something similar. You could post in the section below to see if there is any support for the suggestion...

General Feature Requests

Just did a bit more research, it seems that epub files don't support any annotation functionality within themselves. Its the e-reader software that creates that ability, but the annotations never get stored in-file. Which means that, at least for now, I'll have to content myself with exporting highlights as an external file and plonking those into Evernote.

Or converting the epub files to PDF... but then I'll run into another issue, which is whether annotated PDFs will automatically be saved back into Evernote when I'm on a tablet. I'll probably have to manually reupload the changed file every time I'm done reading.

Phew! But nah, I won't make a feature request to Evernote as I'm sure they'll just ignore it. If its taken 7 years of people wanting different highlighter colours and its still not happened, then I doubt they'll add epub reading capabilities any time soon.

I'm creating ebooks for a client using InDesign CC and she reports that the most recent EPUB I've created for her won't open in iBooks. As I don't own a smartphone or tablet I can't error-test on my end, but if you can think of anything that would lead to this error please let me know! I can't think of anything I've done differently in creating the EPUB, so maybe it's an issue with a recent CC or iBooks update? Has anyone else had this problem recently? The other ebooks I've made for her open fine.

Her report on what happened: "when I go to my downloads folder and double click the file -- it opens the book shelf in ibooks and shows that the file is there but it has no cover. When i double click the book the program doesnt do anything. it doesnt open."

Not sure which version, but I know she's on a Mac OS and NOT an iPad. I'm going to try to replicate the error on my end with a few Apple devices that my friends own, but haven't had the chance to do so yet. Do you have any clue at all what might be happening? Right now I'm sitting on my hands because I don't know where to begin!

Have you tried running an EPUB checker on your file to make sure it isn't actually anything on your end? Other than that I would just suggest making sure she has the most up to date version of iBooks.

So I tried running the ebook through two ebook checkers and also opened it up just fine on another iOS device (which *should* be the only thing you can use iBooks on--so why my client said she was running it on a Mac is a mystery to me). So far so nothing--there were a few errors about best use practices and inline objects that I'll tweak, but nothing catastrophic.

In your last post here, you also had the same problem with the cover, which I think was due to the CMYK mode settings. Now I have no idea if iBooks doesn't display cover images that are CMYK, but usually images should be RGB (or Grayscale) in EPUB in order for them to display in ADE and Nook.

I've read through a few threads on this issue, mostly from some time ago, but none seem to offer a solution, or explanation as to why Apple have changed how books works so that any epub documents no longer work. I'm running Ventura but am aware that others have had issues with earlier os versions also.

I have a library of several hundred epub books, direct from the publishers (not via apple store) & none work since updating to Ventura. I've tried deleting them & re-adding & even getting new epub files of some from the publishers. I've tried re-setting books also.

I have seen some folks suggesting converting epub files to PDF but why do we, as customers, accept that? epub is a valid format & why should we allow Apple to do anything that means purchases aren't usable?

The epubs I have, as stated in the original message, are all official epubs & I've tried deleting them, re-downloading etc & they don't work. The files are on the mac in a folder & then imported into Books. In terms of describing the issue, as stated, nothing happens. The files don't open, there are no error messages. In previous OS versions they all opened without any issue, but Books not opening epub files is a known issue in recent OS versions.

sorry, I cannot replicate your issue. I have tested this with several of my epub books within Apple Books. I have no issue opening any of the ones I tried, and am sure I would have no issues with the other couple hundred epub books.

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