PDF vs EXE eBooks

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Everyone who plans to compile his own ebooks is wondering what kind of ebook compiler to use and in what kind of format to produce it. There are two options, either PDF or EXE. Some people compile their books in both formats but that requires more time and effort.

What is what

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format that is established by Adobe. It is now wide spread standard for exchanging and archiving documents in electronic format. They are printer friendly and the design is more like a classic paper book.

EXE (Executable) is a file format that is used by Microsoft operating system Windows. This is actually a program file that contains the book pages inside it self and the presentation of the content is like website. You browse the book much like in Internet Explorer.

What to choose

There are differences in what each of this ebook format offer. Take a look at this table:

	PDF	EXE
Compatibility	Can be viewed on any computer (both MAC an PC) and any operating system (Windows, Linux, etc.)	Generally supported only in Windows 98 or higher. Can be viewed on other platform with emulating software
Printing	If it is properly deigned it can looks great both on screen and paper.	Not that much printer friendly. Web pages are generally with different length so the paper version will not look like a normal paper book. Images are in low resolution
Size	Mostly depend on the image resolution. With higher image resolution the printed version will look better but the file size will be higher	Mostly depend on what kind of exe compiler is used. Generally the minimum size (even for small books) is around 700KB. The number of pages does not influence this number a lot.
Security	You can prevent printing and copying. You can put a password too. However if someone really wants your content, there are lot of utilities for cracking PDF files	Most compilers produce very secure ebooks. You can prevent illegal distribution of your book by giving unique password to every customer. They will be able to view the book only on their computer.
Multimedia	Videos and sound are not generally supported. Also other exotic stuff like Java applets and scripts are unsupported.	If you plan to make multimedia presentation of the content with animation and sound you do not have choice but to make it in exe format
Navigation	You read this books like normal paper books page by page but you can include links to jump from page to page or some internet web page.	Normal browser links are used for navigation. You can also define page order so customer can read it page by page.
Compiling	You can use your Word processor to prepare your book. Than you use the Print command to produce the pdf file. Easy.	You need to make it like a web site, with proper html coding. The compiler is usually easy for use, just select the option you want
Price	There are free compilers available	Good compilers are not free.

Conclusion

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There are advantages in using each of the file formats. It is up to you to decide what you need. Mostly it will depend on what kind of content you are presenting. There are other solutions for making ebooks like Windows Help File format. Those do not give any protection of you content and are little harder to use.

One final note. Exe files are programs and those can be infected with viruses. Make sure that your ebook is virus free before you distribute it.

I recommend you to look at these compilers before you start looking around. Ebook Compilers Wizard.

Do not forget that you will need an ebook cover to sell your book on the Internet.

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