What is your preferred EBOOK format to buy a published book in (e.g, EPUB, Kindle, MOBI, PDF, et al) and why? (laptop, Adobe)

[UsAll]

If you are offered a choice of digital formats for EBOOK versions of whatever published book(s) (say, in EPUB vs. Kindle vs. MOBI vs. PDF format . . . and any other digital formats not mentioned here) to be able to view on ANY type(s) of computing device (i.e., a desktop or laptop computer, tablet, mobile phone), which one would you preferentially choose over the other types of digital formats and why?

[markjames68]

ePub is my favorite. Kindle is my second.

I’ve found it easy to convert ePub files where needed, and it’s natively read in the Apple Books app.

PDF is my least favorite, as it doesn’t handle reformatting as well.

[Quietude]

Kindle has pretty much swamped everything else in the ebook world.

However, anyone putting PDF in the same category doesn't really understand that format. Not the same thing at all.

[UsAll]

I've come to understand that PDF is not suitable for the most effective and adaptable viewing on mobile phones and tablets. And anyway, if you own an EPUB- or Mobi- or other similar (non-PDF) digitally-formatted ebook, there are software tools, and perhaps even websites, you can use to convert it to PDF format (if desired at all) for viewing said PDF on desktop or laptop computers.

I just bought an ebook the same day I started this thread and decided to buy it in EPUB format (they offered EPUB, Mobi, and PDF formats).



Ebook formats that I researxched as being prevalent (listed in alphabetical order):

Adobe Content Server Message: *.acsm
Broadband eBooks (BBeB) (Sony media format): .lrf, .lrx
Comics (Comic Book Archive files: compressed image files): .cbr (RAR); .cbz (ZIP); .cb7 (7z); .cbt (TAR); .cba (ACE)
Compiled HTML (Microsoft Compiled HTML): .chm
DAISY – ANSI/NISO Z39.86
Direct reading from zip, tar, gzip and bzip2 archives
DjVu: .djv, .djvu
EPUB: .epub
eReader (Palm Media): .pdb
FictionBook: .fb2
Founder Electronics (Apabi Reader): .xeb, .ceb
Hypertext Markup Language or HTML Books: .htm, .html, .xhtm, .xhtml, and typcally auxiliary images; js and css)
iBook (Apple): .ibook
IEC 62448 (by the International Electrotechnical Commission)
INF (IBM): .inf
Kindle (Amazon): .azw; .azw3 or .kf8; .kfx
KPF
Microsoft LIT (Microsoft Reader): .lit
Mobipocket: .mobi, .prc
Multimedia eBooks (Eveda): .exe or .html
Newton Digital Book: .pkg
Open Electronic Package (Open eBook): .opf
OpenReader
OpenXPS (Open XML Paper Specification): .oxps, .xps
ORB
PDR
Plain text files: .text, .txt
Plucker: .pdb
Portable Document Format (Adobe): .pdf
PostScript: .ps
SNB Books: .snb
SSReader: .pdg
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI Lite): .xml
TomeRaider: .tr2; .tr3
Topaz Books: .trz, .apw1
UPDB
Wordprocessor files (.odt, .doc, .docx, .rtf)

[UsAll]

Originally Posted by CarolAnthony

If you need to free pdf merger you can use online pdf editors for that. It saved me some time even when I was on my laptop and had documents that needed editing.

A potential risk of using online sites to convert uploaded documents to other formats-- or to split or merge documents and so on --is that you don't know if you can trust those website(s) and then the risk that malevolent elements who hack into said website(s) can, as well, access and copy documents that you upload to them. If any of the documents you'd upload are sensitive in nature, I'm not so inclined to upload them to such websites. I'd rather find independent software that one can use while NOT on the web to do these desired tasks instead of using such websites IF the documents contain any degree of private or personal or sensitive info.