Information Today has an article that highlights Adobe’s new application for reading PDF & XHTML eBooks as well as managing a library of eBooks. Adobe Digital Editions has a slick interface very different from Acrobat. It also supports the Open Publication Standard which makes XHTML ebooks a lot more fluid and readable. I downloded the full version of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and it looked great even when I resized the window. Sony, HarperCollins, and a few other publishers have signed on and apparently approve of the DRM scheme. Sony will be incorporating it into it’s readers. And the publishers have made a few limited samples available.
The application downloaded and installed almost instantaneously on my Mac. PDF eBooks likewise were pretty quick to download and install. I’m on a fast (FIOS 6MB down) connection but launching Digital Editions was much faster than Acrobat Reader. It seems to have a very small footprint even with large downloads.
Will this format take off? Maybe we should encourage it. Will library customers be asking for this functionality? Libraries might as well offer it as one of their applications / plug-ins. Oh yeah, it needs Flash. Since it is not an exe it might work on most library computers without any fuss, but it can’t hurt to check.
[via Information Today]