How to read an electronic book

Project Gutenberg produces ebook versions of texts where the original copyright licence has expired, and there are few, if any, restrictions on sharing the texts you download with friends (provided you don’t use them for commercial purposes).

The downloaded titles from this site are simple Word documents, but other sites may publish ebooks as image files, HTML or any of a multitude of other formats available.

There are also a number of free works licensed by Creative Commons: a way of licensing work that protects the author’s rights while allowing duplication, changes and distribution for non-commercial use. Examples of such content are the World 66 travel website and Just in Tokyo, a free ebook guide for tourists to the Japanese capital.

A search of the Ebook online directory reveals a wide variety of texts available free of charge. You can find ebooks on health and religious topics or reference guides, as well as a range of computer-related books.

The BBC also has a selection of ebooks on its website, among them a selection based on the Doctor Who TV series. These websites provide a good range of material, but a quick web search will reveal even more.

The latest bestsellers are trickier to find without paying for, although many publishers offer a free taster. You can pick up the latest releases in ebook form from websites such as Amazon, Franklin and Handango, often for discounted prices. A selection of recently published books is also available through www.ebooks.com.

Legal matters
A word of warning, however: there are legal and copyright restrictions relating to sharing ebooks. While passing on a favourite printed book to a friend carries few restrictions, doing the same with an ebook isn’t quite as simple because of built-in digital rights management (DRM) controls.

Often, you simply won’t be able to share a paid-for digital text with others, and the ebook software reader may prevent an ebook from being viewed on another computer or printed out. Therefore, it’s worth checking any terms and conditions before buying an ebook.

Free ebooks tend to have fewer restrictions on their distribution, but you may still need to visit the website separately for each copy downloaded.

To read an ebook you may also need to download reader software. However, this only takes a few minutes and is usually free. Check our links page to see what programs are available and always check what you need before buying. Other titles, such as the electronic versions of Computeractive and Time magazine, require the use of software such as Zinio or Olive Software respectively.

Screen test
Smaller devices such as mobile phones can also be used to read ebooks. An obvious drawback here is the small screen, and larger-screened handsets that can be used to access the internet are the most suitable.

A computer screen may not be the ideal way to read the latest bestseller, but technology is catching up with the ideas. A new generation of reading screens, known as epaper, is about the size of a paperback, has very high resolution, low battery consumption and room for hundreds of books.

Access your favourite magazines
It’s not just books that are available electronically – Computeractive can be bought, downloaded and read from Zinio. The site sells subscriptions to a number of popular magazines, usually at a discounted price.

You’ll need a Zinio Reader program, which is available as a free download. Once installed, you can flick through its pages as you would with the printed version of the magazine, either page by page, or by jumping straight to the various sections, such as Workshops.

The program will also keep track of when the latest editions of your favourite magazines are available. Computeractive subscriptions and single copies are available.