What is an IBOOKS file?
As an eBook file format, the iBooks file format was established on different devices like computer, laptop phones and tablets run Apple’s operating systems. iBooks files not only contain text but also videos, presentations, images, 3D objects as well as other media contained in the digital. One important thing is that it is free of cost to design and publish eBooks. The iBooks files can only be transferred to the iBooks format, PDF files, or plain text files.
Technichal Specifications
- Apple developed iBooks based on the “EPUB 3” format with some additional and exclusive provisions
- The iBooks Author program allows users to transfer their books either in the iBooks format, as plain text files, or as PDF documents
- Books kept as iBooks files can then be available on iTunes for users of all kinds of Apple devices to download and read
- Primarily, the iBooks format utilizes the “iBooks 2” format and was only being used for creating textbooks
- Still, nowadays it is used for generating all kinds of digital books, not only educational ones
- It supports EPUB and PDF formats, and the iBooks app on an iOS device or a Mac running OS 10.9 or earlier can be used to read them
- Apple offers the iBooks Author platform for creating iBooks. iBooks Author permits users to create iBooks using the unique Apple-only multi-touch EPUB standard
Brief History
On January 19, 2012, Apple announced iBooks Author at an education-related special event in New York City. Then at the same time, Apple also released iBooks 2 and a new iBooks Bookstore group for textbooks. Though Apple makes it accessible for free download in the Mac App Store, it was exclusive and only available for macOS before its holdup in 2020. Generally, the documents are created in Pages and then taken into iBooks Author to finish the layout. This all process can easily take place on a laptop or desktop.