I was reading some indieweb blog posts (“What happens to our blogs when we die?” by Michael Harley) and someone in the comments mentioned the following:

Hey there! Making an EPUB is a great idea for reading files on an e-reader, but it’s just not as universal as a PDF. PDFs are ready for high-quality printing, and pretty much every device out there has a reader for them. Plus, there are Python libraries that handle this super easily. You’ve got a beautiful blog, by the way. Cheers!”

I don’t know this person, and I’m sure they mean well, but this is literally misinformation.

In terms of data portability, books, articles, etc, are way better being stored as EPUBs than as PDFs. Yes, PDFs are good for printing, but if printing is not your end goal, EPUBs are better! And EPUBs are NOT just for ereaders!

The EPUB format is an official open standard format for electronic publications. Let me tell you what they really are. They’re just folders of html files with some additional metadata zipped up into a single file, with their extension changed to .epub.

EPUBs are just portable websites! When you use an epub reader application, you can change the font, size, margins, and more to create a more comfortable reading experience. There are many apps built for windows, linux, macOS/apple, android, etc. that will read epubs beautifully! Some are free, and some are paid. I personally use readest on my android phone and tablet, and Kobo Books/Calibre on my desktop.

If you read books or articles on your phone, I am especially begging you to use an epub reader. You can export web pages as epubs easily, and if you read fanfics like me, AO3 literally allows you to download fanfics as epubs!! Never lose your place in a story ever again due to downtime or tab reloading!!

Join us epub readers and experience the greatness of reading portably.