Printed Books vs Online books or Ebook

Which format is better for every reader? Flip or Swipe?

by Niña Viloria

Reading book is quintessential for every entity whether they are students, professional and even someone who wants to read book as a personal pleasure. In ancient times books were considered to be the primary source to imbibe knowledge, therefore, learners spent most of their time reading books at it gives them variety of informations about the world, insight to culture and tradition, about humanity, real story of inspiring people and even self help books that gives motivation to continue achieving their respective field. In fact they are aware how books improve their, imagination, creativity, knowledge enhancement, as well as it is a free source of entertainment as it can reduce stress that it may give them tranquility once they indulge or immerse themselves into this activity.

Through the years changes happened as the advancement of technology in a way that printed books are now being replaced by digital books or what we call E-books. Some people adapt quickly into this style of reading for it offers perks to modern expectations. As a result some of the younger generations are more into online books rather than a physical copy of books. However, older generations who are accustomed to traditional books are more likely fond of it as it gives the sense of comfort. In addition to that, some may find it difficult to change the reading habit that has been used for decades.

Let us deep dive into the benefits of Conventionals books and the Online books along with their drawbacks.

Printed Books Advantages

• Connection built between the reader and the book.

Readers are more engrossed by conventional books which incite their interest to continue reading as they feel the essence of the given ideas of the author. Gives engaging experience and immerses the reader as they flip the pages they can directly feel, hear the sound and even smell it is sometimes satisfying. Well studies show that when you are more connected to a book it can retain what you read over the period of time.

• Easier to the eyes of the readers and can help to improve sleep.

Physical books are more gentle in the eyes and to our sleep schedules compared to online books that can hinder sleep at night due to staring in the devices or the lights from the screen that can strain the eyes and cause blurriness, dryness and inability to fall asleep and take a good rest.

• Provide an offline connection to the digital world.

We use technology in our daily life for it is convenient but when it comes to physical books it is also refreshing to read without any disturbance into other activities such as scrolling social media, watching videos or it might sometimes trigger the curiosity of the reader when a notification pops up or advertisement from the site when reading.

• You are legally in possession of your purchased physical books.

Well, printed books may take a lot of space in your area. So if you are a person who doesn't like to read the same book over and over again after gaining information or knowledge in books you may sell the book for you have the right to do it as legal owner.

• Printed books are for everyone.

If parents are worried about their children excessively using devices for reading a book online then a perfect solution would be P-books. The same goes to older people who are not computer literate and having a hard time navigating the devices or having problems how to download or read an E-book. Then a better choice is print books.

Disadvantages of Printed books

• Heavy and Hard to Carry

Moving from one place to another is quite tiring, especially if you are fond of reading books while traveling and want to read while sitting on the bus, train or on holiday.

• Costly

It consumes ample amounts of money buying your favorite author books, especially investing in hard backs copy as a collection or if you are planning to pass it into the future generation.

• Requires storage space

Not planning to give it away or sell and yet continuously buying tons of books will not be ideal.

• Features and fixed fonts

Printed books are anchored in fonts that the publisher requires or a self published author preference so fonts are not adjustable for the readers, features as well aren't available for physical copy of book.

The birth of the online book or E-book.

Nowadays user’s prefer E-book due to several reasons:

• Convenient /Accessible

Readers can carry along their devices anywhere. They're compact in size so they can put it in their pockets. Also, hundreds of e-books can be carried on one unit or memory card. No need to bring bulky books just to get information for all the information is right into your fingertips.

• Storage capacity

If readers think two or three stories are not enough to divert their attention while traveling well, E-book have lots of storage. Worry no more, not limited stories and information that you can enjoy throughout your journey.

• Less expensive

There are instances where users make one time payment to get access to thousands of books or stories.Not just that , it will also be updated from time to time so readers can search a vast range of stories that they can enjoy. Another thing is purchasing in E-book or online does not require a shipping fee that helps readers save their money and for their time waiting.

• Offers features and some elements

From dictionary, adjustable fonts , read aloud feature and many more makes the reader’s entertained and engages in E-book. These benefits can help the user’s with reading disabilities so that they are able to adjust font and text sizes. It offers audio and videos that can be fun to listen or watch .External links can also be provided to give further details.

• Environmental friendly

Each year millions of books are being published and millions of trees are being taken down just to produce paper printed books. We can all save the tree from being cut down if we replace the printed books to an E-book. This makes E-book better for the environment at large.

• Available on several devices

Having multiple devices such as smartphones, laptops, computers and E-book doesn't make any difference; they can use whatever is available.

• Never out of stock

There might be a possibility of shortages of books in paper printed books and you have to wait to be available in the market again while E-books you can easily purchase from online so it helps us to save our time. We can download and read it later.

• Read without disturbing your partner at night using E-book

Turning the lights at night just to read some pages of your favorite books but your partner is tired and not able to sleep with lights on so when using an E-book it does not require to be turned on. Just make sure you're protecting your eyes with your eyeglasses and you're good to go.

Disadvantages of E-Books

• E-books require devices

Not all people have access to electronic devices or not all people can afford to buy smartphones.

• E-books requires the reader to stare in the screen

People who usually read in ebooks suffer from eye fatigue for long hours of staring at the screen that can put their health at risk.

• Book satisfaction

Some people somehow feel that having a physical copy of a book gives them the connection that they can hold, smell the aroma of the paper and flip through pages but ebooks on the other hand do not give some sort of satisfaction.

• E-books need electricity.

While traveling we often experience the draining of our battery as a result we can’t get access to the data therefore having no source of power we can’t read our favorite novel. So the reader’s have to make sure they charge their devices.

• E-books don't last forever.

Modernization is always a thing to this day so somehow technologies will likely be more advanced compared to the future generations to present. Developer will continue to look in the bigger picture most likely the software and hardware will be outdated and they will come up to a better ideas without preserving the existing materials of e-books.

• E-book piracy

Authors worked so hard in order to give the public a quality of book but there are instances that the stories are being claimed by someone who didn’t even have the effort to write on their own yet, they give it for free, distribute or illegally sell without the author’s and publisher permissions.

Final Thoughts

Reading books has many benefits to our health and to our mentality. It provides awareness, information, immersing yourself in another world where characters exist and also gives empathy to connect more to people. So the reader has a better option to flip or to swipe whichever format they are going to, still they are complementary to others for the strength of paper printed books is the weakness of the ebook or vice versa.They may have drawbacks but still we can’t deny the fact that reading is a fun activity.

#ebooksprosandcons #paperprintedbookorebook #fliporswipe