Digital publishing

Digital publishing is a new media sector, and it means reading on computers and devices instead of on paper. It includes news websites, online magazines and newspapers, academic journals and eBooks, all of which you read on a screen.

Print publishing and digital publishing both rely on digital systems while a product is being made: text is typed in word processors, pages are laid out in design software and photographs are edited on computers. The difference comes at the end. Digital publishing publishes and distributes the finished material digitally, so it reaches you as a file or a web page rather than as paper. That keeps it in the new media sector, even when it carries exactly the same stories as a printed product.

eBooks and e-readers

An eBook is an electronic book that you read on a device, so it is a product of digital publishing. You download it from an eBook store and read it in an app on a phone or tablet, or on a dedicated e-reader — a device built mainly for reading.

A dedicated e-reader usually has an e-ink screen. This kind of display reflects light rather than shining it into your eyes, much like paper, so it stays clear in bright sunlight. Most e-ink panels show only greyscale, and full-colour e-ink is still uncommon.

Because e-ink updates slowly, fast-moving content looks poor on these screens. eBooks therefore suit text-heavy books, such as a dictionary, a play script or a book of poems, but not a magazine, a picture-led book, or anything that plays video or runs a game.