Book Formats

Basic Format Information

Download Formats

DAISY (Digital Accesible Information System) is the digital talking book standard. The ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book enable text-based navigation to levels such as chapters, pages, and paragraphs. All Bookshare.org books are made available in the DAISY format. Presently, Bookshare.org DAISY files contain only text, no audio.

Once delivered to the user's PC, the electronic text in the DAISY file can be spoken to the user using synthetic speech: a computer-generated voice that speaks the text aloud. This can be done by specialized software that knows how to speak the text. There is a range of different voice synthesizers available, each with its own voice characteristics.

DAISY players enable navigation by keyboard commands and text-to-speech. If you are a Bookshare.org member, you can download the Victor Reader Soft DAISY player by first logging in and then visiting the download page.

You can view the standard, officially called the ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book (or DAISY/NISO for short), on the DAISY Consortium's Web page at http://www.daisy.org/z3986/.

Read more about the DAISY format by visiting the Consortium's home page.

BRF (Digital Braille)

BRF (Digital Braille) These files are Grade II braille format files -- a widely recognized form of contracted braille. The files can be used with common braille reading devices or braille printers. All Bookshare.org books will be made available in the ".brf" format.

The Bookshare.org software produces these documents automatically from the submitted book format. While of good quality, the output is never as good as braille that has been proofread by a knowledgeable human editor/transcriber.

HTML

Hyper-Text Markup Language is the standard for internet documents. Public domain titles will be made available for download in this format.

TXT (ASCII)

ASCII files are unformatted text files. This is the kind of file that would come out of Notepad or other text editors. Public domain titles will be made available for download in this format.

Submit Formats

Books can be submitted in a variety of formats, including RTF, KES, ARK, WYN, and Microsoft Word. If you have files in an alternate format, please email us at info@bookshare.org; however, remember that, without the publisher's or author's permission, Bookshare.org cannot accept content that has been obtained commercially.

Compressed, or "zipped", versions of files in any of the above formats are also acceptable. There is no need to unzip any of your files - simply submit the zipped version but select the original file type from the format drop-down menu when submitting.

All books will be converted to DAISY and BRF formats for download, and public domain books will also be made available in ASCII text and HTML.

RTF

RTF is the preferred format for submission to Bookshare.org because it conserves the most amount of useful "markup" such as page numbers, chapter indications, and text emphasis. RTF stands for Rich Text Format.

KES (Kurzweil)

KES (Kurzweil) KES is the default file format for all Kurzweil products, including the Kurzweil 1000 and the Kurzweil 3000. For Kurzweil users, KES is one of the accepted formats for submission to Bookshare.org if the image file is saved with the .kes file format. Check with your supporting documentation for details. These file sizes may be quite large, so if it is not practical for Kurzweil users to submit books in the KES format, RTF is the suggested option.

DOC (Microsoft Word)

Bookshare.org can accept Microsoft Word DOC as submitted files. Please do not include complex text elements such as tables, footnotes, and hyperlinks as these will not be converted, and may cause problems in the resulting book file. DOC is a proprietary Microsoft format.

ARK (OpenBook)

ARK is the default file format for the OpenBook product. For OpenBook users, ARK is one of the accepted formats for submission to Bookshare.org if the image file is saved with the .ARK file format. Check with your supporting documentation for details. These file sizes may be quite large, so if it is not practical for OpenBook? users to submit books in the ARK format, RTF is the suggested option.

WYN (WYNN)

WYN is the default file format for the WYNN Products, WYNN Wizard and WYNN Reader. For WYNN users, WYN is one of the accepted formats for submission to Bookshare.org if the scanned file is saved with the .WYN file format. Check with your supporting documentation for details. These file sizes may be quite large, so if it is not practical for WYNN users to submit books in the WYN format, RTF is the suggested option.

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