Advanced eBook Explorer (AEBEX)

Advanced eBook Explorer, or simply AEBEX, is a program to keep your eBooks collection (for Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader) in order. For all eBooks you have purchased, it shows detailed information such as file name and size, book ID (e.g. ISBN), title, author, publisher, category, and number of pages. Besides, it shows permissions given by the publishers: whether or not you can copy any text selections, print any pages, lend/give the book to someone else, and use the Read Aloud button to listen to the book. Also, some PDF technical information (PDF Info Dictionary records) is shown: creation/modification date, producer, and so on. Finally, the program shows PDF bookmarks (if available) and used fonts (Type1 and TrueType).

An eBook (electronic book) is simply a file that contains text and images – as in usual (printed) book, but with additional features such as hyperlinks (cross-references), searching capabilities and sometimes sounds/music. To read an eBook, you should have a PC with an appropriate software, or a special hardware device.

Most popular eBook formats are Adobe Acrobat PDF and Microsoft Reader .LIT. They are open-standard and cross-platform compatible. Open-standard means that it is not a proprietary (controlled by one person or company) digital file format. Nowadays, Acrobat .PDF's and Microsoft Reader.LIT's are quickly becoming the de-facto standard on the Internet for documents and previously published materials.

The software to view, print, and search an Acrobat .PDF file is free and available for over 14 different computer platforms (all versions of Windows; Mac, Unix, Linux etc) – this means that an eBook in the .PDF file format can be viewed on virtually any computer around the world.

For now, AEBEX doesn’t work with .LIT eBooks, and support .PDF format only.

One of the key features of all eBook formats is protection and security. The publisher can set security on a .PDF file to require a password just to open the file, and/or another password to block printing, changing, selecting text and graphics, and from changing any form field on the .PDF file. Specially for eBooks, some additional options have been added by Adobe.

PDF documents can be encrypted to protect their contents from unauthorized access. Access to a protected document's contents is controlled by the security handler. As already noted, PDF file may require a password just to open the file, and/or another password to block printing, changing, selecting text and graphics, and from changing any form field on the .PDF file. If you open such PDF file in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader and select File | Document Security menu item.

Please note that AEBEX does NOT work with such files (as well as with files protected with special plug-ins called security handlers). If you need to remove restrictions from “plain” PDF files, or recover PDF passwords, have a look at other software we have developed, Advanced PDF Password Recovery.

For eBooks, however, there is an additional protection. Adobe Content Server software makes it easy for you to sell electronic books (eBooks) securely online. Adobe Content Server packages and protects eBooks and distributes them in PDF format directly from any Web site. Anyone with the free Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader software can purchase your content with ease. That technology allows to enable or disable the following consumer permissions: copy text to clipboard, print all or a defined number of pages, lending, expiration, and text to speech. Adobe Content Server can encrypt eBooks in the Electronic Book Exchange (EBX). When the file is encrypted, special master voucher for its distribution is being created. The master voucher is a separate, XML-based file that contains an encrypted key to the eBook and the set of privileges that accompany it. When a customer purchases an Adobe PDF eBook directly from an e-commerce site, it’s automatically downloaded into the customer’s personal Acrobat eBook Reader library for immediate viewing. Acrobat eBook Reader unlocks the encrypted key that came with the eBook and its master voucher. Now the eBook is tied to the customer’s Acrobat eBook Reader and can’t be transmitted elsewhere unless lending or gifting permission has been enabled.


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