We have reviewed it before Birth story electronic booksToday, we will review the pros and cons of electronic books and put them on the scale and leave you, dear reader, the freedom to judge.


Advantages of electronic books:

  • E-books are easier to carry and store, so the user may carry a complete library in his phone and within his reach in his solution and travel without the slightest trouble and the size of the available memory remains the only obstacle to the size of storage.
  • Ease and ability to quickly search the book or group of books, thus saving great time and effort, especially in research.
  • A very high benefit in preserving rare manuscripts from damage due to repeated use, as the digital copy is made available to researchers and the manuscript is left to live the rest of its life in peace.
  • Ensure that copies of the book are not out of stock from the publishing market.
  • Reducing time and effort in preparation, distribution, sale and purchase, and ease of obtaining and transporting them.
  • It is less costly for the user and the price of an electronic book is much lower than the price of a printed book and the number of free electronic books available on the Internet is more than the number of free paper books in the market.
  • Overcoming and overcoming limits, obstacles, barriers and censorship.
  • Preserving the environment, reducing pollution from the waste of mass printing operations and reducing the rates of forest destruction in order to obtain paper.
  • It contains multiple mediums other than text, such as image, video and audio media, and this is a great alternative for people with special needs, not to mention the ability to convert text to voice as a speaking program on the iPhone.
  • The possibility of linking it to the scientific references from which to quote or view the original text of the author.
  • Saving the cost of printing, publishing, distribution and agency.
  • Using it in classrooms and conferences using projectors and others.
  • Ease of translation, as some publishing sites allow the ability to translate into other languages, or the book itself is available in more than one language, or the user can translate the book using electronic translation methods such as Google and the like.
  • The ability to enlarge and reduce the font, increase or dim the lighting, and other coordination tools.
  • A backup copy of the book can be saved and restored upon damage without paying again.
  • The user can access his library from anywhere when saving it in any of the cloud services.
  • The ability to self-publish the author without the need for publishing houses and blackmail them.

Disadvantages of electronic books:

  • The cost and prices of e-book readers, computers or smartphones are still high.
  • We mentioned above that electronic books reduce environmental pollution but there is a completely opposite process; Let us imagine what will be the fate of devices that deal with electronic books after twenty years, for example, especially in light of the tremendous and rapid development of technologies and their accessories, except that there will be refining and recycling processes for these wastes.
  • Failure of the author or publishing house to obtain his full rights or violation of property rights, especially with the continued piracy operations of everything on the Internet, including books.
  • The change and multiplicity of formats and formats of electronic books constantly, and there is no agreement on a unified format, as what is read on one device may not be read on another device.
  • How long will the life of an e-book reader last compared to the life of a paper book? Which may reach hundreds of years! Who among us has had a computer for ten years? And if he found it, he would definitely leave him for better alternatives?
  • E-book readers are more affected by physical factors (heat, humidity, water, fall ...) than paper books.
  • E-books are more vulnerable to deliberate and elaborate forgery because they can be easily taken out and published.
  • Software used to read books can monitor the user with his or her knowledge and violate their privacy.
  • The small area of ​​the reader's screen and the rays emitted from it are one of the causes of chronic headache and eye strain, and the small screen may not be suitable for books with large pictures such as children's books.
  • There is no documented study on the safety of electronic reader materials on the consumer and the stability of its components over time, and its side effects will not be revealed until after a while.
  • The page number of a single book changes from one reader to another according to the output program, and therefore there is no value for the page number or its attribution when inferring.
  • Projects for producing books updated soon on the Internet and which have not previously worked in print publishing need for quite a short period of time and great effort in order to gain the confidence of the user, especially in books that have not been published before, neither in paper nor digitally.

Personally, I am a supporter of digital books because of the impact I touched on them in my life, and if Qais bin Al-Mallouh had seen electronic books and readers, it would distract him from Layla and her charms. And I think that electronic books will displace printed books one day, at least among the age group under forty, which has not been closely related to the printed book yet!

Finally, do you think, dear reader, that the electronic book will displace the printed book? Or will the paper book maintain its privileged position? Or will they coexist in peace? A supporter of which of the two books are you?

Related articles