How to Choose the Best SDK for Your Custom eBook Platform

5 min readMar 12, 2021

Global digitization is bringing changes to every aspect of our lives, including the way we read. Now, more and more readers prefer compact and easy eBooks to their conventional printed versions. According to Statista, the eBooks’ global revenue is expected to reach $15,635m in 2021, with an annual growth rate of 3.18%, estimating $17,723m by 2025.

The eBooks market is steadily growing as well as a variety of reader apps. To build a successful and convenient eBook publishing platform, businesses should know how to choose a proper software development kit (SDK). In this article, we provide an overview on most popular SDKs and help you to choose the best one for creating your eBook publishing platform.

What Is an SDK and Why Is It Important?

A software development kit (SDK) represents a set of tools and diverse building pieces which software developers use to create various custom applications. SDK apps are usually built for a specific platform and can be connected or added to other programs.

Software developers use SDK as a constructor for building their apps. This constructor includes multiple libraries, code samples, APIs, processes, guides, and documentation. Ready-made code parts, pre-built APIs, and fully configured development tools significantly facilitate app development, making it a much faster and less challenging process with a minimum number of errors.

What are the Best SDKs for Custom eBook Platforms?

When building an eBook publishing platform, software developers have to carefully consider various SDKs. They should support a set of file formats like ePUB, PDF, plain text formats, and others, and be convenient for use. Here is the list of the best SDKs for eBook publishing platforms.

Kitaboo SDK

Kitaboo SDK contains a set of lightweight libraries, APIs, app shells, and other tools that allow building full-fledged eBook reader apps such as a learning management system or a simple bookshelf. Kitaboo will provide content for these apps in different formats, including audio and video formats.

The main Kitaboo features include:

support of video, audio, and text formats, including ePUB, Mobi, doc. and Docx, RTF, ODT, PDF, HTML5;
multi-platform, Kitaboo runs on iOS, Android, Windows, and a variety of web browsers, therefore, it works well on PCs, tablets, smartphones, and other gadgets;
rich functionality that involves text highlighting, text searching, refreshing interface, book downloading, offline mode, annotation tools, and many others;
improved UI/UX design empowered with special Kitaboo reader shells for enhanced reader experience.

epuBear SDK

epuBear SDK is a simple-to-use and feature-rich solution for ePUB readers’ development. This lightweight SDK supports ePUB2 and partly ePUB3 formats, has user-friendly navigation, and it perfectly suits mobile app platforms.

Moreover, this handy ePUB reader SDK provides its users with pleasant bonuses, including an ad-free functionality and adding extra features like Digital rights management (DRM) tools. The main epuBear features are:

cross-platform native-like compatibility with iOS and Android mobile operating systems;
intuitive navigation with such functions as go to page/chapter, support of external links, font-size change, double-page, night modes, bookmarks, text search, change of text and background colors, fonts settings, opening images in a separate window, vertical and right-to-left writing;
support of audio and video formats;
extensive global language support.

Adobe Reader Mobile SDK

Adobe is a major computer software company that provides a wide range of software and applications for content creation and editing, including The Adobe Reader Mobile SDK (RMSDK).

RMSDK is a powerful popular solution for building eBook platforms that run on multiple devices with PC, Mac, iOS, and Android operating systems. With RMSDK were built such popular eBook reader apps as Kobo, Booken, Nook, and others.

The main RMSDK advantages involve:

support of various reading formats, including PDF, ePUB2, and ePUB3;
support of audio and video files with HTML5, MP3, MP4, AAC-LC formats and Core Media Types;
friendly UX/UI design with text resizing and orientation that improves readability on small screens, embedded fonts, stylesheets, and templates;
support of a wide range of languages and characters, including Arabic, Japanese, and Hebrew;
provision of Adobe Content Server for easy content distribution.

SkyePUB SDK

SkyePUB SDK is a robust kit for building ePUB readers that run on iOS and Android mobile platforms. The SDK is simple to use and it offers a wide range of functions for comfortable reading.

The key SkyePUB SDK features include:

wide range of UI/UX design functions like fonts, colors, and margins adjusting, smooth page transitions, text selection, highlighting, DoublePage mode, chapter pagination, reflowable and fixed layout, and others;
support of dynamic contents based on HTML5 and CSS3, and JavaScript;
ability to work with DRM and encrypted contents;
caching eBooks for offline mode reading.

Colibrio SDK

Colibrio SDK represents an innovative solution for building stable eBook platforms. The technology is based on the Modern Web Platform aimed at enhancing readers’ experience by providing highly responsive design and effective functions.

Colibrio key features include:

multi-platform, Colibrio allows creating mobile and web reader apps;
support of various reading formats, including ePUB2, ePUB3, PDF, and others;
support of dynamic contents, video/audio formats, and images, including JavaScript, Canvas SVG, and CSS;
strong UI/UX design with full-text search, Colibrio Reflow for smooth content flowing, text to speech;
focus on preserving original formatting and visual styles created by authors and publishers.

Sqribble SDK

Sqribble SDK is a super-lightweight cloud-based tool for building custom eBooks in some clicks. For this, eBook creators need to choose a template, add content, and generate their book.

Other Sqribble SDK features are:

creation of simple and interactive flipbooks in ePUB formats;
a wide choice of eBook designs, including 50 eBook templates, 10 eBook themes, and over 300 Google fonts;
creation of e-covers for Kindle and Amazon;
attractive and useful features like table of contents, drag and drop design, automatic pagination, and many others.

Bottom Line

The eBook market is quickly growing and there constantly emerge new eBook SDKs for building diverse eBook platforms. Each SDK offers its own set of features and functionalities, as a result, choosing the most suitable one for building your eBook app may turn into an overwhelming task.

This way, before opting for a particular solution, you should carefully analyze your app’s requirements and then decide which SDK’s functionality suits best for your app development project.

Originally published at https://scand.com/