Skip to main content

How To: Create eBooks for iPod, iPhone and iPad

Image used with permission by copyright holder

You can download apps that let you read eBooks pretty easily on your iPad and iPhone or Touch but that doesn’t help for all documents or eBooks.

Still, before you get started creating eBooks you need to have an app that will read eBooks. Most are free and include ones like iBooks by Apple. Most eReaders can read .txt and .pdf files, the standard is the .epub format. Kindle, which does have an app as well, uses the .mobi format. 

Recommended Videos

We’ll take you how to create eBooks for your Apple products using the Calibre program. Don’t worry, you don’t have to pay for Calibre; it’s a free program that lets you convert most types of documents to any eBook format, including the standard .epub and Kindle’s .mobi format. These steps can be used for self-published books, weirdly formatted documents or big projects. 

1. Save the book into any common format like .txt, .rft or .pdf. Calibre won’t convert Microsoft Word .doc or .docx formats. For the best results we recommend saving it in .html or .xhtml formats.

2. If you’re self-publishing or creating a project you might like to have a title page. Create whatever you want using a design program of your choice (Photoshop, MS Paint, etc.). Save the cover in .jpg format. The dimensions can be anything but we’ve found that dimensions of 300 by 500 work the best, this is couple with a file size of around 50k. 

3. You should have downloaded Calibre by now. Open it up and click the “Add Books” button.

4. Look at the bottom of the window and find the menu titled “Enable”. Select the format that you want to use for the book. Then locate your book and double-click it.. Calibre should be loading it into its library now.

5. Highlight the book in the center of the Calibre window by clicking it. Now hit “Convert Books”.

6. A new window will open up. Click “Output Format” and then you can choose which format you want to export the book in. For this example we’ll choose .EPUB.

7. Now, click “MetaData”, you should find it on the left side of the window. Type the title and author into the appropriate boxes. You can also add a publisher, keyword tags and a summary if you’d like.

8. Click the “Change Cover Field” button. Find your title page from earlier and select it. 

9. Find the “Page Setup” button in the menu on the left side and select “Default Output Profile.” Now, click “OK”. Calibre will now begin converting your book to .epub format.

10. After the conversion is done, right-click your book in the main window. Hit “Save to Disk” and then click “Save Only EPUB Format to Disk”. A new window will pop up. 

11. Select where you would like to save this copy of your eBook for the transfer to your Apple product. A copy will be kept in the Calibre library. 

Scott Younker
Former Digital Trends Contributor
The iPhone 17 will reportedly get a new type of Wi-Fi chip
A person using the Apple iPhone 16 Plus.

By this time next year, Apple may have installed its own in-house Wi-Fi chips in all of its phones, or at least one of them.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, a well-known analyst with a trusted record, Apple is working on its own Wi-Fi chips to replace the current ones from Broadcom, but there's not a firm timeline on when they'll arrive (via MacRumors). He says the iPhone 17 Pro might come equipped with this new chip, but other sources suggest it won't get widespread adoption until the iPhone 18.

Read more
How to fast charge your iPhone
iPhone 12 Mini with charger

While they may not be some of the longest-lasting smartphones on the market, modern iPhones boast more than respectable battery life that should be able to get you through an entire day's use without breaking too much of a sweat. Of course, that assumes a lot of things — including a battery that's still relatively new and in good health, plus a usage pattern that doesn't include all-day streaming or gaming.

But for some people, overnight charging isn't going to cut it, and you'll want to get your battery topped up again as quickly as you can so you can get back in action. Thankfully, every iPhone released in the past six years supports much faster charging, but the downside is that with very few exceptions, Apple has never supplied you with the right adapter to get the best possible charging speeds from your iPhone.

Read more
5 phones you should buy instead of the iPhone 16
Someone holding the iPhone 16.

Apple’s iPhone 16 has arrived, and it’s quite an impressive offering this year. Not only does it come in some of the best colors we’ve seen in a while, but it closes the gap between the base and Pro models even more.

That's all to say the iPhone 16 is a fantastic phone, but if you’re thinking about buying it as your next smartphone purchase, you should also consider some of these alternatives.
iPhone 16 Plus

Read more