File types for reading books on an eReader

If you want to read books you bought on Google Play on an eReader, you'll need to download the book file. You can download books as PDF or EPUB files, though some books are only available as PDFs.

Need instructions? Try these.


EPUB vs. PDF

Here are the main differences between EPUB and PDF files.

EPUB files

  • Adjust words to your screen size
  • Sometimes called “flowing text”
  • Smaller file size (as large as several megabytes)

PDF files

  • Word size doesn’t adjust
  • Sometimes called “scanned pages”
  • Larger file size (sometimes bigger than 100 megabytes)

Why does my file say .ACSM?

If your book file includes ".ACSM" in the title, you'll need to use Adobe Digital Editions to read it. The .ACSM extension uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect books against piracy and other copyright abuse.