Why convert FB2 to EPUB?
- Wider app support — far more reading apps and devices open EPUB than FB2.
- Send to Kindle — Amazon accepts EPUB but not FB2.
- Better navigation — the FB2 sections become an EPUB table of contents.
How the conversion works
The FB2 XML is parsed with its declared encoding. Each top-level section becomes a chapter, nested section titles become sub-headings, and FB2 elements such as emphasis, poems, stanzas, epigraphs and tables are mapped to their HTML equivalents. Base64 images stored in the file are decoded and packaged in the EPUB.
What is an FB2 file?
FB2 (FictionBook 2) is an XML-based e-book format that is especially popular in Russia and other Eastern European countries. Instead of describing how a book looks, FB2 describes its structure: sections, titles, paragraphs, poems, epigraphs, footnotes and citations. Images are stored inside the same file as base64 text.
FB2 files are easy to archive and search, but fewer reading apps support them than EPUB, which is why converting FB2 to EPUB is a common need.
What is an EPUB file?
EPUB (Electronic Publication) is the most widely used open e-book standard, maintained by the W3C. An EPUB file is a ZIP archive that contains one XHTML page per chapter, CSS stylesheets, images, fonts, and a package file listing the reading order and metadata such as title, author and language.
Because the text is reflowable, EPUB adapts to any screen size. Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo and most other reading apps open EPUB natively, and Kindle accepts EPUB through Send to Kindle.