Standard Ebooks

What Standard Ebooks actually is

Volunteers take public-domain texts, mostly from Project Gutenberg, then proofread them against the original scans, correct the punctuation, apply a full style manual and commission a cover from public-domain art. The catalogue is far smaller than Gutenberg's and produced to a much higher standard.

Why it is worth your time

Popup footnotes, correctly nested quotation marks and real typographic dashes make a nineteenth-century novel read on a phone the way it read in print.

Common questions

Is Standard Ebooks free?

Yes. Standard Ebooks is free and does not ask you to register or hand over an email address before you can use it.

How long does Standard Ebooks take?

Five to fifteen minutes of proper attention. We file it under "Coffee break" — public-domain classics, typeset like they cost money.

Does Standard Ebooks work on a phone?

Yes. Standard Ebooks works on a phone as well as it does on a laptop.

What kind of site is Standard Ebooks?

We list it under Deep Archives — long reads and older, stranger knowledge. Popup footnotes, correctly nested quotation marks and real typographic dashes make a nineteenth-century novel read on a phone the way it read in print.