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PDB
What is a PDB file?
The Palm handheld e-book container. Mostly of archival interest.
What PDB is
PDB is a binary format, meaningful only to a program that knows it. It is used for handing a finished file over.
The extension is .pdb, and the full name is Palm Database E-book. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Where PDB came from
Palm published it in 1996.
A format that has been readable for that long is a format worth trusting with something you want back in ten years.
The specification is published, but by its owner
It is written down and implementable, though the vendor decides what the next version looks like. In practice that is enough for the file to keep opening; it is not enough to be sure of it.
It has been superseded
The people who made it have moved on, and support is being withdrawn rather than added. Anything still in this format is worth moving while the tools to move it are still around.
It can hold several pages in one file
A PDB file is not limited to one page, which matters when converting to something that is: a target that holds one image produces one file per page, and the numbering it chooses is worth checking before you send it on.
What opens PDB
Calibre reads it, and so do most programs of the same kind.
If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.
Opening it in a browser
No browser reads it.
That is the single most common reason to convert it: not that the format is bad, but that the place you want to show the file cannot read it.
It is a delivery format
PDB is meant to be handed over rather than worked in. Editing one is possible and rarely pleasant; the sane approach is to change the source and export again.
What goes wrong with it
The recurring complaints: support outside its home ground is uneven.
None of these is a reason to avoid the format. They are the things worth knowing before you are surprised by one, which is a different claim and a more useful one.
The facts, in one place
| Extension | .pdb |
|---|---|
| Media type | application/vnd.palm |
| Published by | Palm |
| First published | 1996 |