Every Project Gutenberg eBook has a landing page. For example, this link is the landing page for eBook #1: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1. That is where you can find links to download or view the various formats, as well as information about the eBook.

Project Gutenberg offers several different download options for most eBooks, as well as some information about each eBook. Information about eBooks is called “metadata,” which is presented in the Bibliographic Record section of an eBook’s landing page.

Help on Download Options

Format

The file format of the eBook. Any of these may be downloaded to your computer or other device. Usually this is done with a right-click or “Save as…” option. You can read them within your web browser too. HTML (online) and plain text can always display in your browser, while other formats (EPUB, Kindle…) require a browser setting or plug-in.

For more information about tablets and ereaders, see our help page. Project Gutenberg books work on all tablets, phones and ereaders that we know about, even older models.

The main file formats offered by Project Gutenberg are:

Read online (web): The standard format of the Internet. Legacy HTML or XHTML formats are automatically updated to HTML5, which is the current version. Use any web browser to display this file format.; To save a copy, use your Browser’s “Save as..” or a similar menu item. Be sure to save the “complete” eBook, including images. CSS (cascading style sheets) are usually included within Project Gutenberg HTML files. Occasionally, CSS files are listed separately. HTML may include images in GIF, JPEG, PNG or SVG formats as well as music (MP3, MIDI…) and other content types.
EPUB3: EPUB version 3 (electronic publication) is the current e-book standard, by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). EPUB files have the extension .epub. This is the file format most tablets and ereaders use. You can also use epub reader software on your computer.; Project Gutenberg EPUB and Kindle files are free from DRM (Digital Restrictions Management). We automatically generate the EPUB files from the HTML file if there is one, otherwise from the plain text file. If the source file is a plain text file, the program must guess at the structure of the text. Thus EPUB files may contain formatting errors like poetry verse lines run together or paragraphs wrongfully marked as headers.
EPUB (older E-readers): EPUB version 2 is offered for older eBook readers or software that cannot use EPUB3. We also offer “EPUB (no images, older E-readers)” which decreases the size of the file by omitting images.
Kindle: “Kindle” means the KF8 format, which is used by the Amazon Kindle series of mobile ebook readers. If the ebook contains images, we offer two versions: one with and one without images. Note that most Kindles and Kindle software can now utilize EPUB3. The EPUB3 files are smaller, and usually look exactly the same.
Older Kindles: This is the MOBI format, which may be used for older Kindles that do not have the current software. Most of those older Kindles can also utilize EPUB version 2.
Plain text UTF-8: A text file formatted with a fixed line length. These may be viewed in any browser or with an editor like Windows Notepad. For best results use a monospaced font like Courier. Nearly every ebook is available in plain text format. UTF-8 (a.k.a., Unicode) is almost always available and should work with any modern program. Latin1 (ISO-8859-1), plain vanilla ASCII, and a few other text encodings may also be available under “More files…”
Download HTML (zip): This is a complete HTML package, with the HTML as well as images and any other files needed to display the whole HTML on other systems.

Less frequently used formats

AVI: (Older items only) AVI files can contain both audio and video. They can generally be played with media players
DVI: (Older items only) The output format of a typesetting system called TeX.
EPS: (Older items only) Short for “Encapsulated PostScript,” these filescan generally be viewed with any PostScript viewer.
ISO: (Older items only) A logical copy of a CD-ROM, DVD or other optical media. Most CD/DVD authoring utilities can deal with ISO images.
PDF: Portable Document Format is frequently used to make immutable (non-editable) documents. Project Gutenberg has some PDF files that were created from other markup (TeX, LaTeX or others), usually for math-heavy eBooks. If you prefer PDF, most computers have a File… or Print… option so you can save an HTML or plain text file as a PDF file.
Plucker: (Older items only) A plucker ebook as viewed on a Palm smartphone. A plucker ebook is generated from the HTML file if there is one, else from the plain text file. These do not include images.
QiOO Mobile: (Older items only) QiOO Mobile eBook is a proprietary format which is viewable on older mobile phones (Java required). These QiOO Mobile eBook files do not contain images or hyperlinks - they are text only.

“More files” for older versions and raw files

There is an undecorated link to “more files” on the landing pages.

This is where you can find the original versions of books. These are the input used to make the main formats listed above.

Since Project Gutenberg books are frequently updated to fix typos and other problems, you can often find a folder called “old” or something similar with previous versions. As of mid-2024, previous versions are usually instead found in the Project Gutenberg github collection.

Size

The approximate file size.

File Hosting Services

A file hosting service allows you to store files and access them over the Internet from your PC, tablet or smart phone. You must already have an account on those services before you can use them. Many providers offer a free starter package with limited storage that may be upgraded later.

When you save to these services, you may see a notice that some details of your username or who you are will be provided to Project Gutenberg. That doesn’t actually happen: we “push” files to these services, without receiving or storing anything about you other than your browser version, which is part of any page visit to www.gutenberg.org. The privacy policy has additional information.

Project Gutenberg provides file hosting service transfer as a convenience to readers, but does not operate, provide support for, or have any relationships with these services.

Dropbox: Dropbox is a service that helps you keep files synchronized on your PC and your mobile devices. We will send the eBook to the Apps/gutenberg folder in your Dropbox folder. It will then be copied to all your devices on which you have installed the Dropbox client software.
Google Drive: Google Drive is a file hosting service by Google. We will upload the eBook to your Google Drive. You can then download it from anywhere you have an internet connection.
OneDrive: OneDrive is a file hosting service by Microsoft. We will upload the eBook to your OneDrive. You can then download it from anywhere you have an internet connection.

Help on the Bibliographic Record

This table contains all information we collected about the eBook. We don’t have every possible information item for every eBook - usually we only present what we have.

Note that new eBooks have minimal data in the bibliographic record, because records are first created automatically. Our volunteer catalogers add the rest of the information after new eBooks are published by Project Gutenberg, typically within a week or so. Metadata may be updated from time to time.

Similar books: Download patterns help to automatically identify similar eBooks. Note that Project Gutenberg usage is anonymous, as described in our privacy policy. Logs from our web server and database are the only sources utilized to identify similar eBooks.; This information is not usually available for our newest eBooks, since download patterns have not yet been made.
Readers also downloaded…: A link to eBooks that were downloaded by previous visitors.
In …: Links to this eBook’s subject heading(s) or bookshelf listings, listing other eBooks with the same subject. Bookshelf listings are human-curated topical collections, but are outdated and not currently maintained. “Browsing” listings are automatically-generated browsing categories.

Metadata fields

Commonly utilized metadata fields are:

Creator: The person or entity that wrote the book. There may be authors, contributors, editors, illustrators, and other roles.
Title: The title of the book. A subtitle is also included, if available. Usually subtitles are on a new line.
Alternate title: Any alternate title, if known. This may be used for translated titles, if applicable.
Note: Notes added by the cataloger team. Notes give additional information to the reader.
Reading level:: A numerical estimate of how easy or hard the book is to read. We use the Flesch-Kincaid method, which looks at things like sentence length and the number of syllables in words. Here is a Wikipedia article about this method: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests.
Original publication: Publication information from the print source(s) we used for digitization, when known. Project Gutenberg does not seek to exactly match print sources, and might use multiple sources for any given eBook. If knowing the exact provenance of an eBook is important to you, you might need to do your own comparison of the Project Gutenberg eBook to known print sources to identify what is different. You may also be able to get in touch with the producers of the eBook via information in the Credit line.; Original publication metadata entries are only available for items published by Project Gutenberg since approximately 2022.
Credits: Typically this mentions who produced this eBook, and what resource(s) provided the original publication for digitization.
Language: The main language, as well as other languages used in the book.
Category: Text or Sound.
LoC Class: Library of Congress Classification. Project Gutenberg only uses the first 2 letters. This classification may help you find books in a special area of interest. The LoC class records are usually added to new eBooks within a few weeks of their publication by Project Gutenberg.
Subject: One or more subjects. The subject headings are usually added to new eBooks within a few weeks of their publication by Project Gutenberg. You can select a subject, to link to a search page for other eBooks with the same subject. This is a great way to browse the Project Gutenberg collection.
Automated summaries: In September 2024, automatically-generated summaries were added for most books. New books will get summaries approximately monthly. These summaries are based on approximately the first 12,000 words of books,