pdfschema.orggoogle-rich-snippets

Which BookFormatType for PDF?


I use the BookFormatType for Google’s Book feature.

My structure is okay so far according to the SDTT.

I offer:

But what should I use for a PDF? Or should I use a different Rich Snippet for the PDF?


Solution

  • PDFs are e-books

    If the PDF contains a book, it is an e-book. (cf. Wikipedia: E-book: Formats and Comparison of e-book formats: Portable Document Format).

    So for such a PDF, provide a Book with bookFormat = https://schema.org/EBook.

    If you want to provide the file type of the e-book, you can use the fileFormat property with a value of application/pdf (IANA Media Types).

    A book in multiple formats

    As you offer different formats of a book (paperback, multiple e-books etc.), you should use one Book item that represents the work, and another Book item for each format.

    You can link them with the workExample property:

    Example/instance/realization/derivation of the concept of this creative work. eg. The paperback edition, first edition, or eBook.

    JSON-LD example

    {
      "@context": "http://schema.org/",
      "@type": "Book",
      "name": "Gone with the Wind",
      "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Margaret Mitchell"
      },
      "workExample": [
        {
          "@type": "Book",
          "name": "Paperback of 'Gone with the Wind'",
          "bookFormat": "https://schema.org/Paperback"
        },
        {
          "@type": "Book",
          "name": "PDF of 'Gone with the Wind'",
          "bookFormat": "https://schema.org/EBook",
          "fileFormat": "application/pdf"
        },
        {
          "@type": "Book",
          "name": "EPUB of 'Gone with the Wind'",
          "bookFormat": "https://schema.org/EBook",
          "fileFormat": "application/epub+zip"
        }
      ]
    }