File Formats

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The SWORD Project respects copyright, and other Intellectual property Rights. As such, conversion of material that is under copyright is not supported by The SWORD Project.

This page merely lists some of the more common file formats, and Bible Study Programs, and why conversion of their resources (if applicable) is discouraged.

EULA is the abbreviation for End User License Agreement. This is the agreement that governs the terms and conditions of using a product. As such, it is enforcible, in the United States, under contract law.

Bible Study Programs

There are a plethora of Bible Study Programs that people use. Some are FLOSS. Some are Commercially distirbuted. Some are gratis, but have restrictions on them. This subsection merely lists the programs, and why their material may not(if applicable) be converted into a format that The SWORD Project utilizes.

Bible Works

This is a commercial product. The software contains a EULA that prohibits reverse engineering its file format. All material that uses this file format is protected by Copyright. As such it is both illegal, and immoral to convert it to a format that The SWORD Project uses.

e-Sword

This program is distributed gratis. Most of the resources for this program are protected by copyright. As such, conversion into a format that The SWORD Project is discouraged by CrossWire. There are no tools that directly convert the file format used by this program to one used by The SWORD Project.

Libronix Digital Library System

This is a commercial product. The program contains a EULA that prohibits reverse engineering its file format. All material that uses this file format is protected by Copyright. As such it is both illegal, and immoral to convert it to a format that The SWORD Project uses.

PC Study Bible

This is a commercial product. The program contains a EULA that prohibits reverse engineering its file format. All material that uses this file format is protected by Copyright. As such it is both illegal, and immoral to convert it to a format that The SWORD Project uses.

The Watch Tower Library

This program is distributed gratis. The program contains a EULA that prohibits reverse engineering its file format. The EULA also prohibits redistribution of the material to individuals who are not current Jehovah's Witness in good standing. Additionally, the material in this collection is protected by copyright.

Zefania

This is a FLOSS Bible Study Program. Some of the resources available for this program are under copyright. The conversion of those resources to The SWORD Project is discouraged.

File Formats

Bible Study programs use a plethora of file formats. Even more have been suggested for use in creating Bibles, and other religious material. This subsection merely lists some of the most common of those formats.

CROSS

Christian Reference Open Software Standard.

This is a closed file format that was created by Epiphany Software, as a replacement for STEP. The specifications have not been publicly released. There are no known tools that convert this file format to any other file format. All material that is distributed in this format is covered by either copyright, or a EULA that prohibits format shifting, or both.

GBF

General Bible Format

This file format is intended as an aid to preparing Bible Texts for use with various Bible search programs. The complete specification is at http://www.ebible.org/bible/gbf.htm.

This file format is used for creating some resources for The SWORD Project.

HTML

Hyper Text Markup Language

This is the basic language of the World Wide Web. Some Bible programs use it for their resources.

LitML

Liturgical Markup Language

The home page for this markup language is http://www.oremus.org/LitML/. This is described at http://hildormen.org/blogs/index.php/2004/09/22/p28 and http://hildormen.org/docs/LitML/Guidelines-LitML10-1.0.html.

This is a descendant of, and complement to ThML. An additional influence is HTML 4.0.

The markup reflects its orientation towards liturgy and hymns.

OSIS

Open Scriptural Information Standard.

The Open Scripture Information Standard (OSIS) is an XML schema for marking up scripture and related text, part of an "open scripture" initiative composed of translators, publishers, scholars, software manufacturers, and technical experts who are coordinated by the Bible Technologies Group. It is co-sponsored by the American Bible Society and the Society of Biblical Literature.

The specifications for this file format can be found at http://www.bibletechnologies.net/20Manual.dsp.

This file format is used for creating some resources for The SWORD Project.

PDF

Portable Document Format

This is an ISO track file format for platform independent rendering of documents. As such, it is designed to be a "read only" format.

RTF

Rich Text Format

This is a file format that is "owned' by Microsoft, Inc. It is used as the markup language for presentation, bu several Bible Study Programs, and their related file formats.

STML

Sacred Text Markup Language.

This is a proprietary markup language used by sacred-text.com.

STEP

Standard Template Electronic Publishing.

This file format was used by Quickverse between roughly 1996 and 2002. All material that was distributed in this file format is either under copyright, or has a EULA which prohibits format conversion.

Most of the documentation and specifications for this format can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20040204143502/http://www.crosswire.org/bsisg/ ; http://web.archive.org/web/20021019135604/www.crosswire.org/bsisg/ ;

ThML

Theological Markup Language

The specifications for this file format are available at http://www.ccel.org/ThML/.

This file format is used for creating some resources for The SWORD Project.

USFM

Unified Standard Format Markers

USFX

Unified Scripture Format XML

This XML file format is designed to provide clean conversions from Scripture to USFM compliant file formats. A more comprehensive description can be found at http://ebt.cx/usfx/.

XSEM

XML Scripture Encoding Model

This XML format was proposed by SIL. A comprehensive description of the markup language can be found at http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=XSEM&_sc=1.

The formal specifications can be found at http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/render_download.php?site_id=nrsi&format=file&media_id=XSEM_Source&filename=XSEM_Source.zip

XML

eXtensible Markup Language

This is generic family of markup formats. Links to a number of XML specifications can be found at http://xml.coverpages.org/xmlApplications.html. Each flavor has its own specifications.

Zefania XML

This is the native file format for Zefania. There are several tools that will convert material into this file format.

Utility Programs

Unless otherwise specified, the utility programs listed in this section do not work with file formats used by The SWORD Project.

GBF Tools

The SWORD Project

  • cipherraw
  • Diaspora
  • Diatheke
  • imp2gbs
  • imp2ld
  • imp2vs
  • mkfstmod
  • mod2imp
  • mod2osis
  • mod2vpl
  • mod2zmod
  • osis2mod
  • step2vpl
  • stepdump
  • vpl2mod
  • vs2osisref
  • xml2gbs

STEP Utilities

The specifications for STEP were publicly released. Some peopel created tools for this file format.

  • Step2RTF;
  • Step2VPL;
  • Stepdump;
  • STEPr;
  • The STEP Publisher's ToolKit;

ThML Utilities

  • cceldesktop.

Zefania Utilities

  • KonvSetup;
  • Zefania BpeST;
  • Zefania Diatheke;
  • Zefania Module Splitter;
  • Zefania TextKonvertor;
  • ZXML-BCV;
  • ZXML2BCV.xsl;

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