Palm Digital Media has announced the Palm eBook Studio authoring tool and licensing options, which allow individuals, businesses, publishing companies and online retailers to create, distribute and sell Palm Reader eBooks.

The company said the Palm eBook Studio authoring tool lets users either create eBooks from scratch, or cut and paste information from existing documents -- such as Microsoft Word or any application that supports Rich Text Format -- into the Palm eBook Studio. It is available for Windows and Macintosh computers and supports the use of graphics and images.

In addition, Palm Digital Media said the application offers a choice of font styles, type sizes and formatting options for customizing eBooks. Once the Palm Reader eBook is created on the desktop, the company said a touch of a button saves it to a file ready to synchronize with either a Palm OS handheld or Pocket PC device.