03-13-2013, 01:45 PM | #916 |
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Micah,
Here are, to my mind, the top 4 features that Bluefire Reader needs to improve in order to be able to compete with Marvin. As I see it, Marvin is by now clearly superior over Bluefire Reader, despite being a much younger app. Marvin has now completely replaced Stanza for me -- in fact, it's now better than Stanza ever was. The one theoretical advantage Bluefire has over Marvin -- electronic library lending -- is not available for me, because like Wulf said, nothing like that seems to exist here in Central Europe. As to DRM-protected books: whenever I buy a book, I'm convinced I'm entitled to read it using the best currently available software, and I proceed accordingly. Here are the 3 things Bluefire Reader is currently missing:
In addition to the 3 missing features listed above, there is that long-standing Bluefire bug discussed earlier in this thread: difficulty to highlight words with ease. Try highlighting the same passage in Bluefire and Marvin -- it's a breeze in Marvin, but it's a struggle in Bluefire. In any case, good luck with your app, Micah, and I hope you can give Marvin some serious competition in future! Competition will only make both Bluefire and Marvin better and better. |
03-13-2013, 07:36 PM | #917 |
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For my needs epub3 support is essential. Almost the entire production of mathematics and physics papers with equations is latex to pdf. Latex to epub3 is currently already possible but what is missing is epub3 capable readers for the ipad or android tablets.
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03-14-2013, 09:36 PM | #918 |
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Interesting that you put para spacing above line spacing. I would not have expected that. I personally really want line spacing (we have it on Android) as many fonts have too tight of default line spacing for my taste. (It is different for each font - and defined by the creator) - which we faithfully render in BFR. On iOS, I now use Asian font sets like Hiragino Mincho to read, as they have much wider line spacing, and support western chars.
I get that para spacing is nice, but curious what you find critical about it. Do other readers of this forum feel para spacing is the top prio? Also interesting that you really value the muilti color coded highlighting. On my wish list is to automatically use different colors for when a highlight has a note attached or not, and enable users to choose the two colors. I thought that having multi colors was kind of extraneous - mostly for education, and there are apps specific to that space (e.g. Subtext, VitalSource). Maybe just my own personal proclivities there though. If I may ask, what do you use the different colors for? As to annotations, our first step is to sync location in book across devices. Then next step is to sync annotations. We do have an "export to email" for annotations/highlights. Do you find the import/export as XML useful or important? if we had annotation sync? making text selection better will probably have to wait until we put in a new EPUB rendering engine (for EPUB3 ad EPUB2). So I don't expect to "win you back" anytime soon, but I do appreciate the feedback. -Micah |
03-15-2013, 01:00 AM | #919 | ||
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Quote:
Quote:
BTW, I love BFR's "export to email" for annotations/highlights feature. Nice work! Last edited by Jane12; 03-30-2013 at 06:38 PM. |
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04-30-2013, 10:56 AM | #920 | |
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04-30-2013, 11:11 AM | #921 |
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05-01-2013, 12:34 AM | #922 |
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05-01-2013, 12:36 AM | #923 |
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This is interesting. Sometimes it seems that hyphenation is off and sometimes it's clearly on. Didn't realize there was a pattern until you mentioned this. Now I really am in heaven -- linespacing and hyphenation control (of a temporary and clumsy but nevertheless effective sort )
Last edited by Jane12; 05-01-2013 at 01:01 AM. |
05-01-2013, 01:12 AM | #924 |
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Line spacing, while nice, is (to me) negligible in importance, compared to paragraph spacing, still not offered by BFR. Also, as previously mentioned, Bluefire's current annotation capabilities are too elementary to be really useful for me.
I still owe Micah a reply to his earlier post, for which I apologize; will get to it asap. |
05-02-2013, 10:58 AM | #925 | |
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05-03-2013, 04:46 PM | #926 |
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Well thanks for the line spacing tweak, developers. Almost there! Now please can we have:
1) further margin options - need the text to run right up to the edge of the screen on iphone to make the most of the small reading area 2) better library organisation - by author especially 3) paragraph spacing would be nice but not essential 4) the ability to customise so that touching either side of the screen is next page I had fallen out of love with BF but the latest update is encouraging. Would pay good money for those features which would make it more like our well loved Stanza |
05-05-2013, 11:59 AM | #927 |
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Yes, we have a pesky bug with that which has been like a great easter egg hunt in talll grass. Irritating to say the least.
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05-05-2013, 12:07 PM | #928 | |
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2. We have a sort by author option already - not sure I understand the comment? 3. Yes, Para spacing is high on my list. Sounds easy, and relatively is, but testing is more time consuming than many might imagine. 4. Yes, we absolutely need this In hindsight, I'd have prioritized features a little different (e.g. collections probably should have come after a lot of other things) but live and learn. -Micah |
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05-05-2013, 02:00 PM | #929 |
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Micah, please take a look in the Marvin thread where I'm explaining im my most recent post why at least 5 highlight colours are crucial for me in e-reader software.
While I would welcome unlimited highlight colours in Marvin, I can understand why Kris is limiting them to 5. However, only a single highlight colour is unacceptable to me, especially on any screen offering the display of millions of colours. A single highlight colour has always been a weakness for the traditional Kindle e-ink devices, but it's completely inexcusable on Kindle Fire and in Kindle apps on full-blown tablets. I definitely think Bluefire Reader needs at least the 5 highlight colours offered by Marvin if it wishes to remain competitive. |
05-06-2013, 12:07 AM | #930 | |
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Stanza creates a page for each author. So sorting by Author gives an author list, with the number of books for each one, and the listing is on a linked page. Shubook also does that, and goes even further (and Bluefire could benefit from both these ideas) and allows user labels... so you can sort your books pretty much as you like... again, it all happens on separate linked pages. Shubook also takes a leaf from the Stanza standards and provides a touchable #-Z down the right side of the listings, whether by Title, Author or Label. |
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