New epub reader app

[mikelv]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm not sure where this app fits in its genre. There are many well established ePub reading app, and they all blow this one out of the water as far as formatting options go, and lots of formatting options seem to be the main feature that make these other ePub reading apps so popular. It will take a lot of effort to match or best Mantano and some of the others as they are lightyears more advanced than this one. Plus this one seems rather buggie still.

First of all EPUBReader is a version 1, which means on the one hand that there are still bugs although it is well tested and on the other hand it is not as feature rich as other apps which are already longer at the market. I think this is pretty normal for a new software.

Mantano has got a free version but in this version ads are displayed, this is also true for Aldiko and Moon+. Of course I tried these apps and found the ads pretty annoying and can imagine that I'm not the only one. EPUBReader is free and does not display ads.

As for the formatting features, I'll add of course some but not as much as e.g. Mantano because in my opinion the average users doesn't need them.

In general my goal was to create a simple, effective, free and ad free reader which offers all main features. In my opinion there is a market for such a reader, future will show.

[Purple Lady]

[QUOTE=mikelv
Are your ebooks in the epub format and have got the file extension "epub"? - yes.

Could you open the ebooks with another reader? - yes. Moon+ pro, Cool Reader, FBReader, Mantano lite, Overdrive, and Google Books all work.

Did you store them just recently on your sdcard? - no

I also tried to open an epub with your reader thru a file manager, but your app doesn't advertise that it can open epubs so I couldn't. I installed the app on my Samsung Galaxy SIII but had the same problems. It's on Android 4.3.

[mikelv]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Are your ebooks in the epub format and have got the file extension "epub"? - yes.

Could you open the ebooks with another reader? - yes. Moon+ pro, Cool Reader, FBReader, Mantano lite, Overdrive, and Google Books all work.

Did you store them just recently on your sdcard? - no

I also tried to open an epub with your reader thru a file manager, but your app doesn't advertise that it can open epubs so I couldn't. I installed the app on my Samsung Galaxy SIII but had the same problems. It's on Android 4.3.

Thanks for the update. I can not imagine that the ebooks are the problem, but to be sure: Are some of your ebooks in the public domain? If so, could you please send me one of them? Here you find my mailaddress: www.epubread.com/contact.php.

[Purple Lady]

I just tried it on my Nexus 7 3g that's on 4.4 and it works - there must be a problem with 4.3 in your app. I only have a few books on it, but I only have a few on my phone and it didn't work there either.

There really need to be a few formatting choices. I need to be able to adjust all margin sizes, adjust line height, change fonts, and change justification. I would like to be able to add a blank space between paragraphs, but I know it's not a popular option.

Another thing that would be nice is a real night mode - the bright white font is too much for me, but I don't think any readers have that. Mantano doesn't even let you change the font color in night mode. Allowing the changing of font and background colors would be fine for that.

The other thing I need is to be able to open a book outside of the app. I use Calibre Companion to manage my books and always start reading from there.

[Purple Lady]

I just realized I forgot to tell you about the problems I had changing pages. It seemed that I could only change a page by tapping if I tapped on a part of the page that had text on it. Otherwise I had to swipe. There were a few pages with no text - no empty pages come up in any other reader. I could only get past these empty pages by swiping. I tried to tap on the arrows, but that didn't do anything.

[mikelv]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I just tried it on my Nexus 7 3g that's on 4.4 and it works - there must be a problem with 4.3 in your app. I only have a few books on it, but I only have a few on my phone and it didn't work there either.

There really need to be a few formatting choices. I need to be able to adjust all margin sizes, adjust line height, change fonts, and change justification. I would like to be able to add a blank space between paragraphs, but I know it's not a popular option.

Another thing that would be nice is a real night mode - the bright white font is too much for me, but I don't think any readers have that. Mantano doesn't even let you change the font color in night mode. Allowing the changing of font and background colors would be fine for that.

The other thing I need is to be able to open a book outside of the app. I use Calibre Companion to manage my books and always start reading from there.

I just tried it on 4.3 and it worked for me, so it seems to be a more specific problem. To get more insight, I've a created a debugging version which I just uploaded to the beta channel. It would be great, if you could install this version on your phone with 4.3 and the few ebooks. To do so, please join at first this Google group with your Google play mailaddress: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!fo...d-beta-testing. Afterwards you should be able to install the debug version (1.0.18). In this version you will find the new button "Log Scan" in the action bar. Please press this button once and tap aftwards on "Scan". When scanning is finished, some logging information will be displayed. Please copy this information and send it to my mailddress: http://www.epubread.com/contact.php. Thanks!

As for formatting options: I will add margin, line height options etc. as soon as possible.

I have to check what has to be done to open an ebook from outside.

[mikelv]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I just realized I forgot to tell you about the problems I had changing pages. It seemed that I could only change a page by tapping if I tapped on a part of the page that had text on it. Otherwise I had to swipe. There were a few pages with no text - no empty pages come up in any other reader. I could only get past these empty pages by swiping. I tried to tap on the arrows, but that didn't do anything.

Yes, I know the problem concerning changing pages already, it started in Android 4.4 because now Chrome and no longer Webkit is used for the Webview element. I will try to fix this. Do you prefer to change pages by taping or swiping?

The additional empty pages have something to do with the way how EPUBReader displays the pages in the Webview element. I'm not sure if it's possible to fix this but will have a look.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by mikelv

I just tried it on 4.3 and it worked for me, so it seems to be a more specific problem. To get more insight, I've a created a debugging version which I just uploaded to the beta channel. It would be great, if you could install this version on your phone with 4.3 and the few ebooks. To do so, please join at first this Google group with your Google play mailaddress: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!fo...d-beta-testing. Afterwards you should be able to install the debug version (1.0.18). In this version you will find the new button "Log Scan" in the action bar. Please press this button once and tap aftwards on "Scan". When scanning is finished, some logging information will be displayed. Please copy this information and send it to my mailddress: http://www.epubread.com/contact.php. Thanks!

As for formatting options: I will add margin, line height options etc. as soon as possible.

I have to check what has to be done to open an ebook from outside.

I sent you a pm for the apk. To open an ebook from outside you need to "advertise" that the app can open .epub files I think.

Originally Posted by mikelv

Yes, I know the problem concerning changing pages already, it started in Android 4.4 because now Chrome and no longer Webkit is used for the Webview element. I will try to fix this. Do you prefer to change pages by taping or swiping?

The additional empty pages have something to do with the way how EPUBReader displays the pages in the Webview element. I'm not sure if it's possible to fix this but will have a look.

I prefer tapping, but some prefer swiping so it probably should be an option if you can't allow both.