[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[kguil]

kyteflyer, why don't you disable the setting from the reading menu "Aa" in the book -> Gestures?

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by kguil

kyteflyer, why don't you disable the setting from the reading menu "Aa" in the book -> Gestures?

Thanks, Kris.

[artbatista]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I have an issue at the moment. I've not struck this particular one before, and I am not sure what on earth I did, in order to make it happen. When turning a page (I read in landscape) in a book, it now seems to randomly skip through chapters for no apparent reason. All I want to to is get to the next page. I was gobsmacked when I opened the book this morning and found that I had read 68% of it (no, I havent, not even close... only about 5-6% in fact) ... I actually closed Marvin and started again in iBooks, out of sheer frustration. Is there some setting I havent found which can skip chapters on a page flip?

I have come across a couple of malformed books that jumped around randomly like that. I ended up exporting the book to rtf and then recreating it with Sigil.

The books worked fine in iBooks, but did the same thing in Stanza and Shubooks.

Art

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by artbatista

I have come across a couple of malformed books that jumped around randomly like that. I ended up exporting the book to rtf and then recreating it with Sigil.

The books worked fine in iBooks, but did the same thing in Stanza and Shubooks.

Art

Hmm. Might have to look into that. When I went with Kris's suggestion I found I had gestures already disabled so it wasnt that. I loaded a different book and it didnt happen, as it had not with previous books.

[crashnburn]

Just to preserve this knowledge and information in contextually separate topic/ subject I am creating a fresh thread here - Please post replies/ ideas relating to conversion here -

Steps/ best practices for converting PDFs to ePUBs? Thoughts and Ideas

PS: I am posting additional details, thoughts, questions relating to my post and your replies/ suggestions/ knowledge. Please do check it my next reply and share additional thoughts.

Originally Posted by crashnburn

Is there a thread/ location/ tutorial that outlines steps/ best practices for converting PDFs to ePUBs?

I have some PDFs that I am reading & highlighting in Good Reader I'd like to push to ePub so that I could do so in Marvin instead.

I am sure faterson has expertise on this. Wondering if there is a thread/ tutorial / steps that are a recommended read.

Originally Posted by Faterson

PS: If, despite the above warning, you decide to go ahead, I recommend not to use Calibre for PDF conversion. I've had better results using the old Mobipocket Reader (killed by Amazon similarly to Stanza). Here is the install file for Windows. The result of the automatic, one-click conversion will still be very poor, but that's just the way it is.

For optimal quality of conversion from PDF to EPUB, you need to sacrifice all those extra hours of manual work, and use top-quality OCR software such as FineReader. I create a HTML file in FineReader, then fine-tune that HTML file by manual coding (using the EditPlus plain-text editor for Windows) until its code is approved by W3C's validator. No fluff must be left inside the file -- the CSS must be minimalistic. Finally, I convert the HTML file to EPUB in Calibre, and that's it.

Originally Posted by Faterson

I indeed have expertise on that, and that expertise says: don't bother!

It's sad but true. My daily reading is split roughly evenly between Marvin and GoodReader, precisely because converting PDFs to EPUBs is often a hopeless undertaking. And, many books (especially old, scanned editions) are only available as PDF files -- or the EPUB versions of the same texts are of such ridiculously bad quality, they are unreadable. (Yes, I'm talking about you, archive.org.)

Only this weekend, I was converting a short novel (novelette), 25 thousand words, 45 pages of PDF source file, from PDF to EPUB, precisely so that I could enjoy reading it in Marvin, rather than GoodReader.

I used the best available OCR software for the conversion, which is FineReader.

Even so, it took me nearly 5 hours (!) to convert the PDF file so that I was satisfied with the EPUB result. It's just impractical. However, this was a novelette I deeply cared about, so I was willing to sacrifice the 5 hours of my time for the conversion. I would, of course, not be ready to do that on a regular basis, because my remuneration for the work was exactly 0 cents. The only reward I'll get will be the pleasure of reading that file in Marvin. Hell, that's enough for me (in this special case).

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

I will add to that too and also give the same opinion. PDFs are usually designed to be printed and are made in programs like InDesign, Quark, and Acrobat which pretty much work as WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors.

Most of the text is done in individual boxes, one for the heading, one for each paragraph, column, etc. And they're layered, so you're just hoping that the writer did add them one after another, which is never the case. This becomes apparent when you're making selections and something else is being highlighted.

Stick any PDF document into Adobe's Acrobat editor, and you literally see how awful the setup is.

I would think OCR would work better with a flattened image, as long as it was 300dpi or more.

[crashnburn]

PS: I do tons of Highlighting and thanks to Faterson I have been going all in with Good Reader for these PDFs.

My question is.. Why does my Highlighting in Marvin have to be a Multi Click (Tap) / Multi Step process with Action Menu coming up and me having to GO to the Highlight Option on the Action Menu.

Is there a way for the default action to be Highlight? That's what I want.

Copy, Cut etc are not something I really do inside Marvin, as of right now. I might do that sometime, but with the active reading I'd like default to be as EASY and FIRST STEP INTUITIVE like Good Reader.

I am hoping that there are some changes to settings that can make this happen for me in Marvin.

[kguil]

Hi crashnburn. I'm not sure I'm following. In GoodReader, you select text then tap the highlight button. This is exactly the same in Marvin - select the text and tap the highlight button in the menu.

[kguil]

Update: version 1.5 is out. I've also updated Marvin's website with a link to a new blog with tutorials about the new "custom menu commands" in 1.5 (amongst other things).

I hope you enjoy it.

[mariosipad]

@crashnburn

Here is a link to a pdf that according to those that understand it seems to suggest that underlining/highlighting is not a very effective way of studying.

I remember that I always did just that when studying. Now I understand why I (almost) always was a rather mediocre student.

If only I had known ...........

[crashnburn]

Originally Posted by kguil

Hi crashnburn. I'm not sure I'm following. In GoodReader, you select text then tap the highlight button. This is exactly the same in Marvin - select the text and tap the highlight button in the menu.

I realized you could not see because it was due to ActionMenu add-on extensions from Cydia (Jailbreak App). Just disabled it and it shows Highlight - Maybe there is a way to SET IT UP with ActionMenu.
PS: If you have JB iPad - You can check it out.

FEATURE REQUEST:

Could you also give us the options from Good Reader for:
- Underline etc
- Wider / All Color variety of Highlighting? - I know myself included and most will want regular usage with some standard colors - But there are times a Separate / Secondary Chosen Color Bank can help.

Originally Posted by mariosipad

@crashnburn

Here is a link to a pdf that according to those that understand it seems to suggest that underlining/highlighting is not a very effective way of studying.

I remember that I always did just that when studying. Now I understand why I (almost) always was a rather mediocre student.

If only I had known ...........

I opened that and it was so huge that I would have to ask you to HIGHLIGHT that section / paragraph or have to do it myself :P

What do they suggest?

[crashnburn]

I have used the Calibre OPDS server thing to Pull books into Marvin.

Is there a better easier faster way?

Is there some kind of Calibre Companion that can or CAN BE Made to Push things to Marvin (instead of iBooks). ??

I would prefer to SELECT in Calibre and then PUSH/ ADD or REMOVE Books to Marvin rather than have Marvin try and browse page after page of the OPDS Server Library exposed by Calibre and then PULL books one by one.

[kguil]

@crashnburn, yes - something on those lines should be coming soon.

[Vega]

Hi Kris,

The new custom in-book menu commands are awesome.

Just a few days ago I added (and read) my hundredth book in Marvin. So thank you, very much, for a great reading experience on the ipad.

The app is so nice, that I can't begin to list what I like about it.
So forgive me that I just list what I don't like.

- The one think I'm really missing are the textured backgrounds.

- While the home screen is pretty, I find it completely redundant, no benefit compared to the library view. I only ever use it if I need to get to the settings.

- Every time I import a book it annoys me. Yes, freakin' download and import, that's why I tapped. IMHO, the book import confirmation windows are totally unnecessary. What is the worst that can happen if I import something I didn't mean to? I delete it, or even cancel the import.

That's it, I can't thing of anything else to complain about, which is amazing for an app this complex.
Keep up the good work.

Vega

[Jessica Lares]

@crashnburn

I haven't read that research paper either, but I saved it, I love reading studies.

But I'll take a guess from my own experience. Whenever teachers would tell us to highlight/underline stuff, they would just hint at it by going "Oh, I'd underline that if I were you." They never told us why, except that it would be useful in the long run when we had to write an essay on the material later on or answer questions.

If you really want to grasp the material you're reading, you should actually read it. Because if you just do marks, you're probably going to end up marking the whole thing, since it's ALL important really. Instead of doing that, you really should be writing down page numbers on a separate piece of paper with your own worded summaries of events, characters, etc. If you can write it down in your own words, then you have a good understanding of the material.

When I do highlights and underlining, I keep a system. I use all the colors in my pack, and I use them for different things. It makes it easier to go back through later on.

But they don't teach you to write good notes in school, they just tell you to highlight this, write down this. You don't learn anything from material being fed to you like that. I know I didn't.

-----

Great new features, Kris! The custom commands are such a nice addition!

P.S.: I didn't forget about the list that I'm supposed to be putting up. I have my final project for this semester due on Monday, so I've been focusing on that *mostly*.

[mariosipad]

One of the changes (new feature actually) in Marvin 1.5 is

Improved OPDS searching. Marvin can now search in several new catalogs such as COPS, Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive and Feedbooks.

I am a COPS user and have encountered a problem with it.

Using Marvin search and the example library provided by the developer of COPS on his webiste works. However if I try search on my own COPS I get the error:

"Oops, the address of the feed you selected is invalid"

Does Marvin only search in a specific location or path?

One difference between COPS on the developers website and my "version" of COPS is that the developer uses NGINX and I use Apache2.
Also the paths to the libraries might be different.

Kris, any ideas?

Even without search Marvin is an awesome e-reader!