Favorite reading app for the NOOK Color?

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by rubyv

I'm not a fan of the stock B&N reader, so I decided to give Moon+ a try. For the life of me, I can not figure out how to view my books in "All Books", instead, I have to dig in the directory. Not cool. When I do open a book, after all that hunting, it looks great. Not loving the effort involved though.

So, what is your favorite reading app on the NC, and why?



I'm running 1.2, rooted with MN.

I prefer PDF as my ebook format and I was not happy with the Nook Color's default PDF reader. It was functional, but I needed something better. As a replacement, I purchased the ezPDF Reader app and I've been pleased with it.

It adds many useful features when reading PDFs on the Nook Color. These include: resume from the last page viewed, bookmarks, voice reading, and page auto flipping.

As far as accessing ebooks, it allows me to add folders from both the internal memory and the memory card to the "My docs" screen (the main screen) so that I can access them directly from that screen, rather than having to repeatedly dig through the folders.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Are there any reading apps besides Kobo that have a widget? I like how the Kobo widget tells you what book you are reading and percentage complete.

[Eskarina]

Hi all,

This is my first post at MR. I've been lurking here since February and finally got the courage to join and post something. Sorry to resurrect a nearly dead thread but I don't want to start a new one since this one was available...

I've spent quite a bit of time since getting my nook color trying to figure out the reading app that best suits me. I'm not a power-user by any means. I don't need to be able to mark up and export notes etc. I just want my reading experience to be as close to a paper book as possible. So what I value most in a reading app is the layout and formatting of the book. I want serif font, I want my chapters to appear on a new page with big letters and bolded, I want italics where the script calls for them, I want appropriate line-spacing between scene breaks and margins that don't take up half the screen space - you know, like a real book. ;-)

I know nothing about xml, css or any ebook formatting language. I just know what my eyes tell me and they tell me that the same book appears very differently between my reading apps. I have currently installed on my sdCM7 NC, the Kindle, Nook, Cool Reader, Aldiko, Moon+, EZPdf, Overdrive, Googlebooks, FBReader and Mantano (as of 2 days ago).

Here's the run down of my top 3 (the ones I use the most):

Cool Reader - Probably my current favorite reading app. I love the light paper background as well as the dark paper which I use for night mode. Also, I don't know why but the text appears much darker than in the other reading apps. Formatting issues include occasionally not starting a new chapter on a fresh page and extra spaces between paragraphs. This wouldn't be so bad except on pages where there's dialog. There's also no shelves view and it doesn't work with Calibre's content server (I've been using Calibre since Feb and just figured out how to use this - awesome!)

Aldiko - Nice publisher's defaults setting. Unfortunately, some books have very wide set margins which I can't get rid of. Also, there's no textured backgrounds to read on (I know, I'm spoiled by coolreader).

Moon+ - It took me the longest time and much tinkering to make sense out of moon reader. However, the default setting renders the text the same way as Aldiko with publisher's default switched off. This means that on some books, it'll lose formatting (some text that's supposed to be italics looks like normal body text). The newest update has a publisher's defaults setting which for some insane reason, once I turn it on, switches 9/10 books to some god-awful sans-serif text. No thanks. It has nice backgrounds (none as nice as coolreader's "paper"), a nice bookshelf view, works with Calibre's content server and is very customizable. For those who do extensive note-taking and highlighting, there's no better reading app. However, I don't use those things.

I know that these formatting issues I'm having, have to do with the individual books themselves and not the reading apps and I accept that being so irritated by them probably places me firmly in the minority. Still the search continues. Big sigh.

Sorry for such a long post but like I said, I've been lurking here for a while and this post has been three months in the making. I welcome any ideas y'all might have.

[RAH]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

I prefer PDF as my ebook format and I was not happy with the Nook Color's default PDF reader. It was functional, but I needed something better. As a replacement, I purchased the ezPDF Reader app and I've been pleased with it.

It adds many useful features when reading PDFs on the Nook Color. These include: resume from the last page viewed, bookmarks, voice reading, and page auto flipping.

I bought EzPDF and have been trying to figure it out. It seems to have no documentation (would it kill them?!?). I found a YouTube video that helped explain a lot of it, but I'm still unable to figure out how to add a bookmark. It has an icon in the menu that kind of looks like a bookmark tool, but when I click it the page kind of jumps but I cannot tell what happened. Do you know how to use bookmarks with EZPDF? i.e. add them, go to them, remove them, etc.?

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by RAH

I bought EzPDF and have been trying to figure it out. It seems to have no documentation (would it kill them?!?). I found a YouTube video that helped explain a lot of it, but I'm still unable to figure out how to add a bookmark. It has an icon in the menu that kind of looks like a bookmark tool, but when I click it the page kind of jumps but I cannot tell what happened. Do you know how to use bookmarks with EZPDF? i.e. add them, go to them, remove them, etc.?

I agree that the application needs documentation. I've figured out a few things by just trying different things until I happen to come across what I wanted.

As far as using bookmarks in EzPDF Reader, do the following to add, remove, and go to bookmarks (this assumes you are already in an ebook):

To get to the bookmark tools:

- Tap on the Reading Tools button (it's to the right of the Nav Arrow)

- Tap on the bookmark button (it's the third button from the left). This will bring up a grey bar at the bottom of the screen with two buttons on the left. I will call this the Bookmark Bar.

-- The Bookmark Bar has two buttons:

--- The left button (the one that looks like a bookmark ribbon with a plus/minus sign) is used to add and remove bookmarks. I will call this the Bookmark Button.

--- The right button (the one that looks like an X inside of a circle) is used to close the Bookmark Bar.

-- Adding a bookmark:

--- Go to the page you want to bookmark.

--- Bring up the Bookmark Bar and tap on the Bookmark Button. The Bookmark Button will have plus sign on it.

--- You will be prompted to enter a description of the bookmark. Enter it and tap on "OK."

-- A shortcut to the bookmark will appear on the Bookmark Bar. The page itself will have a bookmark ribbon in the upper left-hand corner.

-- Removing a bookmark:

--- Go to the page with the bookmark you want to remove.

--- Bring up the Bookmark Bar and tap on the Bookmark Button (it will have a minus sign on it). The bookmark will be immediately removed.

-- Going to a bookmarked page.

--- Bring up the Bookmark Bar. It will have a thumbnail for each bookmarked page and you can scroll through the bookmarks by swiping the bar.

--- Tap on the thumbnail for the page you want to go to and you will be taken to that page.

I hope this helps.

[RAH]

Thanks, that is a big help. I thought that the 3rd icon from the left was for bookmarks but I couldn't get it to work. Turns out it was because I was in "Text Reflow" mode, which seems to be a way to more easily read text, kind of like "article" mode in a magazine. But the Bookmark icon doesn't seem to do anything in that mode.

As far as Text Reflow mode, I like it. I kind of stumbled into it and have it mostly figured out. It does not display images or diagrams, which is good to know. As with anything else in the program, you have to play around and try things, but even that doesn't work sometimes if you press something and nothing appears to happen.

Thanks again for the help.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by RAH

Thanks, that is a big help. I thought that the 3rd icon from the left was for bookmarks but I couldn't get it to work. Turns out it was because I was in "Text Reflow" mode, which seems to be a way to more easily read text, kind of like "article" mode in a magazine. But the Bookmark icon doesn't seem to do anything in that mode.

As far as Text Reflow mode, I like it. I kind of stumbled into it and have it mostly figured out. It does not display images or diagrams, which is good to know. As with anything else in the program, you have to play around and try things, but even that doesn't work sometimes if you press something and nothing appears to happen.

Thanks again for the help.

I was glad to help. I'm thinking about writing a guide to help me when using EZPDF Reader so I don't have to keep poking around within the program.

I haven't made much use of Text Reflow Mode. I format my PDF ebooks for the NOOKColor so they appear exactly as I intended on my screen. This is one of the main reasons I prefer PDF as my ebook format.

One feature I do like is Auto Page Flipping. It's very handy when doing hands-free reading.