Bookshelf for Ipad - Page 2

leebase · 04-23-2010, 11:31 AM

I put bookshelf lt on my iPad (has ads that run at the top of screen, yuck). I love that it gives me some of my "Stanza" ability to load books from webistes like Baen.

HOWEVER -- it sucks as a reader. It has the "page scrolling" metaphor. It looks ugly. I couldn't stand to even read the one book I started on it.

Lee

JSWolf · 04-23-2010, 11:53 AM

Seems Bookshelf is not all that good for ePub. Shame. I've been looking for a good ePub app for the iPad, but there is not one yet. The screen shots leave a lot to be desired.

Rique · 04-23-2010, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've been looking for a good ePub app for the iPad, but there is not one yet.

Hi Jon, I just put freshly scrubbed epubs on my wife's iPad and they seem to be working just fine. Can you please tell me why iBooks is not a good epub app? Is it the lack of support for embedded fonts? Or are there other factors that lead you to that conclusion?

If "yes" to my first question, how does one determine if an epub contains embedded fonts?

Also - would you happen to know how many epubs (by percentage of epubs available) would have embedded fonts (theoretically leading to issues with iBooks)?

Is there a specific type of publication (such as textbooks) which would be more apt to take advantage of embedded fonts? I'm curious as to why the results with my wife's library have been so very satisfactory. Are we just lucky?

Thanks,
-- Riq

JSWolf · 04-23-2010, 09:34 PM

All of the John Grisham eBooks have an embedded font. Three Men in a Boat (on MR and well formatted by Zelda) has an embedded font. Neptune Crossing by Jeffrey A. Carver (posted to MR) has an embedded font to have a look to match the paperback look.

These are just a few examples of ePub that have embedded fonts that would have the reading experience changed by using iBook.

Rique · 04-23-2010, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

All of the John Grisham eBooks have an embedded font. Three Men in a Boat (on MR and well formatted by Zelda) has an embedded font. Neptune Crossing by Jeffrey A. Carver (posted to MR) has an embedded font to have a look to match the paperback look.

These are just a few examples of ePub that have embedded fonts that would have the reading experience changed by using iBook.

Got it. You posted a link to Neptune Crossing in another thread, and I am going to check it out. Thanks!

-- Riq

astrodad · 04-24-2010, 12:32 AM

JSWolf, can you show us a screen shot of how that first chapter is supposed to look?

JSWolf · 04-24-2010, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jplumey

JSWolf, can you show us a screen shot of how that first chapter is supposed to look?

Here are three different screen shots of Neptune Crossing.

pendor · 04-25-2010, 06:41 PM

Greetings all,

I just wanted to chime in quick as BookShelf's author and answer a few questions from the thread.

As far as feature questions go, version 2.3.2 is out now which adds a left/right margin and improves reading on the iPad quite a bit I think.

BookShelf does *not* support ePub embedded fonts at this point. It will render any font settings from the book provided the iPad has the fonts installed, but no font embedding of additional fonts. That's something I'll spend some time looking into, but off the top of my head, I don't think it can be done with the public iPhone API.

BookShelf does support access to Calibre's media server option, though an oversight in the current version means that it can't handle authentication to a server that requires a username & password. If you're seeing the "loading" screen and then no books appearing, that's probably the issue. I've got that fixed in my local tree and will include it in the next patch release. BookShelf supports both "Bonjour" based location of shelfs as well as manually adding URL's for access through a firewall. If any iPad users are currently having this authentication problem and would like to try the beta, I can definitely make room for a few more iPad users. Just drop me an email (zac at iphone bookshelf dot com), and I can get you setup.

The other download option of course is ShelfServer which can run either in Tomcat or as a stand-alone headless process on 'nix systems. There's some configuration info that might help here: http://www.iphonebookshelf.com/trac/...rverParameters. The easiest way is usually to just run the embedded version using `java -jar ShelfServer.jar` (instead of ShelfServerGui.jar). Assuming you use the same user account for both GUI & headless use, both versions will share the same config file. Just get it working the way you want in the GUI, then switch over to the console version and you should be good. Of course, if you want to run the service under a different account, just copy over & chown ~/.shelfserver/ and it should work.

For the page scrolling thing, I know that's a polarizing issue among ebook readers. You either love it or hate it.... You can probably guess where I stand on it. =)

That said, you can adjust the settings in BookShelf to get something akin to (but not exactly like) hard pages similar to what Stanza and other readers have. By default, tapping on the lower 1/4 of the screen will advance one full screen of text forward. You can change that if you'd prefer to tap on the top to go forward or to use the left/right side of the screen instead of top/bottom. There's also an option which disables the scrolling animation for this tap scroll.

I personally think between those two features you get the best of both as far as physical pages versus the malleable nature of an ereader. You still advance a full page at a time like a traditional book, but you can also scroll forward or back just a little if you want to re-center the page differently. I find that ability especially useful with reference books or other titles that have a mixture of text and images, tables, or other figures. You can slide the view so that the figure and the text that go with it are on one screen which is something that doesn't always come out correctly in physical pages.

Still, if you absolutely have to have page flip animations and hard page boundaries, BookShelf probably isn't your best option. I'd definitely encourage anyone to at least give it a try, though. I think the hybrid approach kind of grows on you, but admittedly I'm not the most impartial source...

I've also got a lot of new stuff in the works for the iPad that I think *might* be enough to count BookShelf as a worthy contender against iBooks. I've got position sync working, and that'll continue to work on 3.x devices, not just 4.x. I'm also looking at ways of improving BookShelf's use as a reference book reader to use the extra screen real estate more effectively. Even if you just keep the free version around and take a peek once in a while, I definitely welcome any input on current or new features.

-Zac Bedell

danegeld · 04-28-2010, 05:26 PM

I'd be happy if BookShelf just didn't crash. I have yet to successfully download an ePub file from Dropbox and have it open. BookShelf says it has downloaded the file, shows that it's "Indexing", and then crashes as soon as I try to open the file. These same ePub files open just fine in iBooks. I have downloaded one plain text file from Dropbox to BookShelf and it did open, though was a little funky. A second TXT file also crashed BookShelf. I do not have the server installed and really have no interest in using it.

astrodad · 04-30-2010, 11:17 AM

I also am having lots of problems with BookShelf. At the moment I am switching back and forth with Stanza (oh how I wish they would update it) and ReadMe. They're all poor options for rendering the ePubs, but Readme has page flips and doesn't crash as often (for me at least).

reuben · 08-20-2010, 03:02 AM

Hi,

How do I show EPUB books in their default cover on iPad's bookshelf? I just want them to be displayed in their default cover with their simple Book Title and Author. Is their any HTML code for it?Does creating a cover HTML with no cover images in it do the trick?I don't have an iPad so I can't test it. Can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance,
ben

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04-23-2010, 11:31 AM	#16
leebase Karma Kameleon Posts: 2,934 Karma: 26616647 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: iPad Mini, iPhone X, Kindle Fire Tab HD 8, Walmart Onn	I put bookshelf lt on my iPad (has ads that run at the top of screen, yuck). I love that it gives me some of my "Stanza" ability to load books from webistes like Baen. HOWEVER -- it sucks as a reader. It has the "page scrolling" metaphor. It looks ugly. I couldn't stand to even read the one book I started on it. Lee

04-23-2010, 11:53 AM	#17
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,983 Karma: 128903378 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Seems Bookshelf is not all that good for ePub. Shame. I've been looking for a good ePub app for the iPad, but there is not one yet. The screen shots leave a lot to be desired.

04-23-2010, 09:34 PM	#19
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,983 Karma: 128903378 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	All of the John Grisham eBooks have an embedded font. Three Men in a Boat (on MR and well formatted by Zelda) has an embedded font. Neptune Crossing by Jeffrey A. Carver (posted to MR) has an embedded font to have a look to match the paperback look. These are just a few examples of ePub that have embedded fonts that would have the reading experience changed by using iBook.

04-24-2010, 12:32 AM	#21
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	JSWolf, can you show us a screen shot of how that first chapter is supposed to look?

04-25-2010, 06:41 PM	#23
pendor Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2008 Device: iPhone	Greetings all, I just wanted to chime in quick as BookShelf's author and answer a few questions from the thread. As far as feature questions go, version 2.3.2 is out now which adds a left/right margin and improves reading on the iPad quite a bit I think. BookShelf does not support ePub embedded fonts at this point. It will render any font settings from the book provided the iPad has the fonts installed, but no font embedding of additional fonts. That's something I'll spend some time looking into, but off the top of my head, I don't think it can be done with the public iPhone API. BookShelf does support access to Calibre's media server option, though an oversight in the current version means that it can't handle authentication to a server that requires a username & password. If you're seeing the "loading" screen and then no books appearing, that's probably the issue. I've got that fixed in my local tree and will include it in the next patch release. BookShelf supports both "Bonjour" based location of shelfs as well as manually adding URL's for access through a firewall. If any iPad users are currently having this authentication problem and would like to try the beta, I can definitely make room for a few more iPad users. Just drop me an email (zac at iphone bookshelf dot com), and I can get you setup. The other download option of course is ShelfServer which can run either in Tomcat or as a stand-alone headless process on 'nix systems. There's some configuration info that might help here: http://www.iphonebookshelf.com/trac/...rverParameters. The easiest way is usually to just run the embedded version using `java -jar ShelfServer.jar` (instead of ShelfServerGui.jar). Assuming you use the same user account for both GUI & headless use, both versions will share the same config file. Just get it working the way you want in the GUI, then switch over to the console version and you should be good. Of course, if you want to run the service under a different account, just copy over & chown ~/.shelfserver/ and it should work. For the page scrolling thing, I know that's a polarizing issue among ebook readers. You either love it or hate it.... You can probably guess where I stand on it. =) That said, you can adjust the settings in BookShelf to get something akin to (but not exactly like) hard pages similar to what Stanza and other readers have. By default, tapping on the lower 1/4 of the screen will advance one full screen of text forward. You can change that if you'd prefer to tap on the top to go forward or to use the left/right side of the screen instead of top/bottom. There's also an option which disables the scrolling animation for this tap scroll. I personally think between those two features you get the best of both as far as physical pages versus the malleable nature of an ereader. You still advance a full page at a time like a traditional book, but you can also scroll forward or back just a little if you want to re-center the page differently. I find that ability especially useful with reference books or other titles that have a mixture of text and images, tables, or other figures. You can slide the view so that the figure and the text that go with it are on one screen which is something that doesn't always come out correctly in physical pages. Still, if you absolutely have to have page flip animations and hard page boundaries, BookShelf probably isn't your best option. I'd definitely encourage anyone to at least give it a try, though. I think the hybrid approach kind of grows on you, but admittedly I'm not the most impartial source... I've also got a lot of new stuff in the works for the iPad that I think might be enough to count BookShelf as a worthy contender against iBooks. I've got position sync working, and that'll continue to work on 3.x devices, not just 4.x. I'm also looking at ways of improving BookShelf's use as a reference book reader to use the extra screen real estate more effectively. Even if you just keep the free version around and take a peek once in a while, I definitely welcome any input on current or new features. -Zac Bedell

04-28-2010, 05:26 PM	#24
danegeld Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 52 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Sony PRS-700	I'd be happy if BookShelf just didn't crash. I have yet to successfully download an ePub file from Dropbox and have it open. BookShelf says it has downloaded the file, shows that it's "Indexing", and then crashes as soon as I try to open the file. These same ePub files open just fine in iBooks. I have downloaded one plain text file from Dropbox to BookShelf and it did open, though was a little funky. A second TXT file also crashed BookShelf. I do not have the server installed and really have no interest in using it.

04-30-2010, 11:17 AM	#25
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	I also am having lots of problems with BookShelf. At the moment I am switching back and forth with Stanza (oh how I wish they would update it) and ReadMe. They're all poor options for rendering the ePubs, but Readme has page flips and doesn't crash as often (for me at least).

08-20-2010, 03:02 AM	#26
reuben Member Posts: 21 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Philippines Device: Sony Reader, iPad	Hi, How do I show EPUB books in their default cover on iPad's bookshelf? I just want them to be displayed in their default cover with their simple Book Title and Author. Is their any HTML code for it?Does creating a cover HTML with no cover images in it do the trick?I don't have an iPad so I can't test it. Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance, ben

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