03-28-2009, 06:40 PM | #1 |
intelligent posterior
Posts: 1,562
Karma: 21295618
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Ohiopolis
Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro
|
A simpler reader?
I'm really struggling to find a suitable reader for my MSI Wind netbook. My ideal app would default to a fullscreen display with no GUI, letting me load files and adjust preferences via the context menu and hotkeys. Paragraph indents, spacing, and per-page word count would approximate an actual page in a book (this might be an issue w/ the files in some cases; so far I've only tried free ebooks, as I'm experimenting). And of course, it would be able to do all this for most common file formats.
I definitely don't need an iTunes-like "library." I'm probably going to be opening the same file, or maybe up to three different files, for a week or more. Why would I want it to index every book on my hard drive every time it opens? As long as it remembers the last file I used, I'm golden. Is there anything out there remotely like this? I checked the wiki, and it suggests there's not |
03-28-2009, 06:55 PM | #2 |
Guru
Posts: 834
Karma: 102419
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Vienna, Austria
Device: iPhone
|
I suggest you try Stanza, as it has a neat full-screen mode with adjustable columns, which I find to be easier to read than text going across the entire width of the screen.
Available for Mac and PC - not sure what your netbook is running on. |
Advert | |
|
03-28-2009, 07:35 PM | #3 |
reader
Posts: 6,975
Karma: 5183568
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Mississippi, USA
Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD
|
Two possibilities are FBReader and uBook. Both are very customizable and have a full screen mode. It is a bit out of date, but Visual Tour of FBReader on a Pepper Pad 3 shows how to customize FBReader. The best of the single format ebook readers is Windows MobiPocket Reader, which is again very customizable.
|
03-28-2009, 07:35 PM | #4 | |
intelligent posterior
Posts: 1,562
Karma: 21295618
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Ohiopolis
Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro
|
Quote:
I'm running XP on my Wind. |
|
03-28-2009, 09:30 PM | #5 |
intelligent posterior
Posts: 1,562
Karma: 21295618
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Ohiopolis
Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro
|
And the winner is: FBReader (so far).
I tried Stanza on 4 different formats (rich text, html, .lit and .pdf) of the same book and all of them ended up with spaces separating each paragraph: definitely a dealbreaker. As far as I could tell, rotation was not available and there were few options for customization. Mobipocket was okay, but again no apparent rotation and it would require conversion of my current files. I tried Calibre earlier today, too, and it had the same issues as Stanza, plus it was much slower loading, unintuitive and, well, ugly. FBReader isn't perfect--it doesn't cover the proprietary formats (.lit, .pdf, .mobi), and while it kept the paragraph indents and didn't add extra spaces, it also ditched the spaces at chapter breaks. Still, I had my book loaded, fullscreen, rotated and readably formatted with custom key bindings inside of two minutes--that's what I call intuitive! It also loads up quickly with an inviting interface. Thanks for the recommendation, wallcraft =) |
Advert | |
|
03-28-2009, 10:52 PM | #6 | |
reader
Posts: 6,975
Karma: 5183568
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Mississippi, USA
Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD
|
Quote:
It does read DRM-free MOBI (strip DRM with mobidedrm), and it reads OEB ebooks which can easily be made from LIT (DRMed or DRM-free, use "ConvertLIT GUI" to extract the OEB from the LIT container file, then point FBReader to the .opf file). For DRM-free PDF I like Foxit Reader, which has a rotation option. Or you can try converting them to MOBI (say) using Calibre or Windows MobiPocket Reader. This sometimes works well, but not with all PDFs. |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Simpler Way to Smarten Punctuation | Rand Brittain | Calibre | 3 | 10-10-2010 08:16 PM |
Simpler Probability Puzzle | pdurrant | Lounge | 3 | 08-06-2010 02:59 PM |
looking to develop the next generation of simpler ebook devices. | Lago | Fictionwise eBookwise | 0 | 12-22-2009 12:33 AM |
possibly developing a new, simpler reader.. | Lago | News | 0 | 12-22-2009 12:31 AM |
Getting Title & Author Displayed by Connect Reader and Sony Reader | Vienna01 | Sony Reader | 3 | 11-07-2006 12:56 AM |