[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[kguil]

Super. To be fair, Abbyy already contacted me to tell me that the forwarded my request to the dev team. Given it's the holidays it might take a while but I'm hopeful.

[kguil]

@Valkrider, @artbatista. Can you reliably replicate the "brightness resetting" problem and tell me the steps you're performing. This was happening to me as well but I can't seem to replicate the problem. Thanks.

[Trauma Doll]

Thanks for the app. Enjoying playing with it so far (just got a Mini for Christmas).

I think this has been addressed earlier in the thread, but just to make sure I'm not crazy: I hate extra line spacing between paragraphs in my ebooks (I prefer them to look like books). If I take a .mobi and convert it to .epub in latest version of calibre, while removing extra line breaks, it still shows the extra breaks between graphs in Marvin but not in Calibre/preview. Having searched the thread, it looks like this is a known issue. Is there anything I can do, formatting wise with calibre or whatever, to trick Marvin into not showing those line breaks?

[Faterson]

Hi Trauma Doll, paragraph spacing will be resolved in the upcoming Marvin version 1.2 in January, see here: http://marvinapp.com/whatsnew.html You'll be able to reduce it to zero, I suppose. Personally, I like leaving a very slight space between paragraphs (corresponding to 3 or 6 points in word processors), not the default full line (12 points).

[Trauma Doll]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Hi Trauma Doll, paragraph spacing will be resolved in the upcoming Marvin version 1.2 in January, see here: http://marvinapp.com/whatsnew.html You'll be able to reduce it to zero, I suppose. Personally, I like leaving a very slight space between paragraphs (corresponding to 3 or 6 points in word processors), not the default full line (12 points).

Thanks! I've been keeping an eye on this thread on and off for a few days as I suspected I might get a Mini for Christmas, but I failed to be aware of the webpage.

Good to know.

(I suspect writing an ebook reader to be all things to all people must be quite the project, as so many of us can be persnickety about so many little things. I've been reading ebooks for a long time and have gotten pretty set in my ways--no serifs, no unnecessarily large margins, no extra line breaks--but I know other people have entirely different criteria that drives them nuts. So I salute any attempt, especially one that seems as ambitious as this one so far.)

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Trauma Doll

I've been reading ebooks for a long time and have gotten pretty set in my ways--no serifs

The notorious and overly familiar serif fonts, like Times New Roman, are definitely lousy for reading e-books. Some serif fonts are a lot more suitable, though. I've always liked Georgia in Day Mode in Stanza, especially on the iPhone.

Generally, serif fonts look particularly terrible (too indistinct) in Night Mode. Now, Marvin has managed to overcome even this "prejudice" by offering some of its specialized fonts. The Arvo font is so crisp it's perfectly legible in Night Mode, too, so I have switched over to Arvo from Futura (which I preferred for Night Mode in Stanza). For Day Mode in Marvin, I also find Volkhov excellent, better than Georgia.

Originally Posted by Trauma Doll

no unnecessarily large margins

Yep... I've never been able even to consider using iBooks for reading due to the excessively wide, default, non-customizable page margins it arrogantly enforces on the readers. I suppose no one at Apple really reads e-books if they find that tolerable.

[Faterson]

I've now succeeded in reproducing the brightness bug. I have brightness set at 80%. If I switch away from Marvin and then come back to it, the brightness still remains at 80%. If, however, I put the iPad to sleep and then turn it on back again, the brightness in Marvin drops to about 68% every time. You don't even need to leave Marvin for this to happen. And it happens regardless of whether the iPad's auto-brightness setting is turned on or off. (Mine is an iPad 3 on iOS 5.)

[kguil]

Thanks Faterson.

Trauma Doll, in the next version, you'll be able to decrease the paragraph spacing all the way down to a small negative value. This is useful to completely remove spacing between them even if there is a forced space set in the book. Negative values for books without a forced space, may cause paragraphs to start to overlap... Obviously you wouldn't want to go down so much for such books.

[Valkrider]

Kris

I have done some testing this morning and can now reproduce the brightness bug easily.

Open Marvin adjust brightness to suit. Read. Switch to another app. Double click the button to get running apps displayed. Close Marvin fully. Re-open Marvin, select book again from library and brightness will be back to 20%+ from the 0% I set it to previously.

I read in Night Mode font Georgia brightness 0% contrast full colour 10% from * Text colour white background colour black. iOS 6.0.2 was until today using 6.0.1.

I hope that this helps.

[Faterson]

The bug behaves differently here. Closing Marvin from the multi-tasking bar and re-opening it, correctly preserves brightness at 80%. (I currently have "Asparagus on Black" set up in Night Mode here.) The wilful drop to around 68% only occurs here, every time, after I put the iPad to sleep and switch it back on. Even an iPad sleep of a couple of seconds will reduce the brightness in Marvin.

[kguil]

I've been trying to reproduce the problem using both the way Faterson and Valkrider describe it. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't. So far I haven't tracked down the exact cause. Still looking.

It's no excuse, but iBooks does the same thing. Open iBooks, set brightness to 100%, put iPad to sleep, wait a few seconds, turn iPad on, now brightness is lower.

[Faterson]

Right. And the Kindle app does that, too. Must be an iOS bug, then. However, Stanza seems to be behaving correctly.

[kguil]

So, Kindle does this as does Readmill. Stanza, Kobo and Bluefire don't.

BUT... Stanza, Kobo and Bluefire, implement brightness control using a black layer and vary its opacity to simulate brightness. This is not true hardware brightness control. This was/is the norm for reading apps that allow you to control brightness on iOS 4 and before. Brightness control APIs were introduced in iOS 5+. The big disadvantage of this method is that the brightness 'appears' to be reduced but, physically, the screen could still be working full throttle resulting in faster battery drain.

All in all, I'd rather leave Marvin use physical brightness control and accept this iOS 'artefact'. In fact, all the apps I tried that let you change physical brightness manifest this behaviour. What do you think?

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by kguil

All in all, I'd rather leave Marvin use physical brightness control

Definitely. I'm noticing substantial iPad battery savings when reading in Marvin's Night Mode. I think it's worth it. And I did notice that adjusting screen brightness in Stanza works differently from contemporary e-reader apps -- now I know why!

Well, it's an unpleasant bug, but not more so than the highlighting bug. I could live with it. Especially because it's so easy to re-adjust brightness in Marvin to whatever you want it to be, by swiping a finger. It's a lot worse for iBooks or Kindle app users, where swiping a finger vertically does nothing, and they first need to tap a menu button to be able to readjust brightness.

I'm not holding my breath, but perhaps if Kris and other software developers let Apple know about the brightness bug, Apple might do something to fix it.

[kguil]

Well, this behaviour existed since the beginning of time, so I'm sure it is a "feature" and not a "bug"