eReader for the Hebrew reader

[carmelra]

Originally Posted by tobassam

Carmelra, Can I ask what version of Android you ran Aldiko and FBReaderJ on? Thank you.

Android 2.1 and 2.2.1 (Froyo).

[Yar-PocketBooker]

Did you try PocketBook? We even have menu in Hebrew!

[carmelra]

FBReaderJ for Android test result

TOC looks great.
The words in the text area are displayed properly (every word is readable) but the order of the words is left to right

So, bottom line: It's impossible to read a book with it. This is a disappointment as FBRreader (not the Java version) is working fine with Hebrew.

Attached are screen captures:
pic 1 - TOC looks great!

pic 2 - the words of the text area are displayed in the wrong order.

pic 3 - text is displayed with punctuation marks (which seems to be shifted a little to the left of every character)

[carmelra]

Originally Posted by Yar-PocketBooker

Did you try PocketBook? We even have menu in Hebrew!

Sure!
PocketBook works great and support Hebrew properly as long as you use the FBReader application (and not the default ADE...).

You can see Kacir's screen captures in his previous post.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Yar-PocketBooker

Did you try PocketBook? We even have menu in Hebrew!

If you care to scroll a few post up, I did test the PocketBook for them.
The built-in fbreader is OK.
epub in Adobe Reader is completely, utterly unusable.

[carmelra]

Moon+ Reader for Android test results



I followed the recommendations from the "Android eBook reader clients" thread and tested Moon + Reader.
The results are the best so far for a reading application on Android.

The text is readable.
CSS support is lacking which causes some issues with the text display and affects the reading experience.
Punctuation marks are being displayed a little off the relevant characters (it looks like these marks appear between the chars, a little left to their required location). I wonder if it's the application problem or some problem with the font or with Android devices in general...

Anyway, no reverse lines, no gibberish... Finally, an ebook can be read on an Android device!

In the attached screen captures:
pic1 +2 - Regular text is displayed properly (but css is not supported )

pic3 - Text with punctuation marks. The marks appears a little to the left from the required location and between the characters.

pic5 - TOC. Perfect.

[tobassam]

Congratulations ! .... and thank you Carmelra!

That's wonderful news, even though I don't understand what CSS is or how it affects the usability of the end solution.

Maybe if you contact the developer to get over any remaining problems with this reader?

[tobassam]

Carmelra, are there any specific settings needed in Moon+ or any fonts added to Android for this to work? Can you detail how you got your testing to work and what Android version was used for it? Thank you.

[carmelra]

Originally Posted by tobassam

Congratulations ! .... and thank you Carmelra!

That's wonderful news, even though I don't understand what CSS is or how it affects the usability of the end solution.

CSS affects the way the eBook is being displayed. For example, font size and types (bold, italic etc.). The Moon+ Reader currently display all as plain text which really makes the eBook less readable.

Originally Posted by tobassam

Carmelra, are there any specific settings needed in Moon+ or any fonts added to Android for this to work? Can you detail how you got your testing to work and what Android version was used for it? Thank you.

I have no Android device. I received feedback about this application from users with Nexus 1 (Android ver 2.2.1) and with Xperia X10 (Android ver 2.1).

[phaedrus]

Originally Posted by carmelra

The Moon+ Reader currently display all as plain text which really makes the eBook less readable.

The current beta appears to have at least some attempt at handling styled text. In an epubl file I'm reading, text which renders as italics in Aldiko consistently appears in boldface when viewed in Moon+ Pro beta. I found this thread searching to see if anyone had seen italics text, or if the bold substitution was some artifact of the particular epub file I was reading.

I'm guessing CSS will be supported in the Pro version, and that all the bugs haven't been worked out yet.

[carmelra]

Originally Posted by tobassam

Has anyone checked Hebrew support on Sony PRS-505/300 using this custom firmware (supports Hebrew UI): http://ebookapplications.com ?

I tested it and can confirm that it's much better than the original firmware (which displays all text as left to right and therefore it's not readable). In general, it's even possible to read the text. However, there are a few problems that prevent a good reading experience.

Below are a few photos I took (very bad photos, I know...) that demonstrate the current status and issues I found:

1) The main device menu: The text is displayed left to right and therefore it is not readable in Hebrew.


2) The book settings menu: The text is displayed left to right and therefore it is not readable in Hebrew.


3) TOC: The text is displayed left to right and therefore it is not readable in Hebrew.


4) Main Book Reading area: The text is displayed right to left and therefore it is readable. However, it's not reflowing properly. Lines are getting breaking without a real need (you can see it in the photo that a few lines has no period at the end). That's annoying.


5) Main Book Reading area - Text with punctuation marks: The punctuations are not being displayed properly. They appear to the left of every relevant character.

[tobassam]

carmelra, great effort. Thanks.

[carmelra]

iBooks on iPad results:

Hebrew on the iPad looks just great.

The text is displayed perfectly including styles etc. and it's fun to read.

The only problem I found with the iBooks application is that when viewing the book in horizontal mode (two pages view), the pages order is wrong and is displayed left to right. It's annoying.
Another small issue is that the page turn animation is the other way around (it looks like the pages are being turned the "English" way...)

Below are a few screen captures:

1) TOC in Vertical mode


2) Cover and TOC in horizontal mode. The pages order is left to right which is wrong.


3) Main text area in vertical mode


4) Main text area in vertical mode. The text includes punctuations


5) Main text area in horizontal mode. The pages order is left to right which is wrong.

[meem]

What about BeBook Neo ?

[carmelra]

Originally Posted by meem

What about BeBook Neo ?

I sent a request about this issue to BeBook support almost 6 months ago.
The tests results (attached here) were not good. The text was aligned to the left and displayed left to right which made it non readable.

They said they will consider to issue a firmware upgrade about it... I guess they decided not to deal with it.
However, I have no such device and would be happy to get an update about the current status from a BeBook Neo owner.