New Reader with great pdf-support: Mantano Reader (like aldiko+ezpdf)

[fbrII]

No more cover issues for me. And many thanks to Jean-Marie and crew for resolving the issue quickly.

[Jabby]

When a new book is newly opened in portrait mode you can't tap to the next page. The cover page just gets smaller (or bigger). To get to a readable page you must go to two page landscape mode, tap next page and then go back to portrait mode.

A step backward has been taken in the handling of margins in two page mode. Auto minimum margins are set to which the user defined margins are added. This is probably to preserve the "spine" effect which is as annoying as page flipping. At least you can disable page flipping.

When a new theme is create the "spine" effect is not there but the default margins are; making the page look unbalanced (too much unused space). I would hope that the user created theme margins would be treated the same for two page and portrait mode and that the promise of left and right margins is still in the works.

Regards - John

[=X=]

It's been a while since I've used Mantano, in the past there where just too many holes to make it usable. However with the newest changes well all I have to say is WOW!

The UI seems to have changed a bit so it took me a bit to figure out how to navigate through the features. In particular the relocation of the TOC and annotations took me a while to find but I do like the new solution much better.

The highlighting system really works, great job. The offline dictionary has finally been enhanced and acts more like Moon+/Kindle instead of leaving the app.

I'm glad to see Mantano finally supports zooming into images a much needed feature.


Okay now the bad stuff.

The pictures don't seem to use the actual images sized stored in the ePUB. They seem to extrapolate the existing image and make it bigger. This makes the zoom kind of useless since all the zoom does is explode the pixelization of the image.

In some cases can be Mantano is SLOWWWW! It takes 30 sec for me to open a good amount of my books. I don't know what the pattern is but it's not related to size or number of images (if you PM I can send you an eBook).

Can't find the global font size setting. It seems every time I open a book I have to change the font size. This is a standard feature that all book readers have, I find it grating that I have to set the size every time I start a book.


>>> Minor Issues.
Dim setting seems to be tied to a book and not the app. Opening two separate books gives me different dim settings.

[ghostyjack]

Well it looks like I still can't open books from Books On Board or Baen with the new version.

Hopefully they will get this sorted soon.

[dura]

Originally Posted by Jabby

*****NOTE*****
The assumption I made below appears to be untrue, unless there is a bug.

I think that if your are in night mode you will be editing night mode. Conversely, if you are in day mode you will be editing day mode.

Regards - John

Indeed does not work, would be a nice way to implement though.
Night mode btw is not the inverse of day mode; it is how it was set (manually or default) before the bbr (big bug release).

[IngoBN]

Originally Posted by CyberSmoke53

The only issue I continue to have is that the back button is not exiting
the program in ICS 4.0.4 on the Galaxy tab 2 . I have to force it closed.

I have the same issue in ICS 4.0.4 on the Galaxy Tab 7.7...

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by =X=

Can't find the global font size setting. It seems every time I open a book I have to change the font size. This is a standard feature that all book readers have, I find it grating that I have to set the size every time I start a book.

I forget if it's default, but you can customize all your gestures via Settings>Gestures so that swiping up and down changes the font size. You could also assign those actions to tapping top and bottom, or whatever works with your reading style. I guess if you'd rather "set and forget" your font size that can still be an annoyance, but it's simpler than using the bottom menu.

Personally, I adjust font size more often than I switch books and never use the bottom menu for anything. My gestures/buttons: tap left or right for next page, tap bottom for previous, tap top to toggle night mode, slide left margin for brightness, swipe up and down for font size, volume up for Navigation, and volume down for search. I think right and left swipe are also next/previous page, but I find those too often register as up swipes to be useful.

BTW, the slow performance I was noticing in the forced animations version must have related to some other bug in that version, not the eye candy itself. I just turned the animations back on to double check, and font size changes at least weren't significantly slowed down--maybe a little, but nothing like the several-second hangs I was getting a couple versions back.

[artig]

Originally Posted by Jabby

When a new book is newly opened in portrait mode you can't tap to the next page. The cover page just gets smaller (or bigger). To get to a readable page you must go to two page landscape mode, tap next page and then go back to portrait mode.

The swipe to change pages seems to work, even when an image (such as the cover page) is displayed. However, it would be good if the tap on left or right edge still changed pages, and only a tap in the centre would change the image zoom.

[Jabby]

Originally Posted by artig

The swipe to change pages seems to work, even when an image (such as the cover page) is displayed. However, it would be good if the tap on left or right edge still changed pages, and only a tap in the centre would change the image zoom.

I have mine set up to go to next page on tap right or left and previous page on a swipe in any direction. These old hands can tap OK but I have a little trouble controlling the direction of a swipe at times.

Regards - John

[citac]

I also dislike the fact there is no global font setting, since I do want to just set it and forget it. Can this be included in the next update for Premium?

[dura]

Originally Posted by citac

I also dislike the fact there is no global font setting, since I do want to just set it and forget it. Can this be included in the next update for Premium?

x2 Good idea

[Jabby]

Originally Posted by citac

I also dislike the fact there is no global font setting, since I do want to just set it and forget it. Can this be included in the next update for Premium?

Probably best implemented by allowing the user to set the default value, if desired, and do nothing different otherwise.

Regards - John

[jackie_w]

Re: global font...

Every epub has any number of ways of controlling font attributes in its own internal css. IMO any app which automatically ignored all of these would upset just as many people as it pleased. I'd be one of the former.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by taosaur

.... Personally, I adjust font size more often than I switch books ...

Yeah me too, but it's never intentional. Swiping to the next page seems to cause the fonts to increase a good amount of the time. I would like to set the font and remove that swipe feature all together. I personally feel the right gesture should be pinch to zoom not a swipe out.

Originally Posted by taosaur

BTW, the slow performance I was noticing in the forced animations version must have related to some other bug in that version, not the eye candy itself. I just turned the animations back on to double check, and font size changes at least weren't significantly slowed down--maybe a little, but nothing like the several-second hangs I was getting a couple versions back.

I think I have to take my previous post back about it not being image based. I think Mananto is loading books by chapters. The book that is giving me problems is loading up quickly on Chapter 1 but takes a long time on Chapter 7. Chapter 7 has lots of images. Moon loads Chapter 7 really quick.

=X=

[citac]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Re: global font...

Every epub has any number of ways of controlling font attributes in its own internal css. IMO any app which automatically ignored all of these would upset just as many people as it pleased. I'd be one of the former.

Which is why it should not be automatically ignored but the choice of the user. That way those like me who want to set a single size for all files could click a ticky box, and those who don't can just leave the boxes unticked.