Which ereader should I use on my iPod Touch?

[CaptMurdock]

I don't find the margins on iBooks to be all that bad, and being able to customize the e.g. background just isn't a priority for me. About the only thing I've wanted to go that iBooks seems unable to do is to upscale pictures and illustrations.

To be fair, I probably should try out a few (free) ereader apps before I really make such pronouncements.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

iBooks has margins that are just stupid for a small screen like an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Actually, it doesn't anymore. I've sent a few books via Calibre to iBooks and the margins have been fine. I've been putting that down to something of the ebooks themselves... but I just sent one which I knew to have HUGE margins and which I subsequently read in Stanza. Looking at it now... the margins are fine. I rather think that Apple paid attention to this aspect of things and has made it so iBooks will not impose margins but will respect the publisher's margins instead.

[JSWolf]

Yes, iBooks does have margins that are too big for an iPhone size screen. I have an iPhone 5 and an iPad. Bluefire Reader doesn't have that issue.

[zztush]

Yes, IBooks margins are too big. iBooks marigins consist of both original book margins and iBooks mairgins. Most of the ebook readers ignore original book margins on iPod touch, but iBooks add book margins. I often remove book margins on Sigil. We can remove them in css file in epub files. Even after removing book margins, there are still ibooks margins and it is not as small as other ebook readers on iPod touch.

[kyteflyer]

It occurred to me later after posting the above, that at one point i used calibre to save epub to epub, to sort a different issue. I wonder if thats what affected my margins. I'll add a screenie of the current (if I can), of a book (not from the store) which used to have margins wider than the text.

You'll see in the attachment, the first is an approximation of how it used to be... and the second is how it is now. I have no more complaints about margins, whatever the reason for the fix.

[zztush]

My favorite ebook reader is Blio. We can use built in dictionary in Blio. And the margins are not too bad. We can transfer files by iTunes.

I'm not sure why reader app designers cannot seem to understand the problem of large margins on a small screen! Even a margin of say 1/4" takes away 1/2" of screen width which means fewer words per line. If the screen is only 2" wide, then 1/4" margins give you only 1-1/2" of text width. They should let us decide if we want any margin or not.

As far as CSS formatting, many publishers don't use the proper formatting when specifying margins. They should use percentage or EM or nothing, but a lot of them still use pixels and other bad units. 20 pixels might seem like a small margin on a 9.7" iPad screen, but 20px margins are huge on an iPhone screen.

Now I realize that running the text all the way to the edge of the screen is problematic as it can make the first/last letter that touches the side of the screen difficult to read. But in reality all you need is a 1 pixel minimum margin to correct this problem of text at the edge of the screen.

[Baroness]

I'm a big fan of iBooks, so I'll jump into the margin discussion: On the iPhone 5 (and so I presume it's the same for the iPod Touch 5), the margins in iBooks aren't bothersome -- at least, they're not bothersome for me any more. I do recall them being a little bit annoying on the iPod Touch 4, but on the iPhone 5 I'm much more comfortable with the amount of text on a page. It's probably the added height creating a more comfortable experience, but as somebody who enjoys the 'bookish' appearance, I actually like the margins which are there.

Originally Posted by Baroness

I'm a big fan of iBooks, so I'll jump into the margin discussion: On the iPhone 5 (and so I presume it's the same for the iPod Touch 5), the margins in iBooks aren't bothersome -- at least, they're not bothersome for me any more. I do recall them being a little bit annoying on the iPod Touch 4, but on the iPhone 5 I'm much more comfortable with the amount of text on a page. It's probably the added height creating a more comfortable experience, but as somebody who enjoys the 'bookish' appearance, I actually like the margins which are there.

For my tastes those margins are way too wide for a small screen, though okay on a larger screen. Decreasing them would allow another word or two per line on average.

[zztush]

This is the screen shot of Blio without book margin (with Blio's sofware margin). The margins and line sapces are smallter than iBooks and I prefer Blio to iBooks.

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by Baroness

I'm a big fan of iBooks, so I'll jump into the margin discussion: On the iPhone 5 (and so I presume it's the same for the iPod Touch 5), the margins in iBooks aren't bothersome -- at least, they're not bothersome for me any more. I do recall them being a little bit annoying on the iPod Touch 4, but on the iPhone 5 I'm much more comfortable with the amount of text on a page. It's probably the added height creating a more comfortable experience, but as somebody who enjoys the 'bookish' appearance, I actually like the margins which are there.

You don't just lose space on the margins, but also above and below with the book title and page numbers.

[Baroness]

Originally Posted by holymadness

You don't just lose space on the margins, but also above and below with the book title and page numbers.

That's very true, and I had noticed that - I do read using this app every day. As I said, though, I prefer it because it looks quite 'bookish'. For people who are aesthetically minded as far as the appearance of the page, rather than the appearance of the text, I think that iBooks is suitable. It's all about personal preference - and iBooks does, of course, look a lot better on an iPad.

[Dreamnine]

Since I made this thread I've been using Bluefire and iBooks.

Bluefire is good - great ability to customize, but it lacks the inbuilt dictionary.

iBooks is mostly a smooth experience - the margins are too big on some books and just about right on others, I find. But what really pisses me off about iBooks is the inability to upscale photos. I've been reading Neil Young's autobiography and there are many pictures which just can't be viewed properly on the 4" screen - they are literally stamp sized.

So with that book I ended up reading it on my Nexus 7 with Aldiko.

Originally Posted by Dreamnine

Since I made this thread I've been using Bluefire and iBooks.

Bluefire is good - great ability to customize, but it lacks the inbuilt dictionary.

iBooks is mostly a smooth experience - the margins are too big on some books and just about right on others, I find. But what really pisses me off about iBooks is the inability to upscale photos. I've been reading Neil Young's autobiography and there are many pictures which just can't be viewed properly on the 4" screen - they are literally stamp sized.

So with that book I ended up reading it on my Nexus 7 with Aldiko.

Wow, I didn't realize that. But then I rarely use iBooks. So it won't allow you to double-tap the image to enlarge it or do the two finger enlarging gesture? That is a major oversight on Apple's part.

EDIT: I just checked a book in iBooks on the iPad and it does indeed allow me to enlarge the image. I double-tapped the image to bring it up in its own window, then used the two finger gesture to enlarge it. So it does work on the iPad, but I don't have an iPhone or iPod touch to test it on. It might have different functionality for the iPhone app.

[Dreamnine]

Well, I feel all stupid now..I tried it and double tapping a photo does indeed work!

I'm liking iBooks even more.