ePub reader recommendations

[Cesca]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I must apologise for my earlier remark, and I am glad you came back to post again.

I just didn't like it much, and tbh am still using Stanza.

No worries. I guess there's no reader that's perfect for everyone. eg Bookmaster doesn't synch between devices, and I like that about Marvin. At least with IOS we have a few choices!

[Jane12]

Originally Posted by Cesca

I'm just a new member who tried Bookmaster after reading about it in this forum. I have no connection to the developer. I just like the app. I had no idea commenting on an app would imply I was a shill for the company.

My apologies as well if my post came off offensive -- and welcome to MobileRead! I was actually hoping you or @goreadread were connected to Bookmaster so that you could provide insight and pass along feature requests

A few developers actually are active on MobileRead -- kguil for Marvin and Micah from Bluefire Reader, etc. It's nice having direct access to the people who work on these apps.

[Cesca]

Originally Posted by Jane12

My apologies as well if my post came off offensive -- and welcome to MobileRead! I was actually hoping you or @goreadread were connected to Bookmaster so that you could provide insight and pass along feature requests

A few developers actually are active on MobileRead -- kguil for Marvin and Micah from Bluefire Reader, etc. It's nice having direct access to the people who work on these apps.

Thanks! Yes, it would be nice to suggest improvements directly to the developer. I wish the app would remember the bookmark color and cover I select, but it keeps reverting to the defaults. Not a big deal, though.

[kyteflyer]

After this conversation, I went to download it again, to give it a second try... and it wasnt there. I dont know if its just come off the Australian store or all over... weird.

[Jane12]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Perhaps kguil doesn't want to lie about page numbers that don't really exist.

What I don't get is, Marvin offers page numbers within individual chapters, and no one seems to object. But the idea of providing page numbers for the entire book meets with strong resistance from some. Why? What's the big deal?

If it's Adobe's page-number formula that's so objectionable, kguil could just stick with the numbering formula he's already using for individual chapters.

[Jane12]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

After this conversation, I went to download it again, to give it a second try... and it wasnt there. I dont know if its just come off the Australian store or all over... weird.

Are you looking on your iPhone or iPad? It wouldn't come up on my iPhone, then I remembered it's an iPad-only app. When I switched to my iPad, I was able to find it in the App Store (in the U.S.)

While I am liking Bookmaster, it does have a few oddities and bugs as Ceska notes. Same goes for the new Mantano for iOS. I'm hoping all will be smoothed out as these apps mature.

Also, it took some fiddling before I realized that Bookmaster's reading prefs are accessed through 3 different icons. In reading view, on the upper left, there's a button that lets you choose between "Classic Book," "Modern Book" and "Modern Scroll." Then on the upper right there's the "A" icon that gives you access to fonts, line-height, line-spacing, etc. Then the themes are actually under the brightness icon!? Once I figured out all the places to look, I was able to customize everything to my liking.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by Jane12

Are you looking on your iPhone or iPad? It wouldn't come up on my iPhone, then I remembered it's an iPad-only app. When I switched to my iPad, I was able to find it in the App Store (in the U.S.)

Exactly the issue. I was looking for an iphone version. I may have liked it better if it were universal but not a problem, i dont read on my iPad3 (or any device with a screen that big) and I have Stanza installed on my ipad mini. I'll continue on with Marvin when Stanza finally stops working.

On Mantano... I bought it also, but was horrified at how "big" it is. 160Mb as compared to the 20-40 of nearly all the others. No excuse for that, there's nothing about it that's 120Mb more special than anyone else's. Its bloat.

[maddz]

I've recently got an iPad mini 2, and am looking for an ebook reader which can access all my content currently stored in Dropbox. My earlier tablet is a Nexus 7 2012, and I use FBReader happily. However, the ebook readers I've got on the iPad won't allow me to navigate to Dropbox and pick up my content without jumping through various hoops moving files around.

iBooks tells me the epubs are an unrecognised format; I'm told I have to import all my ebooks into iTunes. I don't seem to be able to do that for some reason. The Neo Soar (?) reader wants me to copy all my books into it's own folder along with their covers (if I have one). Given my library has a folder for each collection, then folders for each author, then a sub-folder for individual books, this is not going to happen as I have over 600 ebooks...

If anyone has a recommendation for a reader that will just navigate to Dropbox, then to the book I want without having to mess around with formats and dedicated folders, I'd be grateful. (I manage my books on the Mac using Calibre.)

[JSWolf]

Marvin is very good if you do not have DRM on your ePub eBooks.

[maddz]

If any of my books had DRM, they don't any longer... Most were downloads from the Baen Free Library over the years, with a few freebies from Tor and other sources. I copied my library over to iCloud, but when I look at it, there's just loads of encrypted folders. I suspect I need finish the set-up properly. Family issues mean my Christmas break is being spent away from home - I spent a couple of hours at home today but needed to get on the road again. Just as well I did; the snow started within 2 hours of getting to my destination.

IBooks still doesn't recognise anything either...

[JSWolf]

Most eBooks aren't written to work well with iBooks. So that's why you are best to go with a program that works with ordinary ePub.

[maddz]

Well, Marvin does exactly what I want it too, so I may well spring for the full version...

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Most eBooks aren't written to work well with iBooks. So that's why you are best to go with a program that works with ordinary ePub.

Actually I find that most ePub books work just fine in iBooks. Some complicated books can have some problems if they are not webkit compliant but mostly things are just fine. I don't know why there should be a problem in loading ePub into iBooks. I have used iTunes and dropbox, mostly dropbox.

Dale

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Actually I find that most ePub books work just fine in iBooks. Some complicated books can have some problems if they are not webkit compliant but mostly things are just fine. I don't know why there should be a problem in loading ePub into iBooks. I have used iTunes and dropbox, mostly dropbox.

Dale

Marvin supports Dropbox and Marvin works with Calibre with the plugins, iBooks does not.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Marvin supports Dropbox and Marvin works with Calibre with the plugins, iBooks does not.

both true and a much better argument than the first one. Anything will work with Dropbox if you start it first but Marvin does have an special interface for dropbox, while iBooks works with iCloud.

Dale