using the v3 - anyone willing to share their experience

[Gudy]

I'll just use this thread to ramble on about my ongoing experiences with the V3 until I either run out of things to ramble on about or someone tells me to stop...

Anyway, last night I got around to reading a substantial amount under low-light conditions for the first time. Con: I'd like the screen to have more contrast. I found myself going for some extra light with the e-ink screen where I would have been happy to continue reading with a paper book. I can see this being an advantage for reading outdoors in full sunlight, but for low-light conditions - which is where I do most of my reading - additional lighting is a requirement.

Pro: The Mighty Bright XtraFlex Duet (aka "bug light" around here) works really well, clipped to the leather cover. There is some light spillage, but not enough to bother the wife, who was contentedly sleeping beside me. Also, the blueish tint of the LED light, while looking a bit cold and harsh in general, works really well with the somewhat yellowish-grey e-ink display. The combination creates a bright, almost pure-white display that is easy to read. Positioning the lights so you don't have any glare from the screen or the body of the V3 takes some doing, but having two independent LEDs on flexible stalks really helps here.

Pro: Page flips are quick, at least when reading FB2 books. PDF files seem to take a bit longer to render. I still need to find the right moment to click "next" for a smooth reading experience, but I think I'll get there.

Pro: I'm really starting to like the reader app of the V3. Above the text body there is a page header with the book author and title, or the file name for TXT files, the page number in <current>/<total> format, and the battery status. Dividing the header from the text body is a thin line, which on closer inspection turns out to be a representation of the book. The line is subdivided at each chapter break, with each line segment representative of the relative chapter length. There is also a marker showing your current position in the book.

(BTW, is this documented anywhere? It should be, but I don't recall reading about that in the manual.)

This turns out to be immensely useful, not only because I find such a visual progress marker more intuitive to grasp than a x/y page number, but it also makes it relatively easy to estimate things like the number of pages left in the current chapter, which for me is an important decision aid for whether to read on to the end of the chapter or turn in for the night.

As an addendum to my first post from Feb 20, the Recent Files virtual folder works just fine, showing you the last 8 books opened. It's the #1 button used to access it that turns out to require a lot more force to depress than the other buttons on my unit.

[torbich]

The Ugly:
ZIP file support doesn't work. It doesn't even show the ZIP files in the book shelf. RAR archives work just fine, though.

No. ZIP file support do work. But you need to name your files, for example
file1.fb2.zip and not just file1.zip .

Additionally I would like to see the ability to upload our own fonts to the device.

It is possible now for FB2/TXT formats. All you need - is to download cr3.zip file (for example, from here, unpack it to the /crengine folder of the SD card, copy your favorite fonts to \fonts folder and edit fb2.css file for your needs. Turn Off and On your V3 for the changes to apply.

As an example: fonts (in addition to these fonts you need to copy to the /crengine/fonts verdana.ttf, verdanab.ttf and verdanai.ttf from your Windows Fonts folder) and fb2.css:

image { text-align: center; text-indent: 0px }
sub { vertical-align: sub; font-size: 70% }
sup { vertical-align: super; font-size: 70% }
poem { margin-top: 0.6em; margin-bottom: 0.6em; text-indent: 0px }
stanza { margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: left; font-style: italic }
stanza + stanza { margin-top: 0.7em }

a {
  vertical-align: super;
  font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;
  font-size: 80%; color: blue; text-decoration: underline;
}

p { margin-bottom: 0em }
p + p { margin-top: 0.25em }

empty-line { height: 1em }
strong { font-weight: bold }
emphasis { font-style: italic }

title {
  color: #C00;
  text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;
  margin-top: 0.7em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;
  font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;
  font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif;
  page-break-before: always; page-break-inside: avoid; page-break-after: avoid;
}
subtitle {
  text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;
  font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px
}
description {
  text-align: justify; text-indent: 2em;
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal;
  font-size: 75%;
}
body {
  text-align: justify; text-indent: 2em;
  font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 75%;
  font-style: normal;
}
cite {
  text-indent: 0px; text-align: justify;
  font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;
  font-family: "Liberation Sans", sans-serif;
  margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;
}
epigraph {
  margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 2%; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 25px
  text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
  font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;
  font-size: 85%;
}
text-author {
  font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
  margin-left: 25%; text-align: right; margin-top: 0.5em
}

empty-line { height: 1em }

description { display: block }
title-info { display: block }
genre { display: none }
author { display: none }
book-title { display: none }
annotation { display: block; font-style: italic; text-align: justify; text-indent: 2em }
keywords { display: none }
date { display: block; text-align: left; font-style: italic; margin-top: 0.6em; margin-bottom: 0.6em }
coverpage { display: none }
lang { display: none }
src-lang { display: none }
translator { display: none }
sequence { display: none }
document-info { display: none }
publish-info { display: block }
custom-info { display: none }

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by torbich

No. ZIP file support do work. But you need to name your files, for example file1.fb2.zip and not just file1.zip .

Using ZIP as a single file compression when it is a compressed archive format isn't quite what I think of when hearing ZIP file support, but I guess it's better than nothing. At least it means that zipped FB2 files as produced by BookDesigner should work, which is something, I guess.

Originally Posted by torbich

It is possible now for FB2/TXT formats. All you need - is to download cr3.zip file (for example, from here, unpack it to the root folder of the SD card, copy your favorite fonts to \fonts folder and edit fb2.css file for your needs.

Hmm, I was seriously contemplating converting my whole collection of TXT and HTML to FB2 anyway in order to make use of things like a proper TOC, but if this turns out to actually work (and, let's hope, fix what I think of as the mdash kerning problem), this is even more of an incentive.

But why isn't this stuff documented anywhere?

[ibat]

Originally Posted by torbich

It is possible now for FB2/TXT formats. All you need - is to download cr3.zip file (for example, from here, unpack it to the root folder of the SD card, copy your favorite fonts to \fonts folder and edit fb2.css file for your needs.

As an example: fonts and fb2.css:

...
body {
  text-align: justify; text-indent: 2em;
  font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 75%;
  font-style: normal;
}
...

Wow if this works it is really cool! Will this work on my Chinese V3 too? Cannot wait to get home and try this out.

Having to read in sans serif was my only complaint to fb reader.

[torbich]

Sorry, make a mistake in description. You need to copy files from cr3.zip not to a root folder, but to the /crengine folder on your SD card. And turn off/on your V3. Edited my last post for these changes.

Don't know, if this all works on Chinese V3 too, but hope so.

[supertoth]

Hi all!

Torbich, thank you for the info about how to change the font type in FB2 and Txt files. It has really improve a lot my reading experience to have mine changed to "Georgia".

Since i started using the V3 i realized that it had problems handlin hyphenation in FB2 files. There is a pdb file in the "cr3" folder called "Russian_EnUS_hyphen_(Alan)" that i think it solve the problem for hyphenation in russian and english text. Does anybody know how can i get the file for hyphenation in spanish text and have the device using it?

[torbich]

2 supertoth: Try these: http://alreader.kms.ru/AlReader/AlReader2.Hyphen.zip (or mirror: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/p...n.zip?download ) -hyphenation patterns for 23 languages.

[supertoth]

¡¡Thank You!! Problem solved

[ottocol]

Hi Torbich, a question: how did you find that information about customization of fb2 reader? is there any info from jinke about that or you found it for yourself? it would be nice to have documentation about programming/customizing V3

[torbich]

2 ottocol: no, I didn't find that information personally. It came from the author of the FB2 plugin and now is discussed at the russian V3 users comunity: http://the-ebook.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=24, and, particulary
http://the-ebook.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7509 and http://the-ebook.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7858 (sorry, these threads are in Russian, you need to use some online translator).

[ArgonZ]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post in MR, but I've been lurking for some time. I've been undecided about e-ink for a while, and been unwilling to pay €350-€400 (Cybook) to sample it. So when the V3 got a reseller in Europe with a price I thought fair, I just couldn't resist it any longer and order one from ApolloXXI.

I've been using my reader for two weeks now, and I joined the crowd that just loves the e-ink displays. It's really worth the money I spent, even if it's a bit pricey "just" to read books.

I've seen the reviews from other users, so I'll add mine to the lot. I have decided to use FB2, and I was quite pleased by the look and organization of the document. Chapters, and pages work quite well, and the graphical display of where we are in the chapter/book is just wonderful. The use of the recent files is also quite nice and simply works, the ability to navigate on the SD folder tree is in my opinion an essential feature.

There are a few things I dislike, like the provided cover, I don't know about the rest of you, but mine just smells and it just doesn't feel like real leather. I also doubt that it will keep the reader secure. It will have to do for now since there isn't any to replace it, but I hope there will be some better replacement in the near future.

Also, I've been experiencing some reboots while reading the FB2 ebooks, every few hundred page turns the device freezes with the green led on and after a while the systems reboots. I haven’t been able to reproduce the bug, but it happens from time to time. It does not render the device useless but it's annoying and I hope it will be corrected on a future update.

As for the advertised format support, I've tested PDF, CHM, RTP, JPG and Rar and they all worked. Although I believe that the image rendering engine should also be upgraded, since it does not do a great job even with B&W images. PDF and CHM were quite a nice surprise, it will do for a quick reference manual but not to read a novel.

Overall I'm quite satisfied with my new "gadget" and I would buy it again even knowing that it has a few problems.

[redbaron101]

Originally Posted by Gudy

Con: I'd like the screen to have more contrast. I found myself going for some extra light with the e-ink screen where I would have been happy to continue reading with a paper book.

hmmm, I thought all the v3 are vizplex? (did your box have the vizplex sticker on it - the earlier v3 were sold without vizplex) doesnt this mean its meant to have a better contrast?

Originally Posted by Gudy

<cut ..> with the somewhat yellowish-grey e-ink display.

Is this what the v3 looks like in daytime too - yellow grey!?

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by ArgonZ

There are a few things I dislike, like the provided cover, I don't know about the rest of you, but mine just smells and it just doesn't feel like real leather. I also doubt that it will keep the reader secure. It will have to do for now since there isn't any to replace it, but I hope there will be some better replacement in the near future.

Same here. The cover has a distinct petrol-like smell, which I find mildly off-putting. As far as protection goes, I think it will do for my purposes, as I don't have any hobbies which have "extreme" in the name. ;-)

Originally Posted by ArgonZ

Also, I've been experiencing some reboots while reading the FB2 ebooks, every few hundred page turns the device freezes with the green led on and after a while the systems reboots. I haven’t been able to reproduce the bug, but it happens from time to time.

Yup, same here. The device occasionally freezes, and when I press the On/Off button just once, it reboots. Not a major concern, but still annoying and worthy of a fix.

Originally Posted by redbaron101

hmmm, I thought all the v3 are vizplex? (did your box have the vizplex sticker on it - the earlier v3 were sold without vizplex) doesnt this mean its meant to have a better contrast?

It certainly has the Vizplex decal, yes, and the screen flips themselves are quite fast. I would still like to have a bit more contrast. (When I look closely at my screen, I notice a bit of "noise" from black particles in the white areas, maybe this has something to do with it?)

Originally Posted by redbaron101

Is this what the v3 looks like in daytime too - yellow grey!?

I wouldn't call it yellow grey, but it's certainly not pure white, and to me the screen has a very slight yellowish cast to it - just enough to be (barely) noticeable and to offset the blue tint of the LED a bit.

[redbaron101]

so gudy, having played around with your new hanlin, do you think in your opinion it was worth it? Or do you feel you should have gone with another make? (like the cybook or sony)

[redbaron101]

btw, does the v3 have dictionary support?