Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness
This [textured backgrounds] is one of the worst, most gimmicky app ideas I have ever read. It is eye-poppingly gaudy, without a doubt, but no more crucial for improving Marvin than adding animated gifs and looping sound effects to every page.
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Holymadness, you don't know what you're talking about.
Textured backgrounds, to me, are
crucial, essential for good e-reader usability. They are
not an empty effect for effect's sake, and they are
no eye candy, although they might appear that way to a superficial observer. You might wish to read what our fellow posters Tacty and Turtle said about this subject a few pages earlier in this thread.
Nothing is more crucial than for your eyes to feel
natural while reading a book. If your eyes perceive an
unnatural reading environment, they will feel
eye-strain sooner rather than later.
And that's exactly what Marvin's current solid-colour backgronds are: they feel
unnaturally smooth, too perfect to my eyes, which may contribute to my eyes feeling fatigue sooner than they might, if there had been a textured background instead.
Each of us is different. For many Marvin users, solid-colour backgrounds, the way Marvin offers them now, will be preferable.
For other readers, though, I'm sure structured backgrounds will be preferable. I can't wait till we get to use them in Marvin -- only then will I start feeling fully comfortably, right at home in Marvin.
In case you haven't noticed, holymadness, a traditional book printed on paper, has a
structured background, too! Yep -- because that's what
natural paper looks like: it has a background structure, too,
albeit very fine. And that's the type of structured backgrounds I like most in e-readers: no gaudy ones, but ones with a delicate, hardly noticeable pattern in them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SharonK
as yet I don't understand this OPDS thing (or connecting via WiFI). [...] Before I edit my Calibre metadata and try to understand how to import books from Calibre to Marvin, could someone address this issue for me? Does anyone have more information on this?
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You don't
ever need to use the OPDS feature, Sharon. If you wish to use it, you just enter the IP address Calibre shows under the "Content Server" button, into Marvin. The address will end in
:8080/opds.
What's even easier, Sharon, is what kyteflyer mentioned: you can just put your Calibre Library inside Dropbox. That way, whatever book you add to Calibre, will automatically become available for you for download on your iPad, iPhone, and anywhere else. Including inside Marvin, using its Dropbox button.
If you have misgivings about using Dropbox for books, you can use any other, similar cloud service for the same thing. I use SugarSync. You simply instruct SugarSync to monitor your Calibre "Books" folder, and that's it! Every book from Calibre will automatically become available for you to download on your iPad, iPhone, etc., using (for example) the SugarSync app. The SugarSync app, of course, gives you the option to open a book in Marvin after you download the book in the SugarSync app.