MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Marvin Free Edition for iPhone and iPod touch

At_Libitum · 09-29-2013, 07:13 AM

Well now, that certainly was a nice surprise

Thanks a bunch for the free version on iPhone. I have been using the iPad app for some time and have been eagerly waiting for an iPhone version since that is where I do most of my reading on. But the fact that it released as payware made me hold off because I have been trying out so many disappointing readers I did not want to risk it behaving too different on the iPhone due to space constraints.

I honestly do not understand what the fuss is all about with the 1 book. At least now I will be able to see how it behaves on an iPhone before taking the next step. And have a better way to compare to the competition. I do not see it as a big deal I cannot switch back and forth between 10 different books, or 2 for that matter.

Those of us that care enough to want to view how well it does with 'problem' cases will no doubt also have enough drive to have put together an eBook containing those problematic things to test against. At least that is what I did...so I personally don't care one iota about it not being able to show how well it sorts...heck you won't even be able to even if the limit were set at 100 books. It also is much less important, much less than how it renders my books, besides I do the managing in Calibre, not in my reader.

I did at least come to one conclusion, even before the free iPhone version. I do not like this switching between "Marvin's formatting" and "Publishers formatting" at all. In fact this may be the deal breaker for me. The biggest objection I have to it is that it forces me to make a choice, and in the absence of a global set 'user defaults', this makes all the difference to me. I want to be able to change just one thing without it also affecting other 'settings'. Marvin's options seem a bit conflicting in that area...why for instance can I change margins regardless of what 'mode' I am in, but cannot switch to a simple night mode? And I don't mean themes. Themes and day and night mode are two different things in my book, themes should indeed affect the whole thing. Font, layout, margins, the lot. But Day/Night mode should not change anything other than reversing colors, yet to be able to use it I have to let go of publisher formatting. ah well, tripple home works too and even better as it changes all the colors not just the font colors...(why does Marvin ignore background color if a book happens to specify a white (or any color for that matter) background in CSS?)

Yuck, I have never noticed this on the iPad, likely because the toolbars are much less pronounced there, but please make it so that it is optional if Marvin itself should match its colors to the one chosen for my book... on an iPhone this looks absolutely horrible if these big bars slide into view.

With regards to the fact that it is not too clear that settings can scroll. A suggestion. Marvin is just about the only reader that uses a sort of popup/slide-in method for this.
I would prefer it much more if that just opened in a 'normal' screen. An iPhone4 isn't that big to begin with and then using only half of it where you also even need to scroll in makes it feel much too cramped. (tip to make it more obvious that scrolling is possible, use a full page border with a small margin so that either only the top or the bottom border shows when reaching the end of a scrollable area.)

Question: reporting perceived issues? This topic or separate one?

09-29-2013, 07:13 AM	#39
At_Libitum Addict Posts: 265 Karma: 724240 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: KyBook	Well now, that certainly was a nice surprise Thanks a bunch for the free version on iPhone. I have been using the iPad app for some time and have been eagerly waiting for an iPhone version since that is where I do most of my reading on. But the fact that it released as payware made me hold off because I have been trying out so many disappointing readers I did not want to risk it behaving too different on the iPhone due to space constraints. I honestly do not understand what the fuss is all about with the 1 book. At least now I will be able to see how it behaves on an iPhone before taking the next step. And have a better way to compare to the competition. I do not see it as a big deal I cannot switch back and forth between 10 different books, or 2 for that matter. Those of us that care enough to want to view how well it does with 'problem' cases will no doubt also have enough drive to have put together an eBook containing those problematic things to test against. At least that is what I did...so I personally don't care one iota about it not being able to show how well it sorts...heck you won't even be able to even if the limit were set at 100 books. It also is much less important, much less than how it renders my books, besides I do the managing in Calibre, not in my reader. I did at least come to one conclusion, even before the free iPhone version. I do not like this switching between "Marvin's formatting" and "Publishers formatting" at all. In fact this may be the deal breaker for me. The biggest objection I have to it is that it forces me to make a choice, and in the absence of a global set 'user defaults', this makes all the difference to me. I want to be able to change just one thing without it also affecting other 'settings'. Marvin's options seem a bit conflicting in that area...why for instance can I change margins regardless of what 'mode' I am in, but cannot switch to a simple night mode? And I don't mean themes. Themes and day and night mode are two different things in my book, themes should indeed affect the whole thing. Font, layout, margins, the lot. But Day/Night mode should not change anything other than reversing colors, yet to be able to use it I have to let go of publisher formatting. ah well, tripple home works too and even better as it changes all the colors not just the font colors...(why does Marvin ignore background color if a book happens to specify a white (or any color for that matter) background in CSS?) Yuck, I have never noticed this on the iPad, likely because the toolbars are much less pronounced there, but please make it so that it is optional if Marvin itself should match its colors to the one chosen for my book... on an iPhone this looks absolutely horrible if these big bars slide into view. With regards to the fact that it is not too clear that settings can scroll. A suggestion. Marvin is just about the only reader that uses a sort of popup/slide-in method for this. I would prefer it much more if that just opened in a 'normal' screen. An iPhone4 isn't that big to begin with and then using only half of it where you also even need to scroll in makes it feel much too cramped. (tip to make it more obvious that scrolling is possible, use a full page border with a small margin so that either only the top or the bottom border shows when reaching the end of a scrollable area.) Question: reporting perceived issues? This topic or separate one? Last edited by At_Libitum; 09-29-2013 at 07:38 AM.