[Faterson]

Originally Posted by cedhax

Having said that, sync is not my first priority. Otherwise, iBooks, which must be the first ereader app that has iCloud sync, would have won over me long time ago.

Well, to me, syncing annotations is quite clearly the top priority feature request I have had in relation to Marvin ever since Marvin's birth. But although it's my no. 1 feature request and the no. 1 Marvin deficiency for me, it takes a lot more than simply obliging that top priority feature request, to get a user to abandon e-reader software he or she has used for years, and to switch to different e-reader software.

Each e-reader software likely offers hundreds of features, and sometimes, 10 smaller, delightful features, may outweigh one major feature. And so, I've been waiting for annotations syncing in Marvin for almost 5 years now – but if Hyphen will be the first to introduce annotations syncing now, ahead of Marvin: will that be reason enough for me to ditch Marvin? Likely not – at this point. Marvin offers so many other, extremely useful, although smaller features, that currently aren't offered by Hyphen (or MapleRead), that I can't imagine myself switching from Marvin to Hyphen at this point.

For example, Marvin has just introduced customization of headers and footers. (Not complete for now, but at least it's there.) What a fabulous feature to have! Again, it's a feature I've been requesting from Marvin for years, and now that it's finally arrived, should I lose it again, through ditching Marvin and adopting Hyphen or MapleRead right away? That's not likely. I can only ask Matt of Hyphen and MapleRead developers to follow suit as early as possible, so that we can customize our headers and footers in Hyphen and MapleRead, too.

Originally Posted by cedhax

In terms of iOS reading view background themes, the good old Stanza was definitely the first that supports customized colors/textures/images/photos.

To me, it's not a race between Stanza and Moon+ Reader (or MapleRead). Stanza has been dead for many years. As of 2016, I'm simply recommending to Matt of Hyphen and Kris of Marvin to find inspiration in how Moon+ Reader treats themes, because I find its treatment of themes 100% perfect.

Originally Posted by cedhax

IHMO, MapleRead (BookMaster) introduced in 2014 was the first app that really got it right.

That's definitely nice to hear.

Originally Posted by cedhax

Not sure if Faterson has explored MapleRead's themes yet, since he's new to the app.

Not yet, but as I remarked earlier, I immediately noticed an insurmountable show-stopper after briefly looking at MobileRead: no multiple colors for highlights. My hat is off to the MapleRead developers for being innovative by extending the annotations functionality with the priority levels, separate annotations notebooks, etc. – all of that is very nice and commendable. But as explained before, I need to see highlights of various colors, at a glance, when simply turning the pages of an e-book. That's a very common-sense need, isn't it? No geeky stuff, but that's pretty much how people have highlighted printed books for centuries, and it's equally useful in the electronic environment in the 21st century. This is currently such a stumbling-block to me that it discourages me from exploring MapleRead any further, because I can't imagine myself using any e-reader that doesn't offer multiple-highlight-colors functionality. (After all, it's a major reason why I ditched the original e-ink Kindle e-readers! They, too, only offered a single highlight color, but they at least had a good excuse for why they did it – it was a technological limitation.)

Originally Posted by odamizu

Finally, I would like to apologize to anyone who wants to stay on-topic and echo kyteflyer's point that this is a Hyphen thread and request that we keep the discussion on Hyphen.

Discussing the merits and demerits of Hyphen when compared to competitive e-reader products is keeping the discussion on Hyphen. What could be more relevant? I value Kyteflyer as a highly knowledgeable MobileRead poster, and I have valued her input for years, but I believe she may be a tiny, trifling little bit overly sensitive in this regard. Yes, this is a Hyphen thread, but pointing out where Hyphen lags behind other e-readers, and where it excels over them, is thoroughly to the point. As has just been remarked by others, quite a few Hyphen features appear to be "cloned" from Marvin/Stanza/whatever, and that's perfectly fine – but it goes to show how useful it can be to compare Hyphen to its competitors in a thread like this. Such comparisons may inspire Hyphen's developer, Matt, to improve Hyphen even more.

Originally Posted by odamizu

If people want to argue about which ereading app is the best, please start a new thread.

That is definitely not the point, odamizu. Yes, I currently believe Marvin is the best out there, but not by much, and even though it's best, there are no doubt features of Hyphen, and Maple Read, in which these two are superior over Marvin. Discussing where Hyphen lags, and where it excels, is 100% relevant. In fact, if you can believe it, even such execrable software like iBooks is definitely superior over Marvin or Hyphen in such matters as annotations syncing (only in beta-stage in Hyphen so far) or (to touch upon a recent hot-button subject) page-counts. I find iBooks's approach "screen flip = page turn" 100% correct, and I find fault both with Hyphen's use of ADE pages as the only "pages in book"-count option, and Marvin's own (ill-considered) invention of "250 words per pseudo-page". So, as can be seen, even superb e-readers like Hyphen and Marvin can learn something from thoroughly lame e-readers like iBooks. Comparisons to competitors can be useful and productive.