A major update to Freda is on the way, adding:
- A new more sophisticated EPUB/HTML/CSS parser, which renders page layouts (including tables) more faithfully, and uses the font sizes and faces (including embedded fonts) as specified by the EPUB file.
- Because it's experimental at this stage, this needs to be switched on in the settings screen ('use advanced rendering'='yes')
- You can also choose whether Freda does or does not follow the EPUB/CSS fonts, margins and colours.
- (For the Windows version) Keyboard controls and shortcuts (which can be customised), which allow keyboard-only operation of the app. I'm hoping this will improve the app's accessibility. In that vein, I also added a setting that can make Freda automatically read aloud the selected text, whenever the selection is changed.
- Many small fixes, including an update to the 'dictionary lookup' feature, because of the discontinuation of the on-line dictionary service that I had been using.
Because this is a rather major update, I would like to beta-test it if possible. And I was hoping I might find some volunteers to help out here. If you would like to help beta-test these changes, please contact me (email to
jim@turnipsoft.co.uk would be best, but replies to this post, or PMs in-forum will also work). For Windows beta-testers, I would need you to tell me the email address that you used for your Windows sign-up; for Android users, I will probably just email out an APK file, unless that turns out to be a really unpopular option.
Thanks all!