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Faterson · 08-29-2022, 04:47 AM

I did notice that assessment of yours earlier in this thread, Jon.

And I also thought of your typically strict judgments while testing BookFusion. What would be your reaction to BookFusion now?

In fact, I had tested BookFusion myself a couple of years ago, but quickly dismissed it back then as "not ready to play with the big boys".

It seems different now – looks like a lot of progress has been made over the last couple of years, as can be seen in their blog/change-log.

For instance, I think BookFusion have only very recently added highlights of multiple colors (still not there in the Android version, but fully customizable now in iOS and on the web, so even better than Marvin now in this regard), which is core functionality.

If there were no highlights of multiple colors in BookFusion a couple of years ago when I tested it for the first time, I'm not surprised I never took it seriously. No multiple-color highlights would be a complete showstopper to me in any e-reader.

As to PDF files... As explained in my big BookFusion post, some books simply aren't available as reliable EPUB files, and likely never will be. I would not insist on BookFusion to support PDF files fully, if BookFusion could be used for a one-time payment, like Marvin was. Then again, Marvin went bankrupt with that pricing model.

So I'm fine with BookFusion charging annual subscription fees, if it means reliable, long-term development for decades to come. So that we don't reconvene here by 2030, looking for a BookFusion replacement this time around.

It happened with Stanza for us, then with Marvin. I don't ever want to go through such ordeals again.

So, OK, I'm ready to pay an annual subscription price for a top-quality e-reader, if necessary, but in return, I expect BookFusion to provide full support of PDF files (including, crucially, freehand annotation of image-only PDF files), not just EPUB files.

For EPUB, BookFusion needs to provide everything that Marvin provides for us, on the same level of quality (and, if possible, elegance), and more. And for PDF, BookFusion needs to be at least on a par with Adobe Acrobat or GoodReader, when it comes to functionality needed for reading. (Editing PDF files is not necessary at all in an e-reader, of course, but annotation functionality must be top-notch.)

08-29-2022, 04:47 AM	#134
Faterson pokrývač škridiel Posts: 1,525 Karma: 3300000 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Bratislava, Slovakia Device: 3iPad, SamsungNote & Tabs, 2OnyxBoox, Huawei 8″, PocketBook	I did notice that assessment of yours earlier in this thread, Jon. And I also thought of your typically strict judgments while testing BookFusion. What would be your reaction to BookFusion now? In fact, I had tested BookFusion myself a couple of years ago, but quickly dismissed it back then as "not ready to play with the big boys". It seems different now – looks like a lot of progress has been made over the last couple of years, as can be seen in their blog/change-log. For instance, I think BookFusion have only very recently added highlights of multiple colors (still not there in the Android version, but fully customizable now in iOS and on the web, so even better than Marvin now in this regard), which is core functionality. If there were no highlights of multiple colors in BookFusion a couple of years ago when I tested it for the first time, I'm not surprised I never took it seriously. No multiple-color highlights would be a complete showstopper to me in any e-reader. As to PDF files... As explained in my big BookFusion post, some books simply aren't available as reliable EPUB files, and likely never will be. I would not insist on BookFusion to support PDF files fully, if BookFusion could be used for a one-time payment, like Marvin was. Then again, Marvin went bankrupt with that pricing model. So I'm fine with BookFusion charging annual subscription fees, if it means reliable, long-term development for decades to come. So that we don't reconvene here by 2030, looking for a BookFusion replacement this time around. It happened with Stanza for us, then with Marvin. I don't ever want to go through such ordeals again. So, OK, I'm ready to pay an annual subscription price for a top-quality e-reader, if necessary, but in return, I expect BookFusion to provide full support of PDF files (including, crucially, freehand annotation of image-only PDF files), not just EPUB files. For EPUB, BookFusion needs to provide everything that Marvin provides for us, on the same level of quality (and, if possible, elegance), and more. And for PDF, BookFusion needs to be at least on a par with Adobe Acrobat or GoodReader, when it comes to functionality needed for reading. (Editing PDF files is not necessary at all in an e-reader, of course, but annotation functionality must be top-notch.) Last edited by Faterson; 08-29-2022 at 04:57 AM.