iOS E-book App With Proper Scrolling?

[Barns]

Hi,

I've just spent two hours searching for and, where necessary, downloading e-book apps for the iPad in an effort to find one that does proper scrolling, in the same way as scrolling works on a website. I'm not fussed about auto-scroll (although I'll give it a go if it's available!), I'm just so used to reading things on the web that it seems natural now.

I currently use Marvin, which is great, but it has no scrolling option even though the developer said he was working on it almost two years ago, according to the web anyway...

I tried KyBook, which scrolls but immediately flips to the next page so is basically just a vertical page-flip rather than actual scrolling.

I downloaded Gerty but when I tried to activate scrolling it said I had to pay. I'm perfectly happy to do so if I know, for definite, that it will do what I want it to do, but I'm not going to fork out without knowing and, most likely, be disappointed. I've learnt that lesson many a time...

I tried eReader and, well, just no...it promised scrolling but had no option for it...

I won't bore you with a complete list of all the ones I tried, so does anyone know an e-book app for the iPad that does proper scrolling?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[davidfor]

I have to ask: What on earth is "proper scrolling"? And "same way as scrolling works on a website" just confuses me. I know that a browser will scroll a web page that is to big to fit in the display area, but I have no idea how a web site scrolls.

And I think you should "bore" us with the list of apps that you have tried and eliminated. That will probably stop some suggestions for those exact apps as we will know the scrolling doesn't meet your requirements.

[Valkrider]

Gerty does what you want if you mean vertical scrolling rather than page turns. It is by the same author as Marvin.

[Cesca]

Bookmaster and iBooks both have vertical scrolling if you are reading ePub books.

[Barns]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I have to ask: What on earth is "proper scrolling"? And "same way as scrolling works on a website" just confuses me. I know that a browser will scroll a web page that is to big to fit in the display area, but I have no idea how a web site scrolls.

And I think you should "bore" us with the list of apps that you have tried and eliminated. That will probably stop some suggestions for those exact apps as we will know the scrolling doesn't meet your requirements.

Cor blimey, I would never have expected such vitriol on an e-book forum! Especially from such an innocent question! Trolls have obviously moved on from their usual under-the-bridge habitats...

When you read an article on the web, what happens when you roll your mouse wheel towards you? It scrolls the text down smoothly and you can do it as quickly or as slowly as you like according to how quickly you are able to read it, no? This is called "scrolling". It's quite a common concept in the modern world.

Verb (used with object)

8.
Computers. to move (text) up, down, or across a display screen, with new text appearing on the screen as old text disappears.

I explained quite clearly that the KyBook scrolling merely flipped to the next page rather than scrolling and thought that may have, perhaps, made it clear that I was looking for an app that scrolled rather than one that merely flipped to the next page. You know, just like websites do!

I apologise for not wanting to bore people with the list of apps I tried. However, I felt, after having documented my experiences with three of the apps I tried and, having made it quite clear to your average human being that I was looking for an app that scrolled, rather than just doing a vertical version of the usual page-turning gesture, continuing would be pointless since I had already made it clear what I was asking.

Do you know of any websites that don't scroll in this way?

[Barns]

Originally Posted by Valkrider

Gerty does what you want if you mean vertical scrolling rather than page turns. It is by the same author as Marvin.

Thanks for letting me know that Gerty really does do vertical scrolling as it says it does. I was just worried I'd pay for it and then find it does the same nonsensical vertical-flipping KyBooks did!

Originally Posted by Cesca

Bookmaster and iBooks both have vertical scrolling if you are reading ePub books.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a look at them both and decide. I used to use iBooks but moved over to Marvin due to iBooks being quite crap at the time! Admittedly, it was quite a while ago so I'll give it another go!

[PeterT]

So looking for a means of reading all those electronic versions of papyrus scrolls; so actually looking for an e-Scroll reader program.

[issybird]

Barns, not only is it unseemly for a new member who is seeking help to accuse a long-term member of being a troll, it is expressly against the TOU for anyone. Please familiarize yourself with the posting guidelines before posting again. This is your only warning. - moderator

[tomsem]

iBooks has some keyboard shortcuts so that once you open the book you can search, set bookmarks, turn pages (page up/down), go to previous/next chapter etc. with keyboard only. Gerty does not have any as far as I can tell, so you have to interact with the touch screen. And it has not been updated for some time now (since 8 Aug 2015). It is the same with Marvin.

If you turn on Speak Screen, iBooks will scroll as text is read out. And it supports Split Screen on newer iPads.

[Barns]

Originally Posted by issybird

Barns, not only is it unseemly for a new member who is seeking help to accuse a long-term member of being a troll, it is expressly against the TOU for anyone. Please familiarize yourself with the posting guidelines before posting again. This is your only warning. - moderator

However, it is deemed absolutely fine for a long-term member to welcome a brand new member asking an innocent question by spewing sarcastic vitriol at him in an effort to ridicule him?

Sorry if I offended, I'm not like that at all, but if that's the lay of the land then I'll go elsewhere thanks.

[PeterT]

I see zero sarcasm or vitriol in davidfor's response. Mine however was sarcastic.

[Barns]

Well, aplogies if my offence was misplaced.

However, I see an established member replying to a new member's first ever post by pretending not to know what scrolling means when referring to a website in an effort to ridicule the new member's choice of words as, if not exactly vitriolic, mean-spirited, at best. The other posters, yourself included, knew exactly what I meant.

Also, adding inverted commas to a word is a common form of sarcasm and to add it to one my words and quote it in his reply suggests that I had chosen a ridiculous, inappropriate term, whereas I was, in fact, merely trying to be polite for my first post on an established forum and not "bore" established members with lengthy descriptions of a mere noob's efforts to satisfy his minor, personal whim.

Anyway, I've obviously made myself persona non grata by espousing my opinions on the matter so I'll go and sit quietly in the corner and read my book...

[gwynevans]

I believe that the point was to ensure that it was clear what you had already checked out, as you'd used the phrase (and the quotes would have been to highlight that the phrase was significant to you, while being something that needed clarification to others) "proper scrolling".

I suspect if you'd just said "actually scrolls" or "scrolls in the same way as a browser does", there'd not have been the need for clarification, but all I can suggest it that you re-read the post and consider that here, on these forums, it was almost certainly no more than an attempt to avoid giving advice that would have been unsuitable for your requirements.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Barns

Well, aplogies if my offence was misplaced.

However, I see an established member replying to a new member's first ever post by pretending not to know what scrolling means when referring to a website in an effort to ridicule the new member's choice of words as, if not exactly vitriolic, mean-spirited, at best. The other posters, yourself included, knew exactly what I meant.

Also, adding inverted commas to a word is a common form of sarcasm and to add it to one my words and quote it in his reply suggests that I had chosen a ridiculous, inappropriate term, whereas I was, in fact, merely trying to be polite for my first post on an established forum and not "bore" established members with lengthy descriptions of a mere noob's efforts to satisfy his minor, personal whim.

Anyway, I've obviously made myself persona non grata by espousing my opinions on the matter so I'll go and sit quietly in the corner and read my book...

You are right, there was some sarcasm involved. Most of my response was an honest question and suggestion. But, overall, gwynevans was right about the intention. And the quotes were me quoting your text exactly to ask my questions. My starting question was a toned down version of what I thought when I saw the title of the thread.

Your first response was to explain what scrolling is. Done in a way that made any possible sarcasm or "vitriol" in my reply seem minor. Thank you for the lesson in what scrolling is. Pity you didn't tell me what "proper scrolling" is. And yes, that was sarcasm.

Yes, you are right about what scrolling is. But, how it works depends on the application, the OS, the input device and your opinion on whether the viewport is moving over the document, or the document is moving. As a programmer I have written software to scroll and had to make the decisions about what to do when the arrow and page keys were pressed. It isn't always as obvious as you think.

Of course, scrolling a page or screen at a time fits the definition you posted.

From your response, "proper scrolling" seems to be using the mouse wheel. But, you are asking about an iOS app. Are you connecting a mouse to your iPad? If so, that is very unusual. Most people seem to want to use the touch screen facilities. But, OK. What sort of mouse wheel? Does it have "notches" or scrolls freely? Each of these affect how scrolling works. How many people set the scroll wheel to scroll a page at a time? Or several lines rather than one.

Your response said that you explained what you wanted by referencing KyBook. But you didn't. You gave an example of what you didn't want. And even then, it isn't completely clear.

You also keep telling me that it's the way web site scroll. As I said, and this is were the only bit of sarcasm was, I don't didn't know that web sites scrolled, but I do know how most web pages scroll. And yes, there are web pages that are designed to scroll a screen at a time.

What you should have accused me of was being obtuse. And I was. Deliberately so. I spend my days creating software (designing, coding, testing). Or fixing bugs in it. I answer questions here about how ereaders work, or my plugins. Or other things I think I know something about. When someone has a problem and states the problem badly, I have to spend time clearing that up. Frequently, it's just not enough information was supplied. Other times it the use of a term that is different depending on the context. Your question was about "proper scrolling" is in the context of reading apps. And as you have discovered, most reading apps seem to think "proper scrolling" is page scrolling. Your reference to scrolling in "web sites" might have cleared this up, but you are also mixing contexts there, so that didn't necessarily help.

And I was serious about listing the apps you had tested. You explicitly mentioned four. Your statement suggested that you had tested a lot more. If you had listed them, that means we know what is not and don't make the mistake of suggesting it. After all, you had gone to the trouble of finding out which were no good, so share the knowledge. And that is what you expected someone here to do.

[Barns]

In hindsight, I can see I overreacted and apologise for that. It was a bad day for several reasons and those reasons really would "bore" you

I just felt that for an established member such as yourself to be, as you yourself admitted, deliberately obtuse in reply to a new member's first post seemed a bit, well, spiteful, to be honest. It seemed, to me anyway, to constitute a concerted efford to ridicule me for not knowing the difference between a web page and a website and not knowing that there are several types of scrolling.

I am not a software designer like yourself and, as a layman, have only ever seen scrolling, in a computing context anyway, refer to text moving up or down (or perhaps, but rarely, sideways...) and the next lines of text appearing at one end as the same amount of text disappears at the opposite end. This has always been my experience of scrolling on web pages/sites, using either a mouse wheel on a PC or, in this case, swiping your finger up or down on the iPad screen.

I presumed it would be the same with the majority of users and, as a result, forum members would understand my request irrelevant of whether I had used the correct technological terms or not. It was not until I downloaded and tested KyBook that I saw that scrolling could, according to the developers of that app anyway, just mean vertical page-turning which, in my eyes, is not the same as scrolling.

This is what I meant by "proper scrolling". I used the word "proper" as a direct result of my annoyance at finding that KyBook's scrolling was actually just page turning in a different direction.

I'm sorry if I replied with even heavier sarcasm with my quoting of the dictionary definition of scrolling in a computing context etc but, as you say, you were purposely obtuse so, of course, I felt obliged to respond in kind.

I just think you could be a bit more understanding of people who have less knowledge than yourself of things such as operating systems, viewports (I don't even know what a viewport is..), input devices etc. If I used the wrong term then you can therefore deduce from my post that I'm not as qualified as you on the subject and take that into account when replying.

While I can see that this is now a pretty pointless thread overall since I gathered the information I was looking for from Valkrider a long time ago, I just feel that, since you obviously, and admittedly, did know exactly what I meant in the first place, you were actually more interested in ridiculing someone else's lack of knowledge in a particular area of expertise in an effort to egotistically display your own expertise in said area and impress others rather than trying to just answer the question. We all have an ego so I obviously understand the inclination and have been known to be intellectually vain myself in the past, but such psychological sparring would be far more suited to an advanced software development forum than in reply to a noob's first post on a forum about reading books, wouldn't it?

I realise I've been overly verbose on the matter, but I got carried away and started enjoying it once I got typing so just couldn't stop.

Anyway, hopefully we can just forget it. I came for an answer to a question and now have it. I shall now go and see if Gerty does "proper scrolling"!

P.S. No, I don't attach my mouse to my iPad! Is it even possible??

Cheers