Good Update for Bluefire Reader

kyteflyer · 07-01-2014, 06:12 PM

Its only been about two years since we begged for access to an external source for books, and not just feedbooks (I still don't know why Project Gutenberg isnt included)... and now... FINALLY.. we can access our dropbox and books we store there.

Not only that, once authorised with Adobe, we can also sync bookmarks, and not just between DRM protected books. I've just done a sync on an Agatha Christie with no DRM, between my iphone and ipad. Sadly, it didnt seem to sync back again. Perhaps thats not such a good deal

There's still barely any customisation... but these two things are a vast improvement.

Now all thats needed is a bit more in the customisation department... and two columns in landscape mode. Crikey. I know Mica has been asked for that a bazillion times and its still not there! Well, not that I can find.

Jessica Lares · 07-01-2014, 07:47 PM

Hahaha, sync is always an issue. Give it five minutes at least.

Looks nice.

Micah · 07-01-2014, 09:27 PM

Well, I grant you that we've failed to deliver two column option -ends up it is *really* hard with the rendering engine we use. But "barely any customization" seems maybe an overstatement? Lots of font choices, themes, margins, night mode, swipe for brightness, line spacing, etc is IMO a decent if not comprehensive set, though definitely would like to add para spacing and a few other things. What has taken a ton of our time lately is contributing to the Readium projects (EPUB3 rendering open source projects for browsers and native apps). Also, been working really hard on a Windows desktop app, and it is almost done! e.g. doing final prep work now to release within a few days. There's some niceties in there that are not in ADE, including my favorite: Sync page location with mobile apps.

JSWolf · 07-01-2014, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

Well, I grant you that we've failed to deliver two column option -ends up it is *really* hard with the rendering engine we use. But "barely any customization" seems maybe an overstatement? Lots of font choices

If I give you a font family, would you be willing to put it into Bluefire? It would make reading much nicer (IMHO).

The one problem with the update is that you now use RMSDK 10 which is the one that will have the new DRM delivered should anyone use Bluefire to download the ePub from the .acsm file before doing so in any older version. This can be a very serious gotcha. You BUY an ePub, download it using Bluefire and the place you get it as the new ACS 5, you could be well and truly screwed if you have no other way of reading it. I do fell a warning should be displayed when you first run the new Buefire to warn people not to download ePub that's got DRM using Bluefire.

See the thread on Adobe Digital Editions 3 to know what the fuss is about. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=231939

Micah · 07-02-2014, 01:03 AM

@JSWolf that would have been true if Adobe had gone forward with their previous "plan" for ACS5, but they very wisely changed their mind. Even if they changed their mind again (which they won't, and god forbid) any books you already had would be fine. Staying on RMSDK9 would be no safe harbor unfortunately. Believe me, I know. It removes some CSS rendering bugs. so it was worth integrating. That is why I always tell all the people I love to BACK UP YOUR BOOKS. Those touting streaming are smoking crack (a nice added convenience though). I for one *Must* have one's clean books on Dropbox AND on hard disk.

Micah · 07-02-2014, 01:08 AM

JSwolf, did you design the font family yourself? If so, that is a cool thing to do. I've always wanted to, but don't have the talent.

JSWolf · 07-02-2014, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

JSwolf, did you design the font family yourself? If so, that is a cool thing to do. I've always wanted to, but don't have the talent.

I took a free font and made some changes to it. I've increased the weight and added hinting. The font is CharisSIL. It does look good on an iPad screen. Better then the original version. This one is fully legal to modify. if it could be installed into Bluefire, it would then be my font of choice.

kyteflyer · 07-02-2014, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

Well, I grant you that we've failed to deliver two column option -ends up it is *really* hard with the rendering engine we use. But "barely any customization" seems maybe an overstatement? Lots of font choices, themes, margins, night mode, swipe for brightness, line spacing, etc is IMO a decent if not comprehensive set, though definitely would like to add para spacing and a few other things. What has taken a ton of our time lately is contributing to the Readium projects (EPUB3 rendering open source projects for browsers and native apps). Also, been working really hard on a Windows desktop app, and it is almost done! e.g. doing final prep work now to release within a few days. There's some niceties in there that are not in ADE, including my favorite: Sync page location with mobile apps.

"Barely any" for me means I can't make my own choices about what colours I want for Night mode, I can only choose one of your themes. Para spacing, the double page for landscape (sounds like thats never going to happen) Yes, brightness swipe, I remember when we asked for that. Here's another. Can you give each Author its own page when theres more than one book? I don't load many books at once in apps which don't have that option, because of this limitation. I guess thats why I've gone back to reading on Stanza again :-/ I was quite excited when I saw you'd added sync. I have never been able to get it working reliably on Marvin, and I don't much like iBooks, especially now they moved the book files out of iTunes.

Bluefire is my reader of choice for ADE, my local library books can be read in it and it suits me really well. Better than Kobo which is the only other option I considered.

With regard to fonts... and I asked this of Kris for Marvin as well... is there any reason to have font choices hardcoded into the software? Why not use exactly whats available on the device? I have a couple of additional fonts which I prefer to use, they are free fonts and I've added them with Anyfont. I read with TrebuchetMS in lieu of other options but I would love to have the fonts I like.

[edit] You going to do a desktop app for Mac, too?

AnemicOak · 07-02-2014, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

Lots of font choices

It's a good selection. Any chance we'll be able to add our own in the future?

Quote:

themes

Any chance we'll be able to save custom themes?

Quote:

definitely would like to add para spacing

This would be great.

Micah · 07-02-2014, 11:10 PM

KyteFlyer,
On iOS we pull a list of all system fonts and use that, but exclude a specific few that are clearly useless for reading, just to reduce the signal to noise ratio in the list. Not sure how you are adding fonts, or how we'd "find" them if not returned in the normal iOS API where we get that list.

Micah · 07-02-2014, 11:14 PM

AnemicOak,
We do try to "remember" your last custom settings, but are you saying you need to save multiple different themes for easy toggling between them? I could see <1% of people doing something like that, but hard to imagine it would be a common need. Are you suggesting that it is common? Or just that you personally would like it? (which is a completely fine thing and still totally interesting to hear, but for a dev with limited resources, it is important to understand which is which)

AnemicOak · 07-02-2014, 11:32 PM

I obviously can't say how many folks would want to save more than one custom theme. I would like it yes. The reading apps I use most on Android (Moon+ Pro, Mantano) have this feature and so it's missed when an app doesn't have it (I'm not as well versed in iOS apps yet). I can say I'd rather have the other things I mentioned than have this.

kyteflyer · 07-03-2014, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

KyteFlyer,
On iOS we pull a list of all system fonts and use that, but exclude a specific few that are clearly useless for reading, just to reduce the signal to noise ratio in the list. Not sure how you are adding fonts, or how we'd "find" them if not returned in the normal iOS API where we get that list.

Thats interesting, Micah... I'll doublecheck whats happened in my phone. As far as I know, the app I've used (and which others in this forum are also using) is simply making the alternatives available to the system. for example, I can use them in apps like Notepad and Pages, both Apple apps... and also in Stanza and ShubookSE (but not in other reading apps).

I'll edit this post after I do my check. It may be that one of the fonts has not been properly installed.

[edit] Problem solved. The font had not installed properly, a reinstall fixed it.

kyteflyer · 07-03-2014, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It's a good selection. Any chance we'll be able to add our own in the future?

AnyFont works well. I've just reinstalled some fonts and they are working well with Bluefire.

Theres a free one called HiFont but I don't know how good it is. I'm happy with having paid for AnyFont.

kyteflyer · 07-03-2014, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

I for one *Must* have one's clean books on Dropbox AND on hard disk.

I keep my Calibre Library in my dropbox folder, so the latest version is always in both locations.

07-01-2014, 06:12 PM	#1
kyteflyer Wizard Posts: 1,844 Karma: 9547754 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Newcastle, Australia Device: iPhone 12 Mini	Good Update for Bluefire Reader Its only been about two years since we begged for access to an external source for books, and not just feedbooks (I still don't know why Project Gutenberg isnt included)... and now... FINALLY.. we can access our dropbox and books we store there. Not only that, once authorised with Adobe, we can also sync bookmarks, and not just between DRM protected books. I've just done a sync on an Agatha Christie with no DRM, between my iphone and ipad. Sadly, it didnt seem to sync back again. Perhaps thats not such a good deal There's still barely any customisation... but these two things are a vast improvement. Now all thats needed is a bit more in the customisation department... and two columns in landscape mode. Crikey. I know Mica has been asked for that a bazillion times and its still not there! Well, not that I can find. Last edited by kyteflyer; 07-01-2014 at 06:22 PM.

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07-01-2014, 07:47 PM	#2
Jessica Lares Wizard Posts: 2,240 Karma: 5759170 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Near Dallas, Texas, USA Device: iPad Mini, iPod Touch (5th gen)	Hahaha, sync is always an issue. Give it five minutes at least. Looks nice.

07-01-2014, 09:27 PM	#3
Micah Bluefire Reader dude Posts: 329 Karma: 1089156 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Seattle Device: Ipad	Well, I grant you that we've failed to deliver two column option -ends up it is really hard with the rendering engine we use. But "barely any customization" seems maybe an overstatement? Lots of font choices, themes, margins, night mode, swipe for brightness, line spacing, etc is IMO a decent if not comprehensive set, though definitely would like to add para spacing and a few other things. What has taken a ton of our time lately is contributing to the Readium projects (EPUB3 rendering open source projects for browsers and native apps). Also, been working really hard on a Windows desktop app, and it is almost done! e.g. doing final prep work now to release within a few days. There's some niceties in there that are not in ADE, including my favorite: Sync page location with mobile apps.

07-02-2014, 01:03 AM	#5
Micah Bluefire Reader dude Posts: 329 Karma: 1089156 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Seattle Device: Ipad	@JSWolf that would have been true if Adobe had gone forward with their previous "plan" for ACS5, but they very wisely changed their mind. Even if they changed their mind again (which they won't, and god forbid) any books you already had would be fine. Staying on RMSDK9 would be no safe harbor unfortunately. Believe me, I know. It removes some CSS rendering bugs. so it was worth integrating. That is why I always tell all the people I love to BACK UP YOUR BOOKS. Those touting streaming are smoking crack (a nice added convenience though). I for one Must have one's clean books on Dropbox AND on hard disk.

07-02-2014, 01:08 AM	#6
Micah Bluefire Reader dude Posts: 329 Karma: 1089156 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Seattle Device: Ipad	JSwolf, did you design the font family yourself? If so, that is a cool thing to do. I've always wanted to, but don't have the talent.

07-02-2014, 11:10 PM	#10
Micah Bluefire Reader dude Posts: 329 Karma: 1089156 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Seattle Device: Ipad	KyteFlyer, On iOS we pull a list of all system fonts and use that, but exclude a specific few that are clearly useless for reading, just to reduce the signal to noise ratio in the list. Not sure how you are adding fonts, or how we'd "find" them if not returned in the normal iOS API where we get that list.

07-02-2014, 11:14 PM	#11
Micah Bluefire Reader dude Posts: 329 Karma: 1089156 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Seattle Device: Ipad	AnemicOak, We do try to "remember" your last custom settings, but are you saying you need to save multiple different themes for easy toggling between them? I could see <1% of people doing something like that, but hard to imagine it would be a common need. Are you suggesting that it is common? Or just that you personally would like it? (which is a completely fine thing and still totally interesting to hear, but for a dev with limited resources, it is important to understand which is which)

07-02-2014, 11:32 PM	#12
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	I obviously can't say how many folks would want to save more than one custom theme. I would like it yes. The reading apps I use most on Android (Moon+ Pro, Mantano) have this feature and so it's missed when an app doesn't have it (I'm not as well versed in iOS apps yet). I can say I'd rather have the other things I mentioned than have this.

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